[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″]Top Tips for Improving Your Venue’s Social Media Presence

Each month, 1.86 billion people actively use Facebook and 600 million people actively use Instagram. That’s a lot of people, and these figures haven’t even considered how many people are using other popular social channels, such as Twitter, Pinterest and Linkedin.

Whether you’re running a bar, restaurant, café, bakery, or even a hotel, a good social media strategy will help you drum up extra business, while also ensuring your business is gaining a significant amount of brand awareness, which over time, can turn into tangible sales results.

Which Social Channels are Your Customers Frequenting?

Is your target market a Facebook crowd, or are they all for Instagram? There’s no point going all out on a massive Facebook campaign if most of the people you’re trying to speak to are on Instagram, and vice versa. To ensure you’re getting the best return on investment possible, you want your content to be landing in the right people’s hands.

Start of by talking to your customers, you could run an online survey, or you could ask them directly when they visit your establishment. Alternatively, enlist professional help. This could be in the form of a marketing manager, or seeking advice from a consultant.

You should also try to find out if your customers are tablet and mobile users, or more inclined to consume content on a desktop. This might seem like insignificant information, but it should influence the type of content you share. For instance, a lot of images and videos will need to be optimised for small screen viewing.

What are Your Competitors Doing on Social Media?

If you’re running an ice cream shop, check out the social media pages of other ice cream shops. What are they posting, and what seems to get the highest level of engagement (likes/comments/shares). Use their pages as a source of inspiration, but also try to make sure your content stands out against theirs.

Keep in Contact with Your Customers

Ideally, when your audience base interacts with your hospitality business on social media directly, you should respond as soon as possible. Whether they’ve come to rant or rave, it’s imperative you respond in a friendly, yet professional manner and always address them by name – psychologically speaking people love this! – it’s also more personalised, and will show you care!

Integrate Your Social Accounts with Your Overall Marketing Plan

Always be on the lookout for new ways to use social media to help support your other business and marketing activities. Whether you’re running an in-venue promotion, an event, or even a recruitment drive, share this across your social media channels.

Keep Up-to-date with the Latest Trends

Running a Facebook page for a hospitality business may seem like a quick task, however, it takes time to find the best possible content, and it’s important your social media manager understands the ins and outs of your chosen platforms. Invest in training, and always keep up-to-date with the latest trends, so you can continue posting innovative content that gets you a better click rate and more post engagement.

Track Your Results  

Keep track of how many followers you have and which posts are getting the most attention. Also track your click through rate (how many people land on your website through Facebook etc), so you can gage the effectiveness of any specific campaigns or posts that you have been sharing.

Social media is one of the cheapest, most effective ways to market your hospitality business, so if you’re not already taking advantage of these multi-faceted platforms, now’s the time to start![/vc_column][/vc_row]