In response to this article: https://hotelnewsnow.com/Article/10853/Facebook-alive-and-well-for-hoteliers”Facebook alive and well for hoteliers” –

Umm…. No. No it isn’t. Not by a long shot.

*Upshot*:  Facebook is *NOT* the #1 way you engage with guests.  Organic Google Search is the #1 you engage guests (social or not). The fact that our industry does not understand this means a heads up for some of us…. & a whole bunch of pain for everyone else down the road.

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It’s absurd to focus on Facebook. You have people “like” your hotel after being guests, post check out, & retroactive to staying at your property.  It’s pointless to reach out & spend time talking to people who aren’t going to book your property.

 

All your efforts should be on revenue generation via funneling people through your booking engine, & you do that by disrupting the booking process proactively.  Google Plus anchors into organic search, & organic search is where people are spending time with their credit card, ready to book a room.  Facebook is not a consumer site, nor is it a search engine…. absolutely no one is on Facebook looking to buy products or search for travel. Are you? Are you on brand pages every single day because you enjoy it?

 

Consumers are on Amazon…. Travelers are on on Yelp, Tripadvisor, etc….. and everyone in the world is on Google. You think Plus is a social network?  It’s simply the internet…. and that impacts how travelers find and book your hotel.

 

It could change, but not for some time. The confirmation bias & selective perception in regards to this stuff is just unbelievable.  Social Graph? Who is using it? Are you? Crunch interaction numbers on Facebook and tell me what percentage of your entire audience is actually commenting or interacting with your brand.  There is a dangerous false economy around Facebook due to snake oil social media gurus and content marketers, & it’s going to implode someday.  Don’t put all your eggs in a broken basket.  It’s all marketing hype and buzzwords, now… don’t be lured in by social ninjas & behind the times corporate marketing people.

 

The big guys won’t see this, because they don’t move on a dime – they’re still impressed with a “like”, which has zero meaningful value. They’re investing time & energy into something that is basically irrelevant.  If Facebook becomes more than just an internet pass through of viral videos and news, and baby and food photos… maybe.  But brand pages aren’t even merged in the normal stream of information – no one can find them, or knows how to use them. The FB biz-side tools are broken, & there simply aren’t more than a couple consumers who really want to engage with a hotel brand on Facebook. Period.

 

Storytelling via pictures on Facebook isn’t even harmless…. if you overpost, people hide your content, giving you a false positive that they “like” you, when they aren’t actually receiving or seeing any of your hotel’s messaging.  Until you have that metric, you don’t even know if you are speaking to one-tenth of your audience.  Every post might hit a few eyes, but more are hiding your content.  Have you ever hidden a brand (that you opted into and “liked”) and their wall posts?  Until Facebook falls or grows up, it’s better to have an extremely conservative posting and usage policy… otherwise you may just be digging yourself into a hole, and won’t realize your in it for years.

 

I am tired of having to say this, but the number #1 way you interact and draw your guests IS THROUGH ORGANIC SEARCH IN GOOGLE!!!!  That’s not only social – intervening on their vacation searches & booking plans – but now search is more social than ever with the algorithm being weighted by Google Plus.

 

Why is this stuff so hard to comprehend?  Until that comprehension, there’s fluff articles like this that are REALLY damaging to our industry, and leading trusting people in the complete opposite direction of where we need to be.  This article seems to be, basically, trying to justify the time wasted by hoteliers on Facebook, which never has any measurable results.  Pat yourselves on the back a bit more, guys.  Good luck with being burned on FB like we were on distribution and SEO.

 

(shakes fist at sky)

About Michael

One Response to “Facebook is not alive and well for hoteliers, and fluff articles like this are damaging to our industry”

  1. Susan Barry

    Ha. Hahahaa. This made me laugh out loud. I mostly agree with you – but more than that, I love the crotchety “get off my lawn” tone of voice. Haha.

    I help hotels with marketing, including Facebook, and I could not agree more on the false economy of caring about a like. If hotels want to be serious about Facebook, which may or may not be a good idea, they need to learn everything they possibly can about EdgeRank.

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