4 Social Media Strategies for the Holiday Season

As the holiday season quickly approaches, you may be asking yourself, how do I promote my hotel during the holidays? Using social media, of course! The opportunities to capture the holiday traveler's attention are nearly unlimited. In this video, explore four strategies to engage and convert your social media audience this season, including design tips, promotion suggestions, and video concepts. 

1. Holiday-ify your profiles' designs. Add a little flare to your profile icons and cover images to stay fresh for your audience.
2. Create a holiday focused promotion or contest. Take advantage of Facebook's recent relaxation of the promotion guidelines, or go all out and create an interactive custom application to build engagement and increase your social reach.
3. Leverage repeat-posts with holiday themes. The holidays are a time for fun and impatience. Help build excitement (and repeat engagement) with a countdown of your own, rewarding users and encouraging them to share.
4. Create holiday themed videos. Let your employees share their excitement and voice by shooting short clips of them giving thanks this season, and upload them to Vine or Instagram. 

Whatever you decide to do, don't be afraid to have fun. You can entertain and engage while building a qualified fan-base that will help your business will into the new year. For more ideas, contact the Kankakee County CVB.

Social Media Marketing Tips, Part 2

In July 2012 Americans spent 74.0 billion minutes on social media via a home computer, 40.8 billion minutes via apps, and 5.7 billion minutes via mobile web browsers, a total of 121.1 billion minutes on social networking sites. Social media can be an important part of your marketing strategy. Here are 10 more tips you can use to build strong relationships using social media marketing.

11. Add a Welcome Video

Include a welcome video to your landing page. Use it to tell new members about your company, and what social networking sites your company can be found on.

12. Tag People and Pages on Facebook

When posting or commenting on Facebook, be sure to utilize the status-tagging tool. Using status tagging will alert the person or company when being mentioned. Simply use the @ symbol in front of the person or company’s name; yet another easy way to encourage interaction.

13. Have your Facebook fans tag your photos

Any live events you attend or hold be sure to take plenty of photos. Upload the event photos to Facebook, and ask your fans to tag any photos they are in, or recognize some one they know. Not only does this encourage more fan interaction, but also it will help your company gain more exposure.

14. Perform Facebook activities as your Facebook fan page

What better way to network on Facebook, than interacting with others on Facebook as your fan page? Putting your name out there for people to see, more attention will be drawn to your Facebook page, thus driving more fans to your page.

15. Sweepstakes and/or Contests 

Sweepstakes and contests are the fastest way to increase your fan base. In order for this build up on of fans to be successful, you will need to utilize the Facebook app tool. The guidelines will provide all the information you need to run a successful promotion.

16. Take notice of your most active fans 

Take notice of your most active fans, and take the time to say thank you. Use incentive programs such as “Fan of the Week/Month.”

17. The Facebook Questions Feature 

The Facebook questions tool is an excellent, and simple way to interact with existing fans, and encourage some new fans. Poll your audience using a fun, relevant interesting, and intriguing question. This is a fantastic way to encourage interaction.

18. Utilize Facebook Ads

The best sources of traffic you can purchase are Facebook ads. Not only does it provide you a high

volume of traffic, it will also allow you to see how many users are in your target market area.

19. Network with other website Administrators 

Networking with other website administrators will allow you to build relationships with them. This will then open the doors for you to discuss ways to work together. Thus, increasing your social media marketing traffic.

20. Continue to Learn and Grow with Facebook 

Facebook is another excellent communication tool. Your company can use Facebook for public relations purposes, research and development, recruiting, sharing information, etc. Make the most of this incredible media-marketing tool.

Read more here!

Social Media Marketing Tips, Part 1

47% of American adults used social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Classmates.com in 2011, up from 26% in 2008. On social media sites like these, users may develop biographical profiles, communicate with friends and strangers, do research, and share thoughts, photos, music, links, and more. Here are 10 tips you can use immediately to build strong relationships using social media marketing. 

1. Utilize Your Family and Friends
Ask for the support of your family and friends. Encourage them to become fans on your Facebook page or followers of you on Twitter. Also ask your friends and family to spread the word about your fan page. 

2. Facebook Plugins
Incorporating a Facebook plugin into your website and/or blog is an easy and effective way to drive more fan traffic to your Facebook fan page. 

3. Other Social Media Networks
Facebook is not your only tool for social media marketing. Be sure to keep your Twitter followers and LinkedIn group members in the loop. 

4. Your Newsletter Subscribers
Send out an invitation in your newsletter to your subscribers. Invite them to join to your Facebook fan page, your Twitter following, even your LinkedIn group. Your newsletter subscribers are an excellent source of fan traffic that will actively help spread the message of your company. 

5. Make More Use of Traditional Advertising Methods
When using traditional advertising for your business, such as television ads or radio ads, mention your social networking sites. 

6. Physical Location Interaction with your fans and customers is key. Provide details on where your shop/office can be seen or visited. 

7. Your Existing Customers can be a Useful Tool Use your existing customers to fuel social media marketing. Inform your existing customers about your website, blog, Facebook page, and other social networking sites being used. Getting your existing customers involved uses the most powerful tool of all, word of mouth. 

8. Special Incentives will spark the interest of new fansUsing special incentives to get new fans on Facebook, followers on Twitter, or group members on LinkedIn. Offer special incentives such as access to exclusive content, your fans, customers, followers, advocates, etc, love feeling as though they are receiving something special. 

9. Stimulate Interaction Again, it is important to remember Facebook is not the only useful site in social media marketing. Use several social networking channels to keep your fans engaged and informed about other sites to obtain information about your business. 

10. Ask Your Facebook fans to “Like” and/or “Share” your material Asking your Facebook fans to help spread your message and “share” your material with their friends and familyWord of mouth is an effective, easy, free way to continue your social media marketing. Watch for more tips in our next installment. 

Please contact the CVB for more information.