For over 59 years, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has been dedicated to perfecting the travel experience through continued innovation and the highest standards of hospitality. With a global reach that expands 111 hotels and resorts, 39 residential properties in major city centres and resort destinations in 47 countries, the brand social media channels serve as a singular representation of the Four Seasons experiences across the globe. The brand Facebook page is regarded as an extension of the on-property experience into the digital space, providing a glimpse into the experience that the brand is most known for at each of its properties.
The brand's goal in social and in particular, Facebook, is to offer Four Seasons followers a personal experience that fuels their desire to connect with the world and our people on a deeper level. Through Facebook, the brand is able to connect with a global audience base and create brand advocates and foster relationships with past, current and future guests, sharing new experiences and services offered by the brand. The Facebook page acts as a medium in which to reflect to consumers the principles and brand values that are at the core of everything Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts does.
Through innovative media formats, real-time guest response, breath-taking photography, and rich storytelling copy that celebrates people around the world, the brand is able to instantly transport the audience to uniquely Four Seasons moments and extend the unparalleled service for which the brand is known.
| Four Seasons remains one of the most engaged luxury hotel brands on Facebook and employs a diverse range of strategies and tactics to keep audience interactions increasing across the platform. To create an engaging Facebook presence, all content is vetted through an internal process that scores its quality based on Four Seasons brand DNA pillars. These pillars include creative concepts such as ensuring the content is sensorial, evocative, and includes a strong sense of a place. All content should reflect a distinctly Four Seasons experience that is instantly recognizable among competitors. Content is often user-generated (UGC), managed through a strong partnership between the Olapic moderation system, the brand, and world-wide properties. To source this content, the brand works closely with the moderation platform to pull posts that mention Four Seasons and/or Four Seasons properties. The visual content is the top priority, ensuring it is "thumb-stopping" and ensuring the audience sees and engages with it. The Facebook page also supports the online brand magazine, Four Seasons Magazine. Working closely with Four Seasons content partners, the brand shares teaser content that drives users to a full experience on the website. To engage further with the audience, Facebook copy is concise and compelling, further transporting the audience into the exact moment represented. This copy often includes a call to action or poses a specific question to users. The brand shares compelling content to Facebook 7-10 times per week and actively engages with comments, mentions, and tags throughout the day. Specific content themes and recurring series are created around historically top performing Facebook content that supports Four Seasons messaging. Creating ownable hashtags that showcase a specific aspect of a Four Seasons experience, such as #WakeUpWithFS, helps the audience picture themselves waking up at different properties around the world, and encourages guests to create and share this type of content on Facebook. Paid tactics are also employed to amplify the reach of individual Facebook posts. Using an "always-on" engagement strategy, top performing content is promoted to a targeted audience to reach consumers at all stages of the marketing funnel. Different audience sets are targeted, including lifestyle audiences with demographics aligned with the Four Seasons customer, custom audiences comprised of email lists, website visitors and purchasers, and past Facebook engagers as well as look-a-likes. Four Seasons actively pursues relationships with influencers across the globe, offering influencer hosted stays in exchange for content. In addition to property stays, the Four Seasons corporate team leads organized influencer trips and accommodations for increased brand reach and content creation for underrepresented programming. Leveraging influencer relations, the Four Seasons team is able to create social-first content for Facebook. |
Throughout 2018, Facebook proved to be an effective medium for Four Seasons to tell meaningful brand stories. Implementing these strategies on Facebook allowed the brand to create stronger relationships with their audience and facilitate meaningful connections to different cultures throughout the world.
This storytelling and content-first approach throughout 2018 resulted in growth across followers and engagements. In 2018, Four Seasons follower growth was +146,117 from 2017. With this increase in fans and followers, average monthly interactions grew to 997,673 with an average of interactions per post at 34,501. For the year, Four Seasons total Facebook reactions sit at 11,814,282.
