Look around you the next time you’re out in public and I can guarantee that you’ll see lots of people staring at the ubiquitous blue borders of Facebook, endless scrolling on Instagram, blurred texting thumbs flying across keypads, or the taletell yellow glow of Snapchat beaming from their smartphones. Why hospitality brands are now focusing their efforts on engaging with Millennials on mobile and social media is obvious since according to the New York Times, “The total of millennials — those born from 1981 to 1997 — will reach 75.3 million, overtaking baby boomers (1946 to 1964) as the United States’ largest living generation,” and that’s how they communicate with each other.
If you also pay attention to the mobile and social media campaigns many hospitality brands are running, what’s not obvious is how to effectively engage those Millennials over the long term and build authentic brand affinity. There is way too much “me too” marketing, wedging mismatched tactics on new platforms, and chasing Facebook likes going on that feeds the ego but doesn’t result in real ROI or positive engagement. Let’s focus on three actionable things you can do right now to be among the best and stand out among your competition:
1. Don’t treat Millennials like a homogenous mass of smartphone owners who want to engage with your ad or Facebook post. Posting pretty pictures and motivational quotes all day without a solid marketing strategy and digital sales funnel behind it might bring in short term likes but quickly becomes forgettable noise since all of your competitors are doing the same.
Instead use a content marketing, measurement, and business framework to drive your customized content strategy segmented by the stages of consideration/buying your prospects are in and then use Facebook Dark Posts to get that content in front of the right people at the right time based on their actual interests and behaviors.
If you’re only creating campaigns that are geared toward people who want to buy now, you’re missing out on engaging two-thirds of the people who might participate in your community and refer their family and friends in the future. If done well, those people who aren’t ready to buy now will still engage in small micro conversions such as joining an email list, texting to receive a digital coupon, sharing your event, or commenting on your social posts that will gradually move them through your sales funnel.
2. Community management is critical on social media. If you don’t proactively manage and participate in the community you’re building, then you’ll end up with digital ghost towns that will actually do more harm for your brand than good and waste a lot of resources in the process.
What I see happening too often is one or two social media managers on a hotel’s marketing team are assigned to handle everything from content creation, commenting, ad management, analytics, PR and reputation management across many different platforms and websites. They get overwhelmed trying to keep up with it all and end up taking short cuts like automating the same post across all platforms, using generic auto responses, or starting but neglecting many different social accounts to keep themselves from burning out. Think of it as being at a dinner party where the host sends a robot in their place that only responds to automated commands and spends the rest of the time lecturing everyone with variations of the same anecdote.
Millennials are craving amazing experiences they can brag to their friends about and they won’t stick around for boring parties or tired hosts. Empower your social media team with great personal and local stories from front line staff, sales, HR, leadership, and community management partners beyond the usual marketing support. A great host will use those stories to facilitate amazing and helpful experiences between community members and that will keep people coming back for more.
3. Once you’ve laid a solid foundation based on the right frameworks, targeted data, and genuine human interactions, the next step is to really digest and master the experiences your community values. Much has already been written about using social media as a customer service oriented listening tool, but the explosion of visual data over the past few years is creating unprecedented opportunities for those who know where to look.
Location-based social media tools like Ground Signal or WeLink helps you analyze all of the public social pictures guests are posting on your property, the surrounding area, or even competitor’s properties so you can identify real world trends. What physical locations are most of the selfies being taken at? How can you improve those spaces? What are the exciting things they and their friends commenting on when bragging about being at your property? Who are the social influencers nearby right now who might be incentivized to swing by your restaurant for some great food and drinks? How can you leverage all that visual and contextual data to deliver a better experience and amplify word of mouth marketing? The community who becomes synonymous with making it simpler and easier for members to get what they want and interact with each other will win by a large margin over their competitors who force their brand in between guests and their desired outcomes.
Millennials are actively using their mobile devices and social media as tools to find the next exciting experience and their B.S. detectors are set on high alert. They want you understand their unique needs and if you genuinely do they will be more than happy to invite their friends and family to your party.
Contributed by John Lucchetti, Oniracom, Santa Barbara, California