The effectiveness of social media marketing as a branding tool for hoteliers

Abstract

The internet revolution has shifted business practices into a more complex and interactive manner through the development of Web 2.0 applications. As time goes by, businesses in particular the hospitality industry has acknowledged the importance of using social networking sites to drive their branding strategies online, enabling easier access to target audience and generate brand equity through selected platforms. Both academic and non-academic sources support my research study, however a gap in the literature was identified due to lack of information focusing on the Maltese hospitality industry on related subject. The main aim of this dissertation is to discover business practices adopted within the Maltese hospitality industry and reveal the effectiveness and degree of significance in using social media marketing to drive potential branding strategies adopted by hoteliers. Main findings from selected sampling within the hospitality industry suggest that social media marketing is effective in driving the corporate branding strategy, but high graded hotels tend to employ more online branding practices through social media marketing over low graded hotels. Findings also indicate the importance of synchronized efforts in online and traditional marketing, especially in targeting the locals.