By Celina Vergés (Marketing & Communications Manager)

Do we know the real importance that social networks currently have to increase the visibility of our hotels and tourist accommodations? Do we pay attention to that importance and make room for it in the strategy to optimize our sales? Do we use them as a loyalty channel for our brand?

Many questions to answer and take into account. Because social networks They have been with us for many years but never before have they fulfilled the great role they play not only as a showcase for our businesses (which they are, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year), but also as sales and communication channels. and loyalty to a community that follows us and that we must care for and fall in love with every day.

The role of social networks has always been important, but since 2020 their role has even become more important. Since 2021, more than half of the world’s population is a user of social networks and in terms of the travel and tourism sector, 1 in 4 travelers are inspired by social networks to book their trip and more than half of tourists share and give your opinion about the trip booked in Instagram, Facebook and other traveler opinion and blog platforms.

With this data and with the certainty that social networks are a direct path to our potential clients and those who already know us, how can we not consider them the perfect complement to the Revenue Management and direct sales optimization strategy of our businesses? Of course yes, they are. They are a close and immediate means of communication; They are a perfect sales channel (a social-commerce increasingly adapted to new technologies and secure sales processes); They are an opportunity to be transparent and tell our audience about all our services, our offers, our product, our destination. And they are also, and as if that were not enough, a great channel to build loyalty, to create a community around each hotel, resort, tourist apartment. A community that every time you think about that travel destination, you think yes or yes about us and visit us again.

Therefore, at Bedsrevenue we want to convey to you that to increase direct channel sales and achieve the greatest benefit, we must pay attention to many areas of online marketing and among them, social networks. And we leave you, as a summary, some points to take into account when creating the strategy for social networks and starting to manage them:

• When you think about your social networks, do so with your target audience in mind. Where are they? What age range are they? What origin are they from? What origin are they from? Because having abandoned or poorly managed profiles and/or accounts is worse than not having them.
• As the saying goes: “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and so it is. The image says it all. Therefore, it is essential to take care of the content, have good photographic and video material (which is king right now), and generate valuable content. Quality is more important than quantity in networks. It is not worth filling publications that do not provide value or generate interaction. Here, It is not worth filling publications that do not provide value or generate interaction. As in many cases, less is more.
• Influencers: they are here to stay and yes, they are opinion generators and are very important in giving visibility to your businesses. They provide closeness and transparency in most cases, so creating a strategy with influencers (especially on Instagram, Tik Tok) is almost mandatory.
• Keep in mind that social networks are another communication channel for your hotel or tourist accommodation. Therefore, being up to date with the responses and messages that users send is very important and speaks of the good image that we transmit to our community.

You know, the direct channel wants to be part of our community. And well-worked social networks, with a designed strategy and measuring its results, is a guarantee of success in this direct sale that we must take care of and increase. Let’s not let other channels take advantage of the visibility of our business. Let’s do it ourselves and give Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, Tik Tok, etc., the place that they have built in these years and that they also deserve within the tourism sector.