Increase Your Bookings With a Facebook Fan Page

by Ann

Have you heard? 

I’m sure you already know… 

Your guests and clients spend much of their time on social networks – and, though there are many other channels such as Twitter and Foursquare, it’s Facebook where they spend the most time.  According to Nielsen Media Research, there are over 800 million members of Facebook, half of them are on the site every day, and over 80% of North Americans use a social network in preference to an Internet site. 

These figures are astounding!

Yet another statistic from Pew Research Center tells us that older adults (50-64) are increasingly spending more time on social media, and are more likely than the younger set to seek the opinions of others when planning a purchase or a booking.

So if your guests spend a lot of time on Facebook, and they tend to fall into that older age group, doesn’t it make sense that you are there too? 

This all has huge implications for hospitality and tourism.  Your traditional methods of advertising are not as effective any more, and you should be thinking about how to reach some of these 800 million people.  It’s definitely something you need to keep in mind when you are planning your marketing strategy.

Remember 29+12+22=1?

In my last blog article, I mentioned that the final and decisive input for vacation decisions – this holds true across the board for choosing hotel, Bed and Breakfast, restaurant, as well as destination and manner of travel – comes from talking to friends after all the online research is completed.  Remember “29+12+22=1”?

Where are these friends that prospective guests talk to? 
They are on social media sites – mostly Facebook.

I’m sure you know by now that you have between 5 to 10 seconds to grab visitors to your website, and persuade them to stay for a moment or so more by providing something on your web page to pique their interest.   Given all the competition out there, it’s a difficult task.

What else to do?

Here’s an alternative … more than half of Facebook users log in every day (that’s more than 400 million people), and on an average, these members stay on Facebook for 20.46 minutes.  That means that at the top of the graph, many are staying much longer than 20 minutes.  In fact, we are told that some Facebook members start their day on the site and don’t leave until bedtime. 

That’s a lot of eyes looking at Facebook … and I’ll bet you would like some of them to see your property or location, wouldn’t you?

Well it can happen.  And it all depends upon how you use social media and specifically Facebook. 

In future posts, I will bring ideas and tips about how you can use Facebook to your advantage to attract some of those 400 million pairs of eyes.  

I’ll also tell you about Foursquare and other social media channels and you can use them to attract guests into your Pub, Restaurant, Museum, tours, or other attractions.

One property’s success

Here’s an example of what one small hotel from British Columbia accomplished.  This property enjoyed a 40% increase in bookings this year – a year in which many hotels reported a decrease in room nights.  The hotel manager credits this success to their specific use of Facebook, how they developed their Facebook fan Page, and how they provided compelling descriptions, photos, and even a video on their fan Page to show off their property to best advantage.   They also provided a venue for online questions and conversation.  

If you think you would like to emulate this success, don’t forget to come back here regularly and I’ll give you tips and show you how.

NO VACANCY – Does this feel like a lost dream for you?

by Ann

Do you want to be Fully Booked Up again?  And have a Waiting List?

Find out how travelers are shopping for their vacations.
(Hint: 29+12+22=1)

You know you have a great property – the location is perfect, whether you are in the mountains, beside a lake, deep in the country or right downtown.  Your place has facilities that people look for, such as a pool, a spa, choices of restaurants, access to all kinds of activities like horse riding, skiing, hiking etc.

But, unlike the film Field of Dreams, you built it … and they are not coming.

What’s happening?   You market just like you always have.  Your website looks fine – no changes needed there.  Yet, somehow your numbers are down.  Even your regulars, those who visited every year without fail, are not coming so often, if at all.

Where are they?  Is it the recession?  Could you do better?
Well sure … you will do better- as soon as the economy picks up.

But people are still taking vacations – they must be – you hear that your neighbouring property down the road is doing quite well despite the so-called decline, and your place is every bit as good as theirs.

So what has changed?  What can you do to encourage your guests to come back?  What are they, your neighbours, doing that is different from you?

How to entice travellers to your property.

t’s time to let go of some of your traditional thinking, and even some of your familiar conventional statistics.  There are some figures (see below) that are the new true, and it’s up to you to be part of those statistics.  Think about it…

What will it take to attract the typical vacation shopper to your property?  And, by the way, the pronoun “she” is used intentionally here.  Because statistics tell us that for the most part it is women who make all the vacation decisions – and she’s certainly the one who makes the bookings.

But first you need to persuade her to look at your property … then you must encourage her to actually select it and book with you.

Have you ever thought about social media marketing?

How do travelers decide on a vacation?   It’s 29+12+22=1

Vacation shoppers are using a process before making their travelling decisions; it’s a process of elimination, and it goes like this: it takes 29 days, and 12 searches, looking at 22 sites, to decide on 1 vacation.

Here’s how our average shopper – let’s call her Jane – goes about finding, deciding, and booking her vacation (remember, Jane is average – not all travelers follow the same process).

  • She starts with an OTA (Online Travel Agency), such as Travelocity – and she looks through her choices and what she can discover in general about possible locations.  Jane may have her basic criteria in mind, such as weather: warm, cool or cold; and will she travel by air, sea, rail, or road.  She almost certainly thinks about the type of property she wants, depending upon whether she is going alone, or with her partner, with a group of girlfriends, or taking her young family.
  • When Jane has a general idea of location, type of hotel, and mode of travel, she then performs a meta search on a site such as Kayak, where she compares prices across her list of ideas.  Is this Jane’s budget vacation, or is it a once-in-a lifetime splurge?  Perhaps she is used to spending whatever it takes, or maybe she believes that if she keeps to a budget, she can escape more often.  (Don’t forget, Jane is our average vacation shopper.)
  • Now it’s time to get a little more thorough.  Once Jane has her price-line in mind, she researches locations in some detail.  She’ll probably go to a publication (online or offline) such as Frommers, where she can make some notes and compare the facilities of her list of properties.  Though this stage of the search is usually done online from the comfort of home, I’ve certainly seen people like Jane making notes from travel books right off the Book Store shelf.
  • And finally, after all this work and research, Jane goes directly to the hotel brands and takes a look at individual properties and what they have to offer.

So after an average of 29 days, doing a minimum of 12 searches, and visiting 22 sites, Jane makes her one vacation decision.

Does this all sound a little far-fetched?  It’s not.  And remember, all those searches are done online, using the Internet.

The Final Decision

Jane’s final and most decisive input comes from talking to people she knows.  Not over the garden fence or on the phone, like she used to, but online – and usually on a social media site such as Facebook or Twitter.

Why social media?  Social media is a world of interactions, and in the case of booking her vacation, Jane will go to the people with whom she has built relationships – those people whose opinion she trusts.  So she is most likely to go to her online friends and find out if they, or their friends, have stayed with you.

This is why you need to build relationships with people like Jane.

There are more than 800 million people on Facebook, and more than half of them are online at least once a day, for 15 minutes or more.  In fact, many of them don’t even go to traditional Internet sites any more, social media is where they stay.

Wouldn’t it make sense to find out about social media?

This website will regularly bring you articles and posts suggesting what you need to know about marketing your property using social media.

You have probably heard that people will only do business with whom they know like and trust.

Discover how …

Get to know your prospective guests, build relationships with them … and they will come!