📌 The Platform Intel Briefing for Hospitality Brands

You’ll learn which social media platforms to prioritise, what to post, and where most brands are wasting time.

Jul 29, 2025

🌞 Welcome To This Week's Newsletter

This year, users will spend more than 4 trillion hours on social media, with the average person spending 2 hours and 24 minutes on social media daily. That time is spent on catching up with friends and family, entertainment, validating decisions, and lifestyle planning. For hospitality marketers, this creates a high-pressure environment where visibility doesn’t guarantee engagement, and engagement doesn’t guarantee action.

It’s challenging to perform when the rules keep changing. Meanwhile, your time is limited, your team is stretched, and you need to deliver results.

This edition covers where engagement is actually happening and where it isn’t. It explores what visibility looks like in 2025 across Meta, TikTok, Threads, and more. It breaks down which formats are being rewarded and which are being quietly suppressed. You’ll also see how buyer psychology differs across platforms, and where it makes sense to spend time or step back.

On the Menu this Week

Platform performance shifts you can’t ignore
Engagement benchmarks across Threads, TikTok, Instagram, Meta, and YouTube Shorts
Visibility risk signals by channel
Channel-by-channel action plan for marketers
Native tools that save time and multiply output
Short-form video trends that are reshaping content ROI
Which platforms to invest in—or step away from

Let’s Check In ☕

📩 Stop wasting time on underperforming platforms. Forward this newsletter to:

Marketing – to cut low-return activity and focus effort where it converts
Sales – to use platform intel in outreach, follow-ups, and buyer signals
Operations – to set clear posting responsibilities and reduce duplicated effort

Social Media in 2025

Social media isn’t one thing to all people. Some use it to escape. Others use it to decide. A scroll can be entertainment, research, reassurance, or validation, all within the same 90 seconds. Recent survey data shows the most common reasons people use social media globally:

48% To stay in touch with friends and family
36% To fill spare time
28% To read news stories
27% To find inspiration for things to do or buy
25% To see what’s being talked about

This creates a split in intent. One user is idly scrolling. The next is actively making decisions. Understanding which platform they’re on, and why, is critical. Every channel has its own rhythm. Match the message to the moment or risk losing both.

Some channels are static. Others are gaining visibility rapidly. Brands that keep treating all content as equal will miss the organic windows still available.

These are the platforms reshaping hospitality content strategy right now. They combine high engagement, cultural influence, and relevance to buyer psychology. Most hospitality marketers don’t have the resources to cover everything. Focusing here means maximising visibility without diluting effort.

Each platform reflects a different mode of use. People open Instagram to observe, validate, and quietly compare. They go to TikTok to immerse, discover, and identify. Threads is for conversation and community. Facebook still anchors local updates and social proof. YouTube Shorts supports search, idea formation, and passive exploration. Engagement is shaped not just by content type, but by user intent.

Content performance is no longer platform-first. It’s behaviour-first. Format alone doesn’t earn visibility; alignment with user psychology does. Brands that map messages to the mode of use will outperform those chasing trends in isolation.

❤️ Instagram

Instagram may look quiet on the surface, but it’s become the silent engine of guest decision-making. Public likes may be low, but DMs, saves, and profile views are doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

What guests want is clear: proof, proximity, and presence. They scroll profiles to check how the experience feels, whether the location fits their plans, and whether your team will respond if they reach out. Every post becomes part of their decision logic.

Social Media Customer Service is the New Normal

When customers ask a question in the comments or send a DM, they assume someone will reply, ideally within an hour, and certainly no more than 24. According to Sprout Social, 73% of social media users say they would switch to a competitor if a brand fails to respond on social. That risk is avoidable, and the upside is measurable.

Responding to customers on social media can cut service costs by up to 83% and boost brand advocacy by 25%. It’s faster, cheaper, and builds loyalty.

To support this expectation, Instagram has introduced automatic DM translations across 99 languages, enabling hospitality teams to respond to international guests in their native language directly within the app. These new features are designed to reduce friction, build trust, and remove the excuse for delayed replies.

Alongside these behavioural shifts, content performance is evolving too. Carousels continue to outperform other formats, delivering 60% more reach than images. They also take the top spot for engagement, outperforming Reels by 12% and single-image posts by 114%.

To give users more control over how their profile appears, Instagram is rolling out the ability to reorder posts on their grid. This lets brands highlight priority content and guide visitors toward what matters most.

For hospitality brands, the Instagram grid is no longer just visual proof; it’s now searchable proof.

A well-structured grid can influence both on-platform choices and off-platform discovery. If your captions include key information or compelling phrasing, they now contribute to your SEO footprint.

Instagram is shifting away from vanity metrics toward behavioural relevance. It’s telling brands: stop chasing likes, start structuring for decision support. By making captions indexable and providing more format control, Instagram is laying the groundwork for structured content to appear in AI-generated summaries. If your captions contain clear, useful detail, they become eligible for inclusion in third-party discovery tools—without any extra work.

While Instagram sharpens its tools for decision support, another platform is building momentum in a different way. Threads is growing through conversation, responsiveness, and early-mover advantage. Most brands are still ignoring it. That will not last.

🧵 Threads

Most hospitality brands still don’t take Threads seriously. And they should. Threads is an early-stage, low-noise arena. With only 9 % marketer adoption at the time of publication, early hospitality voices on Threads secure organic reach at CPMs a fraction of Instagram’s.

Estimated ad CPMs for Threads range between $5 and $10, compared to $6 to $18 on Instagram—making the platform up to 30% more cost‑efficient in earned visibility.

Engagement on Threads is quietly outperforming the rest of the social landscape, especially for content designed around connection and conversation. An analysis by Buffer shows that median engagement rates on Threads are 6.25%, compared to just 3.60% on X. The average engagement rate is higher too: 4.44% on Threads versus 2.42% on X, an 83.5% uplift.

For hospitality, that creates an opportunity. Most competitors still don't have a presence. Brands that get in early will see higher reach and stronger retention, with far less content fatigue.

Threads rewards consistency, responsiveness, and voice, and is rolling out new features to support this growth. Users can now send photos in DMs, expanding its functionality as a communication channel. Meta is signalling that Threads won’t stay casual for long; it’s building the tools needed to support full brand conversations.

Meta has appointed Connor Hayes, a long-standing executive who helped build Reels and lead generative AI projects, as the first dedicated head of Threads, beginning mid-September. He will report directly to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, allowing Mosseri to focus on Instagram’s core evolution.

This marks a clear signal that Threads is being elevated to platform status with sharper focus, fresher features, and human-centred storytelling that mirrors great service.

♾️ Meta

Meta now controls four of the top six social platforms globally. With Threads rising, Instagram reshaping grid behaviour, Facebook outperforming on image-led posts, and WhatsApp opening to marketers, Meta is quietly building the most integrated marketing ecosystem on the planet. And they’re not finished yet.

👍 Facebook

Facebook remains a valuable platform for hospitality businesses. It continues to deliver results, particularly when brands lead with strong visuals and clear storytelling.

On Facebook, video doesn't dominate feeds. In fact:

🥇 Pictures drive 35% more engagement than text, and 44% more than video
🥈 Text outperforms video by 6.7%
🥉 Video still has a role, beating link posts by 58%

For hospitality, static visual posts consistently outperform video-led content. Focus on single-photo posts that show staff moments, real guest reactions, or menu highlights. These don’t require captions to go viral, edits to perform, or filters to earn trust.

Meta has confirmed that including links in captions can reduce reach. Instead, add the link as a comment and pin it to the top. This keeps the main post clean and improves visibility in replies. You can also resurface links later by replying to high-performing comments.

These small choices in format and placement now carry outsized consequences. But attention isn’t only earned through posts. It’s also shaped by where conversations continue.

💬 WhatsApp

Meta is now turning WhatsApp into a discovery and engagement engine, not just a communication app. The average WhatsApp session lasts 29 minutes and 16 seconds. No other platform even comes close. This level of sustained attention makes WhatsApp uniquely positioned as both a messaging tool and a discovery channel. Relevant updates to the platform include

Channel subscriptions for opt-in updates
This gives brands a direct line to audiences without needing one-to-one chats. Users voluntarily subscribe to receive updates, which bypasses algorithmic feeds entirely. For hospitality, it creates an owned communication path for announcing new offers, menus, last-minute tables or seasonal events without relying on email or paid ads.
Promoted channels push visibility
Channel ads help businesses push updates to users who haven’t actively opted in. For hotels, it’s a chance to share exclusive offers with travellers browsing in-market locations. For restaurants, it can spotlight daily specials or event nights to nearby users. It works as a built-in acquisition tool inside a platform guests already use for trusted updates.
Ads in the Status tab, separate from chats
Scrollable, story-style ad placement feels native to the platform and does not interrupt conversations. For marketers, it offers high reach in a low-clutter space, suitable for short-form content including offers, atmosphere clips, or partnerships.

For hotels and restaurants, this opens the door to one-tap offers, private previews, and high-trust guest communication, all inside a channel your audience already uses regularly and expects to be real-time, direct, and relevant.

The updates aren’t limited to in-app features. Meta is expanding WhatsApp’s utility beyond the platform itself, embedding it into the discovery process where decisions start.

Hospitality businesses can now add a WhatsApp button to their Google Business Profile.

This allows prospective guests to contact you directly from Google Search or Maps via WhatsApp, reducing friction during mobile-led discovery and increasing responsiveness during peak hours or after closing.

WhatsApp is starting to play the same role as tools like Google Maps or TripAdvisor—helping guests decide where to stay, eat, or book based on real-time interactions. Instead of relying on polished visuals, decision-making now hinges on how quickly you respond, how helpful your answers are, and how easy it is to get the information they need.

Meta is repositioning its ecosystem as a plug-and-play network of influence, where creators and employees become extensions of your brand pipeline.

🗝️ Join Me in the VIP Lounge 🔒

New data, sharper decisions. Inside the Lounge, I break down what’s changed, what to prioritise, and how to shift your content systems to match buyer behaviour.

This week in the Lounge

🎞️ Platform-by-platform breakdown of short-form video tools
📋 Strategic Action Plan for allocating time, budget, and content volume
🧠 Expert insights on how each platform amplifies or suppresses reach

You’ll also get direct access to me in the comments for tactical questions—no consulting fee required. Let’s get to work 👇

📱 Short-Form Video

Short-form video remains one of the most effective ways to capture attention and drive action across social media platforms.

🎥 Reels

Reels weren’t just made for Instagram; they were made for how people scroll. Vertical, full-screen, sound-on, and fast-moving, Reels match the exact conditions of distracted browsing and short mental breaks.

Reels dominate Instagram performance, generating 39% more reach than carousels and 122% more than single-image posts. Engagement is also stronger, with 91% higher interaction than single-image posts.

In June 2025, Meta announced it would now treat all videos as Reels. These changes are being rolled out globally in stages. Meta is merging video and Reel formats under a single publishing flow. On Facebook, the Video Tab is being renamed to the Reels Tab, and all videos—regardless of length—will follow a consistent display format. Existing videos will remain visible on profiles and Pages, but all new uploads will automatically publish as Reels.

For marketers, this creates a challenge. Horizontal videos will still be supported, but they’ll appear in a vertical-first environment designed for Reels. This potentially means lower visibility, poor framing in default feeds, and reduced engagement unless edited for mobile-first playback.

Brands relying on widescreen content will need to adapt or risk their videos being buried. If the content isn’t native to the scroll experience, it’s unlikely to be surfaced.

To encourage more creators to test short-form video, Meta introduced trial reels, which are shown to new viewers before your existing followers. This lowers the stakes, bypasses immediate feedback loops, and protects your main audience from underperforming experiments. It’s a safer, smarter way to test new hooks, formats, and openings without risking reach or perception.

Use trial reels to uncover what earns the first pause, comment, or share—and then refine. Think of it as A/B testing for scroll behaviour, native to the platform.

This small format shift produced measurable behavioural changes:

40% of creators using trial reels posted more frequently
80% of posters saw increased reach from non-followers

Buyers are responding to native formats that match their consumption habits. As trial Reels get more usage, buyers will increasingly see only refined, optimised versions of content, shaping their expectations for polish, relevance, and impact.

🎵 TikTok

Most businesses still don’t understand how to use the platform strategically. TikTok’s updates lower the barrier to entry and reward those who commit to consistency, cultural fluency, and collaborative creation.

Longer Videos Now Perform Better

TikTok is shifting away from ultra-short clips. Videos over 60 seconds now get much better results than short ones:

Videos over 60 seconds get nearly double the reach and over 3x the watch time compared to 5–10 second clips
Videos between 30–60 seconds still do well, with 43% more reach than shorter clips
Even 30-second videos outperform 5–10 second ones by a noticeable margin

If you're still posting 10-second videos, you could be missing most of your audience.

Most marketers still overlook TikTok. Just 28% are active on the platform, compared to 79% on Instagram and 86% on Facebook. Yet travellers now spend just as much time on TikTok as they do on Instagram. This underuse presents a clear opportunity.

Hospitality brands willing to show up consistently can earn an outsized share of voice, especially by leaning into creative formats that don’t rely on perfection or polish.

While popular cities like Dubai, London, Paris, and Istanbul dominate in post volume, visibility is no longer about location alone. Success now comes from differentiated storytelling, authentic tone, and repeated touchpoints that build recognition over time.

TikTok’s 2025 Trend Signals prioritise relevance, trust, and repetition. The most applicable signals for hospitality include:

1. Creator Spread
Rotate content creation across several voices, such as team members, trusted partners, or regular guests. This widens perspective, builds authenticity, and helps reach different parts of your audience. Each contributor brings a unique tone, context, and credibility, which strengthens connection and boosts reach across networks.

Identify three staff members, local partners, or micro-creators connected to your venue
Assign each one a theme such as behind-the-scenes, guest reactions, or local tips
Film short, casual videos in their voice or style
Publish weekly in a rotating format to build a familiar presence around your brand

This works because diverse creators unlock different trust signals. It helps the brand feel multidimensional and lived-in.

Always run content through your brand’s approval process before publishing. Even internal creators must follow copyright rules, brand tone, and advertising law. Unchecked uploads can dilute your message, or worse, trigger legal issues.

2. Trust Fund
Use real-time formats such as street interviews, live content, or behind-the-scenes sequences

Create a “Real Guest Stories” series with short interviews at check-out, the bar, or reception
Film 15 to 30 second clips capturing emotional highlights such as favourite dishes or reasons for visiting
Caption with quotes and layer brand values in the background such as staff warmth or standout service moments

This builds trust by replacing curated content with unfiltered proof. It is especially effective for audiences who rely on peer validation before booking.

3. Constant Confidant
Maintain an always-on presence that reflects evolving guest needs

Map out five recurring guest concerns such as pet-friendly policies, vegan menus, nearby transport, check-in FAQs, or WiFi speeds
Post one short video tip per week addressing each topic in a calm and reassuring tone
Pin key answers to your profile or reply to common questions with stitched video content

This reinforces your brand as dependable, helpful, and responsive. It helps guests feel confident before they even book.

Creators connected to your venue (such as staff, micro-creators, or real guests) send stronger trust signals when grouped. These familiar clusters perform better than solo sources because AI systems recognise overlapping traits like location, language, style, and timing, and prioritise them.

TikTok users respond most strongly to brand content that mirrors personal identity, includes cultural context, and invites direct engagement. These patterns mirror major shifts in buyer behaviour.

TikTok now supports native music integration through its SoundOn platform, letting artists and songwriters link their catalogue directly to videos. Most brands haven’t explored this yet. For hospitality, this opens the door to deeper storytelling—whether through regional soundscapes, local artist features, or music that sets the emotional tone of the guest experience.

Sound has become strategy. Music acts as a discovery tool, a branding layer, and an emotional anchor.

The brands that succeed here will not be the loudest. They will be the most layered. The ones who combine story rhythm, multiple voices, embedded trust, and cultural signals into a consistent presence. Treat TikTok like Instagram, and you’ll be ignored. Treat it like a behavioural system and you’ll get results.

📺 YouTube Shorts

Most brands still treat YouTube Shorts like TikToks with a different logo. But Shorts weren’t built for scrolling; they were built for searching. And that changes everything.

YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world after Google, with around 2.7 billion monthly active users.

YouTube Shorts are not just short videos. They are the next generation of branded search results, blending relevance, recency, and retention into one visual asset. Most brands are still posting TikToks with a different watermark.

YouTube Shorts operate within a search-first ecosystem. Each video contributes to long-term discoverability through related videos, playlists, and channel authority. Every short has a URL, can be grouped into playlists, and connects to long-form content. Each short supports broader visibility across the platform.

For hospitality marketers, this means:

88% of travel-related searches focus on destinations, attractions, or ideas
71% of users watch destination videos during the planning phase

YouTube is repositioning Shorts as a volume-first, low-friction format designed for frequent publishing with minimal creative overhead.

Content can now be produced directly from mobile using in-app tools, no outsourcing required. The built-in Shorts editor has been redesigned to reduce friction and simplify production. Creators can now:

Rearrange or delete clips
Add text and timed captions
Apply music and sound overlays
Fine-tune timing with a visual waveform

These updates by Shorts bring the toolset in line with creator expectations shaped by TikTok and Instagram Reels, making the platform more accessible to hospitality teams. Features such as auto beat syncing, AI sticker prompts, and gallery-based templates streamline the editing process and reduce the learning curve. This is especially useful for smaller teams or brands without in-house video specialists.

👨‍🍳 Hospitality Shorts

YouTube’s updated view logic now counts every autoplay and replay. This means creators are no longer penalised for drop-off, especially in loopable formats. That opens a low-risk testing ground for storytelling. Try these:

✅ Loop-Friendly Content

Sparkling drink
Spa bubbling
Dinner cooking

✅ Hotel Playlist Ideas

Themed room tours (e.g. garden view, suite, family)
Event setups, seasonal decor, cocktail features
Timed series showing check-in, breakfast, sunset, or turn-down

✅ Restaurant Shorts Series

Dish highlights or daily specials
Guest soundbites: “Why we booked” or “What we loved”
Staff tips (e.g. wine pairings, prep secrets, fun facts)

✅ Strategic Connection

Link each Short to long-form content: walking tours, event activations or menu guides
Embed Shorts into channel playlists to build visibility across search and suggested video chains

Search Advantage
Every Short you publish adds to your SEO footprint. This includes:

Indexed titles and captions
Playlist metadata
Viewer retention signals that influence YouTube’s recommendation engine

The brands that win will treat Shorts like modular SEO content, sequenced intentionally to match how guests plan, compare, and decide.

🍍 Key Take-Away

These platform updates aren't for the “creator economy” or influencers; they're to enable businesses to publish at scale without agencies. Opening the door for hospitality brands to become their own media outlets.

📝 Action Plan

Not every platform deserves the same level of effort. But consistency across the right ones creates stacked visibility that compounds over time.

🕒 Time & Budget Allocation

Use the table below to align your weekly time and budget allocation by platform, based on:

Platform maturity and behavioural fit
Buyer journey relevance
Strategic return on consistency

Note: “Low” budget doesn’t mean zero—it accounts for in-house creation, basic tools, and repurposing assets. “Medium” indicates investment in editing, filming, or creator support

🔁 Best Practices for Repurposing Content Across Channels

Start with one narrative theme and anchor it in lived experience.
Don’t create different stories for each platform. Choose one strong theme (like cultural connection or safety reassurance), and reframe it per format using the same core message.
Use Trial Reels to test before scaling.
On Instagram and YouTube Shorts, use Trial Reels to experiment with variations of the same content. Test different hooks, captions, visuals, and CTA placements. Because these formats reach non-followers first, you can safely assess what grabs attention without harming your core engagement metrics. Track watch time and click-throughs to identify what works. Reuse top performers in your main feed or paid campaigns. Also test: soundtrack swaps, thumbnail frames, and copy overlays.
Reduce friction by using native tools to create content variants.
Use Instagram and YouTube’s in-app editors to spin off quick versions with alternate captions, timings, or overlays. This keeps effort low while increasing volume.
Link Shorts and Reels to long-form content or landing pages.
Increase search visibility by embedding Shorts into playlists, or pairing Reels with grid posts that include booking calls to action or tagged locations.
Reuse hooks across Threads, Instagram, and WhatsApp to stay visible. Resurface the same core insight, question, or prompt every 7 days, but vary how you deliver it. One week, it might be a text-only Thread. The next, a visual Reel. Then a WhatsApp Status update. Repetition builds familiarity. Format variation stops scroll fatigue. This method keeps your message visible without exhausting your audience.

🌅 Expert Advice

These are my top tips for boosting content performance.

1. Saturated themes kill discovery
If you’re still posting luxury rooms and poolside shots, you’re competing in a crowded field with declining returns. Themes like cultural immersion, personal growth, and guest safety are underused but outperform in engagement, especially when shown through lived experience.

2. Search-friendly platforms reward specificity
On YouTube Shorts and Google-connected platforms, vague captions and generic visuals will bury your content. Use precise descriptors, local references, and sensory verbs to build discoverability over time.

3. Platform logic matters more than post style
TikToks don’t automatically work on Shorts. Reels don’t convert on Threads. Each platform has different visibility mechanics. Adapt your content to native rhythms: looping for Shorts, response hooks for Threads, sound-driven narrative for TikTok.

4. People trust other people more than your edit
Many hospitality brands still rely on polished brand videos while ignoring real guest moments. UGC, check-out interviews, and behind-the-scenes clips signal trust faster than any ad copy.

5. One great post won’t save you. Repetition will
Creators who post consistently for 20 or more weeks, get up to 450% higher engagement. Spread your core narrative across platforms, not by duplicating, but by reworking the same story through different lenses. Let people encounter you from multiple angles.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

You don’t need to do everything. You need to do what works. This edition gave you the platform logic and behavioural data to make that call with confidence.

Not every post deserves your time. Not every channel earns your presence. But the ones that do, the ones mapped here, pay you back in visibility, trust, and strategic advantage.

That’s it for this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed the newsletter. I look forward to serving you again next week.

All the best
Dawn Gribble MIH MCIM
Hospitality Marketing Insight
Here’s to Your Success 🥂

❓ Got a question about this issue?

If something in this issue raised a question or touched on a challenge you're facing, ask in the comments below. I bring 20+ years of hospitality marketing experience to every answer.

📚 References & Resources

2025 Digital Media Trends: Social platforms are becoming a dominant force in media and entertainment | Deloitte Insights
Advertising on Threads: Potential CPMs & RPMs | MonetizeMore
Helping You Find More Channels and Businesses on WhatsApp | Meta Newsroom
Data Shows Best Content Format on Social Platforms in 2025: Millions of Posts Analyzed | Buffer
Social Media Customer Service Statistics By Network, Demographics And Facts (2025) | Electro IQ
So… turns out Facebook is limiting reach if you include a link in your caption | Facebook
Embracing Instagram Creativity for All | About Instagram
Emerging Sources, Formats, Channels, Devices, and Audiences in Modern eWOM Communications | Psychology & Marketing
Exclusive: Meta names Connor Hayes head of Threads | Axios
Making it Easier to Create Videos on Facebook | Meta Newsroom
Instagram for Business: Updates to Edits App, scheduled messages, and message translations | Instagram
Social media customer service statistics to know in 2025 | Sprout Social
How the YouTube algorithm works in 2025 | Hootsuite
Meta Adds New Facebook and Instagram Management Options for Third-Party Platforms | Social Media Today
The Most Up-To-Date Social Media Data | Buffer
Threads Adds Image Sharing in DMs | Social Media Today
Threads Continues to See Strong Download Momentum in June | Social Media Today
TikTok Adds New Features to Highlight Songwriters in the App | Social Media Today
Worldwide Daily Social Media Usage (New 2025 Data) | Exploding Topics