Evaluating the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool in the hotel sector: a case study on four and five star hotels in Makkah, Saudi Arabia Hatem Radwan Ibrahim Radwan Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Suez Canal University Abstract The power of social media has been increased over the last few years. Social media is a new approach that can be used in hotel marketing to shape customer’s purchasing behaviour. It can enhance more benefits and advantageous to hotels that cannot be achieved via using traditional marketing tools. This research aims to explore hotels’ use of social media and assess its effectiveness as a marketing tool in the hotel sector in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Data was collected from the field using multiple research methods. First, a questionnaire survey was developed and sum of 31 questionnaire forms were distributed on marketing managers in four and five star hotels in Makkah. Second, 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with those hotel marketing executives. Finally, content analysis was carried out to explore and assess hotels’ social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter etc.) The results of this research revealed that hotels’ utilization of social networking sites in marketing was still very modest. Marketers identified several issues that made many hoteliers hesitant to exploit this marketing channel. Hotels’ use of social media was built upon updating hotel status and promoting hotel events and offers. A few hotels particularly those related to international hotel companies have made an effective use of social media channels believing that it is an effective way to communicate and build relationships with customers and a medium that can help hotels know about and handle customer comments and queries. It will be important for hotel brand building purposes. This research concludes that it is necessary for hotels to add social media to their marketing mix. Hotels should make an interesting and informative social media pages. No doubt this would have significant impact on hotel marketing and provide competitive opportunities for hotels to improve marketing activities. Keywords: Social media, networks, Facebook, Twitter, marketing, effectiveness, marketing tools, hotels, Makkah, Saudi Arabia 1. Introduction The introduction of social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter in the hotel and tourism companies is no longer a matter of choice but rather a matter of need. Social media is a very broad concept including a variety of websites where users can share information. Social media has become a major factor in influencing various aspects of consumer behavior including: needs recognition, information acquisition, opinions and attitudes, purchase behavior, post-purchase communication and most importantly evaluation of alternatives (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Over the last decade internet users of social media have grown and its usage has progressively grown from individuals to businesses. Organizations can proactively use social media as a tool to reach out millions of prospective customers. Businesses in the service industry such as hospitality started to change their traditional marketing strategies by using interactive social media channels (Seth, 2012).