Free «Hospitality Management and Social Media» Essay Sample

Nowadays, organizations are using social media companies to their advantage by creating online spaces to cater for consumers, and establish a desirable and satisfactory relationship with them. For instance, companies allow consumers to air their concerns, ask questions or make suggestions and recommendations by contacting the company through Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace. Other companies use social media as a means of marketing their products and services by posting products and available promos or hold contests and giveaways to increase consumer engagement. Hospitality companies can use their employees as a means of cultivating customer relationship management by assigning them to be a part of the staff of the company’s social media pages. The company could choose responsive and creative employees to monitor Facebook and Twitter pages and respond to consumers who ask questions or post complains. Creative employees, especially those who are skilled in marketing, could be tasked to create online advertisements or eye-catching photos and banners that would be featured on YouTube, and shared in several social media platforms. Employees could also host interactive online games and contests that would allow consumers to win products from the company and learn about latest offers and promos in the process.

Aside from social networking sites, social media also includes blog spaces like Blogger, LiveJournal or Tumblr. Hospitality companies can assign employees to write blog posts and reviews about their products and services. For instance, employees could write an engaging and informative post about recent products, highlighting the benefits and advantages that consumers would receive by purchasing them. While social media could be used as a marketing tool and a means to develop a good relationship between the company and consumers, it is also instrumental in market research. Hospitality companies could assign employees to monitor social media trends to determine what interests consumers, especially their target market, and determine patterns for product development in the future. Overall, social media is a great advantage to hospitality companies.