Calculating the cost of acquisition
As a growth lead, you look at every cost through the lens of acquisition. A social media manager is a fixed cost. You pay them whether they drive growth or not. If they don't produce, you lose money and time. When you hire someone, you need to be sure they can move the needle on your key performance indicators. Compare this cost against the efficiency of a managed content network, which is designed for volume and distribution.
The danger of relying on ads
Many hotel groups rely on paid ads to drive growth. This is expensive and the cost per acquisition is constantly rising. A social media manager might focus on organic, but they are limited by the capacity of one account. A managed network breaks this constraint. It allows you to distribute your content across many accounts. This strategy significantly lowers your cost per reach. It is a powerful tool to complement your paid ad strategy.
Using a network to scale
A managed content network, like one run by TIDE, allows you to scale your presence quickly. You don't have to hire more people to increase your volume. You just feed more content into the network. This gives you a scalable model that grows with your needs. If you have a new hotel property opening, you can easily add it to the rotation. This is the definition of a growth-oriented approach to social media.
Making the budget decision
Should you hire a person or build a network? If you have a need for deep social listening and high-touch customer support, hire a person. If you need massive top-of-funnel traffic and visibility, build a network. Most hotel groups need both. The smart move is to keep the human team small and focus your budget on distribution channels that scale. This way, you get the best of both worlds: human strategy and automated scale.
Focus your marketing spend on scalable distribution networks to drive growth and keep your cost per acquisition low.
See your network before you hire.
Tell us what your hotel group already makes and how you get customers today. We'll show you a real network running live and tell you honestly whether it fits. It costs about the same as one marketing hire.
Follow-up questions
How does a network impact our SEO?
Increased traffic to your website from social channels can improve your organic visibility, supporting your broader SEO strategy.
What is the biggest growth metric for a network?
Look for the increase in direct traffic to your website and the jump in brand searches across your key demographics.
Is the network approach scalable?
Yes, it is highly scalable. You can add more pages or different content types as your needs and your property portfolio grow.