The visualization of services can be achieved through the dissemination of social media and comments

Absrtact: Social marketing is changing the marketing strategy and means of many industries, especially for the service industries such as tourist hotels. The user has more say to the service, the tangible of the service can be realized through the communication of social media and the comment. SAS and Bingo

Social marketing is changing the marketing strategies and tools of many industries, especially for tourist hotels and other service industries.

The user has more say to the service, the tangible of the service can be realized through the communication of social media and the comment. A study by SAS and the University of Pennsylvania points out that user reviews have the greatest impact on hotel consumers ' purchasing decisions, and that the presence of UGC clearly allows us to move from a price-transparent environment to a value-transparent environment, if the hotel is to maintain its competitive edge, The hoteliers must integrate the content into their strategy and strategic decision-making processes. Therefore, how to make use of large data to understand what consumers care about, and to think how to provide their unique value to the hotel service industry brand to create a very challenging thing.

Felicia Yukich, who engages in social media marketing at Four seasons, said: "We believe that the brand that wins in the big data age must be created with his customers." Four Seasons Hotel has been a consumer-centric corporate culture allows companies to quickly adapt to the consumer-led communication system. "Four Seasons Hotel as a world luxury chain hotel group, through the digital channel storytelling and the use of integrated content strategy to communicate with users, so that they immersed in the brand experience." Through four Seasons Hotels How to use social media marketing, we explore how to play the role of social media in the hospitality industry, how to adopt strategies to establish a superior brand.

The position of social marketing in brand strategy

Netaffinity predicts the trend of 2014 hotel marketing, social media to increase traffic is a major trend, hotel marketing should transfer more resources to the online and mobile end, so that passengers in front of the line and after the row are involved in the social network, and location-based services, multi-screen, Video interaction has also become a few obvious trends.

The Four Seasons Hotel has also made a lot of attempts and marketing efforts on social media platforms.

For example, a virtual wine tasting on Twitter, a timely interactive dialogue with fans on Facebook, active participation in Foursquare and Gowalla app apps, and posting information on YouTube to make the Four Seasons Hotel an important search word. This is all four Seasons hotels in social media attempts, based on hotel marketing in social media attention.

Digital media platform accounted for the Four Seasons Hotel brand promotion efforts of 50%, to facilitate interaction with consumers, cultivate consumer loyalty. Four Seasons Hotel Group president and CEO Taylor: "Our investment in digital marketing is more than 50% of total marketing expenditure." Every hotel has a social media manager. Some hotels are more than one. Their job is not just to answer guest complaints, but to communicate with clients about what they are interested in. Sometimes it's possible to talk to us in social media about the guests in the upstairs room. They used to call the front desk directly, and now they are sending Twitter messages (tweet) or blogging. Where they are, our services have to follow. ”

Marketing efforts coupled with high-level strategic focus on allowing the Four Seasons hotel to communicate with consumers in real time, expand their scope and manner of service, and in the global chain hotels, this social marketing to promote the brand strategy is also non-discriminatory, to adapt to the localization, so that the Four Seasons Hotel quickly develop its online fans, in the industry preemptive. Hotel Marketing in the social media although the strategy is different, but the strategic consensus is the entire enterprise, rather than a person or a department, must be involved in the management of social media.

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Second, professional team operation and management social platform

Since 2009, the Four Seasons Hotel Group has begun to build its brand on social media platforms. It was also in 2009 that consumers began to expect brands to interact with each other at any time within 24 hours of the day. Therefore, the Four Seasons Hotel has a specialized department to operate the social platform, manages the content, transmits the content to all digital dissemination channel. At present, the Four Seasons Hotel in the mainstream social platforms have opened their own accounts, and put enough resources to interact with consumers. For example, facebook,youtube,twitter,lbs, Tumblr, Blogs&microsites, Google + and Loko seasons Magazine. These social platforms allow the Four Seasons hotel to interact with and understand the consumer at any time.

Four Seasons Hotel captures the core of the success of social media platforms: authenticity, participation.

"It's not simply a question of creating Twitter accounts or Facebook pages: Social media channels rely on immediacy, participation and real response," says Elizabeth Pizzinato, senior vice president of digital marketing. So enterprises are prepared to face the additional management pressures associated with allocating critical resources to social channels. "A professional Department for platform operations, management of user ratings and reviews, through data analysis, improve online reputation and profitability, particularly important for luxury hotels."

Therefore, the Four Seasons Hotel can provide consumers with personalized service premise is to pay attention to the user on the social platform to send information, through different channels to collect customer feedback information, continuous dialogue with consumers, explore their needs, capture industry trends and consumer behavior trends, optimize online reputation and reviews.

Extended reading: Luxury Hotels & Social Media:four seasons Hotels and Resorts

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Three, the very effective content strategy

Four Seasons Hotel Group can provide highly customized services and its content strategy is complementary.

The specialized Operation department listens to the consumer's voice through the content, puts it into action, provides the consumer the better experience. Four Seasons Hotel The content strategy of the social platform is divided into two parts, one is the user generated content, the other is the online and offline channels to provide a fascinating experience, consumers will be in different activities with the brand interaction. For example, the Four Seasons Hotel group wedding Planning project, the creation of a dedicated Twitter and Pinterest account to provide consumers with professional advice from hotel staff and weddings at the Four Seasons Hotel to share the story, in an interactive way to provide consumers with an integrated and professional experience.

For example, the 2013-year Four Seasons Hotel Maxine Tour of the Manhattan Quiz event, which is a program for orders from the business community, the launch of the family weekend travel activities. It enables the marketing of all social platforms for this event, including Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram and Vine. With photos and customized photos and personalized services for each family, guests staying at the hotel will have the opportunity to communicate with Maxine. This event helps the Four Seasons Hotel to find a way to locate the target customer base through social media, and make the quiz activity very attractive. The activity achieved the desired business effect: The hotel's income over the weekend increased 5%,facebook's number of fans and the number of 10%,twitter fans increased by 19%. (Extension: What are the key points of social media marketing in tourism)

At the same time, in social media marketing, the Four Seasons Hotel is also focused on "building their visual assets", they have their content in new platforms (such as Instagram and Tumblr) to give new uses. The hospitality and service industry in the restaurant and nightlife of the "superstar" to work together can bring a memorable experience for customers. Felicia Yukich said: "The content we provide is interesting and relevant, and such interactivity brings us a significant return." The most effective content is our multimedia content, for example, on YouTube, our total amount of browsing reached 280,000, compared to this time last year, the amount of attention increased by 30%, these multimedia content can let consumers see our products, better understanding of the Four Seasons Hotel service experience. ”

Of course, as the luxury of the Four Seasons Hotel group, all this is inseparable from its personalized service, treat people like their own laws and innovative brand culture, and can provide perfect sleep, pure unique local experience, so that guests can recuperate. This is the key to communicating with users through social media storytelling and using integrated content strategies to communicate this experience to consumers so that they can immerse themselves in the brand experience. As Pizzinato said, "hotel companies must see themselves as content, media and publishing companies." ”