After your hotels official website, it’s Facebook brand page is probably one of the next most important digital platforms, and offers a great opportunity for hotels to interact and communicate with their guests.
Being one of the most important online platforms for hotels to use, it makes sense to check that a) you’re using it correctly and b) that you’ve set it up in the right way. Citations from online sources is a huge ranking-indicator to Google and the other top search engines, so if you’re details aren’t listed correctly on Facebook then chances are that you’re harming your hotels brand online.
Here we’ve taken a look at 4 essential checks to make on your hotels Facebook page. This is just a quick overview to Facebook and is by no means an exhaustive list of actions, and if you feel there are any essentials that we’ve missed then just leave some feedback in the comments below.
1. Your website URL
Let’s start with one of the most obvious ones. On your Facebook page you will find the field to enter your official URL. This should be the website address of your hotel, and although the link probably has the nofollow command added it will still have benefit to you, either through additional SEO or simply by allowing your Facebook fans to enter your website easily – hopefully to make a booking.
2. Your Address and Contact Details
Another really important citation element is your physical address and telephone number. Google and others will use these factors (your phone number in particular) as a really big indicator that your Facebook page is in fact connected to your hotel. If the Facebook phone number matches the one that is listed on your hotel website then everything’s good; if there are any discrepancies here then get them fixed. The Facebook number and contact details should just mirror those that are on your hotel website. Again this is an important SEO factor, so consistency across sources is key.
3. Do any duplicate pages exist?
This is likely to be the most frustrating task, because its likely that duplicate pages do in fact exist for your hotel. The tricky part is in getting Facebook to do something about it; you can report duplicates but it’s unlikely that Facebook will do much about it any time soon. It seems that a certain number of users need to report the page before any action is taken, and even then it can take a few years for these duplicates to be taken down.
Duplicates exist when people try to check-in to a premises and can’t find the official page, so create a new one. Unfortunately it’s so easy for users to do this, much to the despair of the hotelier (and thousands of other local businesses)… Our advice is to try and manage this to ensure it doesn’t get out of hand. You can only merge 2 pages if you’re an administrator on both of them, which is going to be unlikely.
4. Are you consistent with your branding?
A slightly more stress-free check here to finish up on; reviewing the use of your profile image and your cover photo. We recommend that profile images simply contain your hotel logo. Because they’re small, and square, it’s difficult to put anything else in this space. Your hotel logo is going to be the best option for you here.
Your cover photo on the other hand is where you can get a bit more creative. If you have some special deals, or a seasonal offer, you want to advertise, then this could be the space to use. A nice landscape-shot of your hotel works well here too. Don’t be afraid to get some nice graphics created to use in this space, and to update your cover photo every few weeks / months. Some hotels like to change their cover photos seasonally, having a relevant shot for winter, spring, summer and autumn. This is a nice way to show your hotel at different times of year, and also works well to indicate that your hotel brand is active on Facebook, and knows how to use it too.
Do you feel we’ve missed out any obvious checks for your hotels Facebook page? If so just let us know in the comments below.
