The majority of businesses today are aware of the revolution that has swept through marketing over the past decade with the rise of social media, and most have taken steps to set up profiles on the best-known sites like Facebook and Twitter. But very few companies are fully leveraging the potential of user-generated content to engage customers and promote their brands.
In the hospitality industry, the power of user-generated content is particularly strong, as it has the potential to offer an independent insight to hotels and restaurants that are highly prized by consumers when making a purchasing decision. So, is your marketing team seizing this opportunity?
Benefits of User-Generated Content
User-generated content has several key benefits when used effectively, including:
- Build engagement – Giving fans and customers an opportunity to be featured on your social media pages is a great way to build engagement, and helps customers to feel more connected to your business
- Promote to a wider audience – By encouraging customers to comment on social media, this enables you to market to their friends at no extra cost. This might not be a huge audience, but this form of social influencing makes them far more likely to take notice.
- Generate buzz – Getting exposure to a wider audience helps to generate buzz and noise around your brand, even stimulating the potential for mentions in other media outlets and offline.
Driving the Conversation
Receiving high volumes of user-generated content is not something that you can just expect to happen organically, your digital marketing has to make sure you drive the conversation. You can do this in a number of ways including:
- Proactive posting – Regularly posting content and asking questions of your audience
- Reactive and responsive – Respond to people promptly, building genuine conversations
- Connecting – Connecting to other relevant influencers and personalities enables you to leverage their platform
- Invite others to join in – By sharing the Tweets or Facebook posts on your website and in your email campaigns you can encourage others to become part of the conversation.
Following these steps will help to raise the profile of your hotel or restaurant on social media and drive traffic to your site which will ultimately translate to increased booking.
Join the Conversation with AsOne
At AsOne we’ve worked with a wide range of companies in the hospitality industry to help them understand and realise the full potential of user-generated content, proactively engaging their customers and playing an active part in the conversation.
If you have any questions about how to leverage user-generated content to grow your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
For companies based in the North East, we’re proud to support the North East Business Support Fund, which entitles eligible businesses to up to 40% off their first order.
