Just about every hotel and travel business has a Facebook page. But if you go to a lot of those pages you see the same thing – very little content. It looks like the page is dead.
That’s not a good look for your Facebook page and it’s not a good look for your business. Having followers on Facebook is good for your business. You can keep past customers and prospective new customers interested in what you have to offer and earn their business.
But if you don’t keep your Facebook page updated they aren’t going to remember you. Here are the steps you can take to update your Facebook page with more engaging content including tips on how to make it easier to manage.
Step 1: Recap Every Event (~1-2 per month)
An easy piece of content to do is to recap every event that happens at your hotel. It could be a simple note about a wedding or picnic that happened at your hotel. Share a picture or two from the event. Get permission of the people involved and make sure to tag them in the post (see more on this later).
Every conference, party and holiday should be recapped on your Facebook page. Events are nice because there is a constant stream of them coming up on the calendar including holidays.
Step 2: Create Weekly Photo Albums (1 per week)
Start making it a habit to take at least a handful of pictures with a camera or camera phone every day. Find something that’s happening in the hotel and snap a photo. Even get something that’s behind the scenes like the cooks working hard in the kitchen or the maids taking extra care with their cleaning.
Photos do well on Facebook and publishing a dozen or so new pics each week will keep your followers coming back for more on a regular basis.
Step 3: Share Local News Articles (3-5 per week)
Support the local community and share news articles that mean something to you from all the local newspapers, TV stations and even the local bloggers.
This is called curating content and it’s a good way to give your followers something interesting to read or to watch and you’re also promoting the publications, which builds good will toward your hotel.
Step 4: Mention Complementary Businesses (1-3 per week)
Let’s say the local cake company brings a wonderful cake in for a wedding at your hotel. Take a picture of the cake and publish on Facebook. Mention the local business.
Do the same with any business that comes to your hotel for some reason. And also mention local businesses that complement yours like the movie theater or another attraction. You can say something like, “If you’re looking for something to do this weekend you can’t go wrong with the local pumpkin patch!”
You’re helping others out by mentioning their business and all that good will builds for you. Many are likely to mention you in the same way the more you do this and that means more potential followers for your hotel on Facebook
Step 5: Mention Your Guests With Their Permission (1-2 per month)
Mention your guests a few times. Take a picture of them having fun at an event or heading out as a family to see something cool in the area. Ask them permission and post the image on Facebook and make sure to tag them.
When you tag people, their followers also see it and become aware that your hotel page is out there. So you’re expanding the potential audience for your page (and potential customer base for your hotel).
Always make sure to ask for permission. Usually people will be fine with the image being shared. You can also simply mention guests in a text post by telling a couple congratulations on their event or just letting them know that you hope they had a good stay with you.
Step 6: Monthly Recap Newsletter (1 per month)
Recap what happened this month in a longer post on Facebook. You can include the events that occurred like weddings and other events you hosted. You can mention things that happened in the area or things that guests have said.
This is kind of a catchall for the month, but it’s good to give people a little reminder of what happened. Mention the businesses you include and tag the individuals you mention.
Step 7: Monthly Preview Newsletter (1 per month)
Also look ahead to what’s coming in the next month. Get people excited about the things happening at your hotel and the things happening in the area. Your followers might not realize that there is a fun concert coming up and they’ll book right away so they can come and see.
Step 8: Ask A Poll Question (1-2 per week)
Get your followers involved with a couple questions each week. The best questions seem to be the ones that are simple and if you’re risky then go for something that’s polarizing. Maybe ask who will win the Super Bowl or something like that.
If you don’t get a lot of responses at first then reach out to your good friends and ask them to respond. The more you get initially the more likely other people will be to respond.
Just keep on asking and over time you’ll learn the type of question that gets the most response.
It could even be a question like what kind of Christmas tree you should put up in the lobby.
Step 9: Publish Customer Comments (1-2 per month)
You probably hear a number of positive customer comments throughout the day. When you hear these, ask the person if you can publish that on Facebook and mention them if they’ll allow. But at least publish it anonymously.
You don’t want to overdo this one, but 1-2 times per month is good. It’s a nice way to kind of toot your own horn without actually doing the tooting yourself.
Listen for the stories. They can really paint the picture for your followers and get them interested in coming to visit your hotel.
Step 10: Promote Local Events (1-4 per month)
Always promote your local community. Keep tabs on what’s happening with the chamber and with your business partners in the area. When they publish a notice about an upcoming local even, re-share that event on your page. It’s a good way to get some content for your page, which keeps it fresh and it’s a good way to help out others in your community.
Conclusion
You now have more ideas for content sharing on your Facebook page. It should be at least one item to share every day and probably more than that. It takes some effort to get these up on Facebook, but get into the habit of taking photos and then set aside either 30 minutes per day or 2 hours per week to get content ready to share.
Your page will appear fresher and you’ll get more followers.
