How To Use Snapchat To Boost Your Bookings

Social media should be an integral part of any modern hotelier’s marketing strategy, and Snapchat is one of the fastest growing methods to help reach out to a younger, social-media savvy clientele. But how can you best utilize this tool for gaining more bookings? Read on to find out more about the emerging trend of chatbots – and what it means for your hotel social media marketing.

Put simply, Snapchat is a social media messaging service. One of its most recognisable characteristics is that images, videos and messages are only stored temporarily before being permanently deleted from the system. One of the world’s best known social apps, Snapchat is primarily used as a means of sending fun photos and videos to friends, but in recent year’s businesses have begun to see the potential in the app and begun using it for more commercial purposes. Snapchat’s user base traditionally swings towards a young-demographic, though its popularity is quickly spreading to include 25-34 year old users and those over 35.

Snapchat profiles can be created for brands in just the same way as they can be created for individual users. Following this initial registration, messages can then be sent to users added as friends. Key features of Snapchat include:

•  Snaps – single images or videos which last only until viewed by their target audience.

•  Stories – a montage of photos or videos which are compiled by the user/brand and last for 24 hours.

The temporary nature of Snapchat might be initially off-putting for hoteliers and marketers alike, but instead of flinching from this factor, both should consider the possibilities this app presents for some truly inventive marketing opportunities. Companies have benefitted from incorporating Snapchat into their social media activities in unexpected ways, such as through the creation of temporary vouchers using the ‘Snaps’ function.

Pioneering hotel chains have recently begun capitalising upon geofilter campaigns. Geofilters are ‘branded’ filters which can be placed over other images, dependent upon location. For instance, you could create a geofilter branded with your hotel name, allowing your customers to share images of their great holiday with their own Snapchat following. Return on investment for geofilters could be monitored simply in terms of brand awareness, by tracking the number of customers using your geofilters – and the number of impressions generated by each assigned geofilter.

Snapchat offers no immediately visible metrics of measuring the success or failure of this component of your hotel social media marketing efforts. Whilst still undeniably appealing to the ‘social’ element of social media, by keeping everything to a temporary accessibility, users are encouraged to continuously provide content which appeal – without the perceived pressure of that content forever lingering in the online arena. This provides hoteliers with a great opportunity to tell potential visitors about their venue from a different, and more personalised, perspective. This in turn encourages customers to keep your brand top of mind when selecting a future hotel stay – without having bombarded visitors with obvious advertising.