Lessons in Social Media for hospitality businesses

H&C News’ recent Social Media Benchmarking Report (email us for a copy) was accompanied by a Round Table meeting at citizenM Bankside in London, and discussion with attendees from all areas of hospitality. The delegates shared a common responsibility for social media activity in their organisations – large and small – as well as a passion to drive the development and performance of social media across UK hospitality.

H&C News is grateful to the delegates for sharing their experience and insights: all areas of hospitality need to better understand what can be achieved through social media, as well as how to deliver results.

So thank you to all delegates from the following companies that were in attendance.

• Armourcoat
• BaxterStorey
• British Hospitality Association
• C&C Catering Equipment
• CH&Co
• Harbour & Jones
• Hotel Café Royal
• Jongor
• Mridula Baljekar, Restaurant Consultants
• newmedia2.0
• Radisson Blu Hotels
• SSP
• Twitter

The Benchmarking Report shows that most organisations have now been using social media for more than 3 years – only a small percentage for less, including start-ups. And social media activity is very largely ‘controlled’ by Directors (40 % +) and managers: recognition that it needs careful use (examples of adverse PR were frequent), as well as its importance to businesses.

“Excellent event and discussion which clearly highlighted how important social media are in building long term customer relationships and business value to leading hospitality and leisure companies. Great venue too.” - Jeanette Carlsson, CEO, @newmedia2.0

Share of marketing spend

Despite its importance, 63% are only spending up to 10% of their marketing budget on social media! Whilst respondents may be under-estimating actual spend (and not including the cost of human resource, for example), it does beg the question: where is the remaining marketing spend (still) going?

And, of course, the extent of use of social media varies widely: some businesses devote considerable resource to developing content that will engage and retain attention.

Commitment to the cause from Thomas Kilroy, Baxterstorey

“Food & restaurants are a huge area of interest for UK Twitter users, with 52% of them using the platform for information and inspiration about food and restaurants. 

“It’s no surprise that businesses in this category were some of the earliest Twitter adopters, and we’ve seen an incredible number of success stories. 

“The #HandCSocial event was an inspiring session. It was great to hear how businesses in this sector are getting even more sophisticated with their use of Twitter, exploring deeper customer engagement and measurement.” - Eimear Lambe, Brand Strategist, Twitter UK

Measuring success 

A big issue and, for many, still a ‘work in progress’ that varies according to type of organisation and specific objectives (where they exist): whether room bookings for hotels, table bookings for restaurants, or building profile and relationships for contract caterers (who may be using a long-term strategy).

For all, ‘fear’ may be a factor: will lack of social media activity leave a space for the competition?

However, there was general agreement that clear objectives and planning are needed before action: there is a real risk that using the wrong material and message can alienate potential and existing customers.

“I think that the event was a huge success and brought together so many great minds and users of Social Media. There were some big guns in the room and the discussions were interesting, meaningful and I personally took a lot from it. The social side before and after was a huge success too – it was a great networking opportunity. C&C were proud to be sponsors of the Social Media Roundtable.” - Peter Kitchin, MD, C&C Catering

The narrative

Delegates were very clear that defined objectives should underpin and direct social media activity.

And equally clear that the ‘narrative’ is driven by those objectives: building relationships, driving sales, developing profile – these all require different narratives, and must avoid being bland or anodyne by:

• Living and breathing the business: the narrative must reflect and demonstrate a passion for the business. Knowledge of and caring for it must be visible – and there was general agreement that this can be difficult when using outside agencies who will struggle to have the same level of engagement and commitment – however good their technical skills.
• Joined up messages: consistency is essential between social media and company messaging overall – messages across different channels (social media, print advertising and customer services) need to be joined up.
• For example, customer services must be briefed to know and action social media messages or promotions.

Note: there appears to be general understanding that fast response to customer engagement is essential – waiting for days to respond to customer messages – good or bad – is no longer the practice.

“I was delighted to participate in the latest H&C News Social Media RoundTable discussion, and for Armourcoat to continue support of the events as sponsor.  I’m always impressed by the calibre of attendees – but especially for this latest RoundTable. It reflects not only the high regard for H&C News in the industry, but also the growing importance and significance of social media as a core marketing activity.  It is fascinating to hear and learn from case study examples within the industry, and benchmark success.  Thanks to all those attending, and congratulations to H&C News for another great event!” - Daniel Nevitt, Chief marketing Officer, Armourcoat

Feeding not selling

All delegates were agreed that social media activity is indeed about ‘feeding not selling’.

In the words of one delegate: “It’s a bit like carp fishing: you keep feeding them and then, now and again, you drop in an offer.”

The quality of the ‘feeding’ will determine the response when you ‘sell’.

“Social media has become the driving force to enable us to make necessary changes that keep our businesses current.” - Andrew Turner, Executive Chef, Hotel Cafe Royal

Images and channels

Delegates largely agreed that ‘a picture’s worth a thousand words’ is always worth remembering and applying.

Seeing chefs at work, viewing beautiful dishes, touring hotel facilities and bedrooms…these are all highly effective in attracting the attention and engagement of social media visitors.

But some get carried away both in excessive use of images (just how many pictures or videos can a prospective customer absorb – or even find time to view?), and in the channels they use.

It’s clear that Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and more can all be effective: the question is can your business be effective across all of them at the same time? Budgets and resources are needed for each one, and depending on objectives and strategy, they should be prioritised. Less is more!

 “This event provided a good platform for the industry to come together to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities that social engagement brings. As we know, social activity is constantly evolving, so it’s important for discussions like these to take place regularly as it will ultimately benefit the industry as a whole.” - Simon Esner, director, BaxterStorey

Training, training, training

It’s not news: there has been a lack of training – or perhaps investment in training – both for marketing staff and for others who use social media.

Some of the larger organisations have developed in-house training: for example, the pub companies who have developed pub websites and train pub staff in how to utilise both their website and to support it with social media aimed at a largely local audience.

Others have relied on younger members of their team to handle social media and translate enthusiasm into expertise (often, but not always, successfully).

Others again work hard to identify the local or site ‘champions’ who understand their business, are able to express their passion and the ‘narrative’ and, with support and training, can be trusted to act independently.

There is no single solution – hospitality operations and their business models are too varied. However, though fast-moving and innovative, social media is now more mature and measurement and return on investment are now required.

All agreed that appropriate training is necessary and needs to be available: H&C News is already working on its own initiatives in this area – watch out for announcements!

“All I can say is that it was quite an eye-opener for me.  I found the meeting extremely informative and useful which has made me realise how important it is to promote yourself and your business through social network platforms.  Thank you for inviting me.” - Mridula Baljekar, Award-winning Cookbook author

Our thanks and plans

Go to the Sponsors of the H&C News Social Media Benchmarking Report –

citizenM Hotels

Armourcoat

newmedia2.0

C&C Catering Equipment

And to the delegates at the Round Table

H&C News will be regularly examining developments in Social Media for the Hospitality sector – and will soon be announcing further initiatives designed to help hospitality businesses deliver positive, measurable results, including training.

We also welcome views and opinions from readers: please contact editor@hospitalityandcateringnews.co.uk with any of your own views or experiences.

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