Hotel Bloom! in Brussels won HOTELS’ 2014 Social Hotel Award for Best Facebook Page, Property.
For the third straight year, HOTELS is honoring the best of social media in the hotel industry with the Social Hotel Awards. The awards are presented in seven categories ranging from Best Facebook Page to Best Digital Video Campaign, and for each category, both a brand and a property are honored. In 2014, HOTELS received more than 250 global entries for the awards, which were chosen by a panel of social media experts and the staff editors of HOTELS.
Hotel Bloom! employs a brand manager supported by a marketing-focused trainee to manage its Facebook fan page, which has a booking tab to offer fans discounts and free upgrades. The hotel engages with venues and events that are aiming for its target audience of creative types ages 25 to 34. The hotel utilizes private messaging to engage potential guests and cross-promotes its Twitter account and Instagram content on the Facebook page.
Since January the hotel has been working with an online marketing consultant to improve its organic reach on Facebook in light of the Edgerank algorithm. To boost its reach, the hotel spends approximately €300 (US$397) a month using Facebook’s Boosted Posts. Guests’ browsers surfing the hotel’s free Wi-Fi network automatically open to the Facebook page.
The Facebook page is one of the hotel website’s top five traffic-referral sources, boosting bookings.
For a complete list of the 2014 winners as well as a rundown of the judges, see the October issue of HOTELS.