Increasing global engagement of qualified fans in target demographics was the goal behind Hilton Hotel & Resorts' strategic campaign to achieve 1 million likes on Facebook. Hilton reached its goal this month and became the first hotel brand to do so.
Through its strategy for Facebook promotion, Hilton targeted its key demographics.
"By engaging qualified fans through wide-reaching targeting of users who like travel-related interests, we were able to reach an audience who already expressed an interest in hospitality," said John Forrest Ales, Senior Director, Global Brand Public Relations, Hilton Hotels & Resorts. "Not only did we seek out these qualified fans, we were able to also focus our efforts on target countries and regions where Hilton has a strong brand recognition and presence. By reaching these qualified fans, we are in a strong position to grow loyalty and create relationships that provide value to the individual Facebook users and give us unique insight into the expectations of our guests and how we can best meet their needs."
Additionally, Hilton reached qualified fans in target countries through translation of content into local languages and ensuring culture and regional accuracy.
"Being a global brand with properties in 80 countries gives us great advantages," said Ales. "Our global page has become a valuable channel for conversations about hotels, regions, openings, news and promotions, and showcases our position as a global hospitality leader. With every activity, we operate with a global mind and a local perspective. On Facebook, this translates to connecting with a global audience while also sharing local content that resonates with different regions around the world. We accomplish this in a variety of ways including: posting during hours when Facebook users in a specific geographic area will be most likely to engage to using local language and thinking strategically about feeder markets and travel patterns. Our properties do a tremendous job of sharing information with us in local languages and alerting us to cultural nuances, seasonal activities and other items that are authentic to their locations."
Earlier this year, Hilton also launched Mexico and U.K. specific pages through the Facebook global pages structure.
"This helps us connect more directly with travelers in these priority markets for us," said Ales. "Region-specific pages enable us to further tailor our content to ensure it is targeted directly to these users. We localize select posts by geo-targeting certain regions or fans depending on the type of news that we are posting, and share news in Spanish and Portuguese for the Mexico page. These pages provide great opportunities for us to show both our relevance in the region and the exciting things happening in destinations most visited by travelers originating from those markets."