As tourism is one of the major industries in the Sultanate hotels should be at the forefront as it can give them global exposure but also precious feedback.
Nowadays being on Facebook is a must for nearly all businesses but what makes a FB page a great page? How do you stand out from the competition?
Firstly what they say it’s true; content is king. By providing great content people will come and stay on your page, they will comment, provide feedback and feel like VIPs.
Secondly, I firmly believe a successful fan page should be graphically appealing to potential "likers", a bit like mine in terms of having a welcome page and other customised tabs..;).
Lastly a page should offer incentives, specials as well as having contests and polls for the fans to keep coming back. If you think that a page is great simply because it is “liked” by many people than look at this previous post I wrote sometime back.
Whether your objective is to provide better customer service, launch a new product or build a community around your brand then your Facebook page must be impeccable by providing the right balance between written and visual communication.
Having briefly mentioned that let's go back to the hotels in Oman; generally they should all improve their pages one way or another, whether in terms of page customisation, vanity URL, info, multimedia, news on happenings, etc. Let's see in details:
My favourite hotel in Muscat. The page should be updated more often with so much going on within the hotel. The hotel and surrounding areas are so beautiful that including a few video clips would make the page stunning. Interaction with the fans is good.
Number of Likers: 1,880
Another fantastic hotel. Again good interaction but news and info should be given more often. All outlets are pretty much covered and given the same space and importance. The page could do with customisation.
Number of Likers: 3,195
One of the most updated pages, the people behind it are doing a fine job in letting their fans know about the latest events and activities. Not much else is there in terms of customisation or multimedia.
Number of Likers: 690
Very similar to the Crowne Plaza in terms of sending messages to the community but nothing else.
Number of Likers: 612
They are trying in terms of customisation but the result is poor as their welcome page does not fit within the page width and therefore it just looks bad. Most of their news in about the Sama Terrazza, isn’t there anything else going on within the hotel?
Number of Likers: 535
All comments are from fans and spammers; the last comment from the hotel itself is dated June 2009. They even have spelling mistakes in their info tab. Very poor page considered how beautiful the hotel is, it should be closed immediately.
Number of Likers: 417
Very little info given to fans; it should be a buzzy page as it is one of the top hotels in Sohar.
Number of Likers: 323
Nice page, plenty of events and activities however when i left comments there they were immediately removed. The page owner told me that they do not allow people to comment (what's the point then???!!!)! So don't get upset when your comments will be removed.
Number of Likers: 465
The latest hotel to open in Oman; just about two months ago and it played a very important part in Second Asian Beach Games. The page is new but fairly good with latest happenings, photos and a video. Just not sure about the “welcome” and “Promotions” pages.
Number of Likers: 216
An average page with ongoing updates. Lacks of customisation and multimedia. They should make an effort as the hotel is stunning.
Number of Likers: 404
Very good page, definitely the most complete of all. A part from the “Special Offer” page which does not work everything else is there; photos, videos, news, reviews and interaction. Well done!
Number of Likers: 1,174
I did not include other hotels’ pages like the Salalah Marriott Resort, the Ramada, the Hotel Muscat Holiday, Ibis Muscat, Crowne Plaza Resort Salalah and others as they either don’t have a page (but groups or personal profiles instead) or the page is “dead”.
I believe there is a big opportunity here for hotels to use Facebook in more creative ways especially for promotions, discounts, giveaways, etc. As this social platform is still fairly new as a communication tool I have no doubts that soon they will all have great pages.
Of course, for any help feel free to get in touch...:)
Thank you for The Chedi review. As the person in charge of The Chedi Facebook development page I greatly appriciate you taking the time to visit the page and comment!
ReplyDeleteThanks Anon from The Chedi, just trying to be helpful. Any feedback from you guys is more than welcome.
ReplyDeleteDear Oman Collective Intelligence
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your review, it is always helpful to get the views of the community. Any feedback is welcome and I shared your comments with the team - so watch our facebook page in the future, it will be even better!
As a company we work on a solution together with facebook to ensure we get maximum content and communication accros to our 'fans'; but until the new features are launched it will still take some time.
Do let us know if you have any other recommendations or if we can be of assistance.
Best regards,
Christoph Franzen
General Manager
P.S.: We are very proud to see that we have a strong 'fan base'!
Hi Christoph, thanks for stopping by, does not happen every day to have a GM commenting here and that shows already how active you're on social media. It's good to know that you and the team are looking into it in order to improve you're already very good page. We will all be looking forward to seeing what the Grand Hyatt will come up with; you have now raised this community curiosity.
ReplyDeleteHello OCI, thanks for the notification and suggestions.. We are looking at being revamping some of the page and become more interactive.
ReplyDeleteKeeep up the good work!
Ronny.
Crowne Plaza Muscat