Posts Tagged ‘hotel pr’
Friday, March 11th, 2011
Messaging is probably the most important element to any marketing and communications campaign, as it represents the core of your PR strategy.
Building the right message is easier said than done in the era of social media, when so much is shared and often times distorted.
Growing up in Athens, my grade school friends and I used to play a game called “broken telephone,” where the first in line would whisper a word to the person next to them and so on. By the time the communication reached the last person, usually with 6-8 kids playing, the word had changed completely!
It’s a similar concept with messaging for a business. You want to ensure the proper channels are in place to carry the message forward by keeping it intact:
- Strategize by prioritizing what properties of your message you are willing to lose as the message is shared, and shared again. With FB and Tw, you expect anything you post to be fair game and go viral. Know in advance what you want people/fans/followers to talk about and what types of conversations you would like to see on social media.
- Choose the right media for your message. This is a no brainer, especially when you know what social networks work best for you. Take the time to research if LinkedIn or Facebook or YouTube is best. They may all work, or only one. Maybe even none. You need to make sure before you send posts out to the digital space
- Choose the right professionals to build your message. Message builds content these days. Period. If you don’t have content, you can’t share it, no one can talk about it, and web traffic dwindles. Keep the buzz going with the best professionals who understand your industry and know how to manage your expectations.
- Expect that social media will keep changing, and so your message has to be multifaceted. Keep several angles attached to your message so you can refresh it with new contect and conversations. The more angles you can come up with, the better story you will be able to share with the right people.
It’s important to know that building a message takes time and is a strategic communications process that will evolve with the objectives and goals of your client’s business. Being flexible as a PR person and making changes where necessary is helpful and can lead to success in the long term. Since messaging enhances branding, it makes sense to invest in a long term approach that will yield high ROR and ROI.
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Tags: boutique hotel pr, building the right message, hospitality social media, hotel pr, imc, messaging, PR messages, ROR, SMM, social media PR, website copy writing
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
With Thanksgiving around the corner, aside from few deadlines, not much is going on this week in terms of media. Most topics have been decided on, and reporters - like the rest of us - are looking to shut down for some turkey and family time.
The days before major holidays like Thanksgiving are perfect “catch-up” days, as I like to call them. PR pros take the time to review checklists, update media lists, catch up on old pitches, follow-up, and even spending some time to write their own blog posts!
With 2010 so near a close, it’s amazing to be part of a field that’s ever changing and evolving continuously. I’m planning my post on predictions for 2011, and how PR will play a big role in hotels, travel, and many other industries. I’ll be using some of downtime this week for planning that outline also.
Meanwhile, I am thankful for a 2010 that will end on a very positive note. Thankful for being my own boss for nearly six years. Thankful for smart and genuine colleagues, who are a pleasure to work with as we rejoice in each other’s successes and pull through tough times . Thankful for the ability to appreciate the simplest of things. Most of all I’m thankful for a four year old who already loves writing and looking forward to doing homework!
Happy Thanksgiving
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Tags: hotel pr, pr checklist, pr downtime, pr predictions 2011, productive pr, thankful, thanksgiving 2010
Posted in Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, social media | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
About eight years ago we saw a few small hotel bloggers make their debut online, talking about properties, where to stay, amenities to rave about, room categories to avoid and so forth. A great example of a hotel blog that started hyperlocal in Boston and grew enormously in the past decade is friend Mark Johnson’s HotelChatter.
Between then and today, there are myriads of bloggers on the internet writing up anything from favorite hotel roundups, and top 10 destinations, to exposing bed bug infested hotels and other popular topics relating to the travel industry. As PR people we already know there are some bloggers that have impeccable ethics, and others not so much. It’s up to us to decide who to pitch to.
Without assigning blame to anyone, how do you pitch bloggers in the new decade? Earlier on, it was easy because bloggers did not have the prestige they have today. These days, bloggers are well respected writers, often times editors of high-end publications that are no longer in business. Many senior level writers have left magazines and newspapers to start their own blog and online presense.
The travel/hotel blog boom is still going strong. Pitching bloggers is getting harder. Crafting a clever angle is more important than ever. Establishing relationships with the bloggers takes more time now than it used to. It’s all online too, you have to follow them on Twitter, comment of their FB posts and show interest in their content. It’s a new process that PR people have to embrace when pitching bloggers for hospitality clients (and all clients, for that matter).
One thing is relatively unique for writers and bloggers in the travel and hospitality industry: they don’t leave it! So, happy pitching!
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Tags: bed bugs, bloggers and pr people, hospitality social media, hotel pr, hotels and bloggers, how to pitch bloggers, Media Relations, pitching in 2010, travel bloggers, travel pr
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 27th, 2010
Strategize PR efforts to include the destination to cast a wider net of opportunities for the hotel
Happy Friday! Today, I am in a great mood. It’s been a whirlwind of a summer with almost too much travel, so coming back and settling into a routine has been a great way to end the summer on a soft note.
I’ve been thinking a lot about destinations this week… as we’ve explored on this blog, if you are working with a hotel, aligning your PR efforts to include the destination can pay plenty of dividends in the long term.
It has indeed become more difficult to obtain prime and strategic placements with the publishing shakeout, but when an article finally does come out, somehow it’s all worth it again!
I was so pleased with this USA Today Travel Tips article that talks about the Hotel Heritage Relais Chateaux in Bruges. I like this article especially because it only lists one hotel for each destination. The fact that the article was published as online content makes it easy to share it with others on Twitter and Facebook. In the past, a print article would have been more exciting, but that has completely changed in the last two years.
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Tags: belgium, bruges, destination and hotels, destination pr, hotel pr, relais & chateaux, strategic travel pr placements, usa today travel
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
Friday, June 11th, 2010
I received this topic as a request to write a blog post a few days ago. Anyone who has some connection or experience at a hotel can become an ambassador. Employees, for instance, are probably the top ambassadors of the hotel and its brand. Repeat guests, corporate clients, and community members are also excellent ambassadors.
What happens however when the ambassador is a celebrity chef, or award winning sommelier who works at the hotel? Obviously, there is much PR value to be had from a celebrity who is sought after to do TV shows, interviews, etc., to promote the hotel. And this is absolutely fine, as long as the hotel’s message is in line with the PR strategy.
The fact is that many chef celebrities need media training. Period. As PR professionals, we cannot expect a chef, or sommelier, or GM to know all the right answers on camera. They may be very reserved, or overly enthusiastic, to the extent of blurring the hotel’s message. It’s clearly the PR team’s responsibility to train and make them understand the message and help them deliver it. For instance, talking points are great but they must be repeated, especially on camera, where a quick cooking performance could take all day to shoot, but is edited down to a few minutes.
Striking a balance between respecting the celebrity’s value in the hotel, and appreciating their talent is important to do in this process. Through media training techniques PR pros help the celebrity look good as they plug in the hotel. Yes, there are exceptions of chef celebs who are great PR ambassadors because they just get it right away. There are others who require more attention.
Either way, arm yourself with patience and tact when prepping a celeb.
Of course, if you’re in PR and reading this, you already know that it’s one thing to say this and another to actually follow through with it!
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Tags: celebrity chefs, employee ambassadors in hotels, hospitality media training, hotel ambassadors, hotel pr, media training, pr and hotels, social media PR, sommelier in hotels, tv shows for hotels
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
I was talking to Ann Manion yesterday, a highly regarded hospitality consultant, who focuses on hotel reputation management with her new company Hotel Advantage. She and I were on the phone for nearly an hour talking about independent hotel trends as it relates to PR, content, messaging and the complex world of maintaining an excellent reputation in a rich media world.
We both have similar perspectives on hospitality, though practice different areas in communication. We touched on several topics and found that it isn’t easy to manage a hotel’s reputation, especially when the property is independently owned and managed. It takes a dedicated effort to respond properly to anything from horrific reviews, poorly positioned articles, and bad blog posts that unfortunately GMs have no control over in a social media environment. As the old saying goes, when you can’t control what happens around you, you can still control your reactions (or ”freactions” as I like to call them).
Sometimes hotels take poor reviews very personally, and it’s tempting to lash out and become defensive on a response post on TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc. While a response is the right course of action, it should be well thought out and positioned in a constructive way. Chances are you may lose the guest who had a negative experience anyway, but the way you respond will speak mountains to those potential guests who read the thread for years to come.
Ann had some excellent points on hotel reputation management via social media media, and how important it is to train the right staff to guard a hotel’s message. Keeping things viral isn’t enough, it is about maintaining quality in the overall social media marketing strategy. Right now, there is still too much information out there on the web that should be shaken out.
And unfortunately, there are still many independent hotels who don’t feel ready to grasp the opportunities social media can offer in the travel and hospitality world. However, the more hotels understand the concept of content quality in the social media sphere, the more hotels will be apt to give it a try.
I believe that the ones who have created a social media strategy (and actually followed through with it), even as a simple means to market their message, have not looked back.
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Tags: bad hotel reviews, hospitality social media, hotel marketing communications, hotel pr, hotel reputation management, responding to poor reviews, social media PR, tripadvisor andd hotels
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
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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Tags: digital crowd sourcing, facebook and hotels, foursquare and hospitality, hotel mayors foursquare, hotel pr, hotels and foursquare, social media PR
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
One of the main reasons I started my own PR practice with a focus on hospitality and travel is that I wanted to communicate messages about the unique, personal, memorable - and sometimes quirky- hotels and destinations in the world to the avid traveler. I wanted to help small, independent hotels tell their story to travelers who sought a different experience than the mainstream chains. My philosophy has been that the luxury in travel is not in the money one spends, but in the richness of the experience.
With that in mind, there’s a distinct difference in practicing PR among the types of hotels, and it each type has strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats from a PR perspective (indeed, I am referring to a SWOT analysis… it’s important to do before undertaking any major marketing / marcomm initiative).
For example, in my experience I have found that the main challenge of doing PR for independent boutique hotels is that you must create a name that resonates with its brand positioning. Plus, you really only get one chance to get it right, so your strategy must be studied and executed carefully. Therefore, the PR process is very different between launching, say, an unknown, 15-room boutique hotel in Easter Island, versus a business Starwood hotel in London.
The destination of the hotel is also an important ingredient in the PR campaign, regardless of the type of the property, and whether or not it is new to the travel market. Corporate hotels (chains) may sometimes be less challenging to do PR for because they are already members of an established brand with generally predictable coverage in the pipeline (print/online/social media).
However, independent, boutique properties who invest in PR call for a fresh strategy, that talks about a new experience, a new travel opportunity, and a new perspective to the potential guest. Sometimes it’s the story behind the owner, or the exclusive travel niche a property has that starts conversations. It might be about how the owner gives each guest a personal tour, the success of the compost program the hotel implements, or the taste of the organic coconut water at turndown that stands out. Whatever the angle, the key is to provide quality, interesting and continuous information to the media (and social media) and tailor your PR efforts accordingly.
Regardless of the property’s size, preference, or type, as PR practitioners specializing in hospitality we must build and maintain great relationships with the appropriate tourism boards, tour operators, as well as press and social media who report on the destination… and then in turn the hotel. I have found that incorporating holistic, destination-focused PR strategies for the independent hotels I have worked with so far have yielded not only continuous results and success, but also healthy, long term relationships.
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Tags: hospitality pr, hotel media relations, hotel pr, luxury travel, social media pr for hotels
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
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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Tags: facebook and hotels, hospitality pr, hotel pr, pr professionals, social media pr 2010, social media trends 2010, Twitter and hotels, yoga in hotels
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
Friday, December 18th, 2009
Take your pick: Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Preferred Hotels, Luxury Hotels of the World, Relais & Chateaux, Conde Nast Johansens and more. There are several prestigious collections of properties that are designed to fit your hotel’s needs.
Is the expensive membership worth it from a PR perspective? I vote yes only when you have done your research as to which hotel family will yield the most benefits. It’s easy to fall into a box or category, but important to maintain the unique characteristics that make your hotel stand out. Generally, most hotel collections require a set of standards to be met by your property. Even if you meet them, sometimes down the road you might find that joining it wasn’t the right fit, and your membership did not yield the expected benefits. In other cases, you might choose to spend the time to shop around until you find the right hotel collection.
From a PR standpoint, the branding acquired by joining a hotel collection membership can help with recruting additional press inquiries, tours, and other media initiatives.
Remember, it is also up to you to get the benefits by joining a hotel family, so make sure you do your share of announcements and marketing about your membership to print/web/social media and guests, too. It is important for you to do your share of the work in order to get the word out to the right audience.
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Tags: boutique hotel pr, hotel collections, hotel marketing, hotel pr, luxury hotel pr, relais & chateaux, SLH
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 1 Comment »