RESEARCH ON USAGE OF NEW MARKETING TOOL SOCIAL MEDIA IN HOTEL FIRMS: RIXOS HOTEL CHAIN

Abstract

The more and more people tend to use the Internet and web tools because of the developing technology and Internet. One of the most important of these tools is social media, a new virtual media that users express themselves and connected with other users. This new media results in the new marketing approach that called as social media marketing and based on interactive participation of consumers. Social media content created by the user or firm has impact on the purchasing decisions of consumers. Therefore, the quantity of spoken and what is spoken about product/service in social media becomes important for firms as well as consumers. Since tourism sector offered the intangible services to consumer, in tourism sector it is important to have social media with quality of visual contents for traveler to have a positive impact before their trip. For that reason, the key objectives of the paper are to examine the application of hotel firms in Instagram that photo-based social media tool and to analyze whether is there any difference or not in photo preferences of a chain hotel operating in different regions. The official Instagram accounts and postings of International Chain Hotels Rixos Group between 20-30 April 2016 was examined by using visual content analysis technique. In this context, chi-square test was performed to reveal the relationship between posting numbers, follower number, followed user number, average number of like and average number of comment of hotels operating under Rixos Hotel Chain and operating in Turkey and abroad. There is a statistically significant difference between F&B and hotel services themed photos according to Mann-Whitney U test that performed to reveal the differences between posted photos? themes that posted by Rixos Hotels operating in Turkey and abroad.