A Hotelʼs Guide to 


Facebook

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011

  March 2011
A Hotel’s Guide to Facebook
Just a few years ago, Facebook used to
be a closed network for college kids. Its
value for business was unclear. But a lot
has changed since then, as the network
opened up to become what is now
arguably the most important social
networking service on the planet for
audiences of all ages, and a good
communications opportunity for brands.
 
In this guide, we will look at how your
hotel can benefit from Facebook as a way
to create community, cultivate loyalty, and
ultimately, increase revenue.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 1

Table of contents

Facebook today 3

What does (and doesn't) work on Facebook 5

Five different approaches to Facebook 6

New developments 11

Designing an engaging brand page 14

Moving beyond setup: integrating Facebook with your website 17

Promotions on Facebook 18

Case studies outside the hotel industry 19

Action steps: Planning your Facebook strategy 24

Bonus: Reputation and Facebook 25

What's next? 26

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 2

Facebook today
As I write this, in March 2011, Facebook •  More than 30 billion pieces of content else offers unique advantages. As brands,
has exploded in popularity past 600 (web links, news stories, blog posts, we have access to a depth of
million active users, and shows no signs notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared demographic information, providing
of slowing down. each month opportunities such as ad campaigns
  •  More than 70 translations are available targeted to employees at selected
Every 20 minutes: on the site companies, or specific university
•  About 70% of Facebook users are graduating classes.
•  More than 1 million links are shared
outside the United States
•  More than 1.8 million status updates are
made •  There are more than 200 million active When it comes to return on investment,
users currently accessing Facebook we have evidence - both anecdotally and
•  More than 2.7 million photos are
through their mobile devices through research - that Facebook can be
uploaded
more powerful than Twitter and other
•  More than 10 million comments are •  People that use Facebook on their
mobile devices are twice as active on social networks for generating sales.
posted
Facebook than non-mobile users
 
 
The Facebook press page shares more
statistics as of March 2011: But perhaps more important than these
impressive numbers is the fact that

Facebook is becoming more than just a
•  50% of active users log on to Facebook social network: it is becoming a platform
•  in any given day for social communication (something we
•  The Average user has 130 friends will discuss in more detail later).
•  Average user is connected to 80  
community pages, groups and events From a marketing standpoint, the fact that
•  Average user creates 90 pieces of people share more personal details about
their identity on Facebook than anywhere
content each month

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 3

Facebook today (continued)
Dan Sherman of Ski.com attributes a
$70,000 sale to Facebook – but it was not
from a special offer. It was simply a photo
of a beautiful fresh snowfall.
content shared on Facebook. According
“In my opinion, Facebook is all about
engagement - allowing you have more of
a dialog with more people in one place. If
I post a sales message, I donʼt get a lot of
action. But if itʼs just relevant information
for our business, like a photo of a fresh
snowfall, people like to engage with that.”  
The caveat? Selling directly to your
“The great thing is that when people
comment on anything on Facebook, all
their friends see it. Because of this, we
received a $70,000 booking from
someone who had never heard of us
before.”
A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011
4
A number of studies have been done to
Facebook is all
“
quantify the value of Facebook activity.
Recently, ChompOn tried to determine the
value of a tweet compared to a piece of
about reaching
to them, a tweet was worth $5 in sales,
people through
while Facebook shared content was worth
$14. Clearly, the value of a referral will
people.
depend on what you are selling, but
research like this suggests Facebook
Reaching your
drives more transactions.
fansʼ friends.
Facebook fans rarely works. Facebook is
all about reaching people through people.
Reaching your fansʼ friends. This concept
is called “Transitive Trust.” Your job is to
create material fans will pass along,
introducing that brand to their network.
What does (and doesn't) work on Facebook
"I think people are just on Facebook to Seventh Art Media conducted some more
How can you

“
relax, have fun, and chat with their interesting research into what works best
friends.” on Facebook. They found that it is content
  which conveys a unique sense of brand use Facebook
and place and makes a personal
Some variation of that sentiment has
been shared with me over and over again connection with followers. Photos are the
to make your
clear winner. Facebook users like the
from hotel executives. As someone who
uses Facebook extensively for both quick-hit satisfaction of a witty post or a fans happier,
beautiful or clever picture. Some of the
business and personal reasons, it seems
to be a fair assessment. Successful
highest performing photo content was not better informed,
necessarily professional level quality but
businesses on Facebook understand and
respect this reality, creating connected on a personal level. A quick and rewarded
snapshot of the first snow of the season
communication that fits the mindset of
people using it. and a giant pumpkin are examples of financially?
connective content that required little
effort.
Why do people become a fan of

companies on Facebook? A recent report
released by ExactTarget and CoTweet All of this comes back to adding value.
How can you use Facebook to make your
found the two primary reasons why
consumers ʻlikeʼ brands on Facebook: for fans happier, better informed, and
discounts and as a ʻsocial badge.ʼ Nearly rewarded financially?
40% of Facebook users become fans to
receive special discounts and promotions.
39% do so to show their friends they
support a brand - it is an identity
statement for them.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 5

Five different approaches to Facebook
Approach 1: Facebook as an exclusive source
 


Hotel Seven in Paris uses Facebook as
the exclusive source of both hotel news
and the lowest available room rate. By
focusing attention here, they have
attracted an audience of over 12,000
fans: significant for a single property of
their size. This is undoubtedly an extreme
approach, but the results are hard to
argue with.

If you want to make building your follower
numbers on Facebook a priority, think
about what exclusive content you can
deliver through this site.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 6

Five different approaches to Facebook (continued)
Approach 2: Facebook as a local community hub



Poetʼs Cove Resort & Spa uses
Facebook not only to connect with guests,
but also to engage with the local residents
of Pender Island, British Columbia.



While local residents may not be
interested in staying at your hotel, they
could be a valuable source of revenue for
your restaurant or spa. Positioning your
property as a local hotspot can be an
effective strategy for your Facebook page.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 7

Five different approaches to Facebook (continued)
Approach 3: Facebook as a local guide
 


Distrikt Hotel in New York City uses
Facebook to update their community on
what is happening in the city.

This is helpful because by becoming a
resource for visitors to the city, Distrikt
Hotel increases the likelihood of people
passing the page along to others.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 8

Five different approaches to Facebook (continued)
Approach 4: Facebook as a sales tool



The Beacon in South Beach focuses on
making sales by creating and promoting a
special offer on their welcome tab: 2 free
mojitos and a 15% off discount.
 
As you saw from Hotel Seven, delivering
an exclusive offer is a powerful way to
focus attention. This does not have to be
just discounts or coupons. Put together a
value-added Facebook package that is
compelling and only available through
Facebook. Not only does this draw traffic
to the page, but it gives you another way
to measure results.

Ecommerce is likely to become an
increasingly important part of Facebook
activity, with powerful integrated booking
engines now available. We will look at this
topic in more detail later in the guide.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 9

Five different approaches to Facebook (continued)
Approach 5: Facebook as a website



One & Only Palmilla uses advanced
design to create an experience like
browsing their website. (This will become
easier in the future because of some new
changes to the page structure, which we
will discuss later.)
 
Experiment with some of the new
Facebook functionality to show beautiful
photography and video to your visitors
that attracts them emotionally.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 10

New developments
Facebook has quickly evolved, #1 - New Page Layout #2 - Separate Business Profiles
rendering many prior marketing tactics    
obsolete or ineffective. Here are three
On February 20th, 2011, Facebook This was included in the February 2011
of the most important updates I see for released a complete overhaul of the update, but it is so significant that we
businesses.
pages system. There were many need to consider it separately.
  updates – you can
read the official announcement here –
Previously, personal accounts and
but the basic concept was to make business profiles were linked, which
business pages look more like personal
made engaging in conversation an
profiles. Among other things, you now awkward mess.
have the ability to receive more
advanced reporting on your  
communityʼs activity, and can easily With the new format, you can switch
embed pages from your website into between personal and business profiles
your Facebook page: as you surf Facebook and interact with
communities. This gives you the option
 
to post in your own voice or that of your
Read more: brand. 
http://sixrevisions.com/web-
applications/new-facebook-page/
 

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 11

New developments (continued)

#3 - Sponsored Stories

Sponsored stories is a new ad format that
takes your friendsʼ actions - like checking
in to a place - and turns them into an
advertisement. The story first posted to
Mashable provides a good example:

!
Read more: http://mashable.com/2011/01/25/facebook-sponsored-stories/

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 12

New developments (continued)

#4 – Booking Engine Integration Starwood sees opportunity to drive

  revenue through the site, and has
introduced a “Shop” tab on the pages
Recent changes to the Facebook page
structure are likely to make ecommerce for all properties of their Westin brand.
On this tab, visitors can book a room
integration with embedded booking
engines increasingly common. directly without leaving to the Westin
website.


From the time they began working on
Facebook, Starwood Hotels and You can expect to see Facebook play
Resorts has provided booking an increasingly important role in how
functionality for all of its brands. hotels generate room revenue as this
trend continues.

In a recent article article published by
Hotel News Now, David Godsman, VP
of global Web for Starwood, said,
“Conversion on Facebook is smaller but
close to conversion on our brand
websites. (Starwoodʼs Facebook fans)
start to see other peopleʼs experiences
at the properties....What we are seeing
now is an emergence of technology that
that we didnʼt see six months ago.
There is an opportunity for ourselves
and other hotel brands to enable these
type of transactions within Facebook.”

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 13

Designing an engaging brand page
Setting up a page is fairly straightforward. An inviting welcome tab
You start here and just follow the  
directions. Since most of you already A custom welcome tab can serve several
have pages set up, rather than repeating purposes:
the entire process here, I recommend the
 
following tutorials if you are still in the
process of setting things up: •  Welcome people to the page
•  Explain your purpose for the page
 
•  Wildfire •  Describe the benefits of your hotel
•  AllFacebook •  Invite visitors to Like the page
•  SixRevisions   
Your welcome tab is basically a landing
page. Use the same best practices you
What are the elements of an engaging would use for a landing page on your
Facebook brand page? website: images that draw people into
  benefits-oriented copy, with a strong call
Whether you are setting up a page for the to action.
first time, or looking to optimize an  
existing page, there are a few items of Example: The Westin
special importance to consider.
The Westin Dragonara Resort in Malta
  uses an attractive welcome tab that
engages their community through
feedback and competitions.

!

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 14

Designing an engaging brand page (continued)

Exclusive content •  City guides? experience. Share video interviews with

  •  Insider access? key personnel at your property.
Why should someone join your page? •  A discount coupon?  
  •  A value-added incentive that does not For marketing research and developing
Smart marketers know the best way to cut profit margins? new ideas, Facebook can be used to
drive action is to make perceived value   source new concepts and refine existing
exceed perceived risk. That is why email ones. This form of crowdsourcing also
A focus on photos and video gives your fans the feeling of being an
subscription rates increase when an
  insider.
incentive like a free guide is given away in
exchange for a personʼs email address – Referring back to the Seventh Art  
and permission to send the content they research study mentioned earlier, photos
requested. and video generate the most engagement
from Facebook fans. Facebook is a
  platform that favors rich media, so make
The same principle works on Facebook. posting this type of content a priority.
   
Facebook allows you to create hidden The feeling of being an insider
content that is only visible when someone  
becomes a fan of your page.
If someone is engaged with your hotel or
  brand enough to become a fan on
What incentives could you offer to Facebook, then provide them with a little
encourage people to become a fan of more insider access. Share upcoming
your hotelʼs Facebook fan page? news and announcements with your
Facebook community first. Share the
  process you go through to create your

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 15

Designing an engaging brand page (continued)

Example:
Marriott Napa Valley Hotel &
Spa is a good example of an
engaging brand page.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 16

Integrating Facebook with your website

What should you do once you have your Like Box Social Plugins
Facebook page set up? Integrate it with The Facebook Like Box can be
your website. This is where we see some placed on any webpage, allowing
of the most creative innovation and your visitors to become fans of your
remarkable results from companies using
Facebook page without leaving the
Facebook. website. This approach has worked
  very well for some hotels, like
Like Buttons Mosaic House in Prague.

!

Perhaps one of the simplest integrations,
!
placing a Facebook Like Button on your
website allows people to share that with It is powerful because you can take
their friends. It is recommended you add advantage of the huge social network

this to your homepage and select pages that exists on Facebook, and use it to
on your website that contain the best
enhance the web experience you
content. (But check privacy laws to make provide. Sites such as TripAdvisor are
sure the button is in compliance in your using this to personalize the website
country.) with tailor made content.
!
 
Details: Details: Details:
http://developers.facebook.com/docs/ http://developers.facebook.com/docs/ http://developers.facebook.com/docs/
reference/plugins/like/ reference/plugins/like-box plugins/



A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 17

Promotions on Facebook
There are three primary categories of Advertisements Deals
promotions that can be conducted on    
Facebook: contests, advertisements, and
The power of Facebook advertising is the Facebook is creating pages for each
deals. ability to reach highly targeted segments business address in order to give the
  of people based on demographic criteria. business an opportunity to offer deals.
Contests You can filter the distribution by age, When a customer checks into a place on
  location, gender, hobbies and interests, Facebook Places via their mobile phone,
employer, and many other criteria. If pay- businesses will have the opportunity to
Contests can be run through your page
per-click advertising in search engines is offer coupons or discounts to them. While
with no charge from Facebook. Tools like
the ones from Involver and Wildfire make for “what,” on Facebook you are it is unclear how Facebook Places will
the process easy, and help you navigate advertising for “who.” fare among their geolocation competitors,
Facebookʼs tight policy on contests.   this remains an area to watch and
experiment with.
  The downside is that many people on
Facebook ignore advertisements, so the
When planning a contest, configure it in a
way that attracts the right type of fan for clickthrough rate can be low. Additionally,
your page – people who will stay engaged it is debated whether people are looking
to make hotel reservations while browsing
long after the contest is over. If the wrong
Facebook. This is something you need to
incentives are used, you will end up with
people who enter just for the chance to test and see if it works for you. It could be
win, and then leave the page after the that the call to action on the
contest is done. advertisement should be simply to attract
people to Like your page.
 
 


 

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 18

Case studies: Outside the hotel industry
We have looked at a number of case
studies of hotels using Facebook
creatively. To broaden your perspective, I
wanted to share a few examples of
companies outside the hospitality industry
that are doing interesting things on
Facebook.
 
Volkswagen
 
Volkswagen created individual pages for
each of their vehicles, and then wrapped
these up into one corporate page. One
particularly innovative feature they offered
was an application that analyzed your
profile, taking all the demographic
information you posted, and then used
that to recommend a vehicle it believed
was best suited to you. What if you
created a similar “Hotel Selector” tool?

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 19

Case studies: Outside the hotel industry (continued)

The Travel Channel

A while back The Travel Channel did
something that could work well for hotels:
they encouraged fans to share stories of
the role Facebook plays in their travel
experiences. Inviting discussion around
topics like this is a good way to engage
people with similar interests.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 20

Case studies: Outside the hotel industry (continued)

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola has developed a reputation for
running creative photo contests. This
works well, since photos are viewed more
often than anything else on Facebook. By
encouraging fans to upload photos of
themselves with Coca-Cola cans,
hundreds of thousands of potential new
fans will be exposed to the brand as the
uploads appear in the news feeds.

What photo contests could you run?
Running a contest like this for your hotel
can be a powerful way to make the
campaign viral.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 21

Case studies: Outside the hotel industry (continued)

Red Bull
 
Red Bull has a solid understanding of
their audience, and does a great job of
delivering rich media content that attracts
new fans. Look at their creative use of
design on the welcome page.

As a hotel, make sure you understand
what your audience expects (and wants)
you to provide. Use videos to share
interesting content that people will pass
along and introduce your brand to others.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 22

Case studies: Outside the hotel industry (continued)

Harley-Davidson
 
Harley-Davidson uses an interactive
welcome page that provides a rich,
immersive experience for their fans.

Make use of the new changes to
Facebook pages described earlier in the
guide to deliver more information to your
visitors in a compelling way. Your
Facebook page does not have to become
a duplicate of your main website, but can
be a good opportunity to share stories
and other engaging content.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 23

Action steps: Planning your Facebook strategy
As we close this guide, what are the 2. Setup your page Facebook: news, videos, photos,
action steps to take? offers, and contests.
  •  Register an account, then fill out •  How often will you post? How often
1. Decide on your purpose for
 your business profile. will you check for comments? It is
Facebook: 
 important to publish consistently, but
•  Customize your welcome tab with a
graphic that encourages people to not too frequently. Once or twice a
week is often a good starting point.
•  Is it website traffic, community interact with the rest of your page.
engagement, brand building, or •  Decide on some exclusive content •  What alerts system will you have in
something else? place? Be sure to have a listening
such as news, inside information,
•  What will success look like for you? and special offers that will drive tool setup to be aware of what
Will you know once you have attention to the page. people are saying about your hotels
reached it? To recognize success, on Facebook.

you must have metrics established
3. Establish a community
from the beginning. 4. Integrate with your web presence
management system
•  What key performance indicators elsewhere
(KPIs) will you be tracking? Number

of fans is a starting point, but also •  Who will be involved in managing
the page? Make sure this person is •  Use some form of Facebook website
monitor how many people engage integration as described earlier to
with the content you post – clicking someone who understands the
brand you are trying to build, and expand the awareness and
the Like button or leaving a
can be trusted with posting content helpfulness of your Facebook
comment. Additionally, some community.
measure that leads back to sales, and interacting with your fans and
such as Facebook website referrals, customers.
is helpful. •  What will be posted? Put together
an editorial calendar for the types
of content you want to share through

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 24

Bonus: Reputation and Facebook
Since we spend the majority of our time at At the beginning:
 Unless you will be continually managing
ReviewPro helping hotels establish Duplicate (or unauthorized) content
 the page, you may want to prevent fans
powerful online reputations, it would be a 
 from posting content. Several brands
mistake to underestimate the importance Too many hotels and brands I see have have set up insufficient page permissions,
of reputation management on Facebook. three, five, or more different pages for the and their “set it and forget it” approach
This primarily affects two areas: same property. This often happens when resulted in the page being hijacked by
  different interns, seasonal workers, or spammers and their brand damaged with
agencies are tasked with “doing inappropriate content. Make sure this

Facebook.” It can also happen when fans does not happen to you.
create new pages for your brand. Make  
sure to monitor official and unofficial
Community management is an ongoing
pages that have been created. process. To encourage maximum
  engagement, make sure to frequently
As your presence matures:
 post interesting content. Ask questions to
Page moderation
 your audience. Encourage them to submit

 photos and videos of their travels. Just be
Start by deciding on your Facebook policy sure to check in often to ensure no
and management routine. How often will damaging material is posted.
you be engaging with the page? What
types of content would you like fans to be
sharing with you and others in the
community?

 
Set your page permissions at a level that
reflects how actively you will manage it.

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 25

What's next?
Keep learning! ReviewPro monitors what About ReviewPro Would you do us a favor?
is changing in the world of online    
reputation management and passes
ReviewPro enables hoteliers to efficiently We're committed to making these guides
along practical ways to use that in aggregate, organize and manage their available to you at no cost. We only ask
hospitality.
online reputation and presence in leading that if you've found it helpful, would you
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Read the blog for more articles and the analysis, customer intelligence,
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  About The Author

Josiah Mackenzie is the publisher of
HotelMarketingStrategies.com – a
resource of guides and stories showing
how to use technology to serve your
guests and make more sales.
  
Email Josiah:
josiah@hotelmarketingstrategies.com

A Hotelʼs Guide to Facebook, March 2011 26