AR TI C LE

Asia-Pacific Management
and Business Application
11 (1) 59-74
The Use of Twitter in Social Media Marketing: ©UB 2022
Evidence from Hotels in Asia University of Brawijaya
Malang, Indonesia
http://apmba.ub.ac.id
Rora Puspita Sari a
Fajar Kusnadi Kusumah Putrab*
Ita Maemunahc
Nenden Dianawatid

a
Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia; b,c,d
Department of Hospitalily, Hotel Administration study Program, NHI Bandung Tourism
Polytechnic, Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract
The study aims to investigates hotels’ social media marketing practices and how they manage
online conversation as well as represent themselves using Twitter. This study employs samples
from fifty hotels from 47 countries in Asia, the API method was used to crawl and gather
Twitter data. Content analysis was applied to 5438 tweets created by the official hotel Twitter
accounts. The results revealed that Twitter was used mostly for five priorities in doing
marketing comforts including sales and promotion, introducing and explaining information
related to hotel products and services, while were less likely to be used as a medium for handling
complaints, creating sales promotions, and sharing light conversation. The findings of this study
make an important contribution toward filling the gap in exploring what kind of posts hotels in
Asia published on their official Twitter accounts, and how hotels maximize the Twitter platform
as digital marketing media and in handling customers’ complaints. This study has shed some
light on how hotel marketers effectively manage and take advantage of microblogging sites, in
this case the used of Twitter as marketing tools. Further research comparing with bigger data
and other countries, or regions will enrich the research findings.

Keywords
Hotel Twitter; Social media marketing; Marketing comforts; Sales and promotion
Received: 8 June 2022; Accepted: 24 June 2022; Published Online: 31 August 2022
DOI: 10.21776/ub.apmba.2022.011.01.4

Introduction

Social media presents an opportunity for Nugraha, Putera, Rohandi, & Fariska,
businesses, by allowing them to develop 2021). Microblogging has a free format of
direct relationships with consumers, handle messages and easy accessibility, which has
customer service issues, capture innovative produced millions of contents that can be
ideas, and engage more with customers (J. used for marketing studies (Bai & Yan,
W. Lee & Kwag, 2017). Twitter as a 2020).
popular microblogging site enables
companies to broadcast messages and In the highly competitive hotel industry,
creates communication with users, microblogging sites have an essential role in
customers, and stakeholders (Fariska, building brand image (Wen, Clark, Kang, &
*Corresponding author Email: fap@stp-bandung.ac.id P-ISSN : 2252-8997
Asia-Pacific Management and Business Application, 11, 1 (2022): 59-74 E-ISSN: 2615-2010
60 Rora Puspita Sari, et. al

Fine, 2016). There are numerous studies on for marketing activities by hotel companies
the usage of social media, especially will be presented.
Facebook and Twitter, from the traveler’s
point of view (Alansari, Velikova, & Jai, Social Media Marketing
2018). Previous studies on Twitter social The definition of marketing can be
media used in the context of service in described as the action or business of
industrial hotels are related to promoting and selling products or services,
communication in handling service failures, and it is also explained that marketing is an
crisis management, and engagement with activity to do advertising (Tapio Salminen,
their stakeholders and customers (Barbe & Oinonen, & Haimala, 2014). Whereby the
Pennington-Gray, 2018; Bonsón, use of social media has become one of the
Bednárová, & Wei, 2016; Philander & most important advertising venues for
Zhong, 2016); distribution of hotels through marketers (Chu, Deng, & Cheng, 2020).The
e-Mediaries (Vrana, Zafiropoulos, development of a business organization in
Antoniadis, & Theocharidis, 2017); an environment of intense competition,
examining between hotel resources, Twitter especially for tourism and the hospitality
and hotel RevPAR (Kim & Chae, 2018); industry, has led to innovations and
and Twitter as a hotel recommendation marketing methods that no longer rely on
system (Chang, Tsai, & Chiang, 2018). traditional media. The effect of the COVID-
However, studies that focus on Twitter 19 pandemic has been that the service
usage in hotel posting characteristics have usually provided through physical and
been rare. personal contact between organization staff
and its customers has changed to online and
Based on the author’s knowledge, there has contactless media, one of which is through
been no research that analyzes from the social media; this will allow minimal direct
point of view of the use of Twitter as social contact between the two parties. Therefore
media marketing for the hotel sector, the service delivery process has changed in
especially in the Asian region. From the a way where customers change their
global perspective, Asia countries such as perception of the service encounter process
Japan, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia are (Chatzigeorgiou & Christou, 2020).
among the top who have the largest Twitter
advertising audiences compared to The role of the internet in the purchasing
population aged 13+, with more than 158.2 behavior of tourists has led to a
million people who can be reached with by modification in marketing plans that have
Twitter advertising (We are Social, 2021). become increasingly digital, where digital
Due to the potential of Asia countries in marketing tools such as e-mail marketing,
using Twitter, this study focuses on the websites, blogs, social networks, together
usage of social media by Asian hotels’ with mobile applications and online
Twitter accounts. booking platforms are fundamental tools in
the marketing strategies of tourism and the
Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze hotel industry (Leite & Azevedo, 2017).
the one-way communication side of official Tourism and hospitality-related businesses
hotel Twitter accounts in Asia by analyzing must adapt and implement effective and
the content of the tweets. This study efficient strategies to promote their
presents a descriptive analysis of how products and services for their potential
Asia’s hotels’ official Twitter accounts are target market through digital marketing
used in hotel marketing with the emphasis platforms (Lin et al., 2020).
of branding activities. This study focuses on
what kind of content the hotel’s official Marketing hospitality products and services
account on Twitter posts publicly. The is a part of business activities whose success
managerial implication on what type of and failure are determined by individuals
communication content is used on Twitter and by organizational policies; therefore,

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The Use of Twitter in Social Media Marketing: Evidence from Hotels in Asia... 61

currently, the need for information and The informality of Twitter allows
technology application through digital companies to be perceived as real people,
marketing is necessary. According to Lin et rather than anonymous brands, products or
al. (2020), the success of implementing organizations (Charlesworth, 2014).
technology-based marketing is influenced Twitter combines elements of social
by the readiness between tasks, in this case network sites and blogs, with some
marketing, and technology as an activity, differences. In Twitter, user profiles are
one of which is the use of social media. connected through networks. Users can
follow other users and see their tweets, but
Social media marketing has now become a do not need to reciprocate. The format
source of data rich in open information that allows customers to convey messages
is used by marketers in leveraging their instantly, meaning brands can not only be
strategic insight and digital marketing stored more permanently in customers’
process with the benefit of marketing minds but also perceived as more
comfort. According to Jacobson, Gruzd, transparent and accessible (Swani, Brown,
and Hernández-García (2020, p. 1), & Milne, 2014). The main feature of Twitter
marketing comfort refers to “an individual’s is the stream of tweets, posted by users
comfort with the use of information posted (Marwick & Boyd, 2011). Twitter’s tweets
publicly on social media for targeted can be used as a broadcast medium to send
advertising, customer relations, and opinion messages to target audiences with content
mining.” One of the uses of social media is such as news, events, products and services
as a tool for sales and promotion strategies. information, promotional information, and
Sales promotion refers to a program that can special offers. Due to the very short lengths
influence a customer’s perception about of the posts, Twitter users usually include
cost of the product and it usually emerges in attachments such as hyperlinks, videos,
the form of incentives that provide extra pictures, etc., to provide additional
motives for customers to buy the information on the topic at hand (Leung,
products/services (Christou, 2011). A Bai, & Stahura, 2015; Minazzi, 2015).
marketing post itself can be made more
specific into a post related with sales The used of Twitter in a hospitality industry
promotion, introducing product and context has been studied by scholars such as
services (Sevin, 2013; Tsimonis & Park, Jang, and Ok (2016) who explored
Dimitriadis, 2014) and handling customers’ diner perceptions patterns, popular words,
complaints (Howison, Finger, & Hauschka, and emotional states in opinions for Asian
2015). restaurants using text mining and sentiment
analysis. With more than 50 million tweets
Twitter as Microblogging Sites for Social per day worldwide, hashtags are an
Media Marketing Activities important means by which information on
Among the various social media sites, Twitter is organized. A hashtag is a tag,
Twitter is one of the most popular in terms designated by the ‘hash’ symbol (#), and
of website traffic. Along with Facebook and embedded in a post, that helps describe a
company websites, Twitter is one of the tweet and aids searching. They help
most widely used channels people use to organize discussions on specific topics or
comment on and request information about events, and by using hashtags, tweets can be
companies’ products and services (Fariska sent to a wider audience worldwide (Small,
et al., 2021). Twitter allows users to 2011).
publish, reply, and forward posts (known as
‘tweets’) in the form of short sentences, A recent study on hotel Twitter accounts by
Twitter is also considered a social sharing Kim, Park, and Kim (2021) explored and
site, which means companies may use it to compared the key hidden topic embedded
communicate directly with target audiences in hotel firm-generated content including
(Minazzi, 2015). information, interactive communication and

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62 Rora Puspita Sari, et. al

service recovery. Therefore, hotels can The data provide valuable insight into the
publish various content on their Twitter prevalence of a variety of Twitter practices.
accounts. However, previous study has not
clearly defined the used of hotel Twitter Coding
accounts for sales and promotion; therefore, Following the social media content
this study presents a descriptive analysis of classification by Tsimonis and Dimitriadis
how Asia’s hotels’ official Twitter accounts (2014), this research divided content found
are used in hotel marketing with the on Twitter into five main criteria: (1)
emphasis of branding activities (i.e., promotion, (2) introducing products or
creating sales and promotion, introducing services, (3) giving advice related to life, (4)
products and services, and giving useful daily communication, and (5) handling
information). complaints. Promotion activities are related
to giving incentives and rewards for
Method customers to buy the products (Sevin,
Data Collection 2013). In addition, offering a points reward
This study examines the extent of content in the hotel loyalty programs is also a
that a hotel’s official Twitter account popular sales promotion program run
publishes online. While most of the content regularly by hotels. Sales promotion prizes
analysis studies on social media posts by include discounts, coupons, premiums, gifts
official hotel accounts were derived from or other tools used to attract customers’
Facebook, this study focuses on the public attention in the short term (Armstrong,
posts from official hotel accounts. This Kotler, & Opresnik, 2020; Christou, 2011).
study used a list of Asian countries to select Introducing products or services is by
the hotel's samples for the research. From giving hints, details, and information such
the total 47 countries in Asia, 50 active as prices, characteristics, and how to obtain
hotels’ official Twitter accounts which used the product. This kind of content aims to sell
English as the language were found and specific services or products to users.
they needed to have at least one post per Giving advice, wisdom, or useful
week. A sample of 5438 tweets was taken information related to life may include
from the Twitter feeds. They were information about places, events, tips, and
transferred from the public timelines of the activities that can be done around a city, or
hotels to Twitter API using private other subjects (Sevin, 2013; Tsimonis &
software. Dimitriadis, 2014). Simple daily
conversation with users includes messages
Twitter API is a method that can be used to such as “Good morning,” “Have a good
access users’ Twitter data. Twitter API day,” or asking people how they feel or
allows researchers to gain publicly what they plan to do over the weekend
published data at no cost. To take the data (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014). By
from Twitter, the researcher needs to use an offering simple greetings to users, the
application and register it on Twitter to company tries to invite two-way dialogue
access the API. After the application with customers and create active online
request is granted by Twitter, the researcher interaction with them, handling complaints
will be able to crawl and collect data from related to products or services include
Twitter (Kumar, Morstatter, & Liu, 2014). collecting feedback from customers
This research used a privately-owned (Howison et al., 2015; Tsimonis &
application to crawl the Twitter API and Dimitriadis, 2014). After the initial analysis
retrieve information from it. The types of of 100 tweets by coders, the categories
data retrieved were tweets, retweets, replies ‘giving useful information related to life’
and quotes published through users’ public and ‘making simple daily conversation’
timelines. After the data were retrieved, were hard to differentiate. Therefore, they
they were exported to Microsoft Excel were merged into a single category:
where they were cleaned and organized.

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The Use of Twitter in Social Media Marketing: Evidence from Hotels in Asia... 63

‘conversation that mentions information not one of the hotels in the sample so that they
related to the hotel.’ would gain a similar understanding of the
categorization process. The average score
Data Analysis for intercoder reliability in each category
To address the first research question, a was 93.63%. This means that 6.37% of the
quantitative content analysis of Twitter Twitter conversations were coded
textual data was used to categorize the differently by the two coders. Thus, we can
tweets, retweets, replies, and quotes. assume that most Twitter conversations
Content analysis is a common technique were coded similarly by the two coders in
utilized in e-commerce research (van der this research.
Merwe & Bekker, 2003). Content analysis
allows data sets to be systematically In the coding analysis, most of the Twitter
analyzed and categorized in an objective conversation could not be categorized
manner, such that specified characteristics simply by using keywords. It was mainly
of the research objects can be identified and only the sales promotion conversations that
inferences drawn (Lai & To, 2015). In this could be coded directly in this way, using
research, the content analysis was used to keywords such as ‘discount.’ For the rest of
categorize the tweets, retweets, replies, and the conversation types, the coder typically
quotes into five kinds of content. needed to understand the meaning of the
tweet to categorize it into one of the
The steps used were as follows: (1) All categories provided.
words in the sample tweets were sorted
based on how many times they appeared in Results and Discussion
total. (2) Several relevant words were Hotel Twitter Conversations Content
identified as keywords for each category. Most of the sample hotels came from the
(3) The coder categorized the tweets based five-star category (70%) and most belonged
on the keywords. Each tweet was placed to chains (64%) (see Table 1). From the data
into one category only. The categorization sample it was quite hard to crawl official
was implemented in order of priority, with Twitter accounts with a frequently updated
Category 1 (Promotions) having the page. In the first survey, this research found
priority, and so on. The only exception to that most of the sample hotels with an active
this was the complaint and feedback Twitter feed updated every week were four-
category which was not included in the or five-star hotels. The format of
order of priorities due to its very distinct conversation the hotel Twitter accounts
characteristic. (4) For dubious tweets (that used the most was the tweet (87.23%) (see
could not be categorized using the Table 2). As suggested by Marwick and
keywords), the coder applied a second Boyd (2011), tweeting is the feature of
criteria based on understanding the purpose Twitter that is used the most by users. The
of the tweet. users in this research are the hotels’ official
Twitter account pages. It is also interesting
This research calculated the intercoder to note that the conversations using
reliability when coders categorize each hashtags made up more than half of all
tweet. Intercoder reliability is a widely used conversations. As suggested by
term to express that independent coder Charlesworth (2014), using hashtags is
evaluate message characteristics and reach advantageous for users since the
the same conclusion. Intercoder reliability conversation will be sent to larger audiences
is an indispensable criterion for research and encourage more retweets by other
using content analysis (Neuendorf, 2010). users. In addition, a hashtag will make it
This research employed two coders to easier, especially for travelers, to seek
categorize each tweet. The coders were online information about accommodation..
trained jointly using 100 tweets made by

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64 Rora Puspita Sari, et. al

Table 1. Hotel Characteristics (N=50)

Sample Characteristics Frequency Percentage

Hotel Rating
Five-star hotel 35 70%
Four-star hotel 12 24%
Three-star hotel 3 6%
Hotel Management
Chain hotel 32 64%
Independent hotel 18 36%
Source: Data Processed, 2022

Table 2. Twitter Conversations and Content (N=5438)

Category Frequency Percentage
Conversation
Tweet 4743 87.23%
Retweet 482 8.86%
Reply 173 3.18%
Quote 40 0.73%
Total 5438 100%
Hashtags
With hashtag 3062 56.31%
Without hashtag 2376 43.69%
Total 5438 100%
Contents
Picture 3780 69.51%
Link to other sites 640 11.76%
Link to Facebook 617 11.34%
Link to Instagram 223 4.10%
Video 147 2.70%
Link to hotel website 111 2.04%
Link to YouTube 32 0.58%
GIF picture format 22 0.40%
Total 5438 100%
Source: Data Processed, 2022

Almost all of the Twitter conversations in that multimedia presentations such as photo
the sample had some embedded content and video can foster more user attention into
attached, whether pictures (69.5%), videos the content. Furthermore, Yoo and Lee
(2.7%), or hyperlinks (ranging from 11.8% (2017) concluded that most hotels
for links to any sites to 0.6% for links to published topics about corporate
YouTube accounts). As suggested by Leung information or news (31.6%) and
et al. (2015) and Minazzi (2015), users tend marketing-related messages (30.6%) with
to add attachments to their Twitter posts so some embedded links on their social media
that they can upload more information to sites. Therefore, in this research, most
their audiences. The result also follows tweets contained a multimedia attachment,
research by Yoo and Lee (2017) who found either embedded in the tweets or functioned

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The Use of Twitter in Social Media Marketing: Evidence from Hotels in Asia... 65

as hyperlinks to other sites, especially video were used mostly to provide useful
sites such as YouTube. information about life in general, not
directly related to hotel activities (16.05%),
Hotel Products and Services
Conversations and after that to disseminate sales
information to the users (10.28%).
The frequency of tweets on Twitter by Nevertheless, it is surprising to see that
hotels in Asia based on the categories are disseminating sales information came in
mostly for introducing or explaining only third across the conversation types.
products, services, or events occurring in Hotel management should tweet more sales
the hotels (70.15%). As suggested by Sevin information, to attract customers to visit and
(2013), it is important to inform audiences purchase the hotel’s products and services
of hotel products and services in detail to (Armstrong et al., 2020). Handling
attract potential customers. Product complaints came in last with 3.51%, which
knowledge is important for customers means Twitter is rarely used by users or
during the evaluation process that goes on travelers for directing complaints about
before buying a product (Tsimonis & product or services.
Dimitriadis, 2014). Hotel Twitter accounts
Product and service

Hotel staff 2.32%

Awards 2.84%
Venue and hotel facilities 46.66%
Membership club 0.49%
Food and Beverage 47.69%

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Number of conversations

Figure 1. Product and Service Conversation

Source: Data Processed, 2022

Hotels were also found to carry out impact on customer loyalty. Therefore, it is
conversations related to the awards that they important to promote a hotel’s employees’
had received (2.84%) and any staff performance and positive attitude since they
members (2.32%) who had made have direct contact with the customers.
extraordinary achievements, such as However, hotels only occasionally
winning a ‘great chef’ award or ‘best promoted their club memberships (0.49%),
employee of the year.’ As suggested by although this too would be a good
Torres (2014), an expert-driven approach opportunity for them to increase customer
(e.g., award, ratings, and service standards) loyalty. Membership systems in hotel
represents a recognition of the service loyalty programs have been found to raise
quality provided by hoteliers. Awards have sales and purchase repetition by customers
also proved to offer promotional value to (Xie & Chen, 2014). Therefore, hotels
customers, who believe they are a guarantee should increase the number of tweets they
of quality offered by the hotel’s make about club membership to promote
management (Nunkoo, Teeroovengadum, their loyalty programs to their customers.
Ringle, & Sunnassee, 2020).

As suggested by Budur and Poturak (2021),

employee performance has a positive

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 66 Rora Puspita Sari, et. al

Non-Hotel Related Information may benefit from it. Most of the quotes
tweeted by the hotels were associated with
Twitter was also commonly used to share products or services they provided, for
non-hotel-related information that might be example: ‘To create something exceptional,
useful to users (Figure 2). Information such your mindset must be relentlessly focused
as congratulatory messages (14.77%), were on the smallest details’ (Armani Hotel,
all commonly shared by hotels’ Twitter Dubai, UEA).Hays et al. (2013) mentioned
accounts. A congratulatory message is one that Twitter is commonly used to spread
of the tools that can be used to engage more information regarding attractions at tourism
deeply with audiences (Hays, Page, & destinations. In the hotel context, hotels
Buhalis, 2013). Hotels sent congratulatory tweet about local attractions that can be
messages related to monthly celebrations visited by their guests. As for tweets about
such as the Chinese New Year in January, stories, they contained mostly history
Valentine’s Day in February, Holi in March related to the hotel, the city or an attraction
(for hotels in India), and Easter in April. in the surrounding area, for instance: ‘Did
you know that the #era from the 1930s to
Previous study such as by Howison et al. the 1950s is often called as the #goldenage
(2015) state that a greeting is an effort by a of #jazz in India? #Jazz awaits you at
hotel to engage in two-way communication #LunaNudo’ (St. Regis Mumbai, India). As
with its audience. Most of the greetings suggested by Sevin (2013), tips are a
observed in the data came in the form of generic form of information dispersed using
light questions or statements, such as: Twitter. Hotels create tips related to travel
‘Have a lovely Friday!’ and ‘Bonjour or other things related to their products and
Mabuhay! We hope everyone’s having a services, such as the following tweet: ‘16
great Monday morning’ (Swisshotel Things You Didn't Know About Jet Lag’
Istanbul, Turkey). (Cambodiana Hotel, Pnom Penh). For the
campaign tweets, most of the hotels shared
Twitter was also used by the hotels in the positive campaign messages to persuade
sample to make important announcements people to adopt a positive attitude. For
such as award votes, the dates of rainy example, climate change support during the
seasons, their city’s ranking, and many Earth Hour campaign for people to switch
others. As suggested by Sevin (2013), an off lights and electricity on one specific
announcement is created to spread date.
important information to an audience that

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The Use of Twitter in Social Media Marketing: Evidence from Hotels in Asia... 67

Congratulatory message 14.77%

Greetings 7.5%
Non-hotel information

Announcement 13.84%

Inspirational quotes 5.27%

Attraction 21.28%

Story 21.07%

Tips 10.12%

Campaign 6.09%

0 50 100 150 200 250

Number of conversations

Figure 2. Non-Hotel-Related Information

Source: Data Processed, 2022

Hotel Sales and Promotion cheap. As most of the hotels in this study
had four or five stars, this promotion type
From Figure 3, it can be seen that the was the one least often found on Twitter.
promotional method that hotels used most BOGOF might damage the image of a brand
often was giving discounts on products and that focuses on delivering quality services
services (45.57%), granting benefits to and product.
customers (42.51%), and bundling products
strategies such as buy one get one free Hotels regularly spread their sales
(BOGOF) (11.92%). As suggested by promotion contents through Twitter. In this
Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, and research, it was common to see hotels
Silvestre (2011), Twitter is commonly used provide information related to discounts or
to share discount information to potential benefits to their followers. Hotels promote
customers. updated content, such as a discount on
dinner in the restaurant, or on room rates,
Sharing information related to product or that differs based on the season. For
service discounts might persuade customers example, in February, the discount will be
to book the hotel if their travel dates match related to Valentine’s Day, while, in April,
the discount period. As for benefits, the hotels provide discounts on chocolate
hotels mostly offered these in the form of products to celebrate Easter. In addition,
gifts or upgraded facilities at the hotels. this study found that hotels try to increase
Benefits positively influence the sales by socializing their sales promotion
participation of audiences on social media according to appropriate occasions in
sites, in this case, hotels that offer benefits particular months. These results confirm
will gain more active participation from previous studies on the use of social media
Twitter users. For the BOGOF category, as by hotel to gain more sales on the internet
suggested by Garcia (2015), products and (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014; Woodside
services that utilize BOGOF as a sales & Mir-Bernal, 2019).
promotion method are often perceived as

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 68 Rora Puspita Sari, et. al

42.51%
Sales promotion
Benefit

Discount 45.57%

Bogof 11.92%

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Number of conversations

Source: Data Processed, 2022

Figure 3. Respondents Characteristics
Handling complaints

Replying 92.06%

7.94%
Asking

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Number of conversations

Source: Data Processed, 2022

Figure 4. Twitter used for Handling Customer Complaint

Handling Customer Complaint Hotels are expected to gain additional

benefits from presenting themselves on
From Figure 4, in terms of direct social media, in this case Twitter (Tsimonis
communication with customers, the hotels’ & Dimitriadis, 2014). Several benefits have
Twitter pages mostly replied to complaints been presented by the previous research on
and comments from users (92.06%) while companies’ social media presence, such as
they rarely asked questions (7.94%), enhanced relationships with customers
especially regarding complaints from the through better engagement (Puriwat &
customers. Replying to a question or Tripopsakul, 2021), increased sales
complaint is very important since it will (Halawani, Soh, & Muthaiyah, 2019; Kim
affect a company’s reputation, especially in & Chae, 2018) and easier spreading of
the hotel industry whose products are information to wider audiences (Leung,
intangible. Avoiding answering customers’ Bai, & Erdem, 2017).
questions, complaints, and feedback might
negatively affect a hotel’s reputation in the Implicatıon of study
long term, as social media is an
uncontrollable arena, where the company This study contributes theoretically to
has little control over the information previous studies with the topic of using
circulated. Twitter social media in the hotel business
sector, which mostly focuses on aspects of

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The Use of Twitter in Social Media Marketing: Evidence from Hotels in Asia... 69

one-way and interactive communication, may bring more local customers into the
engagement, and hotel performances. This restaurants and they may also stay to sample
study provides another perspective in terms the recreational facilities of the hotel (S.
of using Twitter as a marketing comfort tool Lee, Lee, Chua, & Han, 2019).
that focuses on targeted advertising,
customer relations, and opinion mining to The hotels were also found to engage in
be able to respond to the needs and conversations not directly related to their
complaints of their customers. products and services. Content such as that
celebrating Earth Hours by encouraging
From a managerial perspective, there are people to switch off all lights,
various types of Twitter conversation that congratulations messages on women’s day,
can be engaged in by hotel managers, or simple greetings asking what users
namely creating sales promotions, planned to do on the weekend, were all
introducing products and services, creating found on the Twitter pages. These kinds of
conversations not related to products and conversations represent brand development
services, and handling customer efforts by the managers, aimed at engaging
complaints. By putting information related more with users by creating interactions,
to product and services and sales not only by sharing content related to
promotions on Twitter regularly, hotels products and services, but also other items
clearly do intend to reach more potential that a user might find interesting.
customers, especially those using Twitter
daily. By tweeting information related to Conclusions
wedding packages or room rates, for
example, it is expected that at least the This study introduced the category of
followers of the hotels will receive the measuring content from the use of Twitter
information. Hotels are making a good by hotels using five measurement
effort by creating content aimed at categories, namely creating a sales
increasing engagement with users (Sashi, promotion, introducing products or
2012), particularly since users might services, giving useful information, making
unfollow their page if they only received simple daily conversations, and handling
promotional content related to products and complaints (Armstrong et al., 2020;
services. Howison et al., 2015; Sevin, 2013;
Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014). With the
Food and Beverages (F&B) related increasing importance of digital marketing
information accounts for 32.12% of the for the hospitality industry, this study aims
total conversations created on the Twitter to identify firm-generated content from
pages.The information related to F&B hotels on Twitter social media.
concerned the hotels’ restaurants, bars and
F&B products, and the tweets contained Taking samples from 50 hotel Twitter
multiple items of information about these accounts across Asia, mostly from four- and
aspects. Promotions on F&B occasionally five-star hotels, this research found that
combined with the events celebrated in the Twitter pages were used most often for
hotels, especially with bar or restaurant introducing and explaining a hotel’s
promotions. Another example of combined products and services, with nearly 70% of
promotion of F&B was related to events conversations containing information on
celebrated in the hotels. For instance, the aspects such as room, food and beverages,
promotion of chocolate made in the hotel pool facilities, awards attained by the hotel,
was combined with information on the or membership and loyalty programs. This
celebration of Valentine’s Day in the hotel. finding confirms that most hotels ascribe to
Revenue streams from F&B products and the view espoused by Tsimonis and
restaurants are important, especially during Dimitriadis (2014) that product knowledge
periods of low demand. Discounts on F&B is important for the customer as the basis of

Asia-Pacific Management and Business Application, 11, 1 (2022): 59-74

 70 Rora Puspita Sari, et. al

the pre-purchase process of evaluating the Business study program, Universitas

hotel’s products and services. Padjadjaran, Indonesia. Her research interst
include information system, digital
The rest of the conversation content on innovation, and marketing intelligence, and
Twitter was related to handling complaints, innovation in Islamic fashion.
daily and light conversation not related to
the hotel, and sales promotions. The Fajar Kusnadi Kusumah Putra, is a
research can help hotel marketers Assistant professor in Department of
effectively manage and take advantage of Hospitality Management, Hotel
social media marketing tools (e.g., Administration study program, NHI
Facebook, Instagram). However, it is Bandung Tourism Polytechnic, Indonesia.
interesting to note that Twitter was rarely His research interests include eTourism,
used for informing customers of sales and hospitality management.
promotions, such as discounts, benefits, or
other kinds of promotion that are often used Ita Maemunah is a Assistant professor in
in marketing; sales promotion tweets Department of Hospitality Management and
accounted for only around 10% of the total head of Hotel Administration study
conversation on the hotel Twitter accounts. program, NHI Bandung Tourism
For the hotel management, it is important to Polytechnic, Indonesia. Her primary
invite users to be more involved in the research interests are food and beverage
brand. By instigating conversation not services, and tourism.
directly related to the product or service, it
is expected that online interaction with Nenden Dianawati is a lecturer in
users may be boosted (Howison et al., Department of Hospitality Management,
2015). Hotel Administration study program, NHI
Bandung Tourism Polytechnic, Indonesia.
This study is not without limitations, for Her primary research interests are hotel
data collection, researchers only used a marketing, quality assurance, and revenue
sample of 50 hotels in the Asian region. management in hotel.
Also, given the amount of tweets data is
considered insufficient in representing data References
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Rora Puspita Sari is a lecturer Lecturer of /2020vol21no1_Paper4.pdf
Management and Business, Digital

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