Hospitality Social Media Marketing News – August 7, 2019 Issue
As we’ve been moving into August, social platforms have really been maintaining their always-fast pace when it comes to releasing new updates to improve the experience. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen a few key updates that could impact how hotels, resorts, and other hospitality businesses are marketing on social.
We’re going to look at each one, but first, let’s take a look at some key statistics that you need to know about social in 2019.
Infographic From Oberlo Demonstrates The Value of Social
Oberlo recently created an infographic that detailed the 10 most important social media statistics marketers need to know in 2019. This, of course, includes marketers who work in the hospitality industry, too.
These 10 statistics are:
● There are 3.2 billion daily active social media users, making up around 42% of the population
● 68% of adults report that they’re Facebook users, keeping Facebook as the market leader
● Millennials are the heaviest social media users (90.4%), followed by Gen X (77.5%) and then Baby Boomers (48.2%)
● Each user spends an average of two hours and twenty-two minutes per day on the various networks
● 73% of marketers believe that social marketing has been “somewhat effective” or “very effective”
● 54% of social media users are researching products on various platforms
● 71% of consumers who had a positive social experience are likely to recommend the brand to friends and family
● 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations to make purchase decisions
● Daily Active Stories users increased to 500 million in early 2019.
● 91% of social media users are accessing the platforms on mobile, and almost 80% of all social time happens on mobile devices.
Facebook Changes Mobile Aspect Ratios
Starting on August 19th, mobile Page posts and ad campaigns are going to look a little different. The new content will be much more condensed, showing only three lines of text instead of seven before displaying a “see more” prompt, and the aspect ratios for visuals will shift to 4:5 from their previous 2:3. Any media taller than the 4:5 aspect ratio will be hidden on mobile.
What This Means for Hotels and Resorts:
It’s more important than ever to adapt to this new, condensed look. If not, key portions of your post text may be hidden underneath the “see more” prompt and your media could be hidden all together. Adapt quickly, and remember to always grab users’ attention and let them know what’s in it for them right off the bat.
If you have any ad campaigns currently running with media outside of this aspect ratio, change it now.
Facebook Announces Cryptocurrency Plans
About a month ago, Facebook announced that they had plans to release their own cryptocurrency (sort of), called “Libra.” The cryptocurrency will actually be coming from the Libra Association, which Facebook founded along with several other massive companies like Master Card and PayPal, and it’s supposedly about making it easier for people to send money to each other online.
Right now, we don’t know much more about Facebook Libra, including Facebook’s long-term plans with the digital currency, but you can read a great breakdown on the topic here.
What This Means for Hotels and Resorts:
For the time being, we’re not sure exactly what this will mean for hotels and resorts. There’s a good chance that eventually, this cryptocurrency could be used on-platform when users are trying to book reservations or services directly on social. Right now, we just don’t know more, but this is big news, so we’ll update you with new information as it comes out.
Twitter Rolls Out Broadcast Scheduling Feature
Twitter has just released a new broadcast scheduling feature in their Media Studio, which allows soon-to-be broadcasters to get everything synced up before they go live. When using this new feature, you can also give users a wider time frame to discover your content, sharing a link to what will become the live broadcast at the designated start time.
What This Means for Hotels and Resorts:
Live video is becoming increasingly popular on Twitter, offering a valuable opportunity for brands in the hospitality industry to connect with more guests. The scheduling feature will make it much easier for your team so that no one is left scrambling at the last minute, but its ability to give you more visibility is the biggest advantage. If you’re going live on Twitter, try to make sure you schedule it moving forward.
YouTube Automates Comment Moderation
YouTube has recently made a few updates to streamline the comment moderation process, automatically flagging inappropriate comments and instantly holding them for your review. This is all done based on the platform’s algorithm, and according to YouTube, has resulted in a 75% drop in comment flags for the channels using the feature during its testing phase.
This moderation feature is available globally, but only works on comments written in the following languages:
● English
● Spanish
● Russian
● Portuguese
● Korean
● French
● Arabic
● German
● Japanese
● Turkish
● Vietnamese
● Thai
● Indonesian
What This Means for Hotels and Resorts:
Hotels and resorts utilizing YouTube to connect with potential guests will almost certainly appreciate this news. We’d all much rather have YouTube flagging the bulk of inappropriate comments instead of trying to catch them all ourselves or risking potential guests being turned off if they spot the comments first. This is easy to turn on and keep in mind that if a flagged comment turns out to be fine, you can always approve it right away.
Hospitality Social Media News is brought to you by Lodging Interactive, a full-service digital marketing and social media engagement and reputation management agency exclusively servicing the hospitality industry. Through its web design and search optimization division as well as its CoMMingle Social Media Division, Lodging Interactive provides effective Internet marketing services to hundreds of branded and independent properties as well as management companies, restaurants and spas. For more information:
