The social media strategy aims to increase Airbnb's following across platforms by making interactions more personal. Two main strategies are dedicating more time to customer responses and creating unique content. Objectives include increasing video content by 20% and post replies by 40% in six months. Key performance indicators will measure new followers, post reach and engagement, and unique visits. The roles, tools, timing of key events, and response plans are also outlined. Measurement will focus on increasing conversion rates through more active engagement on social media.

1. S O C I A L M E D I A S T R AT E G Y
A D R I E N N E F L E M I N G
1 9 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7

2. TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
1. Executive Summary
2. Social Media Audit
3. Social Media Objectives
4. Online Brand Persona and Voice
5. Strategies and Tools
6. Timing and Key Dates
7. Social Media Roles and Responsibilities
8. Social Media Policy
9. Critical Response Plan
10. Measurement and Reporting Results

3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our major social media priorities for 2017 will be to increase our following across all
major social media platforms.
The main goal will be to make all online interactions more personal in order to connect
more fully with our audience. We hope to increase the conversion rate for unique visitors
as a result.
Two major social strategies will support this objective:
1. Dedicate more time and energy in responding to customer concerns, compliments,
questions, etc. online.
2. Create more unique content that encourages new users to follow Airbnb on social
media.

4. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT
Social Media Assessment: Instagram is one of Airbnb’s most important channels. We see the
most interaction through this platform. Twitter and Facebook are also vital platforms with a
decent amount of reach. LinkedIn, however, has not been as valuable to the company
Traffic Assessment: While Facebook drives the most traffic, Instagram has a higher
conversion rate. We must look into increasing the conversion rate for Facebook because a lot
of social interactions are occurring there.

5. SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT
Audience Assessment: A large portion of the audience is under 40 years of age and they use
Facebook and Instagram the most. However, Twitter remains a valuable platform. The main
motive for using Airbnb is to find affordable lodging. Secondary motives consist of a desire to
travel and explore new places.
Competitor Assessment: Airbnb’s competitors have had trouble obtaining the same amount of
reach and engagement. However, they are strong in the area of content creation and personal
touches.

6. SOCIAL MEDIA OBJECTIVES
The main goal of our social media strategy will be to retain more followers by placing a
high priority on engaging with current and prospective customers. We want our
conversion rate to increase as our following continues to grow. We hope that by
generating more unique content that this will be a possibility.
Specific objectives include:
1. Increase volume of video content by 20% across all three major platforms: Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter.
2. Increase number of post replies by 40% in six months by hiring two new social media
assistants to manage customer engagement.
3. Respond to users within 24 hours, making efforts to personalize replies and move
away from automated responses.
KPIs: New followers each week, reach of posts, engagement on posts, number of unique
visits
Key Message: Anyone can belong anywhere, Don’t just travel, live

7. ONLINE BRAND PERSONA AND VOICE
ADJECTIVES THAT DESCRIBE OUR
BRAND:
• Accommodating
• Adventurous
• Caring
• Accepting
• Exciting
WHEN INTERACTING WITH
CUSTOMERS WE ARE:
• Responsive
• Engaging
• Friendly

8. STRATEGIES AND TOOLS
• Paid: Utilize Instagram carousel and video ads to reach customers searching for travel
accommodations and lodging. Boost the most popular Facebook post of the week
during prime viewing hours.
• Owned: Promote the hashtag #MyStay by encouraging those who use the company to
share pictures of their visits under the hashtag. All email correspondence and
reservations will include information about the hashtag. The top photos will be
reposted by Airbnb on a regular basis.
• Earned: Monitor Twitter for the keywords: travel, hotel, adventure, vacation and vacay.
Partner with prominent travel bloggers to have them develop unique video content for
the company. Offer discount codes to the influencers to use and share with their
followers.
TOOLS
• Approved: Hootsuite, Buffer
• Rejected: N/A
• Existing Subscriptions: Photoshop, Vimeo

9. TIMING AND KEY DATES
• Holidays: Travel plans increase drastically for many calendar holidays. Large spikes in
travel occur during Christmas time, New Years, Independence Day, Easter,
Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day. The weeks of spring break and the Fridays of
summer also show increases in travel plans.
• Internal Events: Dedicated to promoting the idea anyone can belong anywhere.
Celebrating Diversity – March 3rd
We All Belong – May 24th
Come Together As One – September 1st
• Reporting Dates: Reporting will occur on the last day of each quarter.
1 January 1 through March 31
2 April 1 through June 30
3 July 1 through September 30
4 October 1 through December
31

10. SOCIAL MEDIA ROLES AND
RESPONSIBILITIES
• Social Media Director: Jasmine Atherton
• Responsibilities: Oversees social media department, generates brand awareness, plays key
role in content creation
• Social Media Manager: Paul Jeszenszky
• Responsibilities: Sets marketing goals and monitors success, manages content, creates buzz
for new services and features
• Social Media Coordinator: Jennifer Yuen
• Responsibilities: Attracts new customers, responds to customers across all platforms,
schedules content

11. SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY
• Airbnb is, at its core, an open community dedicated to bringing the world closer together
by fostering meaningful, shared experiences among people from all parts of the world. Our
community includes millions of people from virtually every country on the globe. It is an
incredibly diverse community, drawing together individuals of different cultures, values, and
norms.
• The Airbnb community is committed to building a world where people from every
background feel welcome and respected, no matter how far they have traveled from home.
This commitment rests on two foundational: inclusion and respect. Our shared
commitment to these principles enables every member of our community to feel welcome
on the Airbnb platform no matter who they are, where they come from, how they worship,
or whom they love.
• Social Media Guidelines:
- Treat everyone on and offline with respect and kindness.
- Aim to be helpful and courteous to all customers.
- Never speak poorly of the competition.
- Seek to resolve problems in an efficient manner.

12. CRITICAL RESPONSE PLAN
SCENARIO 1
An inappropriate tweet was sent out
through Airbnb’s official Twitter.
- Screenshot the tweet and delete
immediately.
- Notify the Social Media Director and
evaluate the reach of the tweet.
- Take necessary action to apologize to
users and remind followers that the
tweet did not reflect Airbnb’s values.
- Take disciplinary action against
employee who posted the tweet.
No preapproved message in this scenario.
The follow-up message will be
determined based on the nature of the
tweet.
SCENARIO 2
A guest finds a host to be very
unwelcoming and takes to social media to
complain.
- Reach out to the unhappy guest and
apologize for their negative experience.
- Publicly apologize in response to any
negative mentions on social media.
- Based on severity of complaints, a free
or discounted future service.
- Take necessary action against host to
ensure future stays will not be
problematic.
No preapproved message in this scenario.
The response will be determined based
on the severity of the situation.

13. MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING
RESULTS
• Quantitative KPIs
• Assessment: Airbnb aimed to increase their conversion rate by being more active and
engaging on their social media platforms. They succeeded by posting with greater
frequency and creating more unique content

14. MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING
RESULTS
• Qualitative KPIs
• Sentiment Analysis:
- Followers have responded positively to the increased customer engagement on social
media.
- Customers are largely happy with the services and prices the company offers.
- The biggest source of complaints and concerns are unhappy hosts
- Proposed Action Items
- Continue responding to mentions across all platforms
- Continue sharing pictures posted by travelers
- Promote the #MyStay campaign
- Uphold dedication to inclusiveness and respect in all future matters