Archive for the ‘Top Accommodations’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Small business PR: Just learn how to tell your story

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

While models vary, small businesses who know what they stand for have the best PR cut out for them: a story that inspired their beginning and an audience ready to relate to them.

The best part is that virtually any human interest story can be told multiple times from different perspectives, and pitched to several outlets without becoming tiresome.  A good example of a small business which started out after ten friends urged her to seriously think about it is Homemade by Amanda.  Amanda is my friend from grad school, we got our Master’s in PR together, and although she’s in a different line of work now, she has always loved to bake in her spare time.

Privileged to be one of the first to try her homemade bars and bites - and one of the ten who urged her to get busy with a side business - Amanda has already quite the following for her baked goods.  She just launched her website, where she talks about what inspired her to start her business, and she is starting to spread the word.

The takeaway here is that Amanda’s passion and credibility are what support her story, and armed with those tools she can grow to build a successful brand.  And, believe me, once you try her banana chocolate chip loaf, you’ll know why!

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

The future of online content

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Nearly 90% of my work involves some form of writing to service my clients’ business needs.  PR requires a solid writing ability and a very specific skill set of intuitively knowing who will be interested in reading your content and why.

Part of my work also involves monitoring the news environment, which has almost completely moved to online from the traditional print pubs.  It used to be where online content would supplement print.  The publishing crisis changed all of that, and now I would safely say that it’s the other way around.  In today’s world, print articles are outdated the minute they are published, and therefore they have become pretty showpieces of a nostalgic past where flipping pages was more satisfying than scrolling down to “read more” on a screen.  The need and the capability to immediately comment on articles sealed the deal for print pubs.  Period.

Clearly, the publishing crisis has impacted all of the IMC components, with a particular emphasis on PR.   Nowadays, I scan so many websites for content, I’m baffled with how many “experts” there are posting articles such as, “5 key points to…,” or ”7 trends to monitor…” and so on.  Everyone has become a reporter of some kind, but the ability and the skill to write is absent in too many of these mainstream, mislabeled, yet keyword-rich articles.  There’s so much to sift through, and absorb, it makes me wonder: what will content look like by 2020?

In 2010, we know that social media will drive content, and social networks are likely to continue dictating what is actually being read and absorbed, versus simply skimmed and shared. 

Big questions to ask:

1) Is quality of content gradually becoming more important in the face of the infinite amount of regurgitated content that just reads a little differently than the previous post?   

2) If content is closely tied to social media, what does that say about the future of the fickle three: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn?  Can we get enough quality content through these social networks so that they continue to be credible sources of information, as much as they have become marketing tools? 

3)  What is the next step once we reach the point of content saturation?  We all love informative articles that can help us shape opinions, and start conversations.  What happens when the online content world becomes too cluttered to make a real impact? 

I think that one of the issues is that too much content is free.   We’re noticing that some news sites are planning to start charging for readership in the next year or so.  If charging for content becomes mainstream, then it will be interesting to see how that will change the content world as we know it today.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 3 Comments »

The right PR professional isn’t necessarily a huge agency

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

It’s a tough perception to break.  Fueled by thousands of billable hours and countless (often worthless) deliverables, large agencies know how to do one thing well: sell time and bill for it. 

The crisis has shaken out many of the large PR and marketing agencies nationwide with restructuring, cut costs, and unimaginable losses in business. 

As much as large agencies create an image and a name for themselves (which really only pays tribute to the combined expertise of the agency’s staff), why would a client prefer to spend thousands on a huge PR agency versus a grounded independent contractor, or a boutique agency?  The answers vary widely on this, below are some brief thoughts on why a contractor and/or a smaller agency can be much more effective for client needs:

- Small means flexible. Period.  Huge agencies are cumbersome.

- Small means real communication from the CEO.  Big agencies have interns taking client calls and bringing coffee into the hi-tech conference room.

- Small offers true experts, since it cannot afford fluff staff.  Large agencies are large, which is why they have to lose the weight in tough economic times

- Small means really great work.  It’s the agency’s bread and butter and credibility.  It’s all small agencies have.  Big agencies already have the solid branding, so they can get away with doing much less for a lot more

- Small understands the word budget and works with it.  Big agencies have billable hours.  And they bill for everything.

Most importantly, small agencies offer real relationships that have the potential of becoming seamless with the client’s business needs, particularly because they have the ability to be very responsive.  Large agencies tend to position themselves as an extension of their clients’ business.  They can take forever with the approval process, and the myriads of people the work has to go through to get anywhere.   And of course you get billed for that, too!

I am sure there are a lot more points to discuss and this was just a brief post on the topic of outsourcing PR.  And sometimes, big clients just want big agencies…  Although, honestly, crisis or not, who wants to pay for extensions?

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

Hotels going green… is it finally mainstream?

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

On a very recent quick jaunt to Boston, I had the pleasure of staying at the Lenox Hotel in the Back Bay.   The property is beautiful and exactly what I would expect from a traditional Boston luxury hotel experience.  However, their environmental program truly impressed me.

The room had a basket with clearly marked dividers where guests can dispose of plastic/paper/cans/other items.  The room also has a purification system that ionizes the stale air and protects against allergies.

Later I read on their website that the Saunders Hotel Group, which owns the Lenox, has a history of environmental “firsts” that span over two decades, along with a long list of sustainability and green awards. 

There are several hotel chains who have begun green programs in recent years, and I guess my question is: have we reached a point where green is no longer a fad and a cutting edge story angle?  Has it reached the point of a “must have” in hotels regardless of the opportunities of obtaining great press?

Tags: , , , ,
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.

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

Conducting strategic follow-up with media

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Especially now that PR professionals’ time is generously spent on coordinating social media initiatives, and in tandem with the ongoing changes in the publishing industry, the importance of traditional follow-up in media relations is the one component that has remained concrete in securing successful PR placements. 

Relationships are evolving in quantity, and perhaps even in quality, but following up on a good story idea is a crucial part to strategic public relations.  Reporters are still out the to get the best stories because those are their livelihood.  Staying in touch with reporters and writers is necessary to keeping your network alive, but also provides an ongoing opportunity for follow-up.  Maybe a story idea was good, but wasn’t the right fit for a particular issue or section.  It might be a great fit down the line, or you might have to sharpen the pitch a little.  Follow-up takes time, patience, lots of writing and calling, and a tons of persistence.  In the end, the effort is worth it!

On a totally unrelated note:  My mind lately has been on the deadly earthquakes both in Haiti and now in Chile, and having grown up in a very earthquake prone country, I still can’t imagine the pain hundreds of thousands people are going through.

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

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.

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

Why pay-for-placement doesn’t work in the long term

Monday, February 15th, 2010

An old article in INC. touched on this topic and inspired the blog post (though I keep reading about the issue in other outlets since then).

Several times throughout my career as a PR practitioner I have received inquiries from prospective clients wanting to hire me on a pay-per-placement arrangement.  In such a project, the PR person and the client develop a wish list of media to land a story/mention/feature in, and depending on the success of securing that placement, PR gets paid. 

The downfall is that your effort could be for nothing… you could be trying to land a story in the NY Times and the editor just won’t bite, because it’s not the right fit (even though your client thinks it is!).  Or, worst -this has happened to me- the story gets pulled out at layout because of lack of space.   So, you’ve wasted weeks of effort, and you’re not getting paid for your time, or your frustration.  Hmm, no thank you.

I tried that approach when I first started out on my own, and stopped accepting such ridiculous projects.  I work with a continuous strategy in mind, not a piecemeal messaging approach.   Indeed, companies should see results from retainer-based PR professionals.  However, if I’m spending 25 hours a week thinking about a business, coming up with angles, ideas, new ways to approach a message, or making shifts in the communications strategy, why on earth would I do that for free? 

Perhaps there some cases where pay-for-press might make sense (e.g., a very specific type of product of service), but even those can backfire.  Suppose you land the story in Newsweek as expected.  Now, the client has to pay you, say, 15K for the placement.  What now?  What’s the next step in the PR process?  How do you take that placement and move forward with the PR strategy now that it’s reached a new level?  Oh, that’s right, you’re not getting paid to think about that.  On the other hand, you could have been on retainer for six months with that 15K, and earned not only the Newsweek story, but lots of other placements - big or small.  You could have created momentum for your client, not a one hit wonder.  Not to mention, you’d have a PR plan to follow… and a predictable payment schedule.

It’s not a case of “are you a pro, or an amateur?’  It’s how you approach your business as a PR person and how you value your own effort when you service a client.  And clients who pay-for-placement in many cases have high expectations (as they should), but very low budgets. 

PR is a process and an important communications investment, and best not ordered à la carte.  

Respect our profession.  Build your own menu carefully with thought as a chef would, don’t just prep a dish.

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

A PR opp: yoga in hotels

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

If you had asked me as little as six months ago, I’d tell you that yoga is not for me, that I can find other ways to relax my mind and seek physical and emotional discipline.  Fast forward to today, and I can’t imagine not including yoga practice in my life, even if I’m traveling.

Enter Michelle Higgins’ fabulous New York Times article on hotels offering yoga as an amenity for guests.  First, it was wi-fi, then free DVD libraries, and fitness salons.  Now, yoga is a sought-after amenity in hotels.  Most of us who travel look up places near where we are staying so we can plan our yoga practice.  However, that’s not always very conducive, so hotels have picked up on that need and are offering classes on property as part of their spa services.  Of course, you can’t be particularly picky about the style of yoga offered (I can’t expect to find the hot yoga I practice in hotels), so a typical flow yoga class would fulfill the guests’ need.

There’s a big PR opportunity here for hotels to act on this emerging amenity trend.  Whether it’s the frequency of the yoga classes, or the type of yoga, or even if its offered complimentary for the business traveler (I’d take yoga over free breakfast!), there is a conversation going on that hotels can successfully moderate to their advantage.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 4 Comments »

Social Media take over the PR checklist

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Last year, I wrote a post about how social media had become a part of our daily lives as PR people, and why embracing the dynamic would be crucial to our success and our clients’ success.

Just under a year later, I’m finding that social media take about 50% of my time, on average, versus traditional media relations.  Since social media are so versatile they are used for other functions of IMC, such as advertising, online marketing, and other marcomm areas.  Depending on the client, monitoring and working on social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs) have become more than just part of my checklist.  They are a priority since social media networks make messages viral, and it has come to PR pros to not only understand the functions of various social media, but how to work with them effectively.  But, the spectrum is evolving daily.  What worked a couple of months ago, won’t be as popular soon on FB.  Discussions grow or are quickly abandoned on Twitter.  Driving good website traffic is challenging with so much “garbage” posted out there.  And now I’ve been reading more and more about Ning, www.ning.com.  Hold that thought for a couple of months… perhaps this will be the new network to be on.  Though I’ve been reading that Ning is not competing with FB at all. 

Regardless, all of these networks are tireless monsters that must be fed often several times a day.  As PR people, we constantly need to be alert and on our toes and keeping up with social media chew up a lot of time.  In that effort, we’re also learning when to shy from information, and when to share it.

Sometimes I just miss writing a press release… and I fondly think of my BU professors, who kept reminding us of how many spaces we should have between the sub-headline and the main body.  Wait, that was less than decade ago…so much in PR and publishing has changed since then.

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

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »