Most hospitality entrepreneurs would argue that the sole purpose of social media is to drive bookings.

While often dismissed as vanity metrics, views and engagement are crucial pieces of the puzzle as well.

The balance between all of these metrics sparked a question the other day:

“Is the main goal of social media to get more bookings (a revenue metric) or is it focusing on views/ engagement (more of a vanity metric)? Do they go hand-in-hand?”

The goldmine lies in how bookings, views and engagement intertwine…

Let’s start with why social media matters for hotels.

When done right, it has the power to drive loads of direct bookings.

Putting that aside for a second…

Social media offers a more immersive way for guests to engage with your property before booking.

When compared to OTAs, social allows guests to:

• Visually engage with the property

• Share with their friends and loved ones

• Envision their stay and experience at your property

…getting them excited and into your ecosystem.

That's the secret sauce: building an audience you can consistently feed engaging content to. You don’t get one listing page to “wow” them, you get a relationship to nurture over time.

The Cliffs at Hocking Hills crushes this, 645k Instagram followers, feeding them inspiring weekly content so they are top of mind the next time a guest is booking a getaway.

How exactly “vanity metrics” play a role in your social media focus:

The holy grail of social media–1,2,3+ million views on a single reel.

A home run for most creators, but from a hotel's perspective it looks a little different.

(though still a homerun)

We like to look at viral posts as the very top of the funnel for our social media content.

A killer post “gets people in the door” of your account, introduces people to your property and builds your credibility.

If people see your follower count growing and your reels getting traction, their willingness to follow you skyrockets. It hints to them that you are building something special.

And of course, these posts bring an initial bump in bookings–often tens of thousands in room revenue.

But those aren’t the only bookings that matter…

The lion share of bookings come after the new followers are in your ecosystem.

Hotels and unique stays have to play the long game on social media.

Most people aren’t booking a getaway on a whim like they might make a knee-jerk purchase when they see a new shirt they have to have.

That’s good news for us.

We aren’t reliant on the sole performance of one reel to drive revenue. If a post doesn’t go viral, it’s not as detrimental as it might be in other industries.

We are focused on nurturing the relationship.

Once they are “in the door" of your account, consistent posting allows us countless chances to help them visualize what staying at your property will look like.

The moment they are ready to book– we are right there on their feed.

Putting them just a few clicks away from booking.

If we were reliant on OTAs they would have to: remember our property name, attempt to find us with the filters and scroll through all of our competition to actually book their stay.

There was another part of the question we forgot to mention.

“If one type of reel keeps bringing in bookings, is that a win, even if the content feels repetitive?”

These are the questions that we should be asking.

Using social media to drive bookings in hospitality is relatively new.

Unlike industries such as ecommerce– there aren’t thousands of hours of content and countless articles showing us what has worked.

We are all figuring it out.

So, here are our thoughts…

Yes and no.

Don't hold back on creating viral content - that's your gateway drug. It pulls people into your social funnel and lands them right in your ecosystem.

It doesn’t matter if it looks similar or feels repetitive.

A low double digit percentage of your following on Instagram actually gets shown your reels.

So when they do see it, they probably won’t realize that it’s similar to other reels you have posted in the past.

That being said–

It’s important to mix in a wide variety of posts (even if they don’t go viral) to give followers new types of content to share and engage with.

You never know what piece of content will connect with someone and get them to book (or share it with a friend who ends up booking).

Virality, engagement and bookings truly go hand in hand.

Viral posts get people into the door of your account, both getting you an initial bump in bookings as well as giving you a larger following to cultivate into future guests.

But they aren’t the exclusive driver of bookings for your property. Connecting with your audience through a wide variety of content increases your odds of turning your followers into guests.