Resorts derive benefit from these top five sites: Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+. Almost every resort is taking advantage of resort marketing.
#1 Pinterest
We will start with Pinterest first. You might be asking, “How will this help me” or even “WHAT IS IT?!” Well, Pinterest is a social media site that allows you to share pictures with people. You pin things you find interesting to separate boards, grouped by topic. Think of Pinterest as digital scrapbooking. Each board is dedicated to a specific topic or theme, and each pin is relevant to that topic. How is this going to benefit you? When your visitors begin their search, they are more than likely going to look online. They probably want to see what your resort looks like beforehand and this is where you’re the visual aspect of Pinterest can be beyond useful to you and everyone else. When hosting events or documenting the property, consider take pictures and posting them for others to see. This method not only tells visitors what you have to offer, but show them as well in a memorable and appealing visual format.
#2 Facebook
Facebook does both, from telling everyone what you have to offer and what is happening on your grounds, to showing them as well. Facebook is one social media platform that a large percentage of all resorts tend to have a presence. It is also more than likely the number one reason that resort marketing has completely flourished. What can Facebook do for you? Well, for starters, they can put your name out there faster than anyone else. When done the right way your Facebook page can be a great starter tool to getting you the visitors you truly want staying at your luxurious resort.
#3 Twitter
Although most are pretty hesitant about this platform, it is truly a great tool for anyone! Twitter will help you converse with your guests in a faster environment. Since there is a 140 word count limitation it makes it okay to make the question and answer short and sweet and straight to the point. This will help you interact with everyone in a more sensible and quick environment.
#4 YouTube
You may know exactly where I am going with this or you may have absolutely no idea. YouTube has become a great place to share videos with everyone. Virtual Tours have become huge in the industry of resorts. A Virtual Tour is a short video that displays the entire room or area that you would like to showcase. YouTube can also be used to promote or record any events that you have happening at your resort. Most resorts use YouTube to upload a video roughly once a month.
#5 Google+
Used to maximize the resorts SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it’s really helpful to resorts to get your rankings up. You may ask how does being on this specific platform help get my rankings up? It’s truly the easiest and most obvious of answers that most people don’t pick up on. You are on the social media platform of Google, the largest search engine. That means, whatever happens on Google+ will only help your SEO because of the directly affiliation between the platform and the search engine. Being on Google+ will help more people view your website when they initially search. After they see your website, they might start searching you on other social media sites listed, and voila!–you just gained double the visitors you had the year before, all from using social media.
BONUS TIP!
After serving several clients in the resort industry, we would highly recommend virtual tours as a SUPER effective way of captivating your potential guests!
Nearly half of the resort industry is using social media as a revenue stream or are looking to do so . Now, how do you think resort marketing could affect your business?
