Social Media, a concept that we are all too familiar with, has evolved immensely over the last few years and it shows no sign of slowing down and with countless social network platforms available at our disposal, we’re able to connect and share information with the person sitting next to us whilst simultaneously engaging and collaborating with our followers all around the world!

Social media has most definitely proposed multiple benefits for businesses, yet the true power of social media is often underestimated.

The ability to act as a distribution tool, revenue driver and a revenue management tool are elements of Social Media that are often overlooked. Social Media has pretty much become a way of life which really is no surprise considering that a vast majority of the world’s population is active on some form of Social Media Platform.

But what does this mean for your property?

Its customary that once guests have settled in at a hotel or restaurant, they ‘check-in’ on social media to let the world know where they are, who they’re with and what they’re doing. For your establishment, this means you have an already captive audience comprising of both the guests that have just ‘checked-in’ as well as all their followers who now know that they’ve checked into your establishment! If one is able to reach viewers this easily by merely having a social media presence, imagine the benefits and reach potential that come along with having an effective social media marketing strategy!

Social Media as a Revenue Driver

Social Media has the ability to act as a revenue driver for your establishment, especially when paired with an effective Social Media marketing strategy. The various platforms don’t only serve as a tool to keep your audience updated on the latest happenings taking place in your establishment, but assist one in reaching large masses of people instantaneously, regardless of your overall page following. This is especially convenient should you need to run a last-minute campaign or promotion for your establishment, and when paired with other effective social media tips and strategies social media has the ability to act as a major revenue driver for your establishment!

For additional tips and posting advice, be sure to read Social Media: To Post or Not to Post.

Social Media – the Distribution Tool

The great thing about using Social Media as part of your marketing strategy is that it immediately doubles up as a platform for you to distribute your product accordingly. This can be done by either blatantly marketing or promoting your product on the various platforms, or allowing the social media platforms to act as booking platforms simultaneously.

Hotel Channel Managers such as Siteminder have made it possible for hotels to connect their social media platforms, allowing guests to view the hotels availability and use the respective channel as a booking platform. Even if you don’t run a hotel, this should not stop you from using your social media channels as a platform for guests to make inquiries, reservations and engage with the hotel team on the ground.

Social Media – the Revenue Management Tool

This factor is primarily dependent on the aforementioned points as Revenue Management is principally defined as selling the right product, to the right person, across the right channel, at the right time and at the right price.

Therefore, when taking the aforementioned points into consideration and pairing these with strategic implementation, Social Media inadvertently becomes a Revenue Management tool for the establishment in question.

Based on this, the power of Social Media should not be underestimated, but rather utilized to its full potential to assist your establishment in yielding maximum results.

Author: Brunique Gould – Senior Revenue Analyst – TrevPAR World / www.trevparworld.com

TrevPAR World is a hospitality data analytics company that specialises in total revenue management as well as hotel distribution including sales, marketing and social media.