Social Media and Booking Engines: A Magic Combination?
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Mon, Oct 24, 2011
Social sharing has taken the eye of nearly every sales department in every industry. And now it’s starting to catch on with hotel social media booking engines. There are so many articles out there about the power of integrating social sharing into the purchasing process. Have you heard the story about how Nike encouraged its online shop users to share a link on Facebook that showcased the products they had just ordered? This was the easiest way to show off new buys to friends, but also gave Nike some free marketing.
Internet users just love Showing off their Purchases
The event-planning site Eventbrite recently highlighted a study that showed users were 40% likely to share information about upcoming events on Facebook before buying tickets, but after the purchase the number increased to 60% when the share button was places on the order confirmation page. The truth is, people just LOVE showing off! Do you think people would show off their hotel bookings through social media? The answer is yes.
Sharing Post-Booking Drives Sales Up a Further 20%
On top of those results, Eventbrite also found that a post-purchase share drove 20% more ticket sales than a pre-purchase share. What does this tell us? Buyers love to show off, and their peers feel a certain amount of envy. Some people may have thought this kind of behavior was relegated to the playground but it seems the playground is alive and well when it comes to adults and social media.
This method works for products, but it also works for accommodation and hotel bookings. After making a booking through a social sharing widget, users are far more likely to share that information and drive further bookings in doing so. The truth is, 30% of people making hotel bookings online will share with social media, which drives more traffic to the hotel website and drives further bookings.
Interested in getting started with social media booking engines and social sharing? It’s simple. Contact SiliconCloud today.
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