How important is it to have a review site strategy? Let’s take the hotel industry for example. Many hotels average 500 reviews each year. Word-of-mouth advertising is really the law these day with tourism marketing. For hotels, social media is a great megaphone to harness positive reviews and act or recover on those that may not be as flattering. An Infographic by Olery HQ reveals that 81% of travelers find reviews important, 46% of travelers post hotel reviews, and 49% of travelers won’t even book a property without seeing the reviews first.
So, with all of that in mind, we highly encourage our clients to pay close attention to their reviews and social media channels. We recommend looking for opportunities to engage with customers and provide 5-star customer service always and in all ways. Here’s a little strategy outline to get you started:
Review Site Strategy
Goal
Promote excellent customer service and encourage reviews on social media.
Strategy
Monitor and respond appropriately to all relevant conversations regarding service, and elicit more reviews via Calls to Action in post content.
Tactics
- Monitoring and Responding in real time is crucial to the customer service aspect of social media. Users expect a timely response and appreciate engagement. Reply with a last touch, to express gratitude that they chose you!
- By monitoring, seek out patrons of your business and encourage them to review their experience.
- Include links to your brand’s Review Sites as a content focus each month across social media channels.
Lagniappe:
- “In-store” or offline marketing is also a great way to communicate your social media presence. Printed communications asking patrons to Fan and Follow your brand or business on social media, as well as post photos with a branded hashtag encourage patrons to engage and share their experience.
- Along with building your online community with Fans and Followers, it is important to cultivate strong reviews on Yelp and Trip Advisor. Offline, print pieces, such as pillow cards, are great ways to solicit reviews.
- Utilize your staff as review site ambassadors and create a social media protocol for employees. Empowering employees to encourage engagement with patrons is a great way to cultivate your company’s online culture.
Real-life Results
Managing a hotel’s online marketing presence is no small task, but it’s always rewarding when the Facebook user turns into a guest in just a few clicks!
This happened for our client, International House Hotel. A Facebook user commented to the IHH Page regarding the fact that the hotel was booked during the dates she and her friends wished to stay. The comment asked specifically if there was anything the hotel could do to help.
Through channel monitoring and brand reputation management, FSC was able to reach out to the user and resolve the situation. With close communication to the client and consistent monitoring and reputation management on the free social media channel, International House Hotel received a $500 booking on their website from the Facebook user.
On top of that, she gave a glowing review of her stay and is now one of the channel’s biggest brand advocated, consistently engaging with Page content.
Looking for a custom Review Site Strategy for your own business? FSC Interactive would love to help!
Email us at Matt@FSCInteractive.com to learn more.