Posts Tagged ‘facebook and hotels’

Foursquare and hotels

Monday, May 17th, 2010

We talked about Foursquare a couple of months ago, and since then the app has been more and more popular!  It’s a digital form of crowd sourcing, and the popularity of becoming “Mayor” of a place, shop, store, hotel, restaurant, or any other location is quickly becoming competitive.

What does this new app mean for hotels, and how can they use it as a marketing tool?  Okay, so first it’s probably a little too soon to know exactly who your Foursquare users really are, although you already know that they are tech savvy, have a smart phone, and more than likely are avid Facebook and Twitter users. 

Depending on the social media strategy of the hotel, Foursquare could be an excellent outreach tool, especially when it comes to offering Foursquare “specials.”  For instance, some restaurants are offering free appetizers for those who “checkin” on a certain date and show their phone to the host.  My friend Mark Johnson of HotelChatter posted an article about which hotels are using the app to promote deals and specials. 

The immediacy of Foursquare is very attractive, as well as the potential of guests randomly running into someone they know.  The deals are a good thing, too.  Collecting badges and becoming mayor are a whole other story, though there are multiple marketing opportunities for hotels to capitalize on frequent and loyal Foursquare users.

By the way, from my 3750 approx Gmail contacts 15 are now using Foursquare - nearly twice as many from almost two months ago!!

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Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »

Five social media tips hotels should follow in 2010

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

There’s just so much content out there on this subject it hurts my eyes as I read most of it.  Since I generally follow social media trends, I decided to put together a short (yes, short!) list of tips I think hotels should follow as the year progresses. 

1) Pick the right social network to have a healthy presence.  Most hotels have a Facebook page and many have Twitter pages, some might be active on YouTube and Ning.  Just set your goals clearly on what you are looking to obtain from a social media strategy, and pick the right network for your property.  Remember, you don’t have to be on every network.  Quality definitely precedes quantity here.

2)  Post often.  This depends again on the network.  If you post 10 updates on Facebook per day, that may be too much, but 10 tweets are about the average.  Determine the needs of each network and understand the dynamic, so you can participate actively.

3)  Engage.  You can’t force people to engage just by friending them or getting them to join your page or follow you.  Writing posts that are relevant and quirky, tuck in a really cool special deal, mention something out of the ordinary that happened at your hotel, post a photo of a fun event, send off an inpiring quote from the GM.  Write things fans and followers want to read as it relates to you.  Get into your audience’s virtual mind!

4)  Measure success.  As with any campaign, you should set timeframes for everything to see where you stand.  Facebook allows you to explore metrics to understand your post’s quality, number of subscribers, demographics, etc.  With Twitter, you can find out a lot from the number of mentions, RTs, real DMs (not auto DMs!) and increasing number of followers.  Once you add meaning to the numbers over time, you can make the right adjustments along the way to improve your social media presence.

5)  To blog or not to blog?  I get this question a lot as it relates to hotels.  I am all for blogging, but only if you can commit to doing it right.  If you can’t, then don’t do it, it’s not worth your time and it won’t be an effective PR and Marketing tool for your business.  Hotel blogs are tricky; they have to be written with the guest in mind.  For example, posting bland press releases about a appointing a new staff member is not necessarily appropriate for a hotel blog.  On the other hand, blogging about a renovation and what that will mean to guests in the future would be a good post.  Drafting quality blog topics will determine if it makes sense for a hotel to have one in the first place.

My final thought on social media:  if it becomes a chore and you get lazy, it will show in your writing.

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Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 1 Comment »

Hotel social media: what are you talking about?

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Hotels are increasingly securing a healthy presence on Facebook and Twitter - the two main social networks that make sense to be on… today (this post may be completely outdated in a month, that is how fickle social media are). 

Assuming you have someone in-house, or an independent PR pro who is dedicated to monitoring, updating and overseeing your social media accounts, you should ask yourself: is that enough?

Posting one update a day may be consistent, but probably not enough to start truly engaging conversations.  Determine what your goals are from your presence on social media.  Then, find what makes your guests talk… if it is your restaurant’s specials, talk about them.  If it is a seasonal drink at the bar, or an exciting amenity (yoga comes to mind!) reach out and get some feedback.  The more you think in terms of your fans and followers, the higher the post quality on your pages.

Good pages inspire fans to create new social media groups to continue and carry on the conversation, to make it as viral as possible.  Invest in the right professional to oversee your social media campaign, and have your finger on the pulse to evaluate its success.

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Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »

Why PR should be on every hotel’s executive committee

Monday, June 8th, 2009

I think I’ve spend the better part of my specialty arguingthe importance of assigning a seat for PR in the exec roundtable at every hotel, regardless of size, type or chain.   In the past two or three years, I’m noticing more and more properties are investing in PR, and some are actually empowering these folks to sit in weekly executive meetings.

With the drop in the economy, PR has been absorbed in a Sales and Marketing role once again, but once the cycle rebounds, public relations will come back bigger and better!

Whether your hotel’s PR rep is an swanky agency, a capable freelancer, a smart-as-a-whip intern, or an in-house manager, seeking the opinion of your media relations liason in hotel matters will pay dividends.  Surely you want to know what’s tweeted about your hotel, or what the fans are saying on Facebook?  (And tell me that you know what Twitter is by now!)  From property issues management planning, and projected renovations to simple updating your crisis communications handbook, PR should have a say in the direction, not just the execution of the promotion or publicity. 

PR professionals can provide great and humble feedback from a unique perspective to your executive committee.  It’s a shame to have them pass on their notes to the DOSM (Director of Sales and Marketing) and miss out on their valuable direct insight in property matters.

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Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »