Archive for the ‘PR’ Category
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 »
Monday, April 26th, 2010
Stay tuned for the new look of Didi Lutz PR!
Meanwhile, I received an interesting email from one of the loyal readers to my blog who was asking what I thought about opening fake Twitter accounts for companies just to increase the number of followers. Even though something like a fake account can be more or less harmless, where does it weigh in on the ethics scale?
As a rule of thumb in my practice, I believe that if you have to question something it means there’s a reason to do so. Just like with false reviews on TripAdvisor and such sites, fake accounts on social media networks are supposedly created to increase stats and numbers to influence the public perception of a company. I have emphasized several times in my posts that the quality of followers on Twitter/FB outweigh the quantity. Specifically, I think that Twitter is what you make of it, and how you can find a way to make it work for you. I don’t see how fake accounts help in any way other than for stats, but if marketing/PR strategists are smart they will look beyond the number of followers per month, and look at the quality of the dialogue, posts and communication on the Twitter page to determine success instead.
Twitter’s popularity has already decreased, so going through the process of creating false accounts to show higher numbers in followers doesn’t make much sense anyway.
Follow me on www.twitter.com/dd300
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Tags: fake followers, fake twitter accounts, pr ethics, public relations and social media, quality posts on twitter, social media PR, twitter followers, twitter pr
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
I was reading a good book about the new rules of PR and Marketing last weekend, and it made me think how much the IMC field has evolved in less than five years. It made me a little sad that the science/art/business of PR has to play by new rules in order to be strategic. Most of all, I am sad because the lines between PR / Marketing / Advertising are once again blurred… even though we were so close to understanding their key differences. However, reality is now, and I find that the new rules for PR success are not unreasonable. Below are some that have stood out in my mind from my readings, and from my own experience so far:
- PR pros no longer pitch exclusively to media. The direct-to-consumer communication takeover is fueled by social media, taking up most of PR practitioners’ time and effort.
- Press releases aren’t dead; they are completely redefined as something similar to ”consumer releases.”
- The one-hit PR wonder on the Today Show, Oprah, TIME is pretty much a thing of the past. The trend of pitching to bloggers with SEO loaded text and the idea of offering up constant news in the online world is becoming more appealing for many companies. While everyone would love to have a Newsweek editorial endorsement, companies find it more strategic to appear in multiple (albeit lesser known) outlets where SEO is key.
- PR folks are changing their lingo. Terms such as fact sheet, media advisory, and broll are not necessarily common terms for everyone. The language of a “consumer release” is different than the structure of a traditional press release.
- Social media etiquette. All users should have this, but PR people should set the example as communication professionals. Uploading high-quality content that addresses the message well, while be open to comments and feeback is important.
There are other new rules and subrules to follow as we bypass the media filter and talk directly to consumers these days. These new rules are taking over quickly, and drastically changing the way we practiced in our field. If you are a PR person out there, I’m interested in hearing how you think this will affect your career.
Here’s my question: Do you still want to be in PR now that we’re asked to essentially morph into direct marketers, who happen to possess great writing skills, just so that we can publicize SEO content to users? Since everyone can become a journalist these days, how does that affect your practice, and will that also mean that everyone can become a self-proclaimed PR person? Has that already happened? Do your skills help you stand out in PR, or are you feeling the urge to reinvent yourself within the field?
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Tags: gurus, high quality content, imc, marketing and pr, new rules of pr and marketing, pr branding, pr misconceptions, pr skills, pr writing skills, self-proclaimed pr people, seo content, the new press release
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
The changing environment in publishing, reporting, and journalism have shifted they way we communicate to our audience as marketing communications pros.
It could be because, traditionally, nearly 90% of content filtered through media outlets was provided by PR sources anyway. It may be because, these days, everyone is a reporter of some sort with blogs and self-promoted text. Or, it might be due to the social media direct-to-consumer revolution that has changed the process of information creation, and content distribution.
The point is, both the publishing and PR fields still need great writers, and we need great reporters to add credibility to the stories we pitch. Credibility and high quality content is going through its own crisis right now; so called “experts” and “gurus” post free, SEO loaded text, making it difficult for the public to distinguish accurate from non-accurate information.
Media relations is falling into the endangered PR skill set. While the practice of PR will always remain alive, albeit ever changing, media relations must survive as a tactic for strategic communications. Five years ago, you could call or email a story idea to a reporter, and gradually build a relationship to place newsworthy stories. Now, those reporters are laid off doing something else, and we’re left with fewer reporters and outlets to contact. Those reporters who have survived don’t have much time for many story ideas, because they are so backlogged with other stories. We’ve ended up pitching bloggers and consumers directly on Facebook, Twitter, and the like. This tremendous shift in the PR process is an issue that affects most industries across the globe.
If something isn’t done to filter content in a way that factors in credibility and accuracy, this crisis will fully implode… changing not only the manner in which we write, read, and receive content (whether it’s news and/or infotainment), but I expect it will also influence the way the public interprets that content.
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Tags: content, credibility and pr, credible content, filter content, media relations in crisis, pr skills, pr writers, public opinion, public relations, publishing crisis, social media direct to consumer
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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!
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Tags: homemade by amanda, pr and credibility, public relations and small businesses, small business branding, small business pr
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | 1 Comment »
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
I just signed up after reading a few articles, mainly to figure this network out, and because I was particularly curious after reading how Harvard is using Foursquare to test it on campus and the surrounding Cambridge area.
Buzz, Ning and Foursquare are networks to monitor closely in 2010, say the experts, although the most interesting one to me is Foursquare, probably because it’s different whereas the other two are more or less the same as Facebook and Twitter.
Foursquare utilizes the GPS of your mobile phone and allows you to “check-in” with the app to tell your friends where you are; a library, park, restaurant, museum, anywhere in the world. If your friends are nearby or at that location, and also happen to check in… suddenly serendipity takes over! There’s excellent marketing and PR potential for businesses, as users get special badges, rewards and can become “mayors” of places and events by checking in on Foursquare.
There are things this new app needs to iron out, like adding more smartphones for direct access, but that should come soon enough. Like Twitter, this network is slowly catching on, but will turn mainstream quickly once it becomes popular. I read today that Foursquare is currently signing contracts with MTv and other big networks. I couldn’t tell it was already such a sought after app, especially because when I signed up only eight out of over 3,300 of my gmail contacts were on Foursquare.
I wonder how that number will increase in a couple of months.
While I’m not quite ready to become a mayor of my daughter’s favorite ice cream parlor just yet, or of my Bikram yoga studio, I signed up all the same!
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Tags: foursquare, foursquare and facebook, foursquare marketing, mayor on foursquare, social media 2010, social media to look out for in 2010
Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, social media | 1 Comment »
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 »