Posts Tagged ‘social media 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 »
Thursday, February 17th, 2011
ROI is the first thing clients measure in the world of PR and social media, and how that success is defined depends on the understanding the client and PR team have.
With PR evolving leaps and bounds with the continuous push from social media and digital networks, is it really about ROI or ROR?
Return on Relationships is a term that has always been around in traditional PR, but has only recently taken on such a strong measurement role with the emergence of the social media monsters, from FB, Twitter, LinkedIn and the endless number of bloggers online.
Measuring the influence your client has in the online space is vital, and the best way to do that these days is to 1) be selective in terms of networks and who you reach out to on behalf of your client 2) keep your message solid 3) measure quality and digital potency of your message rather than track impressions alone.
These days, it’s all about content and how others engage with it, whether that means sharing, retweeting, commenting, arguing or starting new conversations.
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Tags: bloggers and content, bloggosphere, content, digital space, measuring SMM, ROR, social media marketing, social media PR, social shopping
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, social media | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
The boxing match between traditional radio and podcasting took center stage a few years ago, although there really is no winner. Radio gets millions of listeners and the sense of urgency is far more prevalent than during a podcast, which you can listen to whenever you like.
However, podcasts have found an excellent niche. Depending on the theme, tone, audio level and quality, podcasts are growing in popularity, and are earning respect from listeners across the globe. Aiming to those who are relatively savvy on social media, podcasts are popping up everywhere.
The best thing about podcasts from a PR perspective is that they are viral. You can easily share snipits from a podcast, or create alerts on Twitter and Facebook to generate awareness and interest quickly. Podcasts are saved easily and you can go back to them online, comment and share the content over and over again. It’s an overall effective tactic to share your client’s message with the right audience. The key is to find the right podcast for your client, where s/he is comfortable speaking to the host.
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Tags: itunes, Media Relations, podcast vs. radio, podcasting, pr tactics, social media, social media PR
Posted in Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, social media | No Comments »
Sunday, January 9th, 2011
Happy New Year! I am starting out this year with a much more positive feeling than 2010, and hopefully many industries are feeling optimistic as we enter 2011. Last year, we explored specific trends for boutique hotels and now it’s time to build on new ones.
- Social Media expand outreach. The one thing predicted last year is that social media will play a big role in hotels as the networks grow. And that’s what happened. Thankfully, plenty of hotels (chains, boutique, independently owned, B&Bs, etc.) have Facebook and Twitter pages now and are engaging more and more. Now that hotels are comfortable with the social media monster, their challenge will be how to learn to use this tool efficiently to reach guests, enhance branding by communicating the right message, and most of all learn to manage reputation effectively. Read my tips on social media in hospitality for this year.
- Clarify your message. At this point in the economy, you know where your hotel stands and it’s important to start thinking where you want to be once the uptick starts. What type of hotel will you be once occupancy picks up? Who will you market to? Has your audience changed and where do you see travelers booking 2-3 years from now? It’s never too early to ask these questions based on your 2011 budgets and the answers will help you create a solid message for your outreach efforts
- Continue to build value. That’s probably the takeaway from this post… value is something that guests will keep looking for when traveling, especially as more people are starting to consider leisure trips. Building value around the rack rate makes a lot of sense. Avoiding price wars is a big challenge for hotels, so it’s important to leverage what you already have, i.e., exceptional breakfast experience that you can comp, gift baskets at turndown, complimentary valet or laundry - anything that you think will add more to the guest experience. If you can personalize the value to make the guest happier, that’s even better.
- Stay focused and prioritize. As always, when budgets are tight, it’s important to prioritize. This will not change in 2011, especially as hotels continue with upkeep and updating properties. Getting through this year successfully, will be an indicator for future success, in my opinion.
- Marketing and PR. As 2010 showed us (i.e., BP Oil Spill - we will never forget!) having a strong team to handle your marketing and public relations is not a luxury. It’s a must have if you are serious about effective reputation management. PR is tremendously cost effective, and while its an ongoing process, it’s one worth investing into - especially when you find the right person to execute your campaign. With social media, traditional PR and the online environment, marketing communications can help you add real value to the guest experience.
All the best for 2011!
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Tags: boutique hotel trends 2011, hospitality pr 2011, hospitality trends 2011, hotels 2011, pr trends for hotels 2011, social media PR, social media tips for 2011
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, December 29th, 2010
Many thanks to Spin Sucks, a very informative blog on all things PR, Marketing and Social Media, who invited me to write a blog post as a guest.
I was about to write a post on Social Media Tips for 2011 for the hospitality industry, so it was a very good opportunity to share thoughts with others.
If you like to take a look at the blog post and comment, I would be very interested in your input! Happy New Year everyone!
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Tags: hospitality 2011 social media, hospitality pr and marketing, pr and hotels, social media PR, social media tips 2011
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
As hospitality blazes into social networking, the article in the New York Times last week seems very timely. Always revolving around cost, the essence of travel and seeking authentic experiences in hotels, B&Bs or even rent-a-bed places remains.
I read with interest the article and agree that social networking provides a healthy alternative to expensive hotels (or expensive cities with hotels), but a traveler must be experienced and really know what they are doing. Plus, you need to have enough time to research the listings and figure out what accommodation works best for your travel needs.
It’s an awesome niche though for traveling with low cash and an appetite for adventure and it’s fun trying to predict the unpredictable, especially when you show up at a chef’s house for a couple of nights, or the vintage clothing buyer’s house you’ve agreed to rent your room from, as the article discusses.
This type of B&B networking is not quite competition for hotels as it appeals to a completely seperate market segment of travelers. But, it’s important to note how the social media savvy of these young (25-35) travelers, and ensure that your hotel’s social networking initiatives are up to par.
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Tags: hospitality SMM, hotel pr and marketing, social media B&B, social media PR, social networking hotels, travel pr
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 1 Comment »
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 »