Marketing Hostels on MySpace and Facebook

[Hostels]

Do any hostels here use MySpace or Facebook for marketing your hostels?

Have you found it effective?

On MySpace do you only add former hostel guests, or do you search through the MySpace users for as many backpackers as possible to add as friends?

Are you able to create a Facebook profile for your hostel, or do they only allow you to create a personal profile?

Are there other similar social networking sites that hostels are using for their marketing?

I think that Twitter has potential, but I only know of two hostels that are using it.

(By the way, if you are on MySpace, be sure to add HostelManagement.com as a friend here, and if you are on Twitter, you can follow HostelManagement.com here).

[santa klaus]

We do. Well, our hostel in Munich does, or to be more precisely, our hostel bar there.

http://www.myspace.com/wombatsmusic

Not exactly for marketing reasons (attracting guests), but to attract bands who are willing to play there for a beer or ten.

[Hostels]

Originally Posted by santa klaus

...to attract bands who are willing to play there for a beer or ten.

Sounds like a good gig...

[gordo]

www.hostelbook.com
it seems to just be linked to hostelbookers but apparently it connects to your facebook page and lets people know where your staying etc.
havent actually used it yet but it seems like an interesting idea.

[Hostels]

The Hostels app on Facebook is interesting. Anyone can create a "Facebook Application", which is a program that integrates with Facebook profiles. Those guys were lucky to get in first with one called "Hostels".

Google's Open Social is another system that has potential. Open Social is like Facebook Applications except that one application can integrate with more than one social networking site (like MySpace, HI5, Orkut, and many more).

[Hostels]

There is a Facebook App for integrating Twitter with Facebook accounts:
http://explore.twitter.com/

Will be integrating the two HostelManagement.com accounts soon...

[Hostels]

I found an interesting post on marketing with Facebook (via hotelmarketing.com).

Facebook hosts Facebook Pages for businesses free of charge. While the advertiser is responsible for developing a page’s look and feel using Facebook’s automated development application, Facebook’s own development team is generally eager to help. This might include recommending the incorporation of videos, photo albums, and promotional materials that embody your client’s brand.

[LittleBrit]

In a previous life, I worked on marketing through social networking sites. I learned that groups and applications are only really valuable if:

1) they are created by consumers rather than businesses themselves

2) the facebook application adds something to the user's experience

My experience in hostels has shown that hostels tend to have groups or profiles that relatively small numbers of people join - I wouldn't necessarily call this marketing.

The trick (which I am now working on) is how to create a social media application that is customer-led/driven rather than hostel driven and provides some value to our guests.