Recently, Mark Zuckerberg and his crew released their third pillar to the ever-changing Facebook platform with Graph Search. Joining the Newsfeed and Timeline, Graph Search was born into a lot of hype, questions, and concerns about its impact on online searches, marketing, and privacy.

Good people of the Hotel Industry, let me guide you through what this means for your business.

Graph Search Overview

First, let’s get acquainted with Graph Search. If there is one thing the Zucklehead wants you to know, it’s that Graph Search is not a search engine. However, Graph search does represent Facebook’s larger efforts to move from just communication sharing to information sharing. With Graph Search, searching for a term will generate relevant results from friends, places, and pages that already exist. For example: you can search something like “friends who like British Airways” or “people that like Florida and live in Chicago” and people that fit that query will appear. The thing that truly makes Graph Search interesting and important to marketers is that the searches being conducted on Facebook are chock-full of intent. The searches are basically polling their friends for suggestions on what to buy, watch, do, etc. This presents huge opportunities to advertisers that can now target audiences at incredible new levels. For example: Joe’s Bed and Breakfast could now advertise to current customers’ friends who are in the market to go on a vacation.

Why It’s Important to Hotels

If I didn’t hook you there, listen up because it gets better. Why should you care? Because Facebook cares. Facebook views travel as inherently social, and they plan on playing a larger role in years to come. They have already taken their first step by hiring the first Head of Travel, Lee McCabe.

Now, we’ve all seen The Social Network so we know Zuckerberg is a smart guy. He’s proving it here again by going after the travel industry with the Graph Search. Where the Graph Search fails with some industries, it fits perfectly with hotels. Google search is probably better suited for inquires about things like doctors or dentists, but hotels are a different beast all together. Graph Search works because people love to share pictures from vacations and talk about their stays. Therefore, finding a hotel based on your friends’ preferences comes naturally.

Here’s where Facebook gets a little creepy. Marketers can also use Graph Search to learn the likes and dislikes of their audience as well as their competitor’s audience. You can search what books they like, what kind of music they enjoy, where they have traveled recently, etc. Once that data is collected, you can base a whole social media strategy off it. Another thing Graph Search enables hotels to do is the see the “check-in’s” and photos tagged at the hotel. These used to be invisible to us as marketers, but by the mighty hand of Zuck, we can now see what kind of information is being shared about our hotel.

Finally, searching has become social. With Graph Search, a higher potential reach can be achieved through user searches. If you are still doubtful that people will actually use Facebook to plan their vacation, I’ve got news for you. It’s already the third most popular use for the Graph Search behind searching for friends and photos. So why is the Graph Search important to hotels? Because people are using it to find hotels. Facebook is right, travel is social, and travelers trust their friends’ opinions. The Graph Search can show them “likes” where search engines like Google can only show them links.

What Now?

Now that we have established Graph Search as a legitimate contributor to online hotel marketing, you may be asking yourself what your hotel should do. The main thing that you need to do is to make sure your page is categorized as “hotels.” It seems simple because it is, but without the correct category, your business won’t be showing up in searches for hotels.

Besides that, things haven’t changed too much in the Facebook game. You still need to optimize your page with cover photos, regular posts, and interaction, and you still need to create an active and engaged audience. Though, the Graph Search does give extra motivation to boost your page’s “likes.” To Facebook, the number of “likes” a page has is an indication of the business’s credibility. Think of it as the wisdom of the masses. Similar to a yelp listing with many positive reviews, pages with more “likes” will be given preference in the search results.

Wrap It Up

In conclusion, no, Facebook will not replace Google. Graph Search is Facebook’s long-term project aimed at bringing a social experience to online searches. Things aren’t very different yet, but that will change. Graph Search has given us a glimpse into the future and a new understanding of what direction the industry is heading. It seems inevitable that the social search will stick around, and just as many methods of online searching before it, it will evolve and take on more importance. As the online travel sector grows increasingly competitive, the more you know and prepare now to optimize your Graph Search visibility, the more successful you will be in the future.            

Is your hotel’s Facebook page struggling to grow fans? Do you feel like you are communicating into an empty void on this supposedly social network?  But you’re doing everything you can to achieve the exact opposite results, right?   Sometimes it takes a little more than on-page optimization, creative content and eye-catching photos to get the response and growth you’re looking for.

While there are many ways to remedy these issues, the quickest solution isn’t a new trick or a new Facebook feature; it’s the old hat trick of Facebook ads.  Before you say “I have no idea what Facebook ads are, let alone know how to set them up” or “We don’t have the budget for ads,” hear me out!  Setting up Facebook ads is actually quite simple, and as for cost, you need to try it before you dismiss it, because a little bit of money can go a very long way towards growing your Facebook network.

Facebook ads can be set up under one of two different advertising models: the pay-per-click ad model (a la Google Adwords) or pay-per-impression ad model. Choose whichever model best suits your goals. The ads appear as Sponsored Ads on the right-hand side of the desktop version of a Facebook page.  From the ad a user can click to visit the business page or simply "like" the page without even clicking through to view the business page.  The ads include information on how many people like the page, or if a friend in the user’s network likes the page as well.  This is actually valuable information that helps increase conversions and actions.  Seeing that a friend already likes the page assures the user that this is a recommended page worth liking and clicking on.  Now that we’ve reviewed the placement of the ads and what all is included on the ad, let’s dive into the process of setting them up.

Step-By-Step Facebook Ad Set-up

1. Begin with logging into the Facebook account that has administrator access to the hotel’s page.
2. On the left-hand side click “Ads Manager,” which will take you to your campaign page to set up a new ad.  At the top right corner click on the green button "Create an Ad."
3. On this page it will ask you to select the Facebook destination; meaning which page are you wanting to promote.  Your hotel page should appear below since the account has administrator access.
4. Next you will select what you want to promote, the hotel or a specific post.  In most cases you will select the hotel.  However if you have a particular message you want to get across or to guarantee a certain amount of people see the particular post you would select the latter option.
5. Then choose new ad about the hotel in the “People will see” section.
6. In the next step you set up the actual ad.  The headline is predetermined by the title of your hotel’s Facebook page.  Fill in the ad copy within 90 characters and load an image to be sized at 100 pixels by 72 pixels.
7. The last question in this section asks “Where will people be taken to when ad is clicked?” You can choose the hotel’s timeline or if you have different applications like a welcome page or booking page you could choose those as well.
8. After setting up the ad you need to determine the audience the ads will target.  Target your audience by location (country, state, city, zip), age, gender, precise interests, connections (people already connected to page, people not connected to your page, or opt for advance setting to target people connected to specific pages).  As you fill in these requirements, on the right hand side you’ll see your audience reach update which shows you how many people your target settings will qualify to see the ad.

Hang in there, only a few more quick steps till your ads are complete and ready to run!

1. Now you need to define the objective of your ads.  Do you want to reach people who are most likely to click on your ad and visit your Facebook page, or do you just want maximum exposure to those people who will simply like your page?  Select “click on my ad” to set up the ad on a cost-per-click model since your objective is to have people click on your ad.  The other option, “show ad to people most likely to like my page” will set the ad up on a pay-per-impressions model.  I recommend the cost-per-click model since the goal for most advertisers will likely be to reach fans with a true interest in the page. These are the people that are likely to visit the page for more information and interact with hotel.  Plus, it is easy to control your budget and spend in cost-per-click structure.
2. Finally set a campaign name, budget (cost/day or lifetime budget), schedule (continuously or defined date range), and your bid.  Facebook offers a suggested bid range, however I advise starting on the low end and after a bit if you are not seeing the results you want, you can increase bid later.
3. The very last step to complete the set-up is to click the place order button and add billing information to the account.

Congratulations, you’ve just set up Facebook Ads to promote your hotel to thousands of Facebook users!  Keep reading for additional tips to effectively use the ads to benefit your social media strategies and goals.

Improving the Performance of Facebook Ads

Start by optimizing the ad itself. The ad copy is your first impression and chance to summon the interest of a multitude of Facebook users.  You only have 90 characters to do this so be savvy in writing catchy copy that lets people know what makes your hotel unique with a call-to-action to click on the ad or like the hotel’s Facebook page.  The image on the ad is very small so use this space intelligently as well. Load an image that is of high quality and easy to see in such a small format.

Use the ads to target valuable fans. In a successful social media campaign the account has a large and constantly growing fan base with a genuine curiosity in the business.  By targeting individuals that already have a shared interest in the hotel you’ll be more likely to gain fans that are truly interested in your business with a desire to interact with the hotel on Facebook.  Select precise interests such as the hotel brand, travel, vacation, local area and other relevant topics to the hotel.  Honing in on people with shared interests will have a positive effect on the hotel’s Facebook page in the long run due to increased engagement, to being the top of mind hotel in area, and growing dedicated fans that will not unlike the page weeks later.

Use the ads as a vehicle to promote more than just your hotel’s Facebook page. Facebook ads can and should be used for more reasons than to just build awareness of your hotel and grow fans.  Use the ads for other objectives such as promoting special events happening at the hotel.  Keep Facebook ads in your “distressed inventory strategy” toolbox to promote special offers for dates the hotel needs to drive occupancy.  Create additional hype about the hotel on Facebook by running a contest and use the Facebook ads to reach a large audience for maximum exposure.  Facebook ads will become an essential tool to expand your hotel’s reach, cultivate fans, inspire response and realize successful campaigns.

Don't forget about your non-paid Facebook posts. As powerful as Facebook ads can be for growing fans and increasing interactions, the ads are not to be used as the single voice and activity on the site.  After driving all these new fans to your Facebook page it is crucial to maintain Facebook management best practices to keep the new fans and inspire the desired interactions.  Continue to post frequently about relevant and interesting topics, share photos, and offer great deals to foster long-lasting relationships with your fans.

Monitor your results. As with most pay-per-click campaigns, the ads are not to be set and forgotten about.  Keep a constant eye on your budget and monitor results.  Within the campaign you can run multiple ads to test different copy and images to determine which ad yields the best results.  Increase or decrease bids accordingly to make the most of your budget.  Set goals for your ads such as attaining 50 new fans a month.  Once you reach the goal turn off the ads to save money and restart ads the following month.  By closely monitoring your campaigns you’ll quickly see that you can easily control spend.

There are plenty of benefits to running Facebook ads.  Obviously the ads will bring in a quick and steady pace of new fans.  More fans means more people will see what the hotel is saying.  More eyes on the content increases the potential for even more interactions.  More interactions and engagement with users will increase your organic reach and help the page to grow fans through unpaid efforts at a greater pace than before.  And in the end the hotel can decrease dependency on the ads to acquire new fans, but have the knowledge to use the ads for other objectives when needed.

Recently, there has been some discussion in the SEO community regarding traditional link-building methods in the face of the new updates from Google.  With link building coming into full-focus again, it is important to refresh your link-building strategy and realign it with the overall goals of your online marketing campaign.  We have already given you a link-building 101 refresh with ideas on how to earn links with partners in other industries, so I'm here to tell you another non-traditional way to get quality links and positive publicity.

Hotels can take advantage of link building with business relationships that are already established through your sales, catering, and events teams. While these teams play an integral role in hotel business, they are often overlooked because of the "heads in beds" focus in the industry.  However, the business brought in by the sales, events and catering team offers low hanging fruits of link building opportunities that are ripe for the picking! I'm here to give you a few non-traditional link building tips that can easily help you leverage your efforts by strengthening existing business relationships.

Every time you host an event at your hotel, you could be missing out on a number of link building opportunities.  It doesn't matter whether you are a small boutique hotel or a convention property, or whether you are hosting an annual convention, company retreat, sales presentation, theme party or formal affair.  Regardless, these tips will help make sure you are getting the most online marketing value from your existing business relationships and the events that you host on property.

1. Websites for groups and events - During the sales and event planning process, make sure that your sales managers inquire about the online status of events or groups that will be coming in-house.  Ask if the group has a webpage and if they have a separate landing page for the event that you are hosting at the hotel.  If they do, ensure that your hotel name, address, phone number and website address are listed on the event/group webpage.  You can also provide a link to the custom group webpage on your hotel's website or a booking widget for that group, which allows attendees looking to easily make a reservation.
2. Social media channels for groups and events - In the same conversation about the status of the group's website, ask if the group is active on social media.  If they are, make sure to give them permission and encourage them to link to your social media channels.  In promoting the event on Facebook, encourage the client to link to the hotel's profile page, post on the hotel's wall, and tag any pictures of the event with the hotel's location.  In promoting the event on Twitter, encourage the client to use the hotel's handle (@username), create a hashtag (#sample) for the event that both the client and you as the hotel can follow, and tell the event attendees to do the same. Now, when we talk about link building strategies we usually talk about inbound links (links on other channels pointing to our website) more so than outbound links (links from the hotel pointing to other websites).  Social media is one platform that can benefit from using outbound links.  In order to gain more social media exposure, a good practice is to promote events, groups, meetings, and weddings through our social media channels, with the permission of the client.  Outbound links to the client's social media profiles allow you to promote the event to attendees, engage with them while they are on property and ask for feedback or offer assistance during the event. This is just another avenue to get the word out about your social media presence and extend your online presence.  With sales and event managers often preoccupied with managing the group on property, it is easy to forget that the attendees are engaging with the hotel in online areas while they are on property.  By working together with the event planners to create a hashtag for the event and promoting that for attendee use, you can easily track what the attendees are saying about the event and their experience at the hotel.  Monitor your hotel's Foursquare account to see who is "checking-in" at the event and engage with those guests to ensure they are having a good time and offer assistance if needed.
3. Vendors associated with the in-house group - In getting to know a client--whether it be a couple that is hosting their wedding ceremony and reception at your hotel, a family hosting a bar or bat mitzvah, or charity hosting a banquet or silent auction--most hotels allow outside vendors to contribute to the production of an event.  These vendors include florists, photographers, bakeries, dance lesson companies, or caterers who most likely have web pages and are active on social media.  By learning about the different vendors with which you will be working and co-coordinating, you can easily cross-promote services, build links, and increase engagement.  Another important factor in linking with vendors is the ability to share and link firsthand imagery and photography on both your social media outlets and on your webpage.  Get permission from the event hosts to take pictures of the event and post them on your website and social media channels. You can also ask them to tag their own photos at your hotel along with the other vendors that they have used.

These outreach tips are much easier to implement than other traditional linking methods and are a great way to cross-promote groups, meetings, and events at your property. All of these interactions provide valuable publicity and strength in your online marketing campaign, particularly within a given in-house group. There's also a good chance that your competitors aren't doing this type of link building, so it's an excellent way to set yourself apart from the crowd.

A hotel's ultimate goal is to put heads in beds while increasing ADR, so it's not surprising that most hotels focus all of their online marketing budget and efforts on promoting the hotel's rooms, amenities and location. In regards to SEO, a hotel is typically concerned with website optimization, link building and OTA management, all of which ensure that the hotel is targeting the appropriate keywords and highlighting the best aspects of the hotel across all online channels. With so much emphasis on filling hotel rooms, hotel restaurants often get left in the dust.  While you work towards increasing occupancy in your hotel restaurant, you will inadvertently market your hotel's guest rooms as well.

Follow these five extra tips to optimize your hotel restaurant's online presence to improve your restaurant occupancy as well as supplement your hotel's overall SEO strategy.

1. Linkbuilding

Creating inbound links to your hotel's website is vital for both SEO power and referral traffic, so why not build some links that highlight your onsite restaurant? There are several marketing opportunities for restaurants to list their address, phone number, hours, menu, photos, and of course, website!

Whether you choose to promote your official brand site or a custom, independent site, establishing a link to your dining page will benefit your hotel in more ways than one. Not only will you spread brand awareness to local folks who may not think to dine at a hotel restaurant, but you will also be creating a new online citation with a link!

Hate linkbuilding? Don't worry! Many of the sites that collect and share local restaurant information are user-generated, meaning you can manually upload and edit the information yourself rather than seeking out a third party website's IT guy. Create a login for the hotel and find the add venue, add menu, edit or claim button to submit your requests. Here are a few sites to get you started: Urbanspoon, Metromix, MenuPages and Yelp.

2. Local Listings

Hopefully, you have already grasped the importance of claiming and optimizing your hotel on the various local listing channels, such as Google Places, Bing Local, etc. Search engines are becoming more personalized, offering tailored search results that are narrowed down by your city or zip code; thus, it can be extremely beneficial to optimize and claim your hotel restaurant as a separate entity from your hotel.

Since your restaurant most likely uses the same address as your hotel, it is important to differentiate the restaurant listing slightly so that it is not considered a duplicate. For example, use the restaurant's direct phone line rather than the hotel's front desk number. Also, direct the website link to the interior dining page that offers the visitor relevant information rather than the hotel homepage.

Creating a business listing for your restaurant will allow you to target an entire range of new keywords, which will populate as a search result for people intending to find a bite to eat rather than a hotel room. This also gives your hotel a new platform for receiving and responding to reviews, opening up another channel of communication with customers. As Google is the biggest player in the game, start by making sure your Google Places restaurant listing is owner-verified and optimized, but also check out Yahoo! Local, Bing Business Portal and MQVibe, which is MapQuest's newest local business center.

Some of these local sites also give businesses the opportunity to create special offers. For instance, after claiming your Google Places listing you can craft a coupon to redeem special offers that will display prominently for viewers to see. Be creative (but follow Google's guidelines) and establish enticing offers. Try giving away something like one free dessert with the purchase of one entree or complimentary valet parking when you spend X amount. Also, make sure to include terms and conditions as you see fit!

3. Keyword Research & On-Page Optimization

Your hotel's website should already be optimized for the appropriate keywords that you have decided to target, but take that a step further and ensure that you are actively SEOing your dining page as well. Use Google's Keyword Tool to determine what restaurant keywords you might want to target and include them seamlessly throughout your copy. Check that your meta-title incorporates highly-searched city dining keywords too!

4. Social Media

Does your hotel restaurant feature special events periodically that might garner a following? Special happy hour deals? Live bands on Friday nights? Monthly wine tastings? If so, your restaurant may deserve its very own social media profile to showcase its personality.

While managing two separate pages can create a bit more effort on your part, it may be worth it since it can actually extend your fan base. Your restaurant will likely target a more local or regional market whereas your hotel's official Facebook page will appeal to a much wider audience. To make it easier to manage, set up the two unique Facebook pages under the same Facebook account so you can easily switch back and forth to scour your newsfeed and review your analytics. Post high-quality pictures of your best dishes with detailed captions, boast about your exceptional cocktails, announce your daily chef specials and, most importantly, engage with local customers on your Facebook wall. Don't forget that Facebook is a two-way street! Why not use it as an outlet to ask your followers what they'd like to see on the menu? Keep in mind that you can use the @tagging feature to create a partnership between your hotel's official Facebook page and your hotel's restaurant Facebook page.

Facebook also recently introduced Facebook Deals, a similar concept to Foursquare Check-In Specials, which encourages guests to check-in on their mobile device to redeem special offers. Foursquare Check-Ins and Facebook Deals both promote a healthy word-of-mouth marketing that takes very little management effort. Businesses can select from a variety of deal options depending on what your objective may be. You can opt for a simple check-in reward, you can foster a sense of community by requiring X amount of friends to check-in together or you can encourage loyalty by requiring X amount of previous visits, like a virtual punch card. Just make sure that your restaurant staff is well-versed on the deal's stipulations to ensure all transactions run smoothly!

5. Flash Deal Sites

Hotel restaurants share a common challenge: distinguishing themselves as local dining establishments rather than the food and beverage department within a hotel. Because a restaurant is often hidden within the hotel's intricate design, it doesn't typically offer as much curb appeal as an established, individual restaurant; therefore, it's easy for local folks to disregard a hotel restaurant when selecting a lunch or dinner spot. However, in some instances, restaurants can be a significant revenue generator for hotels, so how can hotels market their restaurants to people living in the area who may not think to frequent it? This is where flash deal sites come into play!

Groupon, Living Social, Travel Zoo Local Deals, Google Offers and countless local "knock-off" deal sites are popping up left and right. They offer people unbeatable dining deals based on location. While restaurants do have to offer a steep discount to make their deal shine, the value to both the customer and the restaurant is very strong. Deal sites take a creative approach--they encourage people to spend money locally, while still inherently saving, and they offer restaurants a unique, online advertising opportunity with a targeted reach. Who can say no to a good deal on food?

There is no doubt that a hotel's online marketing efforts should largely concentrate on promoting their accommodations, but that doesn't mean it should miss out on additional services that can bring in revenue. These simple suggestions to market your hotel's restaurant online will ultimately direct more traffic to your hotel's website and location.

The importance of social media to the travel industry is a well-known fact by now, and we’ve helped to show you the way to the best Facebook apps, how to optimize on Foursquare, how to create captivating content, and even persuaded you into building a Google+ profile.  Just as you thought you had everything under control on the social media front, Facebook unleashed a new format for brand pages last month called Timeline and brands everywhere are working hard to make their pages look their best.  Looks like it’s time to roll-up our sleeves once again and tune-up our Timelines.  But, before you jump into your Facebook makeover, take a minute to read over these five tips.

1.  IDENTITY CRISIS: New format for Business Pages looks just like the format for Profile Pages.

The new brand pages (for businesses) now look just like personal profile pages (for people) with a large cover photo and two columns with the “timeline” in the middle and a sidebar timeline to jump through the years.

How you can optimize: Use these new features to your marketing advantage by featuring an attractive, focused cover photo that your guests will see as soon as they go to your page.  Your cover photo will need to be 850 x 315 pixels and you can add a welcome tagline, such as the one in the example below. However, be sure to read Facebook’s guidelines, as cover photos cannot contain ANY of the following:

• price or purchase information
• contact information
• any reference to user interface elements (such as “Like Us!”)
• calls to action

If you include any of those elements, Facebook will penalize your page.  

Optimize your Timeline features by adding important milestones relevant to your business.  Some examples include your business’ opening day, renovations, re-openings, or top sales days.  You can also pin important posts to the top of your timeline, which will stay there for 7 days or until you pin another post.  Pinning posts works best to advertise a sale or event that you want guests to see immediately.  Similarly, highlighting a post will also call attention to important events, updates, or sales, as that post will expand it to the entire width of your Timeline.

2. FACE-LIFTED: Tab Visibility has been reduced to only 3 tabs

The panel of tabs on the left-hand side of the old page, which many brands used as landing pages to introduce potential fans to your brand, have been moved and reduced.  On the new Timeline, tabs (which contained Facebook applications) are now displayed as application boxes under the large cover photo.  Additionally, now only 3 tabs are visible before expanding the “see more” option.  Be sure to note that the “Photos” application box will always be visible and automatically consumes one of the 4 available boxes on display.

How you can optimize: Although the old tabs/landing pages were very useful in personalizing a brand page and adding content, this new arrangement forces brands to consider which three tabs are the most important to your company’s current marketing objectives.  The tabs can be re-arranged as often as you’d like in order to focus on ever-changing goals and targets.  The new Timeline application icons are 111 x 74 pixels, so you can incorporate attractive photos into your icon to draw guests’ attention to your tabs.  Without updating the icon picture, the old tab icons will be centered in the middle of the new application boxes without any adjustments, so it’s best to update the new format.

3. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: No Default Landing Pages

Without the aforementioned tab pages used as landing pages, brands no longer have the ability to send visitors to designated landing pages upon arriving at a business's Facebook page.  Instead, the "homepage" of a business Facebook page will always be the new Timeline page with the large cover photo. This change will dramatically affect the user’s first impression of your brand, and it changes marketing strategies for “Likes” and email signups.  Brands that previously relied on "Like walls" (where users had to like the page before viewing exclusive Facebook content) will no longer be able to grow their community base in that way.  However, on the positive side, removing this marketing tactic for “Likes” means the guests who continue to “Like” your brand page will be high-quality fans, which translates into high-quality engagement with people who really DO like your brand.

How to optimize: It’s time to re-think your marketing strategy since you can no longer force new visitors to navigate through the calls-to-action on your landing pages before reaching the wall of your Facebook page.  The best way to ensure your new or returning guests have a positive user-experience on your page is to create an attractive cover photo that highlights your best amenities, guestrooms, or products.  Feature a pinned post at the top of your page with a great rate, sale, or event. Highlight an even better post to expand it across the width of your page to make a great first impression.  Bring your applications front and center, which shouldn’t be difficult to accomplish since the new app boxes are much larger than the old 16x16 icons and encourage guests to expand your app list with attention-catching visible tabs.

4. OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW: Fresh ways to feature content

With the tried-and-true methods of marketing to new fans and incorporating fresh content removed from the Timeline format, marketers need to learn innovative ways to feature fresh content.  Luckily, as the saying goes, “When one door closes, a window opens.”  In this case, although landing pages have been removed from marketers' arsenals, pinned and highlighted posts have been added as new opportunities.

How to optimize: Facebook added new features to posts on your Wall, including “Pinned” posts and “Highlighted” posts.

• Highlighting a post: When you hover over a given post and click the star icon that appears, the option to highlight that post appears.  Highlighting a post will stretch the post to the entire width of your Page, thus calling attention to that particular message among the hodge-podge of other posts.  The highlighted post will remain this size until you highlight a different post.  Use this feature to draw attention to contests, sales, or to market special events.  Multiple posts can be highlighted at any given time.
• Pinning a post: Similarly, by hovering over the pencil icon in a post you can pin the post to the top of your Page.  This post will remain at the top of your page until you pin a different post, for a maximum of 7 days.  A ribbon on the right-hand corner of the posts indicates that the post has been pinned.  Again, pinning posts to the top of your Timeline is a great marketing strategy for flash sales, approaching events, or contests.

5. PERSONAL CONNECTION: Engage with your fans privately

As you may know, private messaging was not available through the original Facebook pages.  However, the Timeline format encourages more socialization, and with that comes deeper interaction between the brands and customers through the addition of private messaging.

How to optimize: Although this isn’t exactly considered “optimizing,” there are times when it’s best to use private messaging.  For example, the Timeline format creates a scattered, disorganized feel for some users.  When a customer or guest posts an inquiry on your Wall, it can become overwhelming and appear scattered as the responses multiply or when multiple people begin posting.  This would be a perfect opportunity to move the conversation into a private message so that you can address all the customers’ questions without clouding up your valuable Timeline space.  One thing to note: Brands can receive and send private messages with users, but the user has to initiate the private conversation by sending the first message.

Congratulations! You’ve taken the big leap and jumped into the unknown and ever-changing (sometimes overwhelming and scary) realm of social media.  You have read and understood the importance of social media, you’ve created captivating and useful content, and now your social media outlets sit anxiously waiting those fans and followers like a new hotel awaiting its first guests.  However, what happens when you’ve spent all this time, energy and money in learning about social media, creating and implementing a strategy, and are finally ready to see your efforts through to fruition with no fans or followers to tweet or post?   Part of your social media strategy should include creative ways to get your ONline channels in people’s OFFline views.

How to Promote your Social Media Efforts Offline:  Let Guests know you are Online

When asking guests how they heard about a hotel, the majority of those surveyed replied from a friend or family.  Social media is the perfect tool to strengthen this response and increase word of mouth communication.  Here are six ideas to help promote your online efforts to the offline community.

1. Create a QR code

As Blue Magnet Interactive has demonstrated in our posts, a creative QR code can have various capabilities for a hotel.  One of these capabilities is to bring offline activity online – specifically to your social media sites.  Most people have seen these and aren’t quite familiar with how to use them, but they are slowly gaining understanding and popularity. Create a QR Code (Quick Response Code) to connect to the hotel’s Facebook and Twitter pages and then prompt the guest to become a fan or follow the page. Build a better fan base on social networks and create current dialogue on the site with guests.  This QR code can be used in conjunction with the other popular social media icons which we will talk about in a second.

2. Social Media Decals

When your guests first arrive on property, they’ll pass through the entrance to your hotel.  A subtle way to introduce your social media presence is to purchase social media decals to adhere near your hotel entrance.  This will notify guests as soon as they enter your property that you are present on social media.  An added bonus of these decals is that if you are located in an urban area, passersby will also notice these subtle decals and be able to follow your social media channels.  Social media decals are available to purchase online and can include your social media username, web address, or QR code to get people to your online site fast.  Popular social media decals are utilized for Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare.

3. Electronic Picture Frames at the Front Desk

One of the first things that guests do upon arrival to a hotel is check-in. Some hotel brands feature electronic picture frames at each guest service agent station at check-in.  Here hotels feature pictures of guest rooms, opportunities to up-sell executive levels or suites, photos of the pool or fitness center and other amenities/special offers.  This is a perfect opportunity to create a slide showcasing the hotel’s Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, or YouTube account names.  Each social media channel could be displayed as a separate slide or combined into one single slide.  If the guest sees the slide and mentions it to the GSA, this could be a perfect segue into further explanation of what the hotel’s social media channels can offer the guest– and the guest will be more likely to engage with your social media channels during their stay.

Another idea promotion idea involving the front desk includes having a guest check-in on Foursquare and showing that check-in to the GSA, which could result in a exclusive amenity or coupon for that guest to use during their stay.

4. Electronic Key Cards or Key Packets

If guests miss the electronic picture frame or your property does not have those, you can still capture the guest’s attention upon check-in by printing the social media icons or QR code on the guest’s room key packet or on the keycard itself.  Since guests will have their room key on them at all times, this will help remind the guest to go onto your social media outlets when they have a moment.  You can also use the key cards or key packets to promote outlet specials or other property amenities.

5. Printed Material/Signage in Guest Rooms

Once a guest arrives at their guest room, most will look around the room to inspect it to make sure it is up to their standards, figure out the amenities and get comfortable.  Printed material placed in the guest room is the perfect place to add the social media icons that won’t intrude on a guest's stay.  Information about the hotel history, hotel amenities, and local area attractions is usually located in a binder in each guest room.  Make sure there is printed material either in the information binder or on the desk/dresser area that has the QR code you created and the social media account addresses listed so guests can easily access those from their guest rooms.

These subtle hints will remind guests that they can interact with the hotel through various outlets.  Also, if the guest has a problem and posts about it on social media during their stay, the hotel has a better opportunity to catch it and enact service recovery while the guest is still on property.

6. Electronic Reader Boards

Similar to the concept presented for the electronic picture frames at the front desk – electronic reader boards are a great use of digital advertising space.  Create a slide or a banner ad that can be displayed on the electronic reader boards on property.  Conferences, groups-in-house, or transient guests will look at these reader boards for information regarding maps, meeting agendas, and see the advertisements for social media.

Tips to Remember to Include in your Online Marketing Strategy:

Social Media Icons Displayed Prominently on your Website

Depending on your brand guidelines and brand web pages, this option might not apply to all hotels.  However, this is a very vital link that will help you drive the most traffic to your social media sites.  Your social media icons/links should be prominently displayed on your hotel website.  You could even include just the “Like” button from Facebook or the “Follow” button from Twitter if you wanted to ensure that your potential guests stayed on your website and visited your social media sites at a different time.

Social Media Links in your E-mail Signature

All hotel team members that have an email address should have a uniform email signature.  On this signature, be sure to include your standard contact information, a link to your hotel website, a small photo banner of your hotel and links to all of your social media outlets.  These links can be in the format of written out links such as facebook.com/yourhotelusername or the recognizable social media icons.  This will provide a direct link for your email contacts to find you on social media.

As fellow Blue Magnet team member Katharyn said best: "Social media is word of mouth marketing at its best!" Word-of-mouth marketing can drive significantly higher traffic and value to your business. Make sure you implement the proper offline marketing strategy to enhance and power your online marketing strategy. The suggestions I provided will only help strengthen your connection with customers by letting them know you have a presence on social media channels with which they can engage and benefit.

By now you probably understand the importance of social media for your hotel: your Facebook page looks great, you are tweeting and posting regularly throughout the day, and you have a strong number of fans and followers. Way to take the initiative and take advantage of your social media channels! But ask yourself this: While utilizing social media is an opportunity not to be missed, are you using your opportunities to effectively benefit you? After all, you can post all day to your social media fans and followers, but are you truly engaging them and calling them to action?

Ask Yourself These Questions

• Are my fans engaged?
• Am I gaining fans and followers?
• If the answers to these questions are no, then what can I be doing to improve?

Because social behaviors on various networks effect search results, we know all too well how important social media is to the travel industry. While you may be off to a good start, it is crucial to address these questions to maximize how effective your social media campaigns can really be for your hotel. We are constantly consuming content online. From websites and blogs to podcasts and videos, there is perpetual exposure to content, so capitalize on that.

What Constitutes Captivating Content?

First, evaluate what types of content you already use to market your hotel. Maybe your Facebook photos visually captivating, but what about textual content? Is your content cliche? Have your visitors heard it before? Is your content too "salesy"? What about video content? Textual, image, and video content all have different appeal and can effectively market your hotel in different and interesting ways, but the key factor here is finding what makes these mediums captivating to your audience and visitors. Get inside the mind of your customer and find out what content he or she wants to consume, and how.

It's All In The Reviews!

Browsing through your TripAdvisor and OTA site reviews is helpful to see what your travelers and visitors are looking for, but you can also use networks and forums such as LinkedIn Answers, Yahoo Answers, reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg to find out what people in the area and potential customers care about, and what questions they are asking. While negative reviews give us insight into where we need to fill in the gaps, positive reviews can provide an abundance of ideas for captivating content:

"The room was great, the pool/spa was great, and the location was ideal. However, best of all, was the service. I spoke to the concierge on the phone a couple weeks before our trip and asked about restaurants in the area. I said it was our anniversary the next week, and there was a bottle of champagne in our room along with chocolate-dipped strawberries and a note from the manager thanking us for spending our anniversary with them. All that from a simple off handed comment made a couple of weeks before we got there!"

Just from this one review, you can harvest a few possible post topics. Boast about your amazing pool and on-site amenities, your insightful local area knowledge, and your dedicated service that goes above and beyond for all of your visitors. Are these reoccurring themes or subjects in your visitors' reviews? Click on the different categorizations to see what other travelers are saying, and have said, about your hotel to help shape your posts.

Also remember to think about how travelers absorb information. If your guests are enthralled with your dazzling pool, pair your post with a high quality image. Online users like to see what they will encounter on property, so use these opportunities in social media to draw in fans and followers, and help them picture themselves at your hotel.

By formulating answers to your visitors' questions and addressing their concerns and praises, your content will be fresh, relevant, engaging, and useful to them. Furthermore, when you are the one to address their questions or concerns, you become the local digital concierge, creating a trust with your fans and followers. B&Bs and smaller boutique hotels often have great success with social media because their size makes it easy to connect with their customers in-house. On the other hand, online networks allow larger hotels to easily create a more personalized voice behind their corporate brands. Regardless of whether you are an independent B&B or part of a larger hotel chain, make sure that your voice is connecting with fans and followers and is providing customers with the information that they actually care about.

What's Happening At The Hotel?

A great way to engage current guests, and catch the interest of future guests, is by posting guest photos (with permission!), comment card responses, and events that are happening at the hotel. Are you a pet friendly hotel who just saw a dog wearing a cowboy hat walk into the lobby? Get a picture and feature the 4-legged guest on your social media! Did a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary at your hotel just tell you the story of how they met? Tell your Facebook fans! Is there a birthday party happening in your lounge? Wish them the happiest birthday through Twitter. When you ask your guests about posting their story or photo on social media, you are sure to gain a follower, and your current social media followers just might start to plan their next celebration with your hotel in mind.

What About Discounts?

If information that fans and followers care about often translates into them wanting special discounts and promotional values, then present your content in an intriguing way that allows you to give a little and get a lot. A recent Constant Contact/CMB study shows that approximately 48% of brand followers will follow you on Twitter in hopes to receive deals and discounts. Share an exclusive social media promotion that can't be found anywhere else and make it intriguing. Not only does this have the potential to capture a person's attention, but it will also make him or her feel privileged to be getting the scoop first. Try a tweet like, "Psst! Have Valentine's Day Plans? Ditch the card aisle and be the first to book our exclusive Valentine's Day special. Stay with us for a celebration that you will not forget!" Hook your fans, reel them in, and get them excited to ensure that your promotions, as well as your entire social media presence are strong and beneficial to your hotel.  Just be wary about fostering a community of nothing but deal seekers.  Use discounts sparingly.

And don't forget to keep in mind that the success of your social media campaign should not necessarily be measured by your ROI, but rather how you are engaging with your fans and inspiring your customers, current and potential, to do something. Sometimes visitors aren't ready to book, but having engaging content that inspires your followers to comment, retweet, share, link out, review, or tag you in will not only help your SEO, but it will also keep your hotel top of mind, or inspire someone else to book!  Social media is word of mouth marketing at its best!

You have heard all about how important social media is to the travel industry and more specifically the importance of social media for the hospitality industry.  You have listened and hopefully you have taken action to introduce your hotel to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, FourSquare, TripAdvisor and other relevant social media sites.  But now, you are finding your foray into social media has fallen flat.

Start the year with a focus on spicing up the hotel’s Facebook page to grow fans, increase interactions and ultimately prove a return on investment on your page.  Pepper in some of the best hotel apps on the hotel’s Facebook page to attain your social media goals.  Adding tabs to your hotel's Facebook page will not only make your page appear more interesting, but will actually give visitors more to do on your page!  Applications capture visitors’ attention, draw them in, push them to interact with the page and provide opportunity for fans to take action with the brand.

Flavor the Hotel Facebook Page with these Apps:

1. Welcome Tab – Greet newcomer’s to your page as you would welcome guests into your hotel.  I would even recommend setting this tab as the default page that appears to new visitors.  Utilize the page to invite them to your hotel and ask them to like your page! Simply create your welcome app as an iframe and you are on your way to gaining fans to the page.
2. YouTube – After you’ve welcomed your guest to the page, offer a tour to show them around.  By adding a YouTube app that connects to videos of your hotel, you can show off the property without leaving Facebook.  The video component is engaging and a fantastic way to show searchers your hotel beyond the photo albums.
3. TripAdvisor – You can only say so much about yourself; offer visitors a chance to hear what others have to say about your hotel by adding a TripAdvisor app.  TripAdvisor will provide the html code to add a snippet of current reviews and hotel ratings along with a link to write a review.  This app is a great addition so long as your hotel has a high rating and mostly all positive reviews.  Otherwise it will just advertise the hotel’s weaknesses and have a negative effect on goals to drive revenue from Facebook.
4. Twitter – Looking to share even more information with your fans?  Then add the Twitter application to the page.  The Twitter app pulls in all your tweets from Twitter to your Facebook page.  The app promotes your Twitter page to attract fans from Facebook to convert to followers on Twitter too.  Be sure to optimize your Twitter page with these helpful tips.
5. Coupons – Everyone is looking for a deal!  Create a Coupons app to offer a deal such as 10% off dinner, or a free room upgrade to your Facebook fans.  The coupon app encourages visitors to like the page and is an extra incentive to take action and visit the hotel.  Plus, hotels can track the coupon and in turn measure ROI.
6. Email Sign Up – Your page offers fans so much information but they still can’t get enough!  They want the opportunity to join a mailing list.  Add an Email Sign Up tab for fans to add their contact information.  Check out Constant Contact or MailChimp’s app to add a basic form and start transferring fans from Facebook to contacts on your email list.
7. My Top Fans – Reward your fans and encourage interactions at the same time with the My Top Fans application.  The app evaluates interactions between the page and its fans to determine which fans engage with the page the most.  Once the app calculates the most interactive fans it features the fans on the page.  The app is great motivator for fans to interact with the hotel’s page to earn "Top Fan" status.
8. Booking Widget – Let me guess, your primary concern with managing the Facebook page is proving a return on investment.  Add a booking widget to the page and start using Facebook as another source for making direct reservations.  Fans will love the convenience of booking a room right from the page and the hotel can start measuring a quantitative ROI.

Use this list of hotel Facebook applications as a starting point to add some more flair to the page.  These apps all aim to help increase page fans, lure fans to interact with the brand and in due course bring business to the hotel.

What other apps would you find beneficial to hotel Facebook pages?