Airbnb Building Social Sharing Community
Airbnb Building Social Sharing Community
02
Introduction
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
its a castle in Ireland or a treehouse in Washington State.
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Key Takeaways
Adopt social customer care strategies on the platforms your audience uses
Search for content created by your customers and feature their photos in your posts
Connect your campaign with popular conversation that aligns with your brand image
Link to your website in the description text when showcasing your product or service
Monitor which post types your audiences are interacting with most and react accordingly
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On Facebook
Airbnbs exceptional Facebook strategy has led to a massive community of nearly 4 million Fans. Whats
more impressive is their distribution of international Fans, spanning across 5 continents. Growing a global
followership is integral to Airbnbs 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
- thats over 270,000 Fans!
Distribution of Fans
100
Countries
Local Fans
Percentage
of Fans Base
Growth
Relative Growth
United States
653 639
18.66%
+ 248 477
+ 61.33%
Brazil
303 483
8.66%
+ 131 078
+ 76.03%
Italy
209 284
5.97%
+ 69 439
+ 49.65%
Germany
175 900
5.02%
+ 51 539
+ 41.44%
United Kingdom
173 903
4.96%
+ 50 359
+ 40.76%
Australia
169 134
4.83%
+ 29 526
+ 21.15%
France
154 213
4.40%
+ 48 896
+ 46.43%
Spain
152 832
4.36%
+ 36 953
+ 31.89%
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%
10k
1M
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Meeting your customers where they are is just half the battle. Customers expect companies to interact with
them on social media, so its 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.
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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Airbnbs 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.
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Airbnb
Hostelworld
Wego
Travelocity
HomeAway Asia
Booking.com
Hoteles.com
Momondo
Uniplaces
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March
Apr
May
June
Facebook Interactions
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 brands
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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July
August
07
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. Whats 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.
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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
Tip: Its important to monitor how your audience interacts with each Post Type. LEGO has one of the
worlds best social media content strategies, read our study to find out the secrets to creating content
their audiences love.
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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.
In fact, the majority of Airbnbs 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 services 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 users account asking for permission to use the photo - now thats a share community!
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Conclusion
Airbnb has created a community built around sharing. They have consistently integrated this theme throughout
Though Facebook and Instagram are Airbnbs top performing social channels, they are active on both YouTube
their social media content, featuring their guests vacation photos and promoting available listings. Airbnb
and Twitter. They use every channel to cross promote their campaigns and change the language depending
differs from traditional accommodation services because the hosts have complete control over their properties
on their voice for that specific platform. To raise awareness for their campaigns, they create relevant hashtags
and are responsible for communicating with their guests. Airbnb understands the risks associated with a share
on all of their social accounts so their community can easily be part of the conversation. Think about how you
based service and has implemented stellar social customer service to meet their customers where they are in
can feature your audiences content to help develop authentic connections and increase brand loyalty, as well
record record response times which can ultimately improve customer acquisition, retention, and brand loyalty.
as joining relevant causes that support your brand identity and increase brand awareness. Every company can
learn from Airbnbs social media marketing strategy.
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