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Instagram Is Becoming a Popular Medium for Marketers (by Dayana Abundis)


As a college student, my financial situation does not allow me to stay at a midscale hotel for my personal vacations, needless to mention the luxury hotels. Every time when I need to book a hotel room, I tend to go for the cheapest option of all with a convenient location. 

When my family and I go on vacation, however, we have the opportunity to stay at a nice hotel that comes with great customer service and great amenities. Since my family does not take vacations very often, when we get the opportunity to plan a vacation, it is always a fun experience. I enjoy looking for hotels that will make our vacation fun and will guarantee that we have a great stay.  

For our upcoming vacation, I gathered some ideas from looking through my Instagram page. Not only does Instagram promote certain hotels through the sponsored section, but also many bloggers that I am following or those with the popular pages give me great recommendations of hotels, together with their experience with their stay.

Bloggers have become a great means for promotions, no matter if it is for makeup products, clothing, or even their experience at different hotels. Today, luxury hotels are paying bloggers to stay at their properties to promote their hotels through their Instagram pages. For example, 28 year old, Marianna Hewitt, a lifestyle blogger, enjoyed a nice stay at the Mulia Resort in Bali, Indonesia. She got paid to go on vacation while uploading pictures of the resort to her Instagram page. Many of Marianna’s followers obtain the opportunity to see what it is like for the blogger to stay at one of the most beautiful properties, and from what Marianna posted, consumers may develop curiosity and interest in the hotel, which enhance their likelihood of staying in the same hotel for their future vacations. 

I see hotels that do marketing through social media such as Instagram are trying to mainly target the Millennials and those individuals who loves to browse pictures online. Looking at the pictures on Instagram and seeing others visiting a nice property and describing their experience really helps these peoples' followers develop a strong connection with the property. 

In today’s society, almost every individual has a cellphone. Technology has improved dramatically throughout the years, making it very easy and common to do marketing on social media. According to, The Wire Magazine, Instagram has 90 million monthly active users, and out of those users they post 40 million photos a day and tap on 8,500 likes per second. Thus, it would be crazy if hotels do not want to invest their time and money on Instagram for marketing purposes. 

Do you believe that social media marketing will one day become the best way to get through consumers in the hospitality industry? Do you think Instagram is a great way to target consumers who are always on social media sites and that enjoy real life experiences from those they follow?

About the Author

Dayana Abundis is a senior at the California State Polytechnic University Pomona. She is expected to graduate in the winter of 2017 with a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management. She wants to work in the hotel industry or travel and tourism. After graduation, she hopes to work for big hotel chains such as Marriott. She enjoys traveling and meeting new people and going on adventures.

References

How Many Users Does Instagram Really Have After the Ad Scandal? (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2016, from http://www.thewire.com/technology/2013/01/how-many-users-does-instagram-have/61139/
Want a free stay at a luxury hotel? Build up your Instagram following. (2015). Retrieved April 15, 2016, from http://fortune.com/2015/07/01/instagram-luxury-resorts-free/
The picture was downloaded via a LinkedIn discussion

Comments

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