Social Media All About Language, Hotel Exec Says

The many avenues of social media have revolutionized hotel marketing tactics, but successful social media marketing is less about the conduit than about the messaging itself.

That is the conclusion of Antonio Batanero, senior director distribution and digital marketing for Sol Meliá Hotels & Resorts in the Americas, who tells EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta that successful social media marketing mimics the way consumers interact with their own friends and family. He sees social media as word-of-mouth marketing taken to the masses and modernized.

Batanero believes that marketing messages resonate best when companies speak with the same language as the targeted consumer. It's one of those things that you instinctively know but maybe hadn't thought of in exactly that framework. But it's no secret that those companies that have had the most success with social media have been those that use a casual, conversational, even colloquial voice, throwing off the binds of corporatespeak in favor of something more approachable to the average Joe.

Of course, if you're not trying to sway the average Joe—if you're aiming squarely at stuffy traditionalists—then your online voice should reflect that instead. Although, if you're trying to reach stuffy traditionalists, then maybe you're wasting your time on Twitter anyway.

Wisely, Sol Meliá understands that the ROI of social media cannot be measured strictly in dollar figures, instead judging success based on factors like comment volume and ratio of positive to negative feedback. None of that matters, though, unless the consumer interaction is truly a two-way street, taking those comments and turning them into a useful conversation.

"ROI must also be measured by the actions that you take based on customers’ feedback. In other words, if all your fans/followers are giving you tons of feedback on a specific subject of your hotel but you do not do anything to change that in the property, then ROI is extremely negative," Batanero says. "If you show people that you care about their suggestions and you are willing to implement them, then… ROI is incalculable."

Batanero lauds those companies that have instituted full-time social media overseers, saying "every company should have one." I don't agree with that entirely; I would say that every large company should have one, but for smaller hotel groups, there's no reason social media can't be done by people already on staff, in addition to their other duties. I agree that every company should have a social media presence of some sort, even if it's just keeping tabs on TripAdvisor comments a couple times a week.

Which is a nice excuse for me to link to one of the last articles I wrote for HOTELS, "Social Media On A Shoestring Budget."