With more than 300,000 fans and counting, Dusit Hotels & Resorts is way ahead of the local competition. What’s the secret to our success? We spoke to Svenja Gattinger, Assistant Director of Branding, and Lalita Somboonsuk, Social Media Manager, to find out…

In November 2016, the official Dusit Hotels & Resorts Facebook page had around 59,000 fans. Fast forward to November of this year, and that figure stands at 313,471 – a 500% increase! – and the figure just keeps on rising. It seems people can’t get enough of Dusit on Facebook. But what, exactly, is driving the growing fandom?

“Strategy, strategy, strategy,” says Svenja Gattinger, Dusit International’s Assistant Director of Branding. “It’s all about developing and following the right strategy. This starts with consistently posting high quality content – regularly – and artfully managing this content to ensure it reaches the right people, engages them, and converts them into brand advocates. ”

Developed in partnership with Bangkok-based social media agency Garçon Digital, overseen by Dusit’s marketing team, and skillfully managed by Lalita Somboonsuk, Dusit International’s Manager of Social Media (who personally responds to all comments on Facebook), Dusit’s strategy has seen the Dusit Hotels & Resorts Facebook page overtake the likes of Anantara (134K), Centara (85K) and Banyan Tree (71K), to officially make Dusit the most popular Thailand-based hospitality company on Facebook. And the marketing team is doing its best to ensure it stays that way.

“Through Facebook, we don’t just sell beds; we promote a lifestyle,” says Svenja. “Our aim is to always provide genuine value for our fans so that more people would like to follow us, learn about our brands and destinations, and that, when it comes to booking a hotel, Dusit is always top of mind.”

“Take a look at our Facebook feed and you’ll see that we don’t simply post promotions; we offer tips and recommendations about great places to visit and stay in each Dusit destination,” explains Lalita, who, since joining Dusit in November 2016, has been instrumental in the growth of the channel. “We focus on beautiful pictures that people want to share. We actively encourage our fan base to share through quizzes, games and competitions too. This compelling content allows us to interact with our fans and potential customers on a personal level. In turn, our fans get to know all about Dusit and our values. This makes our promotions, when we do post them, all the more effective, because people know and trust our brands.”

The impressive reach of Dusit’s Facebook fan page was highlighted recently via the Dusit Journey campaign, which invited members of the public to submit videos of their favourite local experiences in destinations where Dusit has a presence. Launched the first week of September, with posts in English, Japanese, Thai, Korean and Arabic, the campaign reached 2.5 million people, garnered 1.1 million views, and secured over 38k reactions, comments and shares in just one month. More than 40 videos were submitted, with free stays going to the best.

Another popular recent campaign was a competition linked to the first anniversary of dusitD2 Khao Yai. This saw Dusit’s fan base encouraged to post what they like best about the property, with the chance to win a free stay. A flurry of photographs and experiences shared by guests saw the campaign reach 62k people, and over 2.6k users actively engaged with the post.

“It’s important to note that we actively invest in Facebook and our other social channels to ensure they reach their full potential,” says Svenja. “While our posts certainly do well organically, strategic paid boosts to targeted markets are vital to the overall growth of our fan base and ensuring that we reach potential customers. Again, this is a strategy that is serving us well.”

Aside from reaching out to fans and potential customers with compelling content, another key area of Dusit’s social media operations is monitoring brand reputation.

“We work with a company called Brandwatch to constantly monitor and manage our brand reputation across all social media,” explains Lalita. “Not only does this help us to identify any potential issues that may arise at our hotels and resorts, with alerts set for specific keywords, but we can also identify potential brand advocates and acknowledge and reward them for their positive posts. The idea is they will then share more information about our hotels, telling the world how great Dusit is in the process.”

What works well for one channel, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean it will be the same across all social media.

“Our strategy takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of each social media channel, and we always adapt our approach and content to suit whichever platform we are using,” says Svenja. “Posts to our Instagram and Line accounts, for example, are specially tailored for maximum impact, and we are proud to see positive growth of each respective fan base.”

So what’s next in line for our social media efforts?

“Our overall goal is to continue growing all of our respective fan bases and successfully leverage each social media channel to enhance brand reputation and raise awareness of our properties worldwide,” says Svenja. “With our winning strategy and compelling content, we are confident the fans will continue to come. And we will always be ready to engage them.”