Building a Social Sharing Community Airbnb

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Airbnb has become a truly international brand, capturing the imagination of travelers

everywhere. The company has made their mark in the hospitality industry with over

2 million listings worldwide in over 190 countries. Their social media content has enabled

them to create a sharing economy that their entire brand embodies. In contrast to traditional

accommodation advertising, Airbnb uses social media to showcase their listings - rather

than the destination. By collaborating with their guests and hosts, they are able to feature

authentic content that inspires audiences to book a reservation from any location, whether

it’s a castle in Ireland or a treehouse in Washington State.

Introduction

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Adopt social customer care strategies on the platforms your audience uses

Connect your campaign with popular conversation that aligns with your brand image

Monitor which post types your audiences are interacting with most and react accordingly

Search for content created by your customers and feature their photos in your posts

Link to your website in the description text when showcasing your product or service

Use compelling description text to support strong visuals

Key Takeaways

InstagramFacebook

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Airbnb’s exceptional Facebook strategy has led to a massive community of nearly 4 million Fans. What’s more impressive is their distribution of international Fans, spanning across 5 continents. Growing a global followership is integral to Airbnb’s business model, which relies on hosts to rent out their homes to traveling guests around the world. The service gives guests an opportunity to live like a local, and experience a country or city in an authentic way.

Using Socialbakers’ data, we looked at more than 40 of the top global travel booking pages on Facebook from March 1 - August 31, 2016. In terms of Fan Growth, we discovered Airbnb ranks in the top 5, and has been expanding at a rapid rate by gaining an average of 160,000+ new Facebook Fans per month. The summer season was a great success for Airbnb, June 2016 saw a 49% increase in Fan Growth compared to June 2015 - that’s over 270,000 Fans!

On Facebook

Distribution of Fans Mar 01, 2016 - Aug 31, 2016

Countries ↓ Local FansPercentage

of Fans BaseGrowth Relative Growth

1 United States 653 639 18.66 % + 248 477 + 61.33 %

2 Brazil 303 483 8.66 % + 131 078 + 76.03 %

3 Italy 209 284 5.97 % + 69 439 + 49.65 %

4 Germany 175 900 5.02 % + 51 539 + 41.44 %

5 United Kingdom 173 903 4.96 % + 50 359 + 40.76 %

6 Australia 169 134 4.83 % + 29 526 + 21.15 %

7 France 154 213 4.40 % + 48 896 + 46.43 %

8 Spain 152 832 4.36 % + 36 953 + 31.89 %

9 Mexico 152 416 4.35 % + 24 416 + 19.08 %

10 South Korea 146 980 4.20 % + 49 458 + 50.71 %

11 Philippines 125 660 3.59 % + 16 100 + 14.70 %

12 Thailand 117 992 3.37 % + 5 000 + 4.43 %

13 Malaysia 81 281 2.32 % + 13 304 + 19.57 %

14 Singapore 73 769 2.11 % + 6 930 + 10.37 %

15 India 73 141 2.09 % + 36 114 + 97.53 %

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More and more customers are asking millions of questions on Facebook and Twitter¹ every year. We’ve been tracking social customer care for years with our Socially Devoted benchmark so companies can gauge the effectiveness of their performance. To qualify as Socially Devoted, companies must respond to at least 65% of customer inquiries.

Airbnb has implemented an exceptional social customer care strategy to satisfy the demands of their growing audience on the platforms they use. For instance, they received nearly 5,000 questions on Facebook in the past 6 months, and responded to 87% of those queries within an hour or less. Compare that to Orbitz, who were asked 23x more questions and responded to only 38% of them.

Meeting your customers where they are is just half the battle. Customers expect companies to interact with them on social media, so it’s imperative to develop relevant customer care tactics to cope with the rising demand. As a result, this will help to strengthen customer acquisition, retention, and brand loyalty.

¹ Social Customer Care Trends

Social Customer Care

Tip: For inspiration, see how KLM Royal Dutch Airlines set the bar for social customer care, leading to €100,000

every week in direct sales on social media.

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Airbnb understands that great content is the foundation of every successful social media strategy and has found the elements to consistently create highly engaging content. Airbnb does not post as frequently as other accommodation competitors, yet they received the most interactions during the summer months. Let’s take a look at what makes their content so engaging.

Airbnb’s content frequently features stories from their guests and hosts, which helps strengthen their image by reinforcing their brand story of sharing. Using Socialbakers Analytics, we analyzed their most engaging posts to discover best practices that any company can apply.

The Heart of Great Campaigns on Facebook

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0kAirbnb Hostelworld Wego Stay Far East Travelocity Booking.com Hoteles.com Momondo UniplacesHomeAway Asia

Airbnb Facebook InteractionsTop 10 Global Booking Facebook Pages by Interactions Date Range: March 1 - August 31, 2016 Date Range: March 1 - August 31, 2016

Tip: Less can be more: strive to post content that resonates with your audience, and do not publish for the sake of it - solely

to please you or your boss. Become laser-focused about what your customers are expecting from following your brand’s

Page, and build content that incorporates those aspects; this will help you to consistently create posts your audience

wants to engage with, which will generate more interactions.

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Tip: Facebook’s recent change in the News Feed Algorithm have

made Shares more important than ever². To get maximum reach,

it’s crucial to think in terms of shareability and assess what makes

shareable content different from likable content. Determining how

you measure your social media campaign’s success (from Total

Interactions to individual Reactions, Shares, Likes, and Comments)

can positively impact your future content stream and help you

to create more engaging posts.

In June 2016, Airbnb received the highest amount of interactions, totalling over 154,700 - in one day. To create awareness by supporting Gay Pride month with their #HostwithPride campaign, Airbnb invited Fans to create a heart and share it with their communities. Once users clicked on the link, they were redirected to a microsite where they received half of a heart (or fingerprint). Then they had the option to share their half with their Facebook community so their friends and family could participate to complete the unfinished heart with their own fingerprint. This was a well-timed campaign that gave Fans an opportunity to celebrate Gay Pride month on social media in a unique way. What’s more, it was shared over 15,000 times, making it their most successful post in the given time period.

While companies usually distance themselves from politics and controversial topics, Airbnb was bold and took a stance, using social media to remind their Fans that they support them no matter who they love or where they come from. This perfectly reinforces their “Belong Anywhere” slogan. Other companies can follow suit and be part of popular conversation to engage with their audience; just ensure these topics align with your core values and brand image.

² Facebook News Feed

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Facebook native videos have become the fastest-growing ad type in 2015, and Airbnb also followed the trend by increasing their video posts by 7%. Airbnb’s videos received a high number of interactions in 2015 however, their audiences’ content preferences have shifted. In 2016, they published only 19% of Links, yet they accounted for the majority of their interactions.

Though videos have become widely popular, this illustrates that not all marketing trends can be applied to every company. While videos may be highly engaging for other industries, Links still remain relevant in the travel industry. This is likely because guests want to explore links to featured destinations, read travel blogs, or investigate accommodation details and pricing. After all, the travel industry benefits from e-commerce, and Airbnb could use this information to create content that audiences are already engaging with.

photo interactions photo

link interactions link

video interactions video

Benchmark by post type

Tip: It’s important to monitor how your audience interacts with each Post Type. LEGO has one of the

world’s best social media content strategies, read our study to find out the secrets to creating content

their audiences love.

Airbnb Facebook Interactions by Post Type Airbnb Facebook Posts by TypeMarch 1 - August 31, 2016 March 1 - August 31, 2016

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Viewing Airbnb’s photo grid on Instagram is a cultural experience that encourages Followers to travel the world and meet like-minded adventurers without leaving their seats. The visuals are clean, on-brand, and accompanied by poetic description text. Airbnb’s Instagram strategy takes a different approach when compared to their Facebook account. They use the photo sharing app to raise awareness of their unique listings - which range from tree houses in Washington, USA to castles in Ireland.

In fact, the majority of Airbnb’s photos are truly authentic, coming straight from travel bloggers or other guests that have used the Airbnb service. By searching through relevant hashtags, Airbnb can find incredible photos that reveal the service’s benefits through the eyes of their customers. And the best part - all of this content is already at their fingertips. When they see a photo that showcases one of their prized listings, they simply reach out and comment on the user’s account asking for permission to use the photo - now that’s a share community!

Airbnb breaks away from traditional destination selling by highlighting the actual accommodation; as seen in this Instagram post which received the highest amount of interactions - more than 40,000 Likes. Just one look at their Instagram page can excite Followers about endless accommodation possibilities. After they post a listing, they always redirect their Followers to a link in their bio. Rather than planning their vacation around a location, Airbnb Followers might be planning around a home.

Instagram a visual travel diary for dreamers

Tip: Involve your community as much as you can. Using photos

created by your Fans not only strengthens your customer-company

relationship, but also helps you save on production costs. Start

innovating your visual strategy - click here for a list of Instagram

updates that every marketer needs to know.

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Airbnb has created a community built around sharing. They have consistently integrated this theme throughout

their social media content, featuring their guests’ vacation photos and promoting available listings. Airbnb

differs from traditional accommodation services because the hosts have complete control over their properties

and are responsible for communicating with their guests. Airbnb understands the risks associated with a share

based service and has implemented stellar social customer service to meet their customers where they are in

record record response times which can ultimately improve customer acquisition, retention, and brand loyalty.

Though Facebook and Instagram are Airbnb’s top performing social channels, they are active on both YouTube

and Twitter. They use every channel to cross promote their campaigns and change the language depending

on their voice for that specific platform. To raise awareness for their campaigns, they create relevant hashtags

on all of their social accounts so their community can easily be part of the conversation. Think about how you

can feature your audiences’ content to help develop authentic connections and increase brand loyalty, as well

as joining relevant causes that support your brand identity and increase brand awareness. Every company can

learn from Airbnb’s social media marketing strategy.

Conclusion

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Airbnb is a registered trademark of Airbnb, Inc. in the US and other countries.