Curalate recently hosted a fantastic webinar on Instagram best practices for hoteliers. For those not too familiar with it, Instagram is a visually driven social media platform predominantly used by Millennials. Each post must be accompanied by an image in order to be published, and hashtags play a huge role in helping your content get found.
Fashion and e-commerce retailers have become extremely successful in using Instagram to drive sales. Now, the travel industry is starting to take notice. That’s because of Instagram’s strong storytelling capabilities, all told in short snippets through images.
To help hoteliers get the most out of this digital marketing tool, we’ve brought together 7 Instagram best practices from Curalate’s webinar.
Instagram Best Practices: The Basics
If you’re new to Instagram, there are some basic things your property’s Instagram page should include.
First and foremost, have a clear call to action in your Instagram bio and include a link to your hotel website. Be sure to mention this link with every image you post. You want to ensure everything relates back to driving direct bookings. Though you can’t include hyperlinks in an Instagram post, you can promote the link in your bio. Best practice is to say something like, “check out the link in our bio for more info.”
Follow and interact with local businesses that are related to your hotel, such the local tourism board, well-known restaurants, local attractions etc. Maintaining a relationship with these businesses allows you to cross promote one another and publicize exciting local events. It’s an excellent way to show travel shoppers how active you are in the local community. It also positions you as a local expert, able to provide recommendations that guests are looking for.
Use hashtags in all of your posts to help people find your Instagram page. You should also track the hashtags being used in your local area (by individuals and local businesses) to see what tone and style of pictures get the most engagement. Try to emulate this in your own posts.
Repost Guests’ Images
The people who stay at your hotel are (hopefully) having great experiences, and 97% of the millennials at your hotel are sharing these experiences on social media. Why not take advantage of this user generated content (UGC), while paying a nice compliment to your guests’ photography skills, by reposting their images on your page? This creates a more compelling message to travel shoppers, especially Millennials, who view UGC as 40% more trustworthy than traditional advertising.
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