Mr. Bifulco

Social Media & PR

Sofitel Social Media Secrets Revealed

Travel Spike offers Facebook/Twitter tips for hoteliers based on successful social media campaign

By Ryan Bifulco, Founder & CEO, Travel Spike

Let’s get a few things straight before we get going: there are no secrets to overnight success in social media unless you are a celebrity. It takes time and focus to make your hotel stand out in the social media realm. In this article we will share several social media secrets that can propel your property ahead of the competition. We have tested and proven these techniques from many years of experience within the hospitality industry and through our experimentation with new media. We will review the social media strategies our team developed for Sofitel Luxury Hotels - which effectively built hotel brand awareness, increased their hotel Facebook fans and took their Twitter followers from only 1,000 to over 28,000 high quality followers.

Here are some important pieces of advice we can offer:

Don’t trust a college kid with your social media program. Would you appoint a college kid to handle your TV commercial? Do you hire entry level people as your head chef or concierge? The answer is of course no, yet so many companies think that just because a person has a bunch of friends on Facebook that they should be managing a corporate brand in the social media arena. Social media is so critical and so public - just like your hotel’s homepage. It demands that you develop a comprehensive strategy before you send the first tweet or post your first photo on Facebook. We spent months developing and implementing the successful social media strategy for the 9 Sofitel Luxury Hotel properties across North America and here is a brief summary of what we learned along the way.

Appoint a social media coordinator

We first appointed a social media coordinator at each property to be the local eyes and ears and to act as a liaison with our Travel Spike social media team. This person can come from any department as long as they are comfortable working with many other departments within the hotel. You will want to get updates and information from your various departments including: weddings, events, marketing, sales, public relations, concierge and food & beverage.

Post Interesting Content Daily

Content is king, so make things interesting and make sure you have fresh content daily. Regular postings on your social media sites may include dinner specials, wine tastings, vacation packages and other promotions going on at your hotel. Maybe the spa has something to brag about or there is an exciting event taking place at the property. We Tweeted live from the celebrity gifting suite at the Sofitel in LA during the Golden Globes, so take advantage of major events. However, don’t only talk about your hotel. Go beyond your own property and tweet about things that are going on in your general town to broaden your reach.

Host a TweetUp

Consider hosting a TweetUp where you invite local Twitter followers to a happy hour or party at your hotel. This is a great way to merge the virtual social media world with the real brick and mortar world as some of your online followers come into the restaurant or visit the hotel. At Sofitel Miami we tweeted live from a TweetUp event plus projected the hotel’s Twitter page onto a large wall so everyone in attendance could connect in real time with what was happening online. We also provided complimentary food and drinks. Multiple attendees commented that it was the best TweetUp they attended, plus it allowed everyone to network with each other.

Allot A Budget & Time For Your Social Media Campaign

These days everyone is on Twitter and Facebook, so it is 10 times harder to get ahead than it was even a year ago. That is another reason that you need to pull out all the stops, dedicate a real budget to your campaign and approach social media in a serious manner. If you can afford to hire a professional, then do it. If you cannot then lower your expectations and at least invest in some training for whoever will be on the social media front line. Yes, I am using the term front line because at times it is a war zone out there and you need to keep up. You must respond in a timely fashion or you can do more damage than good. Answer your followers’ tweets within minutes or hours, rather than days on Twitter. On Facebook you can have a bit more time to respond but still need to check in daily if possible. People want to know they are being heard and they expect a response. They will tweet and post to their friends and followers with negative comments about your hotel if you do not address their concerns or respond to the credible posts. Our team communicates daily with our Sofitel counterparts and we pass along mission critical tweets or Facebook comments to Sofitel for immediate action. If a user has a concern, we want to be sure that the hotel or restaurant addresses it quickly and responds to the customer. We also have had weddings and events booked from leads that came in through social media. So remember these are not just transient bookings you might get from Twitter or Facebook.

Post More Than Once A Day

So how often should you be posting? Various reports have suggested that you need to tweet 20 to 40 times per day. That might not fit your property etc. but it translates into you need to post more than twice a day and you need to post every single day or at least each weekday.

Host a FAM Trip for your Social Media Content Manager

If you decide to hire an outside firm, make sure they are familiar with the property. Our team visited all nine of the Sofitel hotels across North America and they now better appreciate the service and style of the properties. Our staff has a solid knowledge of the hotel feel and surrounding area which gives us an edge.

Authenticity Rules

Be authentic. Social media is not a chance to ram corporate messages down a potential customer’s throat. Don’t just tweet something or post something simply because you heard that everyone was doing social media stuff these days. Engage the audience and have a real conversation just like you would in person. Sofitel has a certain style and elegance with a French twist. So we infuse those branding elements into the messages we post. We are also very careful not to just sell constantly to our social media fans, but instead we post engaging content that will address their needs and interests.

Sofitel has embraced these social media principles and as a result, is a social media leader in the hotel front. The leading online travel research firm, PhoCusWright, recently took notice and featured our Sofitel social media program as a case study in a new white paper report on social media best practices from hotels. Another firm, Klout.com, ranks how influential a hotel is on Twitter and we were honored to have two of the Sofitel properties included in one of the first top twenty most influential lists according to Klout scores for hundreds of hotels that were considered.

So you can see that quality social media takes time and strategy. It involves more than just the one person on property who seems to know the most about Facebook. It takes your entire property, restaurant, bar etc. to all participate and support the program to really get ahead and endure. With a sound strategy and a committed staff you can surpass most other hotels. Don’t let social media intimidate you and make sure you give it the attention and resources it deserves if you want to reap the full benefits.

Ryan Bifulco is an Internet and travel pioneer with over 15 years of travel and new media experience. An expert on interactive travel, destination marketing, and tourism, Mr. Bifulco has been featured on Business Talk Radio's Travel Show, ABC Radio, NY Times, and USA Today. Mr. Bifulco launched the first ever luxury travel podcast in January of 2006 called journeyPod. He founded and leads Travel Spike, an interactive company offering custom marketing and technology solutions exclusively to the travel sector. Mr. Bifulco and the team at Travel Spike provide digital strategy, dynamic packaging booking engines, and online travel marketing to over 1500 travel clients. Mr. Bifulco can be contacted at Extended Bio...

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