1. Investigating Social Media Marketing
in the Hospitality Industry: Facebook
and European Hotels.
Roberta Minazzi
Stefan Lagrosen
University of Insubria, Como, Italy
Linnaeus University, Växjö and Kalmar, Sweden
ENTER 2014 Research Track
Slide Number 1
2. Agenda
@ Introduction
@ Objective
and Research questions
@ Research
methodology
@ Results
@ Conclusions
and Practical Implications
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Slide Number 2
3. Introduction
@ Nearly 70% of customers hear experiences of other
consumers before purchasing a product (Nielsen, 2012).
@ Social media are widely adopted by travellers
(Cox et
al., 2009; O’Connor, 2008; Xiang and Gretzel, 2010; Leung et al 2013) .
@ Engaging customers by means of social media could
increase customer loyalty, electronic word-of-mouth
and consequently corporate sales and revenues
(Dellarocas, 2003; Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Dellarocas and Zhang,
2009).
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Slide Number 3
4. Objective and research questions
The study seeks to understand how widespread the use of
social media in the hotel business is, concentrating on:
How top European Hotels brands strategically use
social media?
Which are the factors that influence the use of
social media in European hotels?
Which is the level of integration among social
media, the website and other social media?
How many posts are published by the hotel brand
and which is mainly the content?
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Slide Number 4
5. Research methodology
@ First step: items of analysis
@Second step: hotel brands Facebook pages
analysis and posts content analysis
@ Period of research: March-April 2013
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Slide Number 5
6. Hotel brands selection: steps
STEP 1
@Ranking of the top ten European hotel
groups (MKG Hospitality, 2012)
@Inventory of the existing hotel brands
for each hotel group
STEP 2
@Exclusion of brands not included in the
World ranking of the top 50 hotel
brands (Hotels Magazine, 2012)
@ Other exclusions
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Slide Number 6
7. Hotel brands selected
ACCOR HOTEL GROUP
BEST WESTERN
CARLSON REZIDOR HOTEL GROUP
INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL GROUP
HILTON WORLDWIDE
MELIA INTERNATIONAL
NH HOTELS
TUI HOTELS & RESORTS
WHITEBREAD HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
IBIS HOTELS
NOVOTEL
RADISSON
INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL &
RESORTS
CROWNE PLAZA
HOLIDAY INN
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS
HILTON HOTELS & RESORTS
DOUBLE TREE
HAMPTON
MELIA HOTELS & RESORTS
RIU HOTELS & RESORTS
PREMIERE INN
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Slide Number 7
8. Items of analysis
@ ACCESSIBILITY
@ INFORMATION
@ CALL TO ACTION
@ CONNECTIONS
@ PERFORMANCE
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Slide Number 8
9. Findings: facebook page features
ACCESSIBILITY
@All the FB pages can be easily found
@FB page the hotel brand website.
INFORMATION
@hotel brand (86,6%), the mission (60%)
and the brand history (86,6%)
CALL TO
ACTION
@80% offer the function “book now”
CONNECTIONS
@67% with other social media
@86% have a Mobile application but only
20% of them promote it on FB or on the
website
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Slide Number 9
10. Findings: performance
@ Gap:«like» and «people talking about this»
BRAND
like
NH Hotels
1,010,608
11,817
34,662
Hilton Hotels & Resorts
talking about this
247
@Counting metrics seem unconnected with
quality/size/brand strategy of hotel brands
@Number of posts not connected with metrics.
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Slide Number 10
12. Conclusions and practical
implications
@Moderate effort in interacting with users and
engagement (posts reply, asking for customer
collaboration, etc.).
@Moderate level of connection with other social
media and Mobile applications
Focus on engagement
Develop an integrated social media marketing strategy
…..an integrated communication strategy
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Slide Number 12
13. Thanks for your attention!
For further information:
Roberta Minazzi, roberta.minazzi@uninsubria.it
Stefan Lagrosen, stefan.lagrosen@lnu.se
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Slide Number 13
14. Top five hotel brands
Rank/
quality*
N. room
2012
Best Western
1/M
311,894
Hampton
6/M
181,087
Hilton Hotels & Resorts
5/U
196,151
Riu Hotels & Resorts
44/U
39,823
Double Tree
27/U
70,793
BRAND
* U=upscale; M=Mid-range; E=economy
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Slide Number 14
15. Findings: counting metrics
World
rank
quality
level
N. room
2012
FB
member
since
like
talking
about this
were here
n. posts
activity
index
BEST WESTERN
1
M
311,894
2009
687.308
25.837
59.294
565
3,76%
HOLIDAY INN
2
M
225,328
2008
452.395
5.092
na
354
1,13%
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS
4
E
196,666
2012
23.238
536
na
23
2,31%
HILTON HOTELS & RESORTS
5
U
196,151
2009
1.010.608
11.817
4.621.541
182
1,17%
HAMPTON
6
M
181,087
2009
312.754
13.107
na
484
4,19%
IBIS HOTELS
15
E
113,077
2011
103.308
1.235
176.024
152
1,20%
CROWNE PLAZA
16
U
105,104
2011
80.440
936
na
249
1,16%
RADISSON
20
M
94,436
2011
77.159
545
na
371
0,71%
NOVOTEL
24
M
74,117
2012
38.010
489
236.298
104
1,29%
DOUBLE TREE
27
U
70,793
2009
203.655
5.320
686.754
336
2,61%
32
U
57,598
2008
38.654
493
na
69
1,28%
NH HOTELS
35
M
51,898
2010
34.662
247
1.697
623
0,71%
PREMIERE INN
38
M
48,725
2010
67.602
650
na
136
0,96%
RIU HOTELS & RESORTS
44
U
39,823
2009
271.445
6.139
na
199
2,26%
MELIA HOTELS & RESORTS
47
U
34,324
2010
227.261
1.623
52.213
134
0,71%
BRAND
INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL
& RESORTS
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Slide Number 15
17. Posts and metrics
like
Hilton Hotels & Resorts
NH Hotels
Posts in
2012
1,010,608
11,817
182
34,662
BRAND
talking
about this
247
623
ENTER 2014 Research Track
Slide Number 17
Notes de l'éditeur
We all use social media con be in touch with friends (fb), with colleagues (Linkedin) to share pictures showing our boards (Pinterest) or sharing a video (you tube). We all use these media in our life also to interact with companies. We like pages of companies maybe because we are loyal customers or maybe because we would like maybe to become loyal customer in the future. Or simply to get information, instructions or to complain. But are the companies listening to us? Are they really interacting with us.
Social media are widely adopted by travellers to gather information, travel planning, decide where to stay and share experiences (Cox et al., 2009; O’Connor, 2008; Xiang and Gretzel, 2010).
At first we developed the items of analysis by means of interview with hotel managers and social media experts
Than, according to the items we analysed the FB page of European hotel companies
Starting from the ranking of the top ten European hotel groups (MKG Hospitality, 2012, Table 1), and analysing the website of each single hotel group, we made at first an inventory of the existing hotel brands for each group. This first selection was then compared with the world ranking of the top 50 hotel brands (Hotels Magazine, 2012). Only the ones which were present in this ranking were included in the third step of selection that excluded also other companies, considering the following features:
hotel brands which have a Facebook page but only connected to a single event (i.e.: Mercure);
hotel brands which are not present in the European countries (Country Inn & Suites);
hotel brands that mainly offer an extended-stay service (i.e. Embassy Suites, Homewood Suited by Hilton, etc.);
ACCESSIBILITY: Is it easy to find the Facebook page? Is there a connection to the website of the hotel?
INFORMATION: about the hotel brand included in the Facebook page
CALL TO ACTION: possibility to check availability and rates directly on the Facebook page
CONNECTIONS: with other social media (Tripadvisor, Twitter, You tube, etc.) and to the Mobile Application
Connections:
They are generally brands that present a low level of interaction with customers on the FB pages (low number of people “talking about this”). In the case of Holiday Inn Express this could be due to the recent opening of the Facebook page in 2012 respect to other brands
(the most common used are Twitter (53%) and You Tube (46,7%).
Hilton, Double Tree and Riu Hotels use the highest number of social media
They realize the potentiality of mobile technologies but only a few proceed with an integration of the social media strategy
Results of connections tell us that probably that an important part of the hotel brands analysed are in the first stages of developing an integrated social media strategy that so far is mainly focesed on FB
In fact the top five hotel brands are very different considering the size, quality level, hotel group, geographical origin of the company and even brand strategies used.
In fact hotel brands presenting the highest number of posts publiched on their FB page often do not excel in other counting metrics
Example: NH more that 600 posts in 2012 (more than all the other brands) but it is last position of the ranking. On the contrary Hilton that is in the first position for Like and TAT published in 2012 less than 200 posts.
60,4% of the posts include a link to another website (that of the company or of other companes): this could interrupt the interaction with the FB user who generally goes on FB to remain there
55% of posts contain pictures
48% are promotion related that means that promote hotel of the group (29%) and he destination (28%)
14% factual information about dates and locations of events
Only 5% provide opinions or reviews about something: where to go, the best places in the destination, etc.
The area of interaction is very poor: very few posts respond to someone or to something and interact asking people to collaborate to something
The behaviour of companies is more similar to traditional marketing than to social media marketing and does not exploit the opportunities provided by social networks.
High propensity to use posts to promote the hotels or the destinations where they are located and a low concentration on potentiality offered by interactions with users (posts reply, asking for customer collaboration, etc.).