Social media is rising so rapidly in importance to the overall hospitality landscape that many hotels and even broader chains are racing to keep up. For many, interacting with guests via social media presents a new and undefined demand, and a delicate one, at that.
According to Benji Greenberg, founder and CEO of Chicago social media consultancy BCV, focal points for hotels handling social media in-house include:
1. Go ‘Military’
BG: It’s literally a communication protocol from the top down for every scenario. Everyone knows, ‘If these things happen, we’re going to go to these departments.’
2. Type carefully
BG: If you empower employees to post on social, you need to make sure you always have a second set of eyes on everything because there are scenarios where people are disgruntled and they posted, and it’s a mess.
3. Privacy rules
BG: Sometimes we see someone asking for private information in a public channel, like ‘What room are you in?’ Things like that should never, ever be answered in a place where anybody can see it. Always move conversations to a private medium.
4. Create content
BG: There’s always somebody in each department who’s seeing different angles of the hotel, who’s able to tell that story in a unique way. Having people onboard saying, ‘Ok, I’ll take photos and send them to you when I find something interesting or relevant,’ helps keep things moving.
5. Be selective
BG: Never post more than once a day per channel. I’d say three to five main messages on each channel is plenty a week.