You monitor your hotel’s social accounts: logging into Facebook, Twitter and Instagram faithfully to see what type of feedback visitors have posted on your pages, but is it enough?  What are your fans (and critics) saying about you behind your back? 

When considering your social efforts – social monitoring and social listening are often used interchangeably but there are subtle differences between the two that can make a big difference in learning what is being said about your brand.

Social Monitoring:  The practice of monitoring online conversations about a specific phrase, word, or brand. It looks at individual messages coming in across your channels.

Vs

Social Listening:  Is more of a proactive approach to social media.  It examines what is being said in online conversations around your brand. This practice allows you to see what the online community is saying ABOUT you, rather than TO you.

When it comes to social listening, the expression, “I wish I could have been a fly on the wall for that conversation!”  Is what immediately comes to mind.

Hotels can take that fly on the wall approach to watch people’s feedback, questions, conversations or comments in order to discover opportunities and create interesting content for those audiences. Remember, these are social opportunities that are not using the @ sign for your property’s social media page or tagging you directly.

Why is social listening important?

Social Listening helps to:

• Spark new conversation
• Provides awareness
• Identify social media champions and social influencers
• Builds brand exposure
• Helps find customer support or sales opportunities you may have previously missed

Social listening also assists in preventing negative reviews of your property by those guests who may not feel their needs are being addressed. 

When done right, the combination of social monitoring and social listening can offer engagement opportunities that can help turn a social conversation between strangers into loyal fans and guests who tell all their friends how great your property is. All because you took that fly on the wall approach to social media.

Source: http://www.4hoteliers.com/features/article/10105