“I can hire a model for $5,000 but then Instagram does not get nearly as many likes,” says Sharazade Kirton, digital marketing manager of the Mandarin Oriental Miami. She posted a stunning view, with no people, and got 397 likes; the same post, with a model posing in front, received 198.
Interestingly, food does not do well either, unless it also has a stunning view – a posted breakfast got 240 likes, but the same meal with a view behind it garnered 343. It is essential to differentiate, she says, and the hotel’s main asset is its views, both waterfront and city skyline (everyone loves a view and this appeals to aspiration. Consumers want to jump into a picture).
“My goal is to get as many target consumers to like what I post, and then link to the hotel website. If I want the family market, for instance, I still post a view, but with a stuffed animal in front,” she said.
“I love Instagram because you can use visuals to tell a story that everyone engages with, but a luxury brand must find a balance between exposure and retaining exclusivity,” she admitted.
The hotel has 20,000 Instagram followers. She uses Insight tools, available through business pages of Instagram and Facebook. Currently, 61% of her Instagram followers are female, average age is 25-34, and biggest pickup is from the Miami area, followed in turn by São Paulo, Brazil; New York; Miami Beach and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Facebook, she feels, is perhaps more suited for a mature market. She is not immediately enthusiastic about Snapchat as stories disappear, as does extensive content on Instagram Story.
As well as pro-active postings, she can react, in under 15 minutes. Bad storms in the Boston, New York or Washington, D.C., areas get instant likes when she posts a seductive hot-sun view: such posts also increase comments, to which she replies anonymously, from the hotel, sending a link so that the writer can click through to make a hotel reservation (some consumers begin what could be an ongoing dialogue, which she ends by merely sending back an emoji, usually a palm tree). Another reaction was needed when the Fyre Festival in the Bahamas bombed at the end of April. Disgruntled punters flew back to Miami, the hotel created an overnight package at a 15% discount and within a quarter of an hour had it on sale.
Email, which works alongside social media, allows more content, say talking about forthcoming events, thanks to the facility to be text-heavy compared to Instagram and Facebook. She might do an email blast of, say, 25,000 – she does not buy lists – and never gets more than 17 asking to be unsubscribed. Analytics show that 9 to 10 a.m. is the best time for email blasts, whereas for social media, late afternoon is best (at 4 p.m., she typically gets 10% opening, with 6% clicking through, double the tally of a morning post).
She typically does three postings, on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, per day, and she adds user generated content (UGC), 75% of which comes from women (people love to see their pictures being used). She also engages with colleagues via Beekeeper. Yes, she is always on, monitoring accounts. She uses two iPhones, linked to each other.
“I receive a lot of support from the team, and my director of sales and marketing is very in-tune with social media” Kirton said. There are daily briefings both with the DSM and the director of PR and marketing communications, to whom she reports: ideas also come from Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s New York-based Lily O’Dare, who supervises the corporate @mo_hotels Instagram, which has more than 139,000 followers. “I do think there is still need for traditional media too – for the local market, advertorials are worthwhile in, say, Miami Magazine, or Ocean Drive,” she said. For her, the jury is still out on freelance bloggers, who make contact at the rate of at least three a day wanting to cooperate: This requires careful weeding out, as merely having “hundreds” of followers does not confirm quality.