Top 10 Social Tips to Capitalize this Holiday Season

Contributed by:
Zulema Romero, Director of Client Services
Cassie Vignieri, eStrategist

The holidays are a great opportunity to engage with potential customers and increase brand awareness. Social media channels provide excellent tools to establish your business as a local authority and to have a presence in common holiday activities and holiday related searches. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Socialize about local holiday events in the area and those taking place at your hotel. Post on your blog, Facebook Event Calendar, and Twitter account. You can talk about tree lighting ceremonies, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas parades and holiday parties.  This is content that people typically like to share with others via social channels which will enable you to reach a wider audience.
2. Take pictures of on-site holiday events and post them to your Flickr account using optimized titles.  This will help your Flickr account gain exposure via image search. You can also post pictures from last year ahead of time to build anticipation.
3. Change your profile picture to something related to the holiday season to show your enthusiasm and spirit. Be sure to keep the contact information on the photo so users can easily access this information at a glance.
4. Promote your holiday packages and family holiday travel promotions. Post these packages on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Places and link back to your promotional landing page.  This will increase qualified traffic to the website and increase conversion.
5. Add a check-in special to Facebook for visitors arriving for Thanksgiving travel. This gives travelers an incentive to follow the hotel and look them up on their next visit. It will help increase returning guests.  This also encourages your guests to check-in, spreading your brand messaging to their newsfeeds, and increasing your reach during a busy holiday season.
6. For hotels with popular restaurants, post holiday dish recipes and promote your holiday dinner packages. Utilize your blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. You can upload photos of the holiday dish to Flickr.  This increases public engagement and also gives you exposure via image search.
7. Make holiday how-to videos and upload them to Youtube to improve your presence in video search. Be sure to optimize your video to gain the most exposure through the SERP’s.  Some ideas:
   • Head chef can explain how to cook holiday dishes,
   • Bartender can create a holiday drink and share instructions,
   • Food and beverage manager can demonstrate how to fold a fancy napkin,
   • Concierge can explain the 5 most desirable things to do during the holidays in your area,
   • Valet can explain how to get around town in holiday traffic.
8. Have a holiday contest and promote it via blog and social channels to improve user interaction and engagement. Have the public submit images for best outdoor display, best gingerbread houses, or best Christmas tree. As users comment on photos submitted by others, you can jump into the conversation and use it as an opportunity to connect with your fans.
9. Create a holiday related special for your mayor on Foursquare. By making the special extremely enticing, you can promote users to “compete” with each other for the mayor position.  A user has to check in to your Foursquare profile several times to become Mayor.
10. Partner with local malls, popular shopping centers, and holiday organizations with online presence and leverage their fans by tagging them and posting on their wall. By tagging the major shopping outlets on Twitter and Facebook, you will introduce your product to people looking for Black Friday deals. Craft your messages in a way that is beneficial to your business and the business you are tagging. For example, you can promote your shopping package and highlight your shuttle service to and from the mall.

Holiday search traffic is there for the taking! Follow a few of these tips and increase qualified traffic, improve engagement, increase conversion, and spread the Holiday cheer.