Evaluation and Enhancement of Hilton Hotels' Social Media Strategy

This report analyzes the social media strategy of Hilton Hotels, focusing on its effectiveness in engaging customers and driving marketing initiatives. It begins with an introduction to the importance of social media in the hospitality industry and a literature review covering social media marketing and its application. The report then discusses Hilton Hotels' current social media activities, highlighting their use of various platforms and content strategies. An analysis of their engagement levels on different platforms, particularly Instagram, is provided. The report concludes with suggestions for enhancing Hilton Hotels' social media strategy, including the use of short videos and chatbots to improve customer engagement and service. This analysis aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of Hilton Hotels' social media efforts and offer actionable recommendations for improvement.

Introduction
The advancement in technology and the popularity of the Internet has forced the
organizations world over to carry out a transformation in terms of how they interact
with people and how they carry out their marketing initiatives. Social media platforms
constitute of a large proportion of time that people spend on the internet and therefore
the organizations are targeting the online consumers by developing interactive and
innovative social media strategies and understanding the consumption pattern and the
demand trends with the help of it.
The social media platforms can although be very helpful for the organizations by
helping them in reaching out to millions of people with a single click and a single
post, it is a highly volatile medium and a double-edged sword since unhappy
customers can damage the reputation of the organizations instantly and can impact the
word of mouth popularity by sharing their opinion with all the people that they are
connected with and can also impact the decision making of the potential customers for
the organization. Despite all this, social media has become the most popular medium
for the organizations operating in the hospitality industry to communicate with people
and reach out to the organizations and individual customers at the same time by
effectively marketing their services. The traditional mediums that were used for
marketing earlier have gone obsolete very fast with the advent of the Internet and
mobile telephony. This report is compiled to analyse the social media strategy
currently implemented by the Hilton hotels and its effectiveness. After the detailed
evaluation a new social media strategy is suggested for the organization to help them

and tapping the potential and attracting more customers by utilizing social media
platforms and their immense potential.
Literature review
Social media and digital marketing
Social media can be defined as the mode of communication which is established by
making use of information technology and the networks by the interactive production
of user oriented content for establishing and maintaining the relations between the
users. The social media technology was originated somewhere around the year 2005
with blogging being the first form. It allows people to maintain an online journal by
making use of information technology tools through a web based service. The
introduction and popularization of social media has forced the organizations to
develop new ways of communicating with their current and potential customers and
create the brand image by having conversations around it. The advancement in the
social media features has made it mandatory for all the organizations operating in any
industry to establish credibility and follow the trends off the social media portals if
they have a desire to develop an excel in their field. The 1990s witnessed the
breakthrough of the internet technology with the popularity of the web based services.
This also gave rise to e-commerce and led to the development of technology and
brought about digitisation of the marketing processes(Accenture, 2015). The customer
relationship management and tools that the organizations implemented before the
1990s were suddenly overtaken by the new opportunities and the technology channels
which were introduced to innovate the customer relationship and to remove the
boundations of time and place while doing it. There are numerous different forms of
social media platforms and different mediums are used for the different forms of

communication. The most common form of social media platforms used by the
organizations include blogs, social networks, video sharing platforms, gaming
platforms, photo sharing applications and the enterprise networks. A rough
classification of the various social media channels can be done by dividing them into
three types(Leung, Bai, & Stahura, 2015). These are the short text communication
channels, the long text communication channels, and the photo communication
channels.
Short text communication channels - LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
Long text communication channels - blogs, forums
Photo communication channels - Instagram, Pinterest
Not all the social media platforms are suitable for every organization and therefore a
thorough assessment needs to be carried out by the decision makers of the
organization regarding the relevance and the choice of the platforms that they choose
to connect with their present and potential customers. The image included below
provides a measure of the degree of relevance that the social media channels hold for
the corporate organizations.

The above image indicates that social networks and video sharing platforms are the
most effective channels for social media communication and for carrying out
marketing activities. The photo sharing platforms also have great reach and can help
the organization in connecting with a large number of customers in a convenient way.
Social media in hospitality
The global hospitality industry is facing a tough competition and this has resulted in
forcing the organizations to develop innovative marketing strategies but not only
provide them a competitive advantage but also help them in growing in a sustainable
manner. In the hospitality industry, the social media tools are implemented to achieve
two objectives(Pindoriya, 2015).
The first objective or the business strategy of the organizations by embracing the
social media platforms is that of content creation. The deployment of this business

strategy can help the organization in targeting the market segment and creating
content that allows the organization to communicate if the values and vision of the
company. In addition to communicating the business goals of the organization, the
content creation strategy also allows the firms operating in the hospitality industry to
understand the needs of the customers and serve them better. The social media
channels provide these organizations and interesting platform to communicate and
engage with their customers by reaching out to them(Hiton, 2017).
The primary objective of content creation through the social media platforms is to
provide the customers extra value in terms of knowledge and emotions. When the
organizations share useful information regarding their operations and organizational
decisions, they are able to create knowledge based content for their target market.
Providing additional information to the customers can help in influencing their
decision making process when making a purchase and availing services from any
organization in the hospitality industry. The emotional value through content creation
is achieved by connecting with the customers through feelings and emotions in a
simpler way. This may include creating advertising campaigns that have the
customers relate themselves to the brand or sharing images that generate a positive
sentiment and motivates the customers(Perkins, 2014).
The content marketing strategy for the organization makes use of social media as a
channel for indirect marketing by helping the customer in making the choice and
build the brand image. Content marketing is the process that generates results in the
long-term and does not immediately impact the marketing strategies of the

organization. Most of the top organizations operating in the hospitality industry
integrating social media marketing for the development of strategy that incorporates
this platform and impacts the performance and the growth of the organization.
Although it is a new trend, it is gaining massive popularity as it allows the
organizations to communicate with the large audience at a relatively lower cost and at
a much faster rate. It is predicted that this integration of social media in the marketing
strategies of the organizations will only increase in the hospitality sector with most of
the customers becoming tech savvy and looking at these sources to not only make the
decision related to purchase but also gather information which may influence the
future decision making for them(Gehrels, Wienen, & Mendes, 2016).
Discussion
Current situation in social media marketing for Hilton Hotels
The organization does not only create and publish the content of their own but also
solicits pictures and posts from their users which ensures a higher degree of
engagement and also motivates the people to constantly stay connected and share the
content that is worthy in the wish to get feature on their page. In addition to this, the
organization also connect with other organizations which helps in mutual promotion
and exposes both of them to new people who can turn into potential customers for
them. The image below comprises of an analysis of the engagement level of people on
the various social media platforms for the page of Hilton hotels(Cognizant, 2015).

It can be observed through this chart that Instagram is the most common platform that
invites a large number of visits for the organization. For every post by the
organization, they receive more than 1000 engagements as per the given chart. Since
Instagram is a mobile centric application, it provides greater accessibility and ease of
usage to the customers. Hilton hotels regularly post engaging content on all the social
media pages to ensure that their brand always stays on top of the mind for their
customers. Since the people generally have a higher engagement rate for the images,
we generally create content that is visually powerful and is made available especially
during Fridays and Saturdays that report greater views by the customers(Manalo,
2014).
For amplifying the messages that conveyed by the organization through their images
and posts made on the social media platforms, they also make use of celebrities as
influencers to further enhance the reputation of the brand. The organization has a
social media strategy that is platform centric and they also make use of hashtags

which provide a simple way for the customers to remember the brand. The strategies
implemented by the organization make use of these hashtags to keep the users tied
and also for keeping an easy track of the popularity and reactions of the people related
to the organization and the brand image. In addition to content creation by the
managers and the decision makers of the organization, they also run contests on the
online pages to engage the current followers and to generate a greater following by
attracting new people towards the organization and their social media pages(Team,
2014). This contest not only increase the visibility of the brand but also encourage the
people to talk about the organization which is the ultimate aim of the social media
strategy built by the organization. Hilton Hotels provide greater value to the people
following their social media pages by publishing information that is unique and
compelling to read. The interesting content posted by the organization attracts the
people and also increases the knowledge fulfilling the dual purpose of the social
media strategy.
Suggested social media strategy
Although the social media strategy of Hilton hotels is already generating a high
degree of engagement and responsiveness from their followers, there are a few
changes and suggestions that are offered to them which can take the organization to
next level in strategizing and planning their social media marketing activities. The
engagement and the usage of the social media platforms among the people are
increasing day by day and it is only expected to grow in the near future. It is time that
the organizations take actions with regard to the consumer preferences and take the
necessary actions to further improve their game in social media strategy building and
implementation(Russell, 2010).

It is observed that short videos are being increasingly created and shared by the
individuals and their popularity has skyrocketed in the recent years. The videos elicit
a greater degree of engagement as compared to any other content shared on the social
media platform pages by the organizations. Therefore, Hilton Hotel should also create
video content in the form of stories on Facebook and Instagram and share them to
keep the audience engaged and link them with the already implemented strategy of
the company so that the users are hooked and further move towards selecting them as
the preferred option for accommodation when traveling. Almost all the organizations
run customer service centers by employing people who help in providing support and
answering the queries of the customers who tried to reach the organization through
the phone. Since these customer service agents were hired at an external location, the
possibilities of human error in the service support process were increasingly high.
Chatbots are the latest innovations in the customer service industry which help the
organizations in for the improving the experience provided to the guests. The chatbots
are the software applications that can stimulate conversation just like humans and can
carry out customer service by acting as an agent. This not only allows you
organizations to provide service round the clock but also ensure a consistent and more
efficient delivery of the support services that help in keeping the customer satisfied
and building lasting relationships with them by gratifying them and solving all the
queries by providing the required support without consuming much time and
resources(Varakas, 2017).

The budget decided for the social media promotional activities and the maintenance of
the pages should be dedicated and revise on a regular interval since these are the
channels that are highly desired in the market and also provide good returns on
making knowledgeable and well thought out investments. Hilton Hotel should also
explore the latest social media platforms and if necessary the organization can create
pages to continue with this purpose of engagement with the customer and to promote
the organization by running campaigns on these channels. Mobile the traditional
social media platforms are already providing a good return and are helping the
organization in engaging and generating the required buzz around the brand, they can
also explore the messaging applications and platforms which may help the
organization in providing a more personalized experience to their guests and
incorporating these platforms in the website and other social media channels you can
also help the organization in providing better service and convenience to their
customers(McCarthy, Stock, & Verma, 2010).
While continuing in their endeavor to strategically use celebrity endorsements, the
organization can also connect with famous bloggers and association leaders who can
also act as influencers in the decision making process for the customers and for the
organization to influence their followers with the help of their own content platforms.
The ephermal content shared by the organization on the social media channels are the
posts and the images that are only available for up to 24 hours and disappear after
that. This form of engagement is quick and attracts a lot of use and responses from
their followers. Making use of this in addition to augmented reality can also allow the
organization to target the younger audience which is technologically more advanced
and interact in a very different way as compared to the older generations. Since this

generation already grew up with mobile phones and internet connection, their process
and speed of making the purchase decisions are very different as compared to the
previous generations and as their entering the workforce they are soon going to
become the target market that you are organizing and will have to focus on. By
developing and incorporating strategies that are already built around keeping them
attracted, engaged and satisfied can help the organization in continuing with their
reputation and the brand name in the coming years(Lanz, 2010).

Conclusion
This report is compiled to analyse the social media strategy currently implemented by
the Hilton hotels and its effectiveness. After the detailed evaluation a new social
media strategy is suggested for the organization to help them and tapping the potential
and attracting more customers by utilizing social media platforms and their immense
potential. Hilton Hotels and Resorts is a private organization operating in the
hospitality industry with the flagship brand of Hilton providing services to the
customers through the hotels and resorts located all over the world. Currently
operational in more than 570 locations, there hotels and resorts are spread across 85
countries in 6 continents. Hilton hotel has developed an effective social media
strategy that allows them to engage with their customers and has garnered a number
of followers for them. They make use of
, twitter and Instagram to constantly connect with their followers and post relevant
content to keep them engaged. Although the social media strategy of Hilton hotels is
already generating a high degree of engagement and responsiveness from their
followers, there are a few changes and suggestions that are offered to them which can
take the organization to next level in strategizing and planning their social media
marketing activities