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Facebook for hostels

Internet Marketing

Yaron Burgin started this discussion 14 years 2 days ago

Hi.
I recently opened a FB page for our new hostel in Jerusalem http://www.facebook.com/Abraham.Hostels and I am curios regarding what other hostel managers do with FB:
Basically FB would like businesses to open a page and not a user, but I saw many hostels that have both.
- Do you plan different stuff for your hostel page and hostel user?
- How do you promote your FB page and get users?
- How much time are you investing in your FB presence? Do you have someone doing it for you? How many hours a week?

Looking forward to hearing your views and thoughts,
Byron

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Josh Hostels

14 years

- Do you plan different stuff for your hostel page and hostel user?
- How do you promote your FB page and get users?
- How much time are you investing in your FB presence? Do you have someone doing it for you? How many hours a week?

I would only use a page. The only advantage to a Facebook Profile is that your hostel can "like" other people's posts. A disadvantage is that people might become "friends" with the profile and not the page. Also, profiles are limited to 5000 friends; Pages have no limit.

I think it's best to post to the Facebook Page daily: photos of hostel events and the city, funny or interesting comments, questions that encourage interaction, as well as links to articles about the destination. If you have a blog, post links to new blog posts on Facebook. When people click "like" or leave a comment, the page spreads virally because the friends of your fans see it.

Also, adding a Facebook widget to the website can help...

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gordo

14 years

Videos and pictures push your FB 'ranking' up - that is, in peoples news feeds, pictures and videos are far more likely to appear than simple status changes or comments. Yes its important - as hostels said - to post regularly (which means daily unless you're a hostel in the wilderness). But its important not to post junk; a) people wont see it and b) they wont read it.

Even just posting funny videos from youtube helps - who doesnt love watching videos of crazy japanese game shows or kittens having seizures? If you have enough events on it, post info about it obviously, but FB posts dont have to be anywhere near as relevant to the hostel as the hostels website has to be. Have fun with FB and it should drive a bit of traffic to you.

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Icaruss

14 years

Have fun with FB and it should drive a bit of traffic to you.

Do people actually use facebook to find a hostel?

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Josh Hostels

14 years

Do people actually use facebook to find a hostel?

I don't think it's common to search Facebook for hostels at this time, but Facebook is the #1 website in the US. It's a chance to remind people that your hostel exists. If you post once per day day about all the cool things happening at your hostel/city it people will see it and remember your hostels name.

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balibali

14 years

Facebook has also recently implemented "Places" which you could try to promote your hostel.

How to get more fans?

- Add a like button to your website
- Ask your friends and family to like the page to get the ball rolling
- Use your facebook page link in your marketing
- Try to encourage people who stayed at your hostel to become fans
- Put up some signs in your hostel promoting your page, especially near your computers if you have them
- Offer free wifi to make it easy for people to become fans while they are staying at your place
- Link your FB to twitter

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Scotch Argus

14 years

I tend to see our facebook page as a method to communicate with people who have already stayed with us, and may wish to do so again. Mostly we just post pictures and a few local events. Personally I don't see the need to post every day - just make sure that your posts/ pictures/ videos are high quality things that people will be interested in. Not just posting for the sake of it.

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europegrad

13 years

Something that hostels should do is encourage their future guests to join their FB pages. In such pages, hostels could promote simple things (not even requiring an app) like threads where travelers can get in touch with people who are travelling there at the same dates/weeks.

It is a form to engage your costumers and, once you do that, you can also use Facebook to advertise tours you sell in your hostel, parties, partner offers etc.

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BenjaminYap

13 years

I am currently seeking a number of hostel managers who are interested in accepting bookings through their hostel's Facebook Page.
I have developed a new system (currently in testing) that integrates into Facebook that allows people to make online bookings with instant notification and no charges. There is also a simple Back Office system that is controlled from Facebook.

If this is something that would interest you then please get in touch or leave a message on this thread with any questions you may have.

Regards
Tom
W: http://www.jauntster.com
E: [EMAIL=[email protected]][email protected][/EMAIL]

Hi,

I am interested in accepting bookings through my hostel(s)'s Facebook Page.

Look forward to hear from you soon.

Kind Regards.

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