The past two weeks have been particularly busy in the social media world: Ready to find out about the latest updates and how they’ll affect your hotels and resorts?

Let’s dive in.

Facebook’s Creator Studio Rolled Out Globally

Facebook’s Creator Studio is a central hub for Pages, allowing them to manage their content libraries for all their Pages in one place, including uploading new images and videos, scheduling posts, and evaluating insights. It just recently rolled out globally, reaching Page admins all over the world.

What This Means for Hotels:

Many hotels and resorts often run more than one Page; they may have affiliate resorts, multiple locations, or even specific Pages dedicated to their restaurants or spas. Being able to manage all content for all Pages on one easy-to-use dashboard can save you a lot of time and hassle. You can access your Creator Studio under the Business Manager.

Facebook Releases New Tracking Events

Facebook’s tracking events are snippets of code added to the tracking pixel which you can use to determine if certain actions are taken on your site, like checkouts or clicks on a key product page. Facebook is enhancing the pixel even further by rolling out eight new events in the coming weeks.

The new tracking events are:

• Contact
• Customize Product
• Find Location
• Schedule
• Donate
• Start Trial
• Submit Application
• Subscribe

What This Means for Hotels:

The “Schedule,” “contact,” and “find location” tracking events will likely prove exceptionally valuable for hotels and resorts. Scheduling bookings, spa reservations, and dinners could all be tracked with the new pixel, and every time someone contacts one of your hotels or searches for a location, you’ll know. This will allow you to retarget to an interested audience and help close the booking.

Facebook Provides More Information for Certain Ad Placements

If you run Facebook Ads in in-stream video placements, Instant Articles, and the Audience Network, you’re about to get a lot more information about where your ads could potentially be shown. If you don’t have access to the new feature already, you’ll soon be able to see a full list of specific potential placements where your ads could appear in these placements. After your campaign is over, you’ll also be able to see which placements your ad actually landed.

What This Means for Hotels:

More visibility is always an advantage, especially when you’ve got a lot of ad spend on the table. As advertisers, we can already block our content from appearing on content in certain categories or from certain publishers, but getting a full list might give us a reminder of a few more names to block or more targeting to narrow down. More transparency and more information can mean better ad performance, and there’s a good chance this be the case for the new placement update.

Facebook Reinvents Canvas Ads

Canvas Ads have been rebranded as “Instant Experiences.” These fullscreen, interactive mobile experiences will now offer a new “Instant Form” template and component. This component will allow marketers to add lead generation forms in their Instant Experiences.

Image source: Facebook

Instant Experiences can now be tracked with the pixel, allowing advertisers to get a better understanding of how their campaigns are really performing.

What This Means for Hotels:

Instant Experiences have always had a lot of potential for hotels and resorts, even though they were underused. They’re a great way to showcase your properties and amenities in exciting, dynamic ways your guests could respond to. Now, you can use the lead form to capture the information of interested potential guests and follow up to schedule a booking.

New Facebook Stories Updates

There are some new features being tested for Facebook’s Stories, and while they likely won’t be rolling out on a wide scale for a little while, we still want to mention them.

The first is the ability to share links in Stories. Facebook recently confirmed that they’re testing this ability, which Instagram already has. There is no news about when this would move beyond beta testing.

The second will be Stories Ads, which is currently rolling out to Facebook marketing partners. According to TechCrunch, early tests in Mexico, Brazil, and the US gave access to the feature to a few big name brands, which are pretty much identical to Instagram’s Stories Ads.

What This Means for Hotels:

We’ve already seen that Instagram Stories can be an incredible powerhouse for the hospitality industry, especially once Ads and links are included to drive actionable (and off-platform) results. Having this ability come to Facebook too will be a huge benefit, giving us additional mediums to connect with potential guests. Facebook users are already watching Stories, after all, and this will allow us to drive site traffic and bookings as a result.

Instagram Expands Security Features

Instagram has finally rolled out expanded verification and security features for business profiles. The first will seek to protect users by evaluating the authenticity of accounts with a large number of followers, much like Facebook has recently done. Users will be able to see the account’s history, any name changes, and all ads the profile is currently running.

The second change is coming soon, and will allow use of third-party authentication apps to be used to log into Instagram. This will be a more safe and secure way for businesses to log into Instagram.

What This Means for Hotels:

Instagram wants to make the platform safer for everyone, which means more transparency and more security. Most hotels and resorts have nothing to hide, so the transparency will only help you to build trust, and the added security features can help you protect your accounts and your guests at the same time.

Instagram Releases Polls to Direct Messages

Polls are a great way to drive engagement through Stories, and now users are able to send polls to their friends through direct messaging. Add a small group to a chat, and then use the poll sticker to ask a question. All that’s left to do is wait for the responses to come pouring in.

What This Means for Hotels:

Stories broadcast your polls to your entire audience, but using them in direct messaging can have its benefits, too. Reach out to small groups of your followers, and use the text features to let them know they’re in an exclusive group of loyal guests and you want their opinion. They’ll be notified, and it could increase the likelihood that they answer. You could also use this feature to run contests or sweepstakes, too.

About Lodging Interactive

Headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, Lodging Interactive is a full-service digital marketing and social media engagement and reputation management agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry. Through its web design and search optimization division as well as its CoMMingle Social Media Division, Lodging Interactive provides effective Internet marketing services to hundreds of branded and independent properties as well as management companies, restaurants and spas.

CoMMingle has established itself as the largest provider of reputation management services for the hospitality industry, handling over 200,000 guest review responses. The company also offers fully managed Live Chat agents for hotel websites through its LiveChatForHotels.com division.

Lodging Interactive is an HSMAI Adrian Award winner and has won awards from the International Academy of Visual Arts, Interactive Media Awards, Horizon Interactive Awards, Web Marketing Association, Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts, and Travel Weekly’s Magellan Awards have recognized Lodging Interactive as an industry leader.

Lodging Interactive is a proud supporter of the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) and the company’s president, DJ Vallauri, currently serves on the Board of Directors of HSMAI’s New York Chapter and is a Forbes.com Agency Council contributor. For more information, please contact sales@lodginginteractive.com, 877-291-4411 or visit the company’s website.