The Impact of Social Media on Hotel Brand Marketing

Introduction 

Social media has become an increasingly popular phenomenon among online users. Individuals, groups and organizations are using social media in more innovative ways than in the past. It only began as a social network, but companies have used it to tailor their products to the needs of the customers based on online conversations. Besides, Tuten and Solomon (2017) explain organizations mainly used the traditional marketing methods until they realized that their customers were online. The essay intends to analyze the impacts of social media on hotel brand marketing. The way social media helps to deal with the people’s questions in their everyday life is also examined. Social media has significant positive impacts on hotel business than the negative. Companies should embrace social media as a marketing tool is they are to establish the required popularity amongst its online audience.

Social media is websites or applications that enable users to create and share content on an online platform. The avenue allows users to participate in social networking among virtual communities. Hjorth and Hinton (2019) claim social media are also applications that are designed to enable online users to share content quickly and in real-time. It is a computer-based technology that is used to facilitate the sharing of ideas and information. It is done through virtual networks on the internet. It is essential to understand social media marketing as a tool that is applied by the hotel industry. Social media marketing is how a hotel business would use social media to connect with its desired audience. The aim of using social media marketing is to build a brand, drive website traffic and also increase sales of the organization.

Social media has a purpose in trying to turn around the hotel industry. A hotel business should understand that social media has its benefits and the brand influence that it brings is an eventual asset to the organization. Social media marketing is critical for a hotel business. In the UK, for instance, by 2018, Macarthy (2018) claims about 79% of the population is on Facebook. While 47% were on Twitter, a further 41% were on Instagram. The figures show how purposeful social media could be for an organization. Etter, Ravasi, and Colleoni (2019) suggest hotels must find ways to interact with the customers online since most of them spend some time online. It gives the hotel a chance to build on their relationship with their guests. Social media also purpose to strengthen the online reputation of the hotel.

Consumers like to purchase from businesses that have a strong online reputation. The advantage of brand reputation is that consumers will decide to seek hotel services since they have strong brands. Social media helps the hotel to create SEO content that will provide information to their desired consumers. They will make purchasing decisions based on a more information background. Social media allows hotel firms to be visual in their line of business. Guests are looking to taste what they can experience when they eventually buy the services of an organization. Shareef et al. (2019) contend consumers usually want to feel engaged with the brand. Customer engagement is essential and social media will ensure that hotels engage their consumer more so that they understand where they come from. It will help the business to provide products and services that are according to the taste of their target market.

Tuten and Solomon (2017) claim social media carries the future of business. Hotel brands must take advantage of the social media platform so that they can obtain maximum benefits from it. It has been established that people spend one day a week on their phones. They are likely to come across social media adverts for an organization. A hotel brand should ensure that it has a strong presence online so that the consumers can identify with the brand much more than before.

There are several benefits that hotel brands can derive from social media. First, social media help hotel brands to create brand recognition. Through social media, brands can create their brands. More consumers will be able to recognize these brands so that they frequently purchase from them. Castronovo and Huang (2012) maintain consumers tend to buy from brands that they recognize. They tend to have a strong belief in the more prominent brands that they recognize. For a hotel, the brands will get to the consumers quickly if it uses social media as the main channel. The audience will be able to look at the brand even when they do not have a plan to purchase from them right away. The brand will remain in their minds and build a strong brand perception subsequently.

The second benefit is that social media allows brands to generate a conversation around the products and services that they offer. Zimmerman and Ng (2015) say the traditional marketing methods do not give consumers the option to generate start conversations. Hotel brands must make sure that they raise a discussion around their brands. The more the consumers talk about these brands, the more they stick with them. It will help the company to attain significant brand equity among customers. Through such conversations, the brand can receive feedback on the products and services so that they can act accordingly. Social media may help brands to raise genuine communications about their products and services.

The third benefit is through social media; the brand can learn how to connect with the audience through social listening. In traditional marketing, organizations are not able to listen to what the customers are saying. It only tries to push consumers in a specific direction so that they can increase sales. Carlson and Lee (2015) claim social media allows companies to monitor social conversations around their business. They can identify consumer trends as they also try to understand the tone and language that the online customers use on their brands.

Fourthly, social media allows companies to gather data from their intended online audience. They can research and improves on the services that they offer their market niche. Etter, Ravasi, and Colleoni (2019) say the brands find out the keywords that the consumers use. They are also able to improve on their products and services as the research will yield the information that they need to improve. Traditional methods do not allow a brand to gather required research data on their customers.

Fifth, social media allows a business to provide exceptional customer service. Today, consumers expect hotel firms to handle requests that are made on social media. Through social media, hotels immediately interact and obtain customer feedback, a feature that is absent in traditional marketing. In the US, Dahl (2018) says about 50% of the customers use social media to ask questions that they seek an answer or regarding their products and services.

The sixth and last benefit is that social media benefits hotel forms by allowing them to build customer loyalty. Usually, customers follow and interact with brands that they enjoy. If a consumer does not feel a brand, it is highly unlikely that he will follow the brand on social media. Hjorth and Hinton (2019) say about 53% of followers of a brand are likely to be loyal to that said brand. Hotel forms have a responsibility to make their brands likeable so that more consumers follow them and interact with them.

Social media marketing strategies have impacted hotel firms. Through social media, a hotel brand has been able to market ad advertise its products and services in a more transformed way from the pats. Hotel brands have had an opportunity to have more clients and customers. In other words, the company has a broader market reach since millions of potential consumers are found online. There is a need for a business to stamp its foot on the online platforms. The companies will experience more direct bookings through online avenues.

Another impact is that a hotel brand will have increased brand awareness of its services. Prasad and Saigal (2019) suggest social media channels will give a hotel the chance to make its presence known in the industry. Online users will be able to see the company online. They will most probably visit their site as they try to understand the products and services that they offer. In such a manner, a hotel brand can increase its brand awareness among its potential consumers online.

The third impact so that social media will increase the sales of hotel firms. For instance, in the US, Dahl (2018) contends online sales increased by $414 billion in 2018. It shows that hotel business could increase their sales by allowing their brands to be found online where their potential consumers are. Social media widens the scope of their market reach.

With social media marketing, the hotel forms will have a more educated and informed customer base. The customer will be able to find more about the company, the products and services that it offers and any other information that is vital for purchase decision making. Social media also has a great impact on customer services. Fraccastoro and Gabrielsson (2018) believe a proper social media marketing strategy will enable the organization to have an improved customer service. The company will upgrade and personalize the customer service that it offers the market.

Consumers who experience better customer services are likely to purchase more often from the organization. Social media marketing will have an impact on the forms allowing it to monitor its brand reputation. The result of the impact is that a company will look onto brand distractors and destroyers. Prasad and Saigal (2019) insist they will be keen to maintain the reputation of their brands so that more consumers can identify with them. The last impact of social media on a hotel firm is that it leads to growth n customer reviews. Technically, positive reviews can lead to increased business generation, while negative reviews would drive customers away.

The world feels the effect of the social media revolution. It is the new communication tool used widely across the globe. Social networking sites have become the most promising means of publicity. Hotel firms are suing unique platforms to publicize their products, services, and by extension, their brands. Hotel brands must embrace social media as a communication tool. Social media has recently complimented many parts of the lives of humans and the organization. It has enabled users to interact and share content on the online platform. Okazaki and Tagashira (2018) state social media has also allowed users to connect. Like-minded people are more likely to connect in that regard.

Social media has made it’s possible for the information to quickly and rapidly be disseminated and amplified. Castronovo and Huang (2012) believe social media allows a business to promote online conversation. These are conversations that revolve around the mission and the agenda of the form. Hotels could take advantage of and use social media as a communication tool to further the conversation around their brands. If an individual likes a company page on Facebook, for instance, he is likely to see all updates that the company puts online.

The different social media platforms may change going into the future. But the idea of unique media as a marketing tool is likely to remain the same. Deluca and Greenberger (2019) claim companies will only try to use the platforms to communicate their missions, products, services, and their personal stories through social impact campaigns better with them. Through social media, communication has been made possible since information is exchanged in real-time, be it in the workplace or private life. Engaging with social media is critical since it allows users to build their digital literacy. The companies will use such digital literacy to their advantage as they seek to convert more sales online.

The issue of social media has its challenges. Companies that provide internet services have tried within their power to ensure that online security and privacy issues are addressed. But there has not been any sufficient solution offered. Technically, the most popular sites have the most privacy and security challenges on the internet. Kisekka, Bagchi-Sen, and Rao (2013) argue the security and privacy issues usually occur when a hacker or a cracker gains unauthorized access to sites that are protected by coding and written language. Hotel forms must be wary of the privacy and security issues on the internet.

Cyber-crimes have become excessive, and the business seems to be fetching billions off of innocent online users. Companies are losing $5 million in stolen data. Besides, Hunter and Taylor (2019) posit cyber-crime cost the world economy a humongous $2.1 trillion. Hotel forms must understand that the customer data under their custody must be well protected. Their information also has to be protected against illicit use by cyber-criminals. Privacy issues are usually unwarranted access to private user data. It may not be as a result of a security breach as anyone could gain access by watching an individual type his password.

Hotel firms must be active on social media. But the threat is that the most active accounts on social media suffer the gravest consequences if hacked. The users may only take a careful approach of not sharing too much and also limited their online activities. Kisekka, Bagchi-Sen, and Rao (2013) claim the company should have a privacy control measure for who can gain access to the company’s or their personal consumer data. Increased privacy settings may not ensure privacy. Hotel brands have to solve their vulnerabilities if they are must be efficient in protecting consumer data. They should partner with the government to deal with the issue. Security and privacy issues online can best be solved by limiting presence, but that works against companies.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, social media has significant positive impacts on the hotel business. Businesses should embrace social media as a marketing tool to increase their popularity online. Social media purpose of strengthening the online reputation of the hotel. Consumers like to purchase from businesses that have a strong online reputation. The advantage of brand reputation is that consumers will decide to seek hotel services since they have strong brands.

Social media benefits hotel brands as it helps to create brand recognition. Through social media, brands can create their brands. More consumers will be able to recognize these brands so that they frequently purchase from them. Consumers tend to buy from brands that they recognized. Social media allows brands to generate a conversation around the products and services that they offer. The traditional marketing methods do not give that option. Hotel brands must make sure that they can raise a conversation around their brands.

Social media channels will give a hotel the chance to make its presence known in the industry. Online users will be able to see the company online. They will most probably visit their site as they try to understand the products and services that they offer. A hotel brand can increase its brand awareness among its potential consumers online. The hotel brands embrace social media as a communication tool. The company should have a privacy control measure for who can gain access to the company’s or their personal consumer data. Increased privacy settings may not ensure privacy. Hotel brands have to look at their vulnerabilities if they must attain efficiency in protecting consumer data.

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