139 – 1 Million Social Followers Celebration Episode

Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

In this celebratory episode, Travel Media Group is celebrating a major milestone! TMG has officially surpassed 1,000,000 social followers created for our hotel social partners!

Join Suite Spot host, Ryan Embree, and Chief Technology Officer at TMG, Jason Lee as these two social media experts discuss the incredible achievement and what it means to the organization. For our hotelier listeners out there, go to our website to learn more about how you can be apart of the next milestone and increase your hotel’s social followers by partnering with us.

Episode Transcript

Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio.

Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check in, and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, here for another incredible episode. We have a very familiar voice typically on to share a innovative, solution with us, or an upgrade to our solution. But we’re here today to celebrate an incredible milestone. Jason Lee, CTO at Travel Media Group. Jason, thank you for joining the Suite Spot.

Jason Lee:
Thanks for having me back on, Ryan. For the first time in a while. Thought it was something personal , but glad to be back on.

Ryan Embree:
No, but we have a very personal, uh, milestone to celebrate. Yes. This is a great achievement. If you saw the title of the episode, we are celebrating 1 million social media followers for our hotel partners. It’s an incredible milestone, something huge for this solution. We know the importance of social media, we’ve talked about on this podcast numerous times, but being able to pass this threshold of 1 million followers, that’s representative of 1 million travelers that are following our hotel partners social platforms, whether it’s Facebook, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram. So exciting. I’m sure you were here at the infancy of the social media solution for hotels. Specifically for hotels, mind you talk to us a little bit about that evolution of when that solution first started to, here we are here in 2024, passing this incredible milestone.

Jason Lee:
Yeah. When we started, it was really not on a lot of hotel’s radar. So most of the pages that we were creating, you know, this was even in a lot of cases before there was even a place page on Facebook. So we were creating the first business pages for most of our clients. So you really taking from there to now where, you know, over this amount of time, pretty much every hotel has probably made a Facebook page, whether they’re posting on it or not. Yeah. They probably have gone in after, you know, a conference or something and decided, Hey, I’m gonna, I’m gonna do this. But when we started, we were like really early on creating social media for hotel pages. And a lot of the kind of strategies that we started with have drastically changed based on how, how the social networks have actually changed. So they’ve actually there’s an evolution inside of that, but there’s also been an evolution in, while each platform, has its own type of audience, but then at the same time you’ve also had platforms combined. So back then it was Facebook and Instagram were two separate companies. Yeah. You know, X was called Twitter, but over time, that’s as a strategy. You know, our strategy has changed as the travelers have changed their usage pattern. Sure and as hotels have needed it, but we went from, very kind of generic posting to now where we are on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, we’re producing short form videos for hotels. We’re producing great scheduled content out weeks in advance. Our platform has become extremely advanced. Our ad strategy has become extremely advanced. So all of those things together have really kind of lent themselves to kind of where we’re at today and celebrating this really cool milestone. But, but the cool part of this milestone, I think for me is that all of this content generation that we’ve done over this time has produced, you know, actual people engaging with it and using it.

Ryan Embree:
Well, that’s an important note to make. And you know, because anyone 1 million followers doesn’t happen overnight, but you can’t get there in a variety of different ways. Right there were times where people were buying followers, buying likes. That is not what this is. This is curated content specifically for hotels, and you talked about the evolution of how our ad strategy, our posting strategy, and the reason that we were able to do that is because we work with so many hotels across the country, we’re able to do what we preach all the time on this podcast, which is look at your analytics, figure out what’s working for you, what content travelers are engaging with, and then from there you really start to sharpen your strategy. And you make a very interesting point also with the evolution of these social media platforms working within just, you know, time, right?

Jason Lee:
Yes. So the way that LinkedIn used to just be a place where you could find a job. Right. And now it’s a really important platform for B2B business, uh, especially for hotels, wedding planners, corporate planners, group events. Now we’re seeing more of these companies that are willing to, take a corporate retreat somewhere. LinkedIn might be your best place to find that. Yeah the way that we interact on our social media platforms, for me, I used to stay in my feed on Instagram. Now I’m in that explore page that for you page where I’m seeing maybe accounts that I don’t necessarily follow, but the algorithm has based it upon my interest. This wasn’t something that was happening at the beginning of this, but it’s also the evolution of social media within hotels.

Ryan Embree:
When we used to talk to hotels, I think the strategy was, I’m gonna find the youngest person on, on my team, and they might know social media, so I’m gonna have them create my page for me. And then all of a sudden hotels learn maybe that wasn’t the best idea. These pages are actually representative of my business, my voice, my brand. We needed a little bit more time and effort. So then they started kind of putting that on a DOS and then the director of sales would say this, this is the a lot of time, it’s very time consuming. And in a place now where we are, where we have staffing shortage, there’s a, there’s a social media position now. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Like some of these resorts hire specifically for a social media person. So there’s so much evolution within our industry that’s happened during that time. But you’re right, I’ve talked about it before. Build a following, not a follower account. So as, as impressive as this milestone is, it’s not just about that number, it’s about having the right following.

Jason Lee:
And I think if you look at how social media has evolved over time, there’s a lot of talk about algorithm and being part of an algorithm or being inside of an algorithm. And if you have spent any time on social media, you might see all of the things that you are interested in over and over again. So I see a lot of like cooking. I see a lot of like golden retriever videos and you know, surfing videos. So it’s like, I see a lot of that kind of stuff, but if you think about it from a social media standpoint, you only enter the algorithm on the other side. So you as a user are entering it based on your preference. You as a creator are entering that as consistent content of a certain type, consistent content from a certain business type. So you don’t, you can’t make make it in front of those eyeballs, right? Unless you’re doing something consistently, unless you’re doing something that is on brand for yourself and for your area.

Ryan Embree:
Well, and that’s one of the first tips that I share with hoteliers is listen, if you’re within a couple followers of a milestone and you don’t plan on continuing this, you just want to get to a thousand followers or 500 followers or what, but it’s not gonna work. You have to have a consistent strategy. We found the statistic and a social media survey that we did, over 60% of hotels are only posting at least once or very rarely on their social media accounts. So it’s a big opportunity for the hotel industry. And that’s why we’re seeing more people reach out to us because they’re understanding the importance of social media in their own lives. We work in travel, right? Yeah. Luckily, a lot of people love to travel. So when we’re talking about interest and algorithms, that is a great way to kind of get in front of new eyeballs. New travelers is by putting this content out there. But you have to do it, like you said.

Jason Lee:
And I would say short form video right now, we’re seeing a lot of stuff, and we have clients right now, so we have hotels that are getting more engagement or getting more reach and engagment sorry, reach and impressions on a video than they have followers. So, you know, it just shows you that it goes way beyond your follower count if you’re doing it correctly.

Ryan Embree:
So let’s, let’s share with our audience some tips on, how to grow your following. So if you’re struggling right now, you’re a hotel management company, and you’re saying, I just need more followers. My content just doesn’t seem to be getting the time and the time and effort that I’m spending on, it doesn’t seem to be getting the reach and impressions and followers that I want. Let’s talk through some of these do’s and don’ts. We’ll start with the don’ts. Feel free to interrupt me now. This comes from Hootsuite’s 2024 Social Media Consumer Report, and it’s what has caused consumers to unfollow a brand in the last 12 months. And we’ve seen examples of a lot of these angling for metrics, right? Uh, repetitive content happens a lot. Boring content, inauthentic content. I’ll stop there. ’cause authenticity, especially now you’re seeing more and more people get interested in these AI generated photos. You don’t know how that’s gonna hit your audience. No. You know, if you, if you’ve got this AI generated photo, so tread carefully. It might be cool to do maybe a little cheeky post here and again, but don’t rely on that every single time to be your social media voice and brand. Um, ’cause it could come off as inauthentic and then clickbait, you know, so. Those are, those are the don’ts. Let’s talk about some of the dos tagged or being tagged. Tell us maybe how your social media team uses getting engagement from other accounts or listening to other accounts to try to grow followers.

Jason Lee:
Well, one thing that’s really awesome about being a hotel, so if you are just a influencer trying to build a following or you’re just a random business trying to like build up a following, you know, you kind of have to stick with your content. I think with travel, the content is of so many things around you. It’s restaurants and businesses, it’s attractions that are around you. It’s the events that are happening in your city that are driving occupancy. All of those things are things that actually matter. And the cool part about that content is it has a very captive audience, but usually it’s day driven. So especially on the event side. So you key into an event, use their hashtags, get into, and you can post about the event. They’re more than happy to have you do that. The people that are coming in, and this obviously is a direct occupancy driver, but this could also be something, a type of an event that’s also interesting to travelers who are coming to stay at your property. Sure. So I think this stuff, the cross on that stuff is incredible and you’re able to pick up people to start following you right away from those kinds of things, just by exposing your brand to them. But then I also feel like another huge part of this type of build is using your guests that are staying with you. You know, so that same kind of thing. But I agree. I think tagging an event or a business or an attraction is an incredible way to get views.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah. If you’ve got a savvy social media manager on the other side, like you said, they are looking for times that they’re being tagged. Right. Absolutely. And, and they’re gonna want to engage with that. Interact with that. You brought up events, you know, I think as hoteliers we tend to just talk about it as an occupancy driver and don’t think of it as once that event starts, it’s done. I’ve always advocated to post during event. Right. We’ll take the most recent, probably most notable Taylor Swift, concert series. Get engagement, asking your followers, what was your, what was the set list? What was your favorite song of the night? What photos do you have to share? We’ll reshare it on our post. That’s some stuff that spurs during the event to get engagement. And then if it’s something that happens annually saying follow our page for more updates, as we count down to next year’s event. So there’s tons of ways to do that, but, I think that’s stuff we do really well. So we look at events, we go pre, pre-event, we, and then go week of the event. Yeah. And then we usually will do a post after the event as well. Thanking them for coming to the city, thanking them for staying with us, that kind of stuff.

Ryan Embree:
I think that’s a big missed opportunity there. ’cause they think, again, once that event has passed, my occupancy driver has passed. And there’s no other residual benefits that I can have. So definitely make sure that you’re doing that. But it’s also about keeping an ear out for your travelers that are tagging you. Or even sometimes they don’t need to actually physically tag the property. They just need to be in their location. Have their location on. So on Instagram, you can go to your page and see when someone posts from the balcony of your hotel, and maybe they’re, maybe they’re a micro influencer. Maybe they’ve got a great following there and they have the location of your hotel. You wanna keep your eyes and ears open for those so that you can engage, you can like, and maybe even comment there to maybe get some of their followers over to your page as well. Let’s talk about short form videos a little bit. You know, we released this late last year. We’ve been seeing some tremendous analytics on the side. You were just speaking to some of those. How is this a way to get organic growth? Because, you know, our followers are great when they share they tag, but if we wanna get outside of our following, the Instagram reel or TikTok is a great way to do that.

Jason Lee:
A hundred percent. And and I think it’s just the way, again, this information is fed. So the platforms really want to keep people engaged. They wanna keep people watching and moving video to video. So, they’re using information that they’re getting based on this person’s preferences, based on their search history, other things. So if they’re looking for travel and they’re, they’ve been searching all around looking for travel, more often than not, they’re gonna start seeing travel related posts or posts that have to do with that. So I think you’re gonna get people that have no connection to your property. They’ve never gone to your website, they’ve never looked at your property, and suddenly they’re seeing a short form, short form video about your hotel and possibly on the heels of them searching for hotels in that same city. So this is an incredible way to find new people to expose them to your brand. But it’s also really fun. I think what we found is that you can make these like videos, very simple videos that are really effective, not just about your property, but about your area. And, you know, we do these videos, where it shows all of the events happening that week in the city. So it’s a great way for current guests to get involved and look at that. But I think what’s really neat about these videos is that you’re looking at three and four to one on impression, reach to regular posts, unboosted regular posts. Wow. It’s incredible. Yeah. So it’s, this is a great way and very few hotels are engaging this way.

Ryan Embree:
No, and another example I absolutely love that we do is kind of a top five countdown, you know, whether it be attractions, restaurants in the areas or something like that. And the reason that’s so brilliant is because that keeps a user. If you’re watching a countdown video, you start at five, more often than not, you’re gonna stay all the way to see what number one is. And the algorithm will see that you’re interacting with that video in longer and will be more likely to send another piece of content your way that’s in that same vein. Totally. So if you’re doing, you know, multiple reels, which you should be doing. Now all of a sudden you’re showing up on this feed a lot more often. You know, and the other thing I’ll bring up about the, for you explore page on Instagram reel and TikTok is this younger generation are using these platforms for search. So I know that’s maybe for some, listeners that’s like hard to conceive, but the next time, I would challenge you the next time you’re going on a trip or something like that. Or just need general information, anything you’re throwing into Google, try to do that If you have TikTok and Instagram and see what comes up. And I’ll tell you, it’ll be a very interesting way. But that’s the way this younger generation is actually finding their information. So if you’re not on there, that’s like not having your website on Google. Absolutely. So very, very critical, especially if you want follower growth there.

Jason Lee:
And I’ve said a few times, but I feel like social media, especially for millennials, gen Z especially, it’s almost like a compass to explore this information, to guide them in where they’re gonna stay. And if you think about what is currently out there, we have static webpages with static galleries, and we fill these galleries full of images. So you think about like how the use case of a image gallery. So I go to that gallery, I go image, image to image. Now you think about the use case of Instagram and Facebook, but, but specifically Instagram probably and TikTok. But I go there, I see your images, and then I also see your videos. If I click into your videos, I can go video to video and watch all the videos that you created. If you have nothing in there, obviously I have not, no way of looking at that. But I do feel like that is the, all of that rest of that information that I need to confirm my booking, to say that this is the place I’m gonna stay. And so I would definitely think like that. And I think the longer that, you know, ’cause especially if you’re just starting out, the more content you have in there, the more impactful that kind of video to video pass through of that, of your page is gonna be 100%. Let’s talk about social media ad spend. You brought it up. It’s something that you felt was important enough that every hotel, social media partner that we have, social ad spend is included in their solution. Great way to get outside of your follower base. Why was this so important and why is this a good tool for a growing audience?

Jason Lee:
It kind of gets the back to what I was talking about that videos are attracting those people that are looking for you. This is a very similar kind of thing. So this is, and there is a difference in the ad spend that we’re doing than, than what you might think kind of the traditional sort of Google ad spend where all sudden I see the top of the search. I see your business. This is boosting content. And so it’s taking pieces of content about your property, about your area, about attractions, about things that drive occupancy. And it’s boosting it out past your audience into new audience. And so this is a really important thing because again, it goes back to that place where they, where where the platforms can see what you’ve been searching for. They can see the other things that you’re looking at. So this is getting out in front of those types of users. And so you’re in a lot of cases with your content with, and what’s cool about this is that because it’s not an ad, it feels like it’s part of their feed. So it’s a very, it’s a very cool way of getting way more people engaged with your posts.

Ryan Embree:
Well, one of the parallels we always talk about with social media is the digital billboard. And, you know, to kind of explain that about, well, imagine, you’ve got this billboard and it’s digital. The word of caution, I would say about social media ad spend is there’s a difference between that billboard being two exits before your hotel and 200 exits right before your hotel. And how effective that can be. We are only effective because we work with so many hotels. We know what buttons to push in, in the social media ad spend world, which optimizes the growth, reach and impressions of the posts that we’re boosting. Yeah, so make sure if you are gonna like, kind of wade into those waters, the research, consult some ad experts. ’cause it’s, it’s really easy to also spend and not see the type of return that you’re looking for.

Jason Lee:
Right. And I think there’s a big difference between that sort of, call to action post or call to action ad. So we’ve all seen that, like where we’re like flipping through videos or looking through posts, and you’ll see a promotion. You see that like, learn more or book. Now this is a very, this is different than that. And so there’s an important distinction though too. So it doesn’t cost as much. You’re not spending that as much per click. But what you are getting is you’re getting your content out there. So, so let’s say you just started Mm-Hmm. . So you’re like, Hey, I, I wanna start my social media today. So I make, so I don’t have a Facebook page, I make one, I don’t have an Instagram page, I make one. A LinkedIn page. Maybe an next page. I put all these things together, I have zero followers. So I’m starting from starting, everybody starts. So now I apply $5 to a boosted post. I go from almost no one seeing that, you know, maybe family and friends. Mm-Hmm. . Right, right. To maybe three, 400 people. And I think that’s, that’s a great way to get going. But then it’s also cumulative. So it’s like this thing that grows over time. So the more that you do it, the more people see it, the more people engage with it, the more relevant your content is, the more important your page becomes, the, the higher up it gets in, in terms of priority in viewing. Yeah.

Ryan Embree:
I think that’s perfectly summed up of why growing an audience and and following is so important. And and it also gives you the ability to invite people that engage with your content. Yes. Which is huge with follower growth. So one of the things that I suggest every hotel you do if you have a LinkedIn page is go and invite your connections on LinkedIn. So there’s actually a button that you can click to invite your connections. If you’ve got staff members that also have LinkedIns, they can invite their connections. Great way to build your, LinkedIn following with a snap of a finger. Facebook, a hundred percent. Facebook, Instagram, Facebook mainly on, on ads. People that engage with your videos or content boosted content, you then have the ability to go and invite them. So yes, you figure if they’re engaging, if they’re liking my content that hey, maybe have an invitation to come follow my page, you’re gonna see more of this stuff that you like

Jason Lee:
A hundred percent.

Ryan Embree:
So invitation’s very, very important there. What about social landing pages? Let’s talk about that. That’s, that’s also something that we provide for our social media partners. You think about each one of these platforms we’ve talked about is used in a variety of different ways, but there might be a lot of crossover where you could have somebody come from LinkedIn and then say, come follow us on Instagram. A social media landing page is a great, and one view link is a great way to do that.

Jason Lee:
A hundred percent and so you have some platforms, well, Instagram specifically. They don’t even allow you to put a link. So, so let’s talk about that event that we were just saying, we were just talking about earlier. So you have this event that’s coming to town, and you do link in bio. Are you gonna change your website? You gonna change your website to accommodate this once a year event? I don’t think you are. So that’s where these landing pages become really important, where you can have your other network, other pages on there. You can have your website on there. So any promotions that you’re doing are also kind of, you can push back into that and you can have a special button just for the promotion, but then it also ties back into these important events or businesses that you wanna highlight. And all of those links can be added in there. So then it’s like link in bio, link in bio. But where followers come in is, I feel like this is a incredible place to source followers is your own guest base. So people that are staying with you. So now at the front desk, it’s like, Hey, what’s going on? Or if you wanna stay up to date with all the things going on this week while you’re staying with us, yes. Just, you know, scan this QR code and now they go into a landing page that has all of your social networks on it has your website, it has all the other stuff that, that you’re doing on there. And I think these can be extremely effective because some people might be more comfortable on Facebook, some people might be more comfortable on Instagram, so you don’t know where they want to follow you, but you want to be able to capture ’em wherever they are. And I think these pages are incredibly effective if you use them.

Ryan Embree:
That transitions us perfectly into the next topic that I wanna talk about, because I think we also fall under this spell of thinking, the only time that I’m gonna be able to gain followers is at the beginning or at the very end. So if somebody is interested in what I’m putting and kind of inspiration they’re gonna follow and like my page or at the very end, they really had a great experience, I’m gonna ask them to follow just like a review, right? But there’s a lot of places in between in that traveler booking journey that are great use cases for gaining followers. So let’s walk through some of them. So inspiration we kind of already talked about, but what about like pre-booking research?

Jason Lee:
I think pre-booking is huge, you know, so, so again, this could come into the reason why somebody would want to follow you, and that would be that there’s relevant information about the time they’re gonna stay, or they can see that there’s a bunch of relevant information. I go to your page in pre-booking and there’s nothing there or a post from like 2013 or something. I’m not, there’s no reason for me to follow it. There’s no reason for me to do anything there. But now, but now you fast forward and now I have a ton of content in there and I have content that is relevant to the current week, then me staying, maybe a month from now, I might be like, Hey, this is an important resource.

Ryan Embree:
It subconsciously tells you something too. And I think this, this happens with us as consumers and travelers of, we work in hospitality where we want to serve our guests. If we’re not providing basic information on places like social media or review as we’ve talked about, that hospitality might be lost in translation there for the guests or the traveler. So it’s very important. I’m sure you know, not every single hotel that’s listening to this is a luxury resort that might have all this content. It might just be a, you know, select service right. Property right off the highway. But there’s still something to be said for having that post in there, talking about your breakfast, talking about that pool in the hours, some of the frequently asked questions. There’s just a level of care there and attention. If you, if you come to a Facebook page that hasn’t posted in a couple years, what’s to make you think that that hotel room might not be as clean as it should be? I think there’s a lot of parallels there that subconsciously as travelers we kind of connect, we start to connect those dots. What about post-booking? So you get somebody to actually commit, make that decision. Where is social media fall in the post-booking, pre stay?

Jason Lee:
Well, I think if you can 100% add some, add your social links into booking confirmation if it’s possible for you to do it, because I think that’s a great, again, it’s a great idea. Again, that’s confirmation. And I think a lot of times we don’t do it because we don’t have a social media strategy and we know there’s nothing there. So there’s no value. The value once you, when you have it now, this is that this is confirmation to book. So you think about yourself, if you’re traveling a lot of times, or if you bought anything right? You purchase it and then your research doesn’t stop. You, you continue on because maybe it, maybe it took you a week to choose this hotel. You’ve searched all over the place, you finally chose it, and now you kind of sort of continue research. But this is also the place where you’re sharing with family and friends where you’re gonna stay. If they’re traveling with you, obviously you’re gonna be sharing that information. So I probably wouldn’t be sharing any of that information if there’s nothing there. Or if, or if there’s nothing relevant to share. Uh, or if I go there and I see this empty page, it might even turn me off and I might look someplace else to book. So I think that that part is really important. And, and you know, we’ve heard numbers as much as 8% are canceling rebooking, um, post-booking. So 8% of travelers are in that space where they actually cancel their reservation and rebook.

Ryan Embree:
Well, it’s easy. It’s easier than ever, right? Brands are making it easier. Travelers feel more comfortable now. You know, over the past couple years where their travel plans changed at a moment’s notice because factors that we don’t know about, I feel okay now canceling my booking and saying, you know what, maybe this wasn’t the best pick. Or maybe they, the hotel across the street dropped their rate $5 and that $5 hasn’t been shown to me in social media posts of why I should be staying here versus there. So this is a great place, you know, I think of this as the hype kind of setting, right? It’s like I keep coming back to your social media. Oh my gosh, here’s, this is what this pool looks like. This is what the breakfast is gonna be. This is where we’re gonna walk in, we’re gonna check in, it’s gonna, we’re gonna get our room. This is the time you wanna build excitement and hype for the trip that they’re gonna be having.

Jason Lee:
We did this, we recently did a post or did a series of posts at a property where we showed the different kinds of breakfast that you could make from their breakfast. So we, we showed like a bagel sandwich where it was like we had the, the continental breakfast had bagels. It had, it has eggs and it had bacon. Right? So we showed making this like bagel sandwich from, from the continental breakfast, you know, or these different kinds of ways of doing stuff where you’re like, I want, this is cool. I can’t wait to stay there. Or I would maybe even share that with people I’m traveling with. Um, but also you go back to that thing about mentions. No one is going to mention your page if there’s not content there.

Ryan Embree:
If there’s nothing there. Yeah. Or, or you know, what they, they do, which this is what hoteliers think. Well, I haven’t interacted with my page in years, so it, it’s not gonna really hurt me. That doesn’t mean that travelers aren’t interacting with your page a hundred percent. They will go to your last post, whether it’s two weeks or two years ago, and they will leave their complaint there. Because they understand the power of social media. So if they had a bad stay, just because you posted two years ago does not mean at the top of that post, they’re gonna comment and say all, everything that they need to say about that. Also, something you want to, you want to definitely keep an ear and an eye out for. In stay you talked about it. I think it’s a great place to get followers. People might not be as comfortable picking up that phone, like they used to. Maybe they want to DM you on Facebook for an extra set of towels or something like that. But again, always comes back to listening. You have to be there to, to answer that call, when it comes through.

Jason Lee:
But I do think there is fear there. I think, you know, I can feel that where it’s like, don’t treat this like reputation. Don’t, don’t treat it like, well, if I engage here, this is a place for people to create negative, it makes me vulnerable. It’s the opposite. I engage here, this is my, this is me, this is my proactive messaging about my brand out to travelers and in stay is so overlooked as such an important place to engage with your travelers. But it also becomes this place where it’s the also the reason why I would follow, so the reason why I’d follow is that I get push notifications when you post. And if you’re posting valuable content about things happening at the property, especially if it’s stuff like, here’s what’s going on in our fitness center. Here’s what’s going on in our pool, here’s what’s going on at our restaurant. Those are things that are valuable to me during my stay. So I think then once you have them, then it’s like the continued engagement in post-stay becomes a natural part of this thing. So now you have this like space where you, we literally just covered pretty much every stage of the booking process, inspiration to travel, pre-booking research, booking in stay, post stay. It becomes this like really amazing place where your content can have a huge effect, um, not only on getting reservations, but also creating advocates of your business.

Ryan Embree:
Well, wonderfully said. And it literally takes one click of a button to be in a traveler’s feed for as long as they allow you to be. Right? And if you’re not doing any of the things that we talked about at the top of the episode, but if you’re doing any of those things, then you’re not having a good consistent social media strategy. So anyone listening to this, if you get that click, more often than not, you’re gonna keep that follower. You’re gonna keep that advocate for your hotel. You’re gonna keep that hopefully engagement going as long as you’re producing consistent good social media content. So I think great way to wrap up here. Any final thoughts? Uh, again, congratulations on this milestone. 1 million followers for our hotel social partners. What a journey it’s been. And we’re gonna keep growing. And, and try to get to two, five and as many as we need to.

Jason Lee:
As excited as I am for us, I am more excited for our hotel partners because this is where they all gain, this is them moving forward and really getting the most out of these types of solutions. And I think that this solution in, in general, whether, you know, if you’re listening to this and you’re like, you know, on the fence of what to do, whether to start something or not do something, I would do start something. Start it now. And there’s so many different things that where that this affects, you mentioned LinkedIn and I don’t wanna get too crazy with this, but business travel is back up. It’s starting and it is on the rise. This is something that is moving up and your strategy, whether that’s with a DOS or that’s with you as a GM, whatever that is, that strategy of going out and, and talking to local businesses, going out and talking to inbound teams or, or inbound groups or whatever those things are that are, that are drawing occupancy to you. This is one of those things that I think is a crazy hack where if you’re not doing it and you engage here, you get your DOS, you get your GM, you get people engaged locally, LinkedIn can be an extraordinary business tool.

Ryan Embree:
No, it’s awesome. And you know, again, it, it’s not about follower count, it’s about building a good social media following. Everyone starts at zero, but you have to start somewhere.

Jason Lee:
The follower count will happen. You just gotta have the content.

Ryan Embree:
Exactly. So I think that’s, that’s a great way to wrap this up. Jason, thank you. Congratulations again for being on the Suite Spot.

Jason Lee:
Thanks Ryan.

Ryan Embree:
And, uh, we’ll talk to you next time. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.