5 Reasons Why Social Media Training Is So Important in the South African Hospitality Industry

In any country, social media training is absolutely vital for social media managers and employees. The world of social media is an extremely public forum and news, both bad and good, spreads quickly and efficiently across and between these networks.

Here are 5 ways you can make sure your social media marketing is all it can be.

1. Online Reputation Management

Your company’s social media pages are seen as a reflection of your brand’s personality, reliability and ethics. It is vital that your pages maintain a professional tone and portray your business in a favourable light.

A small slip-up in this highly visible realm can quickly cause your company to lose face in the eyes of your consumers and can easily be used to the advantage of a quick-on-the-draw competitor. This is particularly true in the competitive world of hospitality in South Africa. 

Train a team of trusted employees to operate as a ‘social media response team’. This team should be taught how to respond to certain media crises accordingly. These can range from a slip of the tongue by the CEO to a poorly worded tweet by an employee.

It is vital that they are given adequate practice in a wide range of scenarios so that they can act quickly and effectively in any scenario. If your hospitality brand is too small to justify employing a team of respondents, you could enlist a professional social media and marketing service to do it for you, or assist in training a key staff member in this area.

2. Recruitment

Social media platforms such as LinkedIn provide access to a large pool of skilled people and a great resource for finding your next employee. 

Training your human resources manager in the use of these platforms to attract the best candidates to your hospitality business beats placing an ad in the local newspaper hands down.

3. Public Relations

Larger companies will do well to train a separate task team to handle that bugbear of the hospitality industry – customer complaints. A timeous and gracious response to any of your customers is imperative to manage your online reputation.

Likewise, responding to online queries, compliments and suggestions should be addressed by a fully trained individual or team who is well-versed in your company policy. 

These are areas where your brand’s personality and customer-centric ethic can really shine through. Make the most of them with fully trained, competent staff behind the keyboard when they arrive on your social media feed.

4. Sales 

In the same way that potential employees can be sought out on social media, these platforms also provide a vast network of qualified and interested customers.

Training your sales teams on how to seek out and engage with these potential leads can result in positive rewards. For example, have you ever thought of searching Facebook for people who are looking for game lodge recommendations in your area? It is possible with the correct social media training South Africa. 

If your sales staff are taught how to engage with these consumers effectively, social media can open up a world of leads for your hospitality business.

5. Product Launches and Promotions

Social Media Marketing is an excellent vehicle for putting special offers and product launches out there, or for publicising events. These aspects need a team of experts well-versed in the graphic design elements of the various social media platforms. 

They also need to be conversant with the different rules, specific to South Africa, regarding advertising on social media and know all about setting up hashtags and promoting posts to the right niche audience.

Sound Greek to you? Enlisting the help of a social media and marketing service is the way to go when it comes to these more sophisticated levels of social media interaction. 

With the correct training, your social media team could take your marketing campaigns to the place they need to be in the eyes of your customers, regular and new. 

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