Facebook for the  Accommodation Industry

Sometimes the forest hides the trees…

On  a recent trip and stay at some Magnetic Island Accommodation, I actually took the time for a number of reasons, to take some photos of the Island on my stay.  I shared these with the resort I was staying at, mainly because I wanted to mark the occasion and secondly, because they had a facebook account that I was an admin on. (can’t hurt to boost some rankings for your place when you are on holidays there…)

Amazingly, the pictures and short, very short descriptions were picked up immediately by all my friends on facebook and the posts that I did outperformed previous posts on the resorts page by 85%.  I did another, and another and the same result.

People you know, like to share your holiday.  They do like to know where you are and what you are doing.  When you add a good holiday snap, and mention or share with the place you are staying, you inadvertently expose the property to a whole new class of people, and that’s advertising.

When you share a great pic, be it scenery, or surrounds, facilities, fun or food and entertainment, your friends lap it up.  Everyone looks forward to a new holiday.  Trip Advisor has been doing this for years in the written way, and I do believe that facebook is the new medium.

I expressed my opinion to the resort I was staying at that they should start a weekly competition for a prize, cash, car hire, a meal, almost anything of good value to a guest, to get them to like the resort and share a holiday snap of their stay.  The reach of every single guest doing this is massive, absolutely massive, and cheap, very very cheap.

Yes, I know, its one more thing for management to set up, do and manage, but, the exposure and costs far outweigh the rebuttals in my mind.  Got a property?  Have Guests?  Get them to share photos like this, and I think your marketing gets the best boost it will ever get.