You’re aware that many businesses in your sector have jumped on the social media marketing bandwagon and are using it as part of their marketing strategy. You see them posting pretty photos of their guests, food, and facilities. You’ve probably set up your own Facebook page which you half-heartedly post to every few weeks, but you’re still not convinced that it could trump traditional advertising you’ve been using for years and should be taken seriously. You’re scratching your head as to why you should bother investing any time and resources in it.
If you’re not taking social media marketing for your hospitality business seriously, here’s why you should:
1. More visibility
Daily active social media use continues to grow. 75% of male internet users and 83% of females internet users are on Facebook and 81% of millennials check Twitter daily. Fewer people are watching television and reading print media. Social media is not just a place where you can watch cute cat videos or upload your latest meal. It has become a part of our day-to-day lives with people turning to social media for entertainment, education, breaking news, connecting with people and researching products and services. Social media channels allow you to be visible and to reach people using more dynamic content like video, live streaming, and Instant Messenger.
Source: http://lillianjamescreative.com/top-four-2017-social-media-trends/
ThinkWithGoogle reports that 49% of all hotel searches take place on a mobile device. Make sure that you can be found when customers search. Make sure not only that you can be found, but that the content you put out is current, informative and engaging
2. You’re reaching customers where they are
By 2020, it is estimated that there will be 5.7 billion mobile subscribers, representing a mobile phone penetration rate of 73%. Think about how many times a day you take your mobile phone out and all the things you use it for throughout the day, including checking your social media. Whether you're home or on the move, your mobile device is pretty much by your side constantly. Chances are that you are reading this on a mobile device. Our mobile phones are an extension of ourselves, so why not make sure that your business can be found there. Not only should your website be mobile-friendly, but your social media pages should be up-to-date, engaging and entertaining.
Come and talk to us about your hospitality business' social media marketing at Restaurant Tech Live. Click the banner for your FREE ticket.
3. People trust online reviews
‘’Hotels that responded to more than 50% of social reviews grew occupancy rates by 6.4%, more than twice the rate of properties that largely ignored social media reviews. ‘’ (source: http://www.hotelsmag.com/)
Reviews play an important part in helping people decide whether to book a table at your restaurant or a session at your spa. Review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor are becoming people’s go-to before they make that final decision.
Many hospitality businesses shy away from review sites, fearing that any negative or maliciously false reviews in the public domain may harm the business, however, careful damage control and smart handling of complaints and less than complimentary reviews could actually count in your favour Ignoring negative reviews reviews before booking their table, room, flight or holiday
4. Convenience
Where before, a person would pick up the phone or visit a travel agent to book a dinner reservation, a hotel room or a holiday, nowadays, people want the convenience of booking with one click while they’re on the go, without the hassle of being passed around from one department to another or being made to wait in a call waiting queue. More than ever, people are using their devices to make bookings.
5. More direct, personalised targeting
Think about how much information the average person shares on social media, not only through what they post, but what pages they like and interact with. Users share where they live, what type of job they have and work, how many children they have, what their hobbies are what kind of restaurants and holidays they enjoy. Facebook and Google metrics allow you to go after your target audience based on their behaviour online.
Social media provides an opportunity to provide a more personalised by communicating through a mobile device which is an extension of a person.
Come and talk to us about your hospitality business' social media marketing at Restaurant Tech Live. Click the banner for your FREE ticket.
6. It’s Instant
Social media allows you to respond instantly and directly to queries. Not only that, you could probably have a look at the customer’s profile quickly to find out a little more about them before responding. Artifical Intelligence can play a part in how you respond to customers. Facebook has introduced bots for Instant messaging which could revolutionise
7. Bonus reason....Your competitors are on it!
Need we say more?
How mc square can help
Find out how you’re doing. Sign up for a FREE social media health check and we’ll let you know how well you’re doing and give you tips and feedback on how you could do even better.
It’s not enough to get the youngest chef in your restaurant or bar to do it because they know their way around Instagram and Snapchat. Social media involves research, knowledge of how algorithms and Facebook advertising works, analytical expertise and strategic marketing skills. Contact mc square marketing to find out how we can help you manage your channels, so you can concentrate on running your business.
If you prefer to do your social media management in-house, we’re happy to sit down with you and devise a training program for your staff so they learn to do it correctly. We also keep up to date with new trends and developments in the fast-paced world of social media marketing, so you're always ahead of your competition. Contact us to find out more about how we can help you do social media marketing for your hospitality business correctly.
Come and talk to us about your hospitality business' social media marketing at Restaurant Tech Live. Click the banner for your FREE ticket.
Unless you’ve been living off the grid these last few years, you will have noticed that videos are all over social media. Whether it’s friends posting a Facebook live rant, your favourite food blogger sharing a ‘how to make…’ tutorial or your teenager uploading Snaps or Insta stories all day, you can’t deny that video is everywhere!
Facebook users rack up 100 million hours of daily video watch time with experts predicting that by the end of this year, 74% of all internet of all internet traffic will come from video. Cisco predicts that video will make up 82% of the content we consume online by the year 2020.
What this tells us is that social video and Facebook video marketing in particular, should (if it’s not already) be part of your social media marketing startegy.
Here are a few tips to make sure it's done right:
Content is king
Remember that people are constantly scrolling through their timelines looking for something that might interest or entertain them. In order to catch their eye use compelling visuals and make sure your video is entertaining.
If Content is King, Search is Queen
There are millions of users putting out video content daily. How do you make sure yours does not get lost in the noise? Optimise your video for search using relevant keywords for your content in your video tags, script, title, description and thumbnail. Make sure your titles are catchy and original and that your thumbnails stand out.
Hook 'em
People generally tend to give a video 3 – 7 seconds before deciding whether to continue watching or not. Make those 3 -7 seconds count. Get your message in early or use those first few seconds on something compelling that will make them want to keep going.
Short and Sweet
Keep your video under 60 seconds. With so much entertaining content to choose from, people’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter.
Tell a story
People respond best to a story where you start off showing a struggle followed by some sort of triumph. Make sure your videos tell a story. Find out what your target market’s pain points are and show how you can help them overcome those.
Shhh...keep it quiet!
Remember that your audience are probably checking their social media at work, on a crowded train or anywhere else public where they watching on mute might preferable. In fact, research shows that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Make sure your videos are easy to watch and easy to understand without sound. If your videos have speech, use Facebook’s own closed captions tool when uploading your video.
Re-use & recycle
Cross post your video to your other platforms including your website. Instagram and Snapchat stories are also a great source of content that can be shared to other platforms. Just save them to your smart phone and repurpose them onto another platform.
Pay to Play
Proud of your video? Why not show it off to an even larger audience through paid promotion. Boost the video or use Facebook Ad Manager. Remember though that Facebook Video ads work best for collecting viewer date for retargeting in future campaigns, rather than for conversion goals or for driving traffic to a landing page. This is because you would be splitting activity between clicking to watch the video and clicking through to the landing page. Very important to keep in mind!
We’ll be sharing more tips soon on how you can boost your views for Facebook Live video. Scroll down and sign up to get notified when we share new tips and articles to help you grow your business.
Learn how to harness the power of Referral Marketing to grow your business at our next workshop.
MC SQUARE WORK HARD, PLAY HARD IN MALTA!
We’ve been dropping cheeky hints to Michael our MD, for ages about moving mc square headquarters to his country of birth Malta. This year, he finally took us up on our challenge by surprising our team with a week’s work trip to the beautiful Mediterranean Island. This was not only going to be a team building exercise, but an opportunity to brainstorm ideas and new strategies to develop and take mc square marketing to the next level.
We stayed in the beautifully charming village of Naxxar at Malta Haven, Michael and Mari’s lovely 3-bedroom holiday apartment. The terrace views were to die for and perfect for out door entertaining, oops working!
Mornings started early, like any other work day with a run or yoga followed by breakfast and then work on client’s social media accounts.
Lunch was a lovely, light Mediterranean spread of "Gbejniet" traditional Maltese cheeses and crusty bread, cold meats, fresh vegetables & fruit, olives and a traditional Maltese spread called "Bigilla" (drooling just thinking about it) that we absolutely fell in love with!
The afternoons were our time to enjoy the best of Maltese sunshine and sit on the roof terrace to work on mc square. This was our time to collectively come up with ideas on how to take the business forward and how to enhance our existing service, experience and product offer for our clients. Michael started the week by sharing his learnings from his recent trips to the USA, particularly his business development programme with Asentiv. He also took the time to find out from each member of staff what our personal and career objectives are and how he, Mari and the company could help each of us achieve these over time. This was a wonderful way to bond as a team as well as contribute to the future and growth of the company.
We also invited Keno Ogbo, our expert Web Developer on our trip, which helped us understand how we can further integrate our online / digital strategies for our clients. This included developing our Sales Funnel processes and creating Landing Pages that convert into leads from our Facebook Advertising we manage for our clients.
We're glad to say we've come away having achieved a hell of a lot, including setting out the following:
- improved and more efficient ways of working to be bale to give even more for our clients
- new services and packages for that are going to help existing and new clients work achieve the results they want. This included a greater focus on Social Media Coaching and for Michael Cuschieri to develop his public speaking and Referral Marketing Training programme
- ways in which each team member can utilise their individual talents to successfully grow mc square and help our clients grow their businesses
- a clearer VISION for mc square and ways of achieving our goals
We would like to thank Mari and Michael for planning and organising this fabulous mc square Malta experience. It was an AMAZING experience, one that we will never forget and one that we will always cherish. We thoroughly encourage business owners or employees, to ask your boss to take time to work "ON the business, not just IN the business"! We're now waiting to hear dates of our next trip!
Of course, we couldn’t visit Malta and leave without seeing the best of what the island had to offer, and Michael and Mari were wonderful hosts and tour guides.
Here are some photographs from our week in Malta!
Enjoy!
Tadiwa & Shirin
Taking a break from work in the beautiful town of Valetta
These Maltese pastries were worth the extra pounds of weight gained
A beautiful view of Naxxar at night form the Malta Haven roof top
Stunning view of Valletta Harbour
Stunning view of Valletta Harbour
We couldn’t leave without posing to take a photo with our hero Einstein
Talking mc square strategy on the beach. Not a bad office view…
So...is your Marketing working? Do you need help? Contact us and let's work together to get you the results you need.
Save 50% on our Silver package Social Media management services! BLACK FRIDAY OFFER now ONLY £8 per day!
Your business will be seen by 1000's of potential new clients and keep you in touch with your existing clients. We THINK creatively for you, we WRITE for you and we TALK for you on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn ...... You tell us which channels you want and we can help. Or we can also advise you on the right channels for your business.
We believe Social Media is about connecting with your target market. It’s being where your clients, customers or users are, and harnessing the power of the internet with a relatively low key style marketing and making your campaign a two way conversation ONLINE.
BONUS OFFER - First 5 enquiries will also receive a FREE Social Media Strategy consultation, when they take up the social media management offer. This is valued at £500!
What you get
Your dedicated community manager will provide you with a professional social media service for 4 months at this discounted price. This offer is valid for enquiries made online by 8pm Tuesday 1st December. Number of clients able to be accepted to this offer is limited. T&Cs apply and open to new customers only. All prices are subject to vat.
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DON'T MISS OUT! Please complete the form below to be eligible for this offer, BEFORE 1st December 2015
