How to organise your social media team to deliver sound results

It doesn’t come as a surprise to find that established companies have become more organised with their social media strategy and as a result are reaping bigger rewards. EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta hears how

A competent social media team is indispensable today and can have a number of real implications such as improving the social health of a business or enhancing online conversion rate across the distribution mix. Indeed social media teams now have a bigger mandate and more crucial role than ever. What is increasingly vital is that the team coordinates with other departments. Take the case of social media and revenue management teams working together to improve revenue per available room. In fact, a revenue manager can no longer overlook the perception of value created by user generated content (UGC).

Importantly, this impacts the pricing strategy. From a tactical point of view, the RM team must keenly assess the potential to hike prices if the product value perception based on UGC is high. On the contrary, if the product value perception based on user-generated content is low then a different pricing strategy will be necessary.

The social media team is a very critical part of any hotel company, says Ankur Randev, vice president - revenue and distribution at Highgate Hotels. It impacts the business in two main ways.

·          Conversion: The scope of social media today goes beyond Twitter, Facebook et al; it touches upon user generated content, picture reviews, blogs and other areas which directly impact the hotels overall conversions on any channel.

·          Social Health: Randev says this team is responsible for the social health of any hotel company. Social media tracks all reviews and responses while maintaining a running trend list of positive and negative reviews. Furthermore, social media professionals undertake property sentiment analysis. It echoes guest feedback for management actions. “Social media is the property breaking news channel,” he says.

An integrated approach

So how can travel entities make social media organised and more accountable? At Best Western, for instance, when it comes to Facebook, the group utilises an integrated approach to measuring and executing the brand’s social media initiatives.

“Each week, our internal and external social teams evaluate the performance of all the brand’s ongoing social messages. This regular specialised attention helps ensure that each programme is performing and resonating with audiences to its fullest potential,” says Karmela Gaffney - managing director, marketing and e-commerce, Best Western International.

Beyond weekly assessments, the team utilises quarterly ‘socialnomics’ data to report fan behaviour and engagement. Socialnomics is essentially the measurement of social data and analytics.

“The deep data dives provide us a very detailed measure of our social metrics- including ratings on fan sentiment, competitive analysis, page engagement, and content performance. By combining these weekly and quarterly analysis tactics, we get a comprehensive picture of how all the brand’s ongoing social initiatives are performing,” says Gaffney.

Coordinated thinking

Gaffney outlines the routine tasks that the team works on internally and externally:

-          The Best Western e-commerce team works very closely with customer care and other internal resources, including a robust agency network, to execute their social strategy and help continue to deliver on Best Western’s brand promise of ‘Stay with people who care’, says Gaffney.

-          Internal to Best Western, the e-commerce team manages and runs social efforts in conjunction with a dedicated social agency on a day-to-day basis. This includes building content, managing and responding to feedback, and facilitating customer conversations. These day-to-day interactions keep an open line of communication between Best Western and their customers and often serve as the first line of customer service for many Best Western guests, says Gaffney.

-          As various promotions, contests, or messaging are developed, the e-commerce team expands the network to include the customer care, creative and communication departments, as well as their respective agencies. This expanded network helps ensure that all social media efforts are aligned with broader brand priorities. 

“Having a fully integrated team also means social is never left on an island – which can happen with other brands – and as a result social content is consistent and truly serves the community the brand has built on social channels,” says Gaffney.

Today the social media department is well equipped to handle questions and feedback of travellers during the different stages of their journey.

For instance, as Piper Stevens, director of social media, Loews Hotels & Resorts, explained recently, guests that are still on the property are more likely to take to Twitter and Facebook to ask questions or site an issue, whereas TripAdvisor reviews mainly reflect post stay impressions. For TripAdvisor, it is likely that thoughtful review responses from management are crafted and these generally address concerns or feedback travellers intend to share pertaining to their stay. 

Another notable difference is that the shelf life of guest comments on Twitter or Facebook is relatively short in comparison to a TripAdvisor review, which could have a direct impact on a hotel’s business for a longer period. With TripAdvisor, one can focus on thoughtful review responses from management that directly address any issues the guest had with their stay. Teams recognise how critical TripAdvisor is these days to driving conversion and confidence.

So social media teams have made considerable progress, be it for strengthening their significance in a entity’s structure or being in control of the situation that might emerge owing to action or feedback on any social channel. 

 

Leading travel brands including Scandinavian Airlines, trivago, Aer Lingus and citizenM will be discussing this topic in-depth at EyeforTravel's upcoming Online Marketing, Mobile & Social Media in Travel summit taking place in Amsterdam, 24-25 October.

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