Businesses are coming up with more creative ways to harness the power of social media platforms and engage with consumers as they promote their brand.
One example is the world’s first “Instagram hotel” located near Sydney’s Darling Harbour. That’s right — the 1888 Hotel in Pyrmont allows Instagram users with more than 1000 followers to stay for free.
The 1888 Hotel opened last July and has extended its Instagram campaign until the end of the year. The promotion shows that businesses are now rewarding individuals with influential social media profiles in an effort to bandwagon on their online popularity and achieve a commercial benefit.
American businesswoman and digital marketing expert Randi Zuckerberg told the World Business Forum in Sydney last week that social media had dramatically changed the behaviour patterns of young people. More and more people were addicted to “logging” and sharing their lives with friends through social networking platforms.
“Over 50 per cent of teenagers feel that if they don’t document a moment of their life online, they have wasted that moment. They would rather not even have that moment in their life if they can’t document it,” she said.
This trend has significant applications for business. Every year cutting edge devices are developed allowing people to log and share their experiences in new ways. Ms Zuckerberg outlined devices users attach to themselves to take photos every 15 to 30 seconds of the day while other applications count down the minutes left in your life.
However, the growth in so-called “life-logging” offers new opportunities for conventional businesses too. The 1888 Hotel is owned by hotel operator, 8Hotels, and has sought to cash in on the current “selfie” taking trend.
Until December, those with more than 10,000 followers on photo-sharing site Instagram will be allowed one night’s accommodation for free. Guests are encouraged to take photos of the hotel and post them on Instagram where they are displayed on Mac computers in the reception area. Each month the person who took the best photo is given a free night’s accommodation. In addition, there is also a “selfie” taking space in the lobby where guests can take pictures standing behind an empty frame.
The General Manager at 1888 Hotel, Andrew Adams-Smith, told Dynamic Business the campaign had proved very effective. “In 1888 Kodak invented the roll film and as you know pictures have morphed from the roll film through to Instagram,” he said. “In respect to the Instagram promotion, it’s been much more successful than we anticipated.
“It started pretty much when the hotel opened which was July last year,” he said.
“The original of the Instagram promotion was six months. We extended it a little while ago up to December this year.
“We’ve been called the first Instagram hotel in the world…. This is just a new way of making people aware of the great product that we have.”
