Social Media Audit: Airbnb
By: Christian Glass
Image of an Airbnb rental property.
Introduction
For my social media Audit, I delved into Airbnb’s brand and the multiple platforms they use. I looked into their Instagram, Facebook (ads), X (Twitter), TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Airbnb as a brand keeps a customer centric focus across multiple platforms, prioritizing their customer service initiatives over brand presence across social medias. The brand has cohesive campaigns, but struggles with engagement because of lack of consistency across channels. The brand as a whole has plenty of room to grow on multiple platforms, if they take advantage of trends in the industry. If the brand continues to struggle with engagement they can lose market share to direct competitors like VRBO or to the overall hospitality industry, like hotels. In order to grow as a brand Airbnb needs to shift their focus from a passive approach to an active one on their socials.
Observation of Social Media Care
Airbnb’s social media accounts are constantly under fire from individuals asking for refunds to followers boycotting based on political affiliations. The brand chooses to be steadfast in responding to the former. Following a philosophy laid out in Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion, Airbnb tends to pride themselves on the speed in replying. To quote Nathalie Nahai, “The first principle is to reply in real time, and where possible, with the hour.” (Nahai, p. 115). Airbnb takes pride in their customer service often responding within minutes of a customer commenting, they are constantly telling customers to message them directly, to keep customer information private. Replies that aren’t associated with customer accounts, for instance those boycotting the service based on it’s ethics or political affiliations are often disregarded completely and most likely written off by the brand as trolling. If these kinds of comments are not taken seriously over a elongated amount of time the brand and its reputation could end up hurting.
Observation and Analysis of Social Media Comments
Upon further analyzing Airbnb’s social media comments there is an array of different strategies they can uptake in order to fix the mini-crisis they are in. First, they should take up value based messaging on their Instagram, this would help combat negative comments about brand affiliations. Instagram is their most followed (active) platform in order to set a good precedent as a brand they need to combat negative comments on this platform specifically. This will help prevent the curve of customers jumping to competitors and keep Airbnb at the front of the hospitality industry. Additionally, the brand needs to address ethical concerns brought up on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a platform primarily used by other companies and in order to have strong relationships across brands, Airbnb needs to have an ethical approach to the platform. Instead of patting themselves on the back for effective campaigns, they should call followers to action and look for brands to partner with to help the California communities going through the wildfires. Overall, the brand needs to change their messaging and approach on multiple fronts in order ot better present themselves to the public.
Analysis and Learnings
Airbnb as a brand identity is suffering. They are losing consumer trust by the day and need to shift their messaging across platforms in order to preserve their brand reputation.
Emphasize brand values on Instagram and Facebook (yes, bring back their Facebook)
Cater LinkedIn to business, not content
Focus on brand partnerships and building trust on the platform
Leave TikTok alone
TikTok is not suffering from the same problems as the other platform
Airbnb’s engagement rate is struggling across its platforms, partly because of brand mistrust and partly because of unappealing content.
Partner with larger creators on Instagram
Collaboration posts from outside sources will be of higher quality than what the page is currently putting out
Additionally, it adds personality to the brand
Focus on consistent posting for Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok
Consistent posting will give Airbnb a better chance at breaking through the Algorithm
Three posts a week will go a long way in revitalizing the brand
Focus on hook creation
Stop relying on the same hooks for every post/ad
Airbnb’s comment sections are being flooded with customer service issues, they need to redirect claims.
Have dedicated pages for consumer questions on Instagram and Facebook
Refer customers to those pages when they have questions or concerns
Eventually, customers will seek out these pages first instead of going to the brand account
Competitor Analysis: VRBO
Image of a VRBO rental property.
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According to Nerdwallet, Airbnb hosts over 7.7 million properties to VRBO’s mere over 2 million
Target ads at homeowners in major cities influencing potential money that can be made from putting their property on VRBO
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VRBO already hosts more followers on TikTok than Airbnb, continue this trend and diversify platforms
In addition to TikTok, the brand should focus on platforms like Snapchat and highlight some of their more interesting properties
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Like Airbnb, VRBO’s engagement rate has been suffering
On platforms like TikTok and Instagram the brand should focus on trending audios and sounds in order to ensure an uptick
In addition, focusing on nano-influencers can help bring in more consistent engaged traffic at a lower price