This document outlines Airbnb's proposed social media strategy for 2017. The objectives are to create more loyal brand ambassadors and grow their social media community by increasing engagement on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. The strategy involves campaigns to encourage sharing through hashtags, gathering customer stories, and using new features like Instagram stories and LinkedIn Publisher. Roles and a response plan are defined, and metrics like follower counts will be used to measure results.

1. social media strategy
Maria Vargas

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
➤ Executive summary 1
➤ Social media audit 2
➤ Social media objectives 3
➤ Online brand persona 4
➤ Strategies & tools 5
➤ Timing & key dates 6
➤ Roles & responsibilities 7
➤ Social media policy 8
➤ Critical response plan 9
➤ Measurement & Results 10

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our major social media focus for
2017 will be creating more loyal
brand ambassadors as well as
growing and strengthening our social
media community.
Strategies that will support this
objective:
➤ plan to create more engagement
on our social platforms
➤ encourage new followers and loyal
fan base

4. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT
below is an audit of airbnb’s social media presence up to today
social network url follower count average weekly activity
twitter https://twitter.com/Airbnb
573K average 10-12 posts/week
facebook https://www.facebook.com/
airbnb 5,222,437 average 8 posts/week
instagram
https://www.instagram.com/
airbnb/ 1.6m 14 pictures/week. 2/day
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/
company-beta/309694?
pathWildcard=309694
332,305 1-2/month

5. COMPETITORS
Strengths:
- cheaper
- solo travelers
- meet new people
Weaknesses:
- can only stay for short periods of time
- hard to get to know the person you are
staying with beforehand. Might not like host
Weaknesses:
- expensive
- shrinking market
Strengths:
- for families
- rent entire houses

6. SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES
➤ Demographics
Part of airbnb’s campaign this year is to be inclusive to everyone, so it’s
important that all of our social media reflects this.

7. ➤ Our primary focus this year is turning customers into loyal
brand evangelists who spread their love for airbnb to their
friends. Another focus is gaining new customers by showing
that airbnb is not just another hotel service, it’s an experience
➤ increase use of unique hashtags on all platforms
➤ create instagram campaign by gathering stories of airbnb
customers who had an outstanding experience with us and
sharing them via all social media platforms
➤ increase use of LinkedIn by using the new “Publisher”feature
SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES CONT.

8. ONLINE BRAND PERSONA & VOICE
adjectives that describe our brand…
when interacting with customers we are…
memorable
reliable
adventurous
community
friendly
excellent customer service
trusted

9. STRATEGIES AND TOOLS
Paid
During days of most traffic on hotel and airline website, pay
for boosted views on most popular organic posts
Owned
Increase the use of campaign-specific hashtags across all
platforms to encourage users to use the tag during their stays
with airbnb
Earned
Develop a campaign that interviews diverse airbnb customers
and share their stories and airbnb experiences

10. TIMING & KEY DATES
before holidays
people are more likely to book places to stay before key holidays including:
➤ winter holidays
➤ thanksgiving
➤ 3 day weekends
➤ spring break
➤ summer holidays
internal events
➤ winter holiday community giveback events
➤ mid summer travel tips events

11. ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES
marketing director
social media manager
social media coordinator
social ads support
customer support
social media intern

12. SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY
➤ provide outstanding customer service
➤ be respectful to all
➤ excellent engagement across all platforms
➤ stand with our company values
➤ when in doubt, ask
➤ have another pair of eyes revise before posting/scheduling
➤ keep it simple yet engaging and interesting
➤ be creative, innovative and fun

13. CRITICAL RESPONSE PLAN
➤ Scenario
inappropriate message sent through social media @airbnb is detected
screen shot delete alert social media manager/marketing manager
manager will then evaluate further action and develop the appropriate
followup message

14. MEASUREMENT & REPORTING RESULTS
social network url follower count average weekly activity
twitter https://twitter.com/Airbnb
+100,000 average 15 posts/week
facebook https://www.facebook.com/
airbnb +70,000 average 10 posts/week
instagram
https://www.instagram.com/
airbnb/ reached 2m 16 pictures/week. 2/day
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/
company-beta/309694?
pathWildcard=309694
+20,000 2/month
# hashtag campaign was successful and increased following
across all platforms, yielding higher numbers of interaction
and engagement especially on Instagram and Facebook

15. PROPOSED ACTION
PROPOSED ACTION
➤ continue hashtag and engagement campaigns
➤ publish gathered customer interview to create a campaign
featuring those stories
➤ explore snapchat and instagram stories; have a brand
ambassadors do live videos of most popular airbnb sites
➤ facebook live and twitter live chats for engagement