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Beautiful Chetola

coxts1
Aug 4, 2017
2 min read

This past Thursday, my social media strategies class and I took a trip to the Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock, North Carolina to learn more about the social media campaign put into effect by the head of marketing. We were first given a tour of the facilities and learned about the history of the Chetola resort that was constructed in 1846. While the resort itself has a long and successful history, the use of social media in the past year alone has had an incredible impact on the amount of traffic the website receives and reach to possible guests.

Bryan Moore, head of the social media marketing team at Chetola, gave insight on how the use of Facebook has increased their website traffic and attracts more and more returning guests. One thing discussed during our meeting was the appeal to emotion through images and targeted postings. Moore stated that when first beginning at Chetola, Hootsuite was utilized to post up-to-date information on their Facebook site. However, Moore claims that these postings made by Hootsuite did very little to help the success of the website and campaign because they appeared similar to advertisements. The lack of appeal to emotion in these posts distanced themselves from the goal of attracting guests.

Mr. Moore continued by stating their greatest increase in traffic was this past July-the very beginning of his new social media campaign. Moore stated that he switched to a more direct appeal by posting pictures of the beautiful lake, screenshots of weather forecasts and events happening at Chetola that in turn drew more customers to the site. He believes this is because it attracts guests from places that were not currently experiencing the mild climate and beautiful scenery of the Blue Ridge Mountains and caused a major spike in bustling cities experiencing extreme summer heat such as Charlotte, Raleigh and Atlanta. The biggest increase in traffic has recently been from residents of Boone, North Carolina mostly due to targeted campaigns welcoming local communities that once thought of Chetola as a resort for the wealthy and privileged.