Instagram’s focus on visuals gives you plenty of opportunities to show off your hotel, wow potential guests and drive bookings– ready to get your Instagram game up to scratch? We’ve created a quick checklist to help you out.
Instagram is, in many ways, the ideal social platform for hotel marketing. Instagram is a place where visuals rule and distractions are kept to a minimal. Instagram is less cluttered than Facebook, giving you the chance to shine, and it’s more permanent than Snapchat.
Here’s what we’re recommending:
- Imagery: Image quality is key. Don’t compromise with fuzzy photos, poorly lit images or stock photography!
- Team: Create a staff group to collate images, and give yourself a bigger pool to choose from.
- Experience: Create an experience with your images – let them dream of a stay at your hotel.
- Quirks: Highlight little quirks of the hotels. What makes you unique?
- Location, Location, Location: Highlight your location – what can guests get up to during a stay at your hotel? Consider images of the surrounding landscape or cityscape.
- #Branding: Create your own hashtag to use on all Instagram posts, eg #selecthotelsireland #experienceselect. After all, you don’t want them to just appreciate the pictures – you want them to remember your hotel!
- Bio: Encourage your guests to post content with your hashtag by mentioning it in your bio/ profile. You can also leave an unobtrusive card in guest rooms with your social channels and preferred hashtag. If you’re really looking to get more user generated content, consider running a photo contest!
- Repost: Repost others’ content in one of two ways: either use the repost app, or simply save and re-upload the image, giving a photo credit to the original poster.
- Emojis: Don’t be afraid to use emojis – they add some character to your posts!
- Facebook: Why not link your Instagram feed to your Facebook page to increase your content reach?
- Engage: Engage with your users’ comments under posts. It shows that you’re there, you’re engaged, and you’re much more likely to be remembered if you interact with users.
Here’s the infographic with the full checklist – just click to see the full size!
Words by Rachel McCoy
