Archive for the ‘Top Accommodations’ Category
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 In today’s world, print articles are outdated the minute they are published, and therefore they have become pretty showpieces of a nostalgic past where flipping pages was more satisfying than scrolling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.
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Tags: breaking through the media clutter PR, future of online content, imc, newspapers vs. online, print vs. web, publishing crisis, social media PR, the future of publishing
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 3 Comments »
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?
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Tags: big vs. small agencies, hospitality pr, pr agencies, pr independent contractors, pr professionals, pros and cons of pr agencies
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
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?
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Tags: green fad, green hotels 2010, hotels green pr, lenox hotel, sustainable hotels
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 1 Comment »
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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Tags: facebook and hotels, hotel blogs, social media pr for hotels, social media tips for hotels, social media tips for hotels 2010, Twitter and hotels, writing a hotel blog
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 1 Comment »
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.
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Tags: conducting follow-up, Media Relations, pr tips, publishing industry, reporter follow up
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 »
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.
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Tags: hospitality pr, hotel trends 2010, hotels and PR, luxury amenities, spa and yoga in hotels, yoga and travel, yoga hotel amenity, yoga in hotels
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 4 Comments »
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.
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Tags: ning emerging social network, ning pr, online writing PR, pr checklist social networking, social media and PR, social media writing
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Thinking back about a year ago, or so, most of us (including myself) didn’t understand how to use Twitter and what its purpose was. I started a Twitter account sometime in January 2009, but kept it idle for the longest time because I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to tweet about. Plus, I was unsure of who I should be following, and more importantly, why.
After following some experienced tweeters, mostly media like the WSJ, NYTimes, CNN, some self-proclaimed experts, and other business publications, I gradually figured out that Twitter is what you make of it. Just like at a party or at work, the quality the conversation you follow or engage in is really up to you. But on Twitter, you can choose to follow these conversations, or walk away from them without feeling embarrassed.
A year later, I still come across the annoying tweets about who had what for breakfast and why someone chose cinnamon coffee over hazelnut. That’s not why I stay current on Twitter. I’m noticing that the garbage tweets (as I call them) are still out there, but deteriorating. I also think the network has become more of a news forum, or, at the very least least, it provides an opportunity to share info quickly and efficiently. I find out about many headlines on Twitter before I open www.nytimes.com some days. It’s fascinating.
On the other hand, there is etiquette that users should follow… For instance, those who link to other Twitter pages and not the actual article is just mean. It’s an instant reason to unfollow or never retweet anything by that user. Other etiquette includes friendly DMs without the constant sales push. Saying “thanks for the RT” is also very polite.
My prediction is that Twitter may start becoming a little more personal in 2010, as it continues to evolve. I’m not sure how much more Twitter can grow, but perhaps growing should not be the focus right now, but instead evaluating the quality of its content should be what’s important this year. And to make Twitter credible and full of accurate, interesting information will depend on how its users share it.
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Tags: quality tweets, tweets, tweets and good information, twitter 2010, twitter and PR, twitter evolution, will twitter survive
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
Monday, January 25th, 2010
As PR practitioners, our focus is to communicate strategic messages by developing sharp, quirky, innovative, and, above all, newsworthy story angles.
We all sometimes get carried away with becoming overly eager to stand out in a message-cluttered environment. Is there danger to developing news items that are just too innovative… to the point of disgust?
I came across this article about strange jobsin hotels on Consumerist, and there are apparently Holiday Inns in the UK that employ professional snugglers to pre-warm a guest’s bed! Just take a look at all the negative comments to taking such a bold step of doing PR around such an invasive amenity! While I don’t know, I am assuming Holiday Inn was looking for a quirky, personalized amenity to satisfy guests while obtaining PR in the process.
Who wants pre-warmed beds with a strangers’ smell or hair on their pillow?
I have not verified this odd amenity with Holiday Inn, but this article has gone viral - I found it through a friend on Facebook.
I guess this raises the question… when does innovative become just too much? And do you really think that there is no such thing as bad publicity??
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Tags: bad pr, holiday inn pre-warm beds, innovative pr, social media PR, viral messages
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »