Are You Wasting Time (and Money) on Twitter and Facebook?

According to the research firm Forrester, you are.

We all know that it’s not too hard to build a following and disperse content on these social media outlets, but we also know that it is hard to get said followers to interact with that content and turn it into sales.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Forrester analyst Nate Elliott brought this point into the spotlight with the company’s report entitled “Social Relationship Strategies that Work.”  It discusses some pretty interesting data, including the fact that only about 2% of fans and followers are reached via these outlets and that less than 0.1% percent interact with content.

Those very slim numbers are frustrating–even for the biggest brands in the world.  So how is an independent hotel supposed to capitalize on their social media efforts?  Elliot suggests concentrating elsewhere–especially with the new changes Facebook has made to its algorithm, all but ensuring that unpaid advertising efforts won’t be seen.

So where should you be focusing your online marketing efforts?  Try sites that are more travel specific, or try reaching out travel blogs and publications with news about your property.  Google Plus is a rapidly-growing social media platform, though it seems mainly to be driven by visual content and it remains unclear how much engagement comes from those efforts.

While there’s no way that not having a presence on Facebook and Twitter is good for business–after all, they’re the first places potential customers look to get information about your property, it may be worth reinvesting your time and money elsewhere, recognizing the fact that your efforts might not actually be bringing in bookings.  The world of online marketing is constantly changing, so it’s important to always change with it, to focus efforts in different places if you’re not seeing the results you want, and to always be on the lookout for new media and forums.