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...................................................................................Introduction! 7
..................................................................................Social Media ! 7
..............................................................................What is Social Media?! 7
..................................................................................What is Hospitality?! 8
....................................................................................Why Social Media?! 8
...........................................................Social Cloud Management! 8
.....................................................................Project Collaboration Tools! 9
.............................................................................Consumer Interaction! 10
...................................................................................Circle of Influence! 10
......................................................................................Virtual Assistant! 10
..........................................................Premier Hotel Experience ! 10
..............................................................What is customer experience?! 10
.........................................................................................Empowerment! 10
...............................................................................Why empowerment?! 11
.......................................................................................Crowd sourcing! 11
.............................................................................Why crowd sourcing?! 11
........................................................................Hotel Boundaries! 11
............................................................................Identify common fears! 11
.......................................................................Define your vision! 12
..............................................................................................Capabilities! 12
...........................................................................................SMILE! 12
............................................................................................Why SMILE?! 12
.........................................................................................Rinse / Repeat! 13
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......................................................................................Outcome ! 13
............................................................................Social Media Outcome! 13
.......................................................................Customer Loyalty! 15
....................................................Customer Loyalty and Segmentation! 15
........................................................................Customer Loyalty SMILE! 16
.........................................................................Why Customer Loyalty?! 16
...............................................Customer loyalty with game excellence! 16
.................................................................Social Media Strategy ! 17
.....................Why Should Your Hotel Have a Social Media Strategy?! 17
...........................................................Where to start with Social Media! 17
..................................................................................Begin with the end! 17
...................................................................................Social Networking! 18
..................................................Developing the Social Media Strategy! 18
.........................................................................Social Media Guidelines! 19
.....................................................................Celebrate Social Influence! 20
..........................................................................Social Media Response! 20
............................Customer Relationship Management (CRM)! 21
...........................................................................................................FTC! 21
......................................................................................Social Networks! 22
.........................................................Social Media Facts and Statistics! 22
.................................................................................Listening Outposts! 23
..............................................................................................Blog! 23
..........................................................................Why have a Hotel blog?! 24
.....................................................................................Facebook! 27
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................................................................................Facebook Fan Page! 28
...........................................................1. Local Business or Place Page! 29
.....................................2. Company, Organization or Institution Page! 31
................................................................................3. Brand or Product! 33
.................................................................Artist, Band or Public Figure! 34
......................................................................................5. Entertainment! 35
..........................................................................6. Cause or Community! 36
.................................................................................Facebook Etiquette! 37
.....................................................................................Facebook Places! 37
...........................................................................................Twitter! 39
....................................................................................Individual Tweets! 39
..................................................................................Designated Tweets! 39
..........................................................................................Twitter Basics! 39
.......................................................................Twitter Customer Service! 40
......................................................................................Twitter Etiquette! 41
....................................................................................Short Urls ! 42
................................................................................................#hashtags! 43
.......................................................................................LinkedIn! 43
......................................................................LinkedIn Company Profile! 43
...................................................................................LinkedIn Answers! 45
.....................................................................................LinkedIn Groups! 46
.......................................................................................YouTube ! 47
.......................................................................YouTube ʻHow Toʼ Videos! 47
.......................................................................................Google+! 48
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............................................................................Start the conversation! 49
.............................................................................Connect your website! 49
...........................................................................Share it with the World! 49
...................................................................................Build your Circles! 49
.........................................................................Google+ Direct Connect! 49
.................................................................................................Hangouts! 49
..................................................................................................+1 Button! 49
..................................................................................FourSquare ! 49
..........................................................FourSquare for Brick and Mortar! 50
.................................................................FourSquare Gaming Element! 50
...........................................................................Foursquare Add Venue! 50
..............................................................................FourSquare Specials! 51
...........................................Hotels that rocks on Social Media!! 51
..........................................Help! The Social Network Is Down..! 52
...............................................................................Down Time Reasons! 52
Hotel Strategies and Hotel Marketing & Social Media ..................................................Strategies groups on LinkedIn! 53
...................................................Serve Your Guests COMPASS! 54
.........................................................Recommended Recourses! 54
...................................................................................Wordpress Theme! 55
...........................................................................................Blog Training! 55
.................................................................Newsletter / Email Marketing! 55
.................................................................................Wordpress Plugins! 55
....................................Social CRM (Customer Relation Management)! 56
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.......................................................Learn How I can Serve You!! 57
........................................................................................Connect! 58
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IntroductionSocial Media is starting to make an impact on the Hotel Industry. New trends and markets are ready to be captured. Hotels are now changing to Social Hospitality.
Our customer needs and wants is changing and adapting to Social Media. Their interactions with our brand are done through Social Media. Traveler’s is blogging about all their experiences. Customers tweet customer service related questions. Our partners and clients post updates on Facebook. Employees and Hotel Students find answers through LinkedIn.
Social Media authorities provide tremendous marketing value by providing a Youtube presentation of our product and service.
iPads is becoming an amenity for our guests.
We need to be part of Social Hospitality. Starting by defining our new vision, values and how we will meet these new trends and market. We know what we are capable of deliver. Now we need to adapt and change our service.
I have in this mini workshop provided you with tips and advices that will help you take back control of your product and service.
Enjoy it, and be a true servant of Social Hospitality – share it with your employees, managers, owners, partners and yes… customers.
Social MediaWhat is Social Media?
Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media use web-based technologies to transform and broadcast media monologues into social media dialogues.
One of the key components in successful social media marketing implementation is building "social authority". Social authority is developed when an individual or organization establishes themselves as an "expert" in their given field or area, thereby becoming an "influencer" in that field or area.
It is through this process of "building social authority" that social media becomes effective. That is why one of the foundational concepts in social media has become that you cannot completely control your message through social media but rather you can simply begin to participate in the "conversation" in the hopes that you can become a relevant influence in that conversation.
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The key elements to Social Media are; Listening Relationship building Trust building Providing value Support Ask
What is Hospitality?
Hospitality is the relationship between guest and host, or the act or practice of being hospitable. Specifically, this includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, resorts, membership clubs, conventions, attractions, special events, and other services for travelers and tourists.
Why Social Media?
Social Media is not meant to replace traditional Hotel Services it is just adding another value that will help improve these services. The Basics for the Hotel Industry is still to deliver premier services providing customers with the product and service they really want and need.
Social Media is not either a magic wand that will turn around your images just because you implement it together with traditional services.
Many Hotels and Small businesses will still do ok without Social Media. Internet and Social Media is still young, and will evolve with time. Some of yesterdays Social Networks is already gone, some of today’s Social Networks might disappear. New Social Media tools pops up faster then we can capture it.
The important part about Social Media is to learn the principles and find the right tools for your Hotel or Small business.
In this report I have put focus on turning your consumers into raving advocates for your brand. I have added two elements that are beneficial when introducing Social Media into your brand. These elements are crowd sourcing and empowerment.
With these elements you can turn your brands image around, and start develop raving advocates for your brand. You adapt and change to new trends, and attract new markets. This will also help you to meet seasonal challenges. Plus you will develop a larger base of return customers.
Social Cloud Management
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Cloud Management is the principle of manages shared resources with everyone that is involved in a specified project.
Project Collaboration is the future of Social Media projects. You will have to opportunity to dip into a pool of high quality information.
Project Collaboration Tools
Collaboration is the process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals. Social Media brings new aspects to prepare our products and services for the consumers.
Here are some great tools that I use for Project Collaboration Google Docs - create and share documents, spreadsheets, presentation
and project calendars Flickr Groups Flickr Groups – create and share photos with project group Evernote – capture and share ideas through your desktop, mobile or
Tablet Vimeo – product info during initiation phase Dropbox – details of client projects GotoWebinar – for training, coaching, seminars, ad hoc info and follow ups
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Consumer Interaction
Cloud Management allows your consumers to interact with ongoing projects in new and creative ways. This gives you the opportunity to discover your consumers needs and wants during the initiation phase. </p>
Circle of Influence
You will create a circle influence during project development. New input channels will be available for no additional cost. Be willing to share valuable content, and your project will then have a great opportunity to go viral when you release it.
Virtual Assistant
You can also outsource elements of your project to a Virtual Assistant. This can be very cost efficient and help you with free up some of your time.
Premier Hotel ExperienceWhat is customer experience?
Customer experience is the sum of all experiences a customer has with a supplier of goods or services, over the duration of their relationship with that supplier. It can also be used to mean an individual experience over one transaction; the distinction is usually clear in context.
Empowerment
Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their capacities.
Social Media allows employees to be involved in their work environment in ways that has is very creative and motivating.
Happy employees equal premier experiences both for the Hotel and the customer.
Catch your employees doing something right by utilizing social media. Being proactive will make your Hotel shine.
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Why empowerment?
Involve your employees in development of your product and service. Promote their Social Media profiles through various Social Networks. Let your employees have an impact on your product of service.
Crowd sourcing
Crowd sourcing is the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to a large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call.
Involve your customer in your process when you change and adapt to Social Media.
Why crowd sourcing?
With Social Media you have some new unique tools available that will allow you’re to solicit input directly from your customers. Discover what your customers really want, and adjust your vision accordantly. Ideas and suggestion can be obtained in a new creative way. Develop your Hotel Idea Wall, and allow your customers and employees to elaborate on ideas that will add value both for the customer and the product and service you provide.
Hotel BoundariesIdentify common fears
Changes always bring up various kinds of fears among all parts involved in the process. It is crucial to address these fears else rumors will take control. And once rumors take control you are out of control.
Common fears: Time – it will occupy too much of our time
Control – there is no control of the conversation
Privacy – customer trust in ability to keep anonymity
Demographics – our location is just not out there
Critique – open hotel for more critique from customers
Change – Social Media represent something new and unknown
Distractions – employees occupied on Social Media
Branding – hurt image/brand
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Security – lack of security on Social Media
Cost – unexpected/unplanned costs involved
Technology – we don’t have the proper technology or skills involved
Failure – what if it don’t work
Startup – we don’t know where to start
Define your vision Know where you have been yesterday, know where you are today and then start define your window of opportunity for tomorrow.
Capabilities
What kind of services are you capable of delivering?
If you work at a hotel where it is no ocean within miles then you are not capable of delivering a room with ocean view. Familiarizing yourself with some hotels that provide this service you is capable of doing. This way you can provide service to your customer and offer to check some of your references out for them. And ask your customer if they want you to request a courtesy hold if there are available rooms.
If your customer has forgot their shirt at home, and is about to attend a business meeting providing your customer with a shirt is a service you are capable of.
Some of these examples are not within the traditional services most hotels offer. If you add a little creativity into your vision then you can turn challenges into opportunities. Going that extra mile for your customer creates raving advocates. Stop focus on the limitations and start take advantage of the opportunities. The real power of Social Media is word of mouth – and if this goes viral your efforts will pay you back over and over again.
SMILEOne of the most powerful and basic customer service elements in Hotels is to SMILE.
Why SMILE?
Crowd sourcing and empowerment is also important element of Team building. You want all parts of your Team to pull in the same direction. When you change and adapt you want to do this together with your Team.
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Problems are often a result of elements in the process that is out of control. If you focus on the element in the process and not the problem then it will take less effort to get the process back on track again.
SMILE will allow you to focus on the process.
S – Specific – Make sure you are specific on your expectations regarding Social Media, and that this is within your Hotels vision. Social Media can assist you in providing premier customer experiences. Know your hotels window of opportunity and what you are capable of deliver.M – Measurable – Creating listening outposts will create valuable control systems. Collect data of where and when your hotel is mentioned, and who is mentioning the hotel. Track your traffic from Social Media.I – Idea – Involve your employees. Create a Hotel Idea Wall for how to utilize and improve the Hotels usage of Social Media. Let your employees have Social Media channels and provide their profiles on Hotel website/blog.L – Learning – Implementing Social Media is a learning process – be willing to experiment, take risks. Develop an internal training program together with your employees. It is also ok to take in outside resource that will set up a coaching program.E – Evaluate – Have a continuous evaluation process that allows your hotel to adapt and change when needed.
Rinse / Repeat
Creating premier customer experiences will be a continuing process that will change and adapt. Improvements will appear when you allow yourself to rinse and repeat.
OutcomeDefine outcomes you expect when implementing Social Media into your hotel.
Social Media Outcome
Changed attitudes
Fun time
Pay It Forward
Be present
New Ideas
Increased Happiness
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Consumer Loyalty
Change image of hotel
Increase RevPAR
Cost efficient
New market segments
Trendsetter
Market leader
Loyal and happy employees
Improved reward programs
Satisfied owners/partners
New technology
New skills
Raving advocates
Improved customer experience
Improved communication
Relationship / Trust
Increased return customer base
Higher frequent customer referrals
Care Support Team
Community Builder
Environment
New opportunities
Brand recognitions
Brand Equity
Extended service areas
Compatible service areas
Social Hospitality Authority
New gigs – events – key notes Arena for events – conferences
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Customer LoyaltyCustomer Loyalty or Raving Advocates is the ultimate outcome of premier customer experiences.
Building great relationships, developing trust and providing value that meets your customers needs and wants your Hotel will reach this outcome. Loyal customer will offer you a competitive strong advantage. It is more cost efficient to get repeat business from your loyal customers than to find new customers. Loyal customer will also bring in new customers.Social Media is a channel that allows Hotels to further strengthens core values.
Empowerment and crowd sourcing will take your Hotels product and service to a new level. New trends and market segments bring with it new expectations. Social Media allows you to have listening outposts to capture on the information that triggers your customers.
Customer Loyalty and Segmentation
Identify your Window Of Opportunity; What types of services are we capable of deliver? What is our product? What systems do we have in place to reach our customer today? In which areas can we NOT change our product and service – be honest
and truthful In which areas can we change our product and service
To identify Customer Loyalty your Hotel have to start out with the basics; Who are your customers? What are they like? Where can I find new customers? Which communication channels should our Hotel use to connect with
them?
Deliver One Percentage extra; Give all parts involved more then their expectations Give back to your community Start a goodwill program
Customer Loyalty is adding to Loyalty or Reward programs that are already well implemented into Hotels. Social Media and New Media bring new elements that add value to Loyalty or Reward programs.
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iPhone and iPad applications are new ways to reach out to your Hotel customers.
Customer Loyalty SMILE
Use the SMILE strategy to connect these elements together into your Social Media strategy.
Why Customer Loyalty?
Customer Loyalty effects human behavior and emotions. This is where you engage your customer’s hart and mind.
Effects of Customer Loyalty; Pricing – you negotiate cost with loyal customers Payment – loyal customers pay on time Referrals – loyal customers willingly provides referrals Turnover – turn over rate among loyal customer is less then 5% due to
reasons out of your control Competition – loyal customer will share competitive date Perception – loyal customer perceive you as a partner Contract – you have a virtual life time contract with your loyal customers Difficult times – loyal customer will stand by you in difficult times Triggers – loyal customers share their trigger points Involvement – loyal customer get involved in a positive development of
your brand Givers – loyal customers are givers not takers
Customer loyalty with game excellence
We all can play an excellent game once in while, but game excellence represent consistency. The same is true with service. Delivering service excellence on a consistent basis is what will create customer loyalty.
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Social Media StrategyOne of the elements that are required when you implement Social Media into your Hotel is to have a Social Media Strategy.
Why Should Your Hotel Have a Social Media Strategy?
The most important question you have to ask yourself regarding your product or service is;
Are my customers likely to be online?
In a lot of businesses today this is the case. Though there are still products and services that are not online. And just a reminder – Social Media is not meant to replace traditional marketing channels – it is a tool that will allow you to build additional brand equity.
Social Media Strategy starters;
Where are we going? How are we going to get there? Let’s get there. How do you know you have arrived?
Here are some cool tips that you can adapt for you Social Media Strategy;
Turn the company newsletter into an internal blog and give all employees the ability to contribute
Establish a social media policy for employee participation in social media on company time and beyond
Let employees vote on the best ideas suggested by other employees Resolve to respond to customer service issues within three hours, via
social media
Where to start with Social Media
Begin with the end
The simplest rule for success with Social Media is to start with the end. If you really don't have a clear vision of what outcome you want from Social Media, then it will be difficult to define a route that will guide towards your destination.
Let me be clear an end vision does not remove roadblocks. But if done properly it provides you with tools for proper response.
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According to a survey done by R2integrated (R2i) 45 percentages reported that time and resources combined would be the biggest challenge with Social Media Marketing. 42 percentages reported that time and resources were the greatest barriers to entry into Social Media. And 38 percentages reported that their biggest mistake was not to allocating enough time and resources for the implementation of Social Media.
Make sure you implement principles that handle some of these adversities. Implement some basic Social Life Management principles.
Social Media is not about the Social Network it's about Social Networking.
LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | FourSquare | Google+
There are several different Social Networks out there and they all play an important role in your Social Media Strategy.
But to many jump on a Social Network because that is 'the thing' to do these days else you lose out. Don't do this mistake!
Start learning the principles of Social Networking. Social Networks will come and go.
Format your Social Networks as groups and then meet their wants and needs.
Social Networking
Social Networking is about communicating with your peers. Collaborate with your trusted network. This requires you to share some of your insight with others.
Engage and respond to the community. Show people that you care, and that there is a real person behind your Social Media Signatures.
Social Media is no magic wand! It requires that you learn and follow the principles.
Remember it is no longer just word of mouth - now it is World Of Mouth.
And the audience is king!
Developing the Social Media Strategy
Your employees are the key to develop a successful Social Media Strategy. Divide your employees into 4 groups. The main focus should be on how to create an exceptional experience for our consumers.
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Start asking ‘What can be done to create more:’
Social Media Guidelines
Social Media Guidelines is where you will define your Hotel or Small Business Social Media Etiquette. This is how you want all in your organization to engage with Social Media. Anyone that is employed with your Hotel or Small Business should apply to these Social Media Guidelines both off and on work.
Here are some of the elements that can be covered by your Social Media Guidelines:
Be transparent – provide honest and truthful information – disclose your relationship with the brandBe judicious – don’t violate your brands privacy and confidentialityBe authentic – make sure your write about your area of expertise, when you write outside your area of expertise provide proper disclosureBe perceptive – represent your brand, be consistent, be proud of who you are and your brands identityReach out – engage in the conversation, identify consumers that mention your brand or nicheAdd value – identify your consumer’s needs and wants, and add value related to this
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Be a thought leader – make your content open-ended, be proactive and anticipate trends, don’t talk negative about your competitions – why not refer to them?Create excitement – share the values you learn, share Social Goodwill and leave Social FootprintsDid you screw up? – if you make mistakes – ADMIT IT!Pause – if you question your knowledge or info, then pause and ask for others opinion within your own organization before you hit SEND.. Rinse/Repeat - developing your Social Media Guidelines is a ongoing process. Adapting to changes and new requirements is important. And it also important to be open to change when the process raise concerns
Celebrate Social Influence
Integrating Social Media and Customer Loyalty is an ongoing process of various improvements that will take place. Therefore it is important to celebrate the small victories, and reward the progress.
Change will not come over night, and make sure to be prepared for adversities also.
Social Media Response
With Social Media Response you have a very short time window to provide proper response. And you want to strive respond within the same medium as your consumers provide response related to your product or service. Stick to a personal response that the consumer can relate to. Avoid scripted boring responses. Providing proper response is a learning process, so allow you to do some mistakes. Nobody expects a perfect answer, as long as you take time to listen. If you don’t know what response to provide, find someone that knows. Heck I would say even refer the consumer to your competitor if you can't provide the proper response.
The long-term effect of proper response will always triumph the short-term effect of a bad response.
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Customer Relationship Management (CRM)Social Media is a great tool to add value to already existing CRM systems. This will embrace the relationship between the consumer and your product and services.
Acquire - CRM can help a business in acquiring new customers through excellent contact management, direct marketing, selling and fulfillmentEnhance - CRM combined with customer service tools offers customers premier service from a team of trained and skilled service employees, which offers customers the convenience of one-stop shoppingRetain - CRM software and databases enable a business to identify and reward its loyal customers and further develop its targeted marketing and relationship marketing initiatives
FTC
FTC – Federal Trade Commission provided in 2009 a lot of new changes to regulate Social Media. Primary these changed effected endorsements. Changes covered some important elements that need to be part of your Social Media Strategy.
a. Provide proper disclosure. All information provided must be truthful.
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b. Monitor conversations. Correct any misinformation / misstatements.c. Create training programs and social media policies that follow these basic
'common sense' guidelines.
Social Networks
There are several Social Networks that covers various purposes. Social Media is not meant to replace traditional services or products provided. The main purpose with Social Media is to add value to your service and product. Find Social Networks that fit your hotels needs and wants.
Select a Social Network;a. That embrace your Hotel Touch pointsb. Where your guests hang outc. That support relationship buildingd. That support trust buildinge. Allow you to provide extended customer servicef. Connect with raving advocatesg. That support flexibilityh. That support innovationsi. That allows video and audio presentationsj. That supports the latest trendsk. That attract new customer to your hotell. Take advantage of location based service
Social Media Facts and Statistics Facebook has over 800 million users Facebook has more weekly traffic then Google in US 20 Million visit Wal-Mart daily whereas 250 million visit Facebook daily 50% of the mobile users in UK is on Facebook The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55 – 65 year-old females Twitter has over 100 million users Twitter’s search engine get over 600 million queries a day There are over 250.000 Twitter applications available YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world The average online viewer watches 12.2 hours of online video each month There are over 200 million blogs 54% of bloggers post content daily 25% of search results for the world’s Top 20 Brands are links to user
generated content 34% of bloggers post opinions about products, services and brands LinkedIn has over 135 million members in over 200 countries. A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half
of our members is outside the U.S. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members. 95% of companies uses LinkedIn for recruitment
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Google+ has grown to over 26 million members just in a few months Foursquare has over 1.5 Million venues Over 15.5 million has checked in to venues with Foursquare
Listening Outposts
One of the most important Social Media strategies to implement is to create listening outposts.
Listening Outpost will help you track anytime your brand is mentioned through Social Media. This is also a great way to find information related to your market segment.
Google Alerts is one great tool that allows you to set up related search words for your brand, and then send you an email every time these search words is mentioned.
Google Reader is another great tool to listen in to related conversations.
Twitter Search is great for finding Tweets that mention your brand, and related info.
Twitter Clients is another great way to listen to the conversations about your brand, and related info. There are three main types of Twitter clients that can be utilize. These are desktop clients, web clients and mobile clients.
TweetDeck is a desktop client that allows you to set up several search columns where you listen into various topics related to your brand. You can also connect this client up against Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Buzz and Foursquare.
TweetDeck also provide mobile and an iPad client.
Seesmic is another great desktop client that allows you to set up several search columns where you listen into various topics related to your brand.
Hootsuite is a really great online desktop client. Here you can access several Social Networks. And this client provide some great statistics.
BlogA blog is primarily an interactive web log. From a Hotel perspective I like to define it as an online business log.
Your blog will be your Social Media Hub. Most of your Social Network links will lead customers back to your blog.
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Why have a Hotel blog?
A blog is a great tool for storytelling. Hotels have an abundance of valuable stories to share. Getting everyone in the Hotel Family involved is great way to increase customer loyalty. You can inform, interact and learn from your customers.
It is a great traffic source.
Utilize your listening outposts to channel your customers back to your blog. A blog can build up on customer loyalty and can help you save on advertising costs.
It can build up on your brand, and will be a channel to gain more trust.
A blog will help you build a community, and provide a different side of the Hotel that customers usually don’t see. Be honest and truthful.
If you have a traditional Hotel Website a blog will not replace this. You should on your website have link to your blog.
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The website will provide greats ways to find information about the Hotels products and services.
The blog allows you to interact with your customers in a different way. Bill Marriott and his team do this in a great way on Marriott on the Move. As you see here is several links to some our their Listening Outposts.
Here is another example on how a Hotel Website connects directly with their blog;
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Mr & Mrs Smith Hotels utilize their blog similar to Marriott. On their Smith TravelBlog they provide a lot of great content that is related to their brand.
These are great examples on how you add additional value to your hotel. And it provides your customers with all the options to stay in touch with the latest news from the Hotel. This is a great route to take to build customer loyalty with Social Media.
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FacebookFacebook is the Social Water cooler where you hang out sharing info with family, friends, colleagues, business partners, and customers. Here you share stories with your friends and family. You can post pictures and videos, or share valuable blog content. It has also become a large community for various games.
Facebook is with out any question the largest Social Network on the Internet today with over 800 Million registered users.
For your Hotel you want to create a presence on Facebook by creating a Facebook Fan Page for your Hotel.
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Facebook Fan Page
Facebook Fan Page is a distinct and customizable presence on Facebook that enables your brand or local business to interact with your customers in new ways.
Facebook Fan Page enables businesses to leverage the power of connections between users and turn customers into raving advocates. User actions from the Facebook Pages are virally distributed through our technology-driven channels, News Feed and Mini-Feed.
Your Facebook Fan Page can be tailored with your own content, pre-installed applications and features such as flash player, photo uploaded, ratings and more.
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There are 6 different categories of Facebook Pages;
1. Local Business or Place Page
You want to create Local Business Page for your Hotel. It really ads great value to your Hotel to establish a local presence on Facebook.
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Establish your Local Business page with the same name as your Hotel. Share local stories, local attractions, events and more. Be creative. Interact with your customers.
Remember that the customer experience starts before the customer arrives at the Hotel, and ends long after they have departed from the hotel.
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2. Company, Organization or Institution Page
The Roger Smith Hotel Facebook company page is a great example how to create premier customer experiences, and add additional value to their service and product.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is another example:
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Sheraton Hotels & Resorts is a Company Fan page within the Starwood family.
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3. Brand or Product
TripAdvisor has defined themselves as a Website through Facebook Fan Pages. Facebook is a great Social Network to build Brand Equity. This can be related to a Hotel Chain, Hotel type within chain, Hotel management group etc.
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The Product page I advice you to utilize if you have great selection of products to offer.
Engage your consumers and provide them with up-to-date related product or service information.
4. Artist, Band or Public Figure
Chip Conley founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre is a great example of a Public Figure.
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This is actually an upcoming trend for Hotels. There are not many public figures yet in the Hotel Industry. But there are some that has established a brand for their names in association with a hotel brand.
5. Entertainment
Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions by Guy Kawasaki is a great example on how to profile a book through Facebook Fan Pages.
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6. Cause or Community
Facebook Community page is more designed towards a topic or cause you are passionate about.
On each Community page there is provided additional information that add additional value. And this is a great way to profile your niche in training sessions.
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The intentions of Community pages are to provide collaboration of shared knowledge. In some way a Community Pages is similar to wikis.
Facebook Etiquette
a. Start engage with your consumersIt will add the ability to share and comment on your consumers content.
b. Create engaging contentEngaging content will show up in the Facebook News Feed.
c. Tag your consumerTagging builds brand equity and is great way to show Social Goodwill.
d. Break from the packBe willing to take risks. Be a trendsetter and start being in response mode.
e. Google It!Be smart with your username. Facebook Fan Pages is extremely SEO friendly.
f. Shoot, Clip and spark interestEmbed exclusive Videos to your approach. Develop a cause, ignite passion and invite consumers to weigh in
g. Tweet It! Share It!Connect your Facebook account with Twitter and your blog.
h. Make it more accessible with RSSUtilize RSS applications to allow consumers to subscribe to your updates.
i. Measure performanceFacebook Insight offer valuable consumer information. Learn which content work best.
j. Woo your consumerFind out what your consumers want, and give what they want and need. Provide them with sample strategies.
k. WoW themMake a difference with your business. Make a difference in your community.
Facebook Places
Facebook Places is a Facebook feature that allows you to see where your friends are and share your location in the real world.
Make sure you add and claim your Hotel on Facebook Places;
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1. Open the Facebook Application on your iPhone2. Click on the Places icon3. Click on Check In4. Click on + 5. Then Add your place6. You will be reminded that places are public, so verify that is ok to add your
Hotel. If it is ok click Add7. Then log into Facebook and Search for your Hotel Name8. Click on ‘Is this your business?’
9. Then you will be requested to certify that this is your business10. Facebook will send a pin code to your cell phone. You are required to
verify that they have the correct phone info. Then click on Call me now11. Then you will receive a voice message with the correct pin code
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12. Put in this pin number in the verification field, and click Verify13. Facebook will send you a documentation when your Facebook Place is
properly claimed
TwitterTwitter is a microblog that provided live content limited to 140 characters per post. We call each post a Tweet.
Twitter is a great tool for starting a dialog with your customer or potential customers. This a great tool to provide extended customer service. Twitter also will support relationship and trust building. And you can provide additional value through Twitter.
Individual Tweets
Some hotels are ok with individuals sending Tweets for the Hotel as long as they follow proper guidelines. In this case they will create a Twitter profile for the individual that represent their hotel relationship.
Designated Tweets
Others prefer to Tweet under designated Twitter brand profiles. You can provide Tweets from a designated brand profile, and also identify who it is that is the author of the Tweets. Some hotels rotate this among designated hotel employees. Twitter will allow you to change name of whom it is that provide the tweets.
Twitter Basics
All updates you write on Twitter are called Tweets. These Tweets is restricted to 140 characters per update. So you need to provide links to other Social Networks that will allow us to provide additional information. Primarily you want to guide your customers back to your blog. You can also direct them to your Facebook fan page.
Twitter BIO has a limit of 160 characters. Use this to identify your network segment. You can here also add back links to your Hotel.
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Twitter Customer Service
Twitter is a great Social Network to detect customer service related conversations regarding your Hotels product or service.
If a customer Tweet either concern or a positive recognition you want to reach out to this customer. If it is a positive recognition, send a thank you Tweet. This is a very simple and effective way to give back to your customer. And reach out to them and invite them to stop by your hotel next time they are in your area. Be cautious with provide rewards when a customer provide a positive recognition.
This can put you in a situation that you did not anticipate. Create a simple Tweet archive. This gives you the opportunity to reach out to this customer when he or she returns back again.
Here is example of a positive tweet I sent to my friends at @FourSeasons;
And this is their great response back;
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If a customer tweet a concern, then follow the traditional guidelines. Start with empathy and apologize for the inconvenience. Use your listening skills and go and check out their tweets.
If you need further clarification, ask them to specify their issue. Then ask what you can do to help resolve their concern. At this time you can also request if it is ok that customer send their email to you via a Direct Message.
This so you can get a better picture of their concern. If the customer agree to send you and email, then it is crucial that follow up immediate through email. And then send the customer a Tweet that you just sent them an email.
Twitter is also great for upcoming campaigns, contests, specials and events. Give your customer a glimpse of some of the daily activities that you have going on at your hotel.
Twitter is a great Social Network to build on existing relationships and establish new relationships. It will help you build trust, and you have great tool for providing additional value to your Hotels product and services. With proper listening outposts you can catch on to new trends, and discover new market segments.
You can utilize Twitter to send out simple questions to discover some of their needs and wants. If you want more in debt answer you can post surveys or questionnaires at your hotel blog.
Twitter Etiquette
Respond to consumers that mention your brand. Build quality relationship and trust with your consumers. Provide value related to your brand products and services.
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Reaching out to your consumer’s questions related to your brands products and services is important. You should also reach out when there are general questions related to your market segment, or questions that might be related to your area.
Avoid sending affiliate links or advertising in your tweet. If you do send make sure you provide proper disclosure. Promotional, discount or tweets that include a coupon is ok.
Follow the 90/10 rules when it comes to Twitter. 90% of your Tweet is about consumer value and respond to consumers. 10% self-promotion, this is related to tweets that include promotions, discounts or coupons.
Short UrlsSince Twitter has a limit on 140 characters per update we sometimes has to look into options that allows us present a very long link in a more efficient way.
Short Urls provides us with these options. The basic principle here is to turn a long url into a short url.
There are some great services that allow you to do this in a very effective way.
bit.ly is one of the most common short url services available. And this service is supported by most Twitter Clients. This service also has some great statistic that is very helpful.
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#hashtags
#hashtags is used as identifiers for various keywords or topics. Many utilize #hashtags related to an event or specials. Hotels can attract new customer with providing a Tweet #hashtag code.
You will find # for almost any topic. Events will often create a # related to their specific event so participants can communicate with each other and outside people with interest in the event can also check on whats going on without being there.
#hotel or #hotels is two common #hashtags used for information related to the Hotel Industry.
There also ongoing chats that adds value to the Hotel family.
#luxchat is live interactive discussion on Twitter around Luxury Brands and Social Media.
LinkedInLinkedIn is the most business orientated Social Network. Here you provide a presentation of your professional background.
LinkedIn is a great resource to find expert advice and ideas within your Hotels market segment.
LinkedIn Company Profile
One really great way to build brand equity on LinkedIn is to have LinkedIn Company Profile.
Company Profiles are a research tool that helps users explore and find the right companies to work for and do business with. Company Profiles leverage.
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LinkedIn unique network data and surfaces the people you need to get business done.
They can be used to view job opportunities in your field and better understand the types of roles companies’ hire for and the latest news on people that have recently joined the company.
Adding your Company Profile on LinkedIn:1. Click on "Companies" found under "More" in the top navigation bar of
your home page2. Click on the "Add a Company" link found in the upper right area of the
page3. Type in your company's official name and your email address at the
company on the "Company Name and Email" page. If your email address is already tied to an email domain for an existing Company Profile, you will be prompted to click on the existing Company name to edit the Profile
4. If your company email address is not a confirmed email address on your LinkedIn account, a confirmation email will be sent to the company email address. The email text will give you a link to log in to your LinkedIn account. Be sure to log in to LinkedIn with your current primary email address. This will confirm your email address and add the email address to your account
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5. If your email address is confirmed, you will be taken to the "Create a Company" page that will allow you to enter information about your company
6. Click on "Create a Company" once you have completed the required fields
LinkedIn AnswersEither you ask for advice or suggest ideas LinkedIn Answers aims to enable this online. LinkedIn Answer allows you to broadcast your business-related questions to both your network and the greater LinkedIn network. The premise is that you will get more high-value responses from the people in your network than more open forums. For example, here are some questions an entrepreneur might ask when the associates of a venture capital firm come up blank:
a. "Which Hotels in Washington DC can host a meeting for 1000 people on 07/04/20xx?"
b. "What advices would you give if I was looking to implement iPads in my Hotel Marketing Strategy?"
c. "Is outsourcing of Hotel Service an alternative solution to cut costs?"
d. "Empowerment and Crowd sourcing implemented with Social Media is new elements in our strategy to attract new markets segments. Your thoughts?"
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LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Group is a great way to connect with people that have common interest and that can provide additional value to your product and service. Facebook also have the group option. I found the LinkedIn Group option to be more structured, and it provides a better value to your brand. Quickly discover the most popular discussions in your professional niche Have an active part in determining the top discussions by liking and
commenting Follow the most influential people in your groups by checking the Top
Influencers board or clicking their profile image to see all their group activity See both member-generated discussions and news in one setting Easily browse previews of the last three comments in a discussion Find interesting discussions by seeing who liked a discussion and how many
people commented Add polls to engage your network, or to find valuable touch points
If you create the Group, you will automatic be the Group Manager then. And as a LinkedIn Group Manager you can moderate the discussions. This can be very useful if you get improper content posted in your group. In Groups I advice to focus on resolutions to concerns that been raised other places. Customers will have various kind of questions related to their concerns. Be honest and truthful. Your customers will reward you for this.
Hotel Strategies is example of one of the groups I manage, and Hotel Marketing & Social Media Strategies is a subgroup I manage.
LinkedIn Groups is great way to generate leads to your Hotel, and here you can also involve Champion Advocates.
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YouTubeYoutube is a Video sharing Social Network. Visual presentations of your product and service are a really great way to add additional value.
YouTube ʻHow Toʼ Videos
Start shooting some simple ‘How To’ videos at your Hotel. How to pre check-in How to secure room preference How to preserve towels and be an eco friendly guest How to resolve a concern How to find the best restaurants in the city How to order a movie How to check out on TV How to …
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It’s all about being creative and proactive. And if your guest shoots a movie that points out concerns – shoot a movie where you show action steps taken to handle this concerns.
Video equipment today is very inexpensive. And most of them come with software that makes it very easy to upload your videos to YouTube.
‘How To’ Movies is not required to be professionally made. It is all about capturing the moment. A commercial or advertising movie is normally shot by professionals.
Use videos to showcase your employees.
Google+
Google+ is built for attracting new market segments. One of the advantages with this new Social Network is that is that it impact SEO.
It also evolves from Gmail. So I recommend getting a Gmail account for your Hotel.
You can add a business page for your Hotel.
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Start the conversation
The first step on Google+ after you created your Page is start post engaging conversations. Conversations is now recognized by Google Search.
Connect your website
Make sure you add the Google+ Page Badge to your Hotels website or blog. This really add some Google Juice.
Share it with the World
Beside adding the Google+ Page Badge you also want share your new Google+ Page Url with your Social Network and in your email signature. Your new url will look something like this:
https://plus.google.com/107642334757693745023
Build your Circles
On of the advantages of Google+ is that you can add your network connections into different types of Circles.
Google+ Direct Connect
Is a new option that quickly let you navigate to a Google+ Page when using Google Search.
Hangouts
Connects you directly to your network via live video chats.
+1 Button
Add the +1 button to your Hotel website or blog so your network can recommend your content on Google Search and share it on Google+.
FourSquareFoursquare is a location based Social Network. Primarily this Social Network is utilized through a mobile device.
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FourSquare for Brick and Mortar
Location based services is still in the early stages. Brick-and-mortar stores with a specific location can immediately advertise to users within their proximity, restaurants are already using Foursquare-specific discounts and location-based advertising to pull in new customers.
FourSquare Gaming Element
Foursquare is at this point appealing to the game element in us all. If you have visited you favorite Hotel several times over a short period, and you used FourSquare to check in every time you can become Mayor at the Hotel.
To become a mayor you need to have checked in more days than anyone else over the last two months (60 days), so only one check-in per day counts.
You will also start earn badges after you checked in a certain amount of times.
Newbies:
Adventurer:
Explorer:
CNN – South Africa World Cup 2010:
Foursquare Add Venue
Adding your Hotel on Foursquare is easy and very business friendly.
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Foursquare also provides real time stats;
Most recent visitors Most frequent visitors The time of day people check in Total number of unique visitors Histogram of check-ins per day Gender breakdown of customers Portion of foursquare check-ins broadcast to Twitter and Facebook
FourSquare Specials
The best value from a business perspective at this time is to provide FourSquare Specials. This can be done with ‘Check In’ Specials, ‘Mayor’ Specials, ‘Frequency’ Special or ‘Wildcard’ Specials.
Businesses who claim their venues on Foursquare get a dashboard with real time stats on number of check-ins, times of day people check in, most recent visitors, and most frequent visitors.
They can also manage the offers and badges people get when they check in. These include Mayor specials, specials for people who check in a certain number of times, or wildcard specials that can be customized.
Hotels that rocks on Social Media!There are several Hotels that has implemented Social Media and Customer Loyalty principles in a great way.
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citizenM is recognized as one of the trendiest boutique Hotels in 2010. They have implemented the principles I have lined out here in a really great way.
Help! The Social Network Is Down..Cry Wolf.. Cry Wolf.. is not a unknown phenomena. When one or more of the Social Networks is down for various reasons then we experience both the up- and downside of Social Media.
Social Networks also change and adapt to the different needs and wants from the market. I will here take a brief look on some of the events that can cause downtime for Social Networks.
Down Time Reasons
New feature – adding a new feature can cause downtime. Most updates is well tested in advance, and normally don’t create unexpected events. If network will be down due to adding a new feature it usually is down for a very short time. And want effect usage very much.
Change in feature – this is very similar to adding a new feature. Normally this is also well tested in advance.
Spam attacks –spammers exist everywhere. And they are often very creative in finding new ways to take advantage of people. Downtime can be caused when the Social Network put actions in place to clean up some of the spams. If you get unwanted content through your Social Network I advice a. Block Them and b. Report them.
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Virus/Attacks – Virus or similar attacks is more complex, and often more serious.
Technical Outage – This is very rear, but happens from time to time. Power Outage – This also has become more rear with new technology.
This was a quick summary of some of the reasons that we from time to time experience downtime with a Social Network.
Most of the Social Networks we utilize for our businesses today is Free. This is why it is crucial that your Hotel implement routines in your Social Media Strategy that deals with Social Network downtime issues.
And the most important element to adapt here is to assure you have created proper listening outpost. This will assist you on capture valuable information in an early stage. And put in place proper action steps. Make sure you follow the Social Networks blogs to get updates directly from the source.
Hotel Strategies and Hotel Marketing & Social Media Strategies groups on LinkedInThe Hotel Strategies LinkedIn and Hotel Marketing & Social Media Strategies groups focuses on the future of the Hotel Industry. Capture and create new ideas and solutions.
How to implement a Social Media Strategy How transform your Hotel with New Media How to create Champion Advocates through Social Media
Get some ideas and input from my Hotel Strategies and Hotel Marketing & Social Media Strategies groups at LinkedIn.
Hotel Strategies
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Hotel Marketing & Social Media Strategies
Serve Your Guests COMPASSI have in this mini workshop provided principles of how to leverage your Hotel with Social Media. Now it is time to take some basic action steps for your Hotel.
I have provided some ideas and principles that can be put in place at your Hotel.
Start discuss the ideas outlined here with your Hotel staff Put down on paper ‘Where are your Hotel Today?’ and then set weekly
goals for each of your action steps Agree on your customer loyalty strategy Provide incentive programs for employees Implement a empowerment program Start a Hotel Idea wall Customer loyalty programs – visit other businesses and report back ideas
they used to earn their loyalty – how can this be implemented into the Hotel?
Invite consumers to participate in your Crowd-sourcing project Be Trust Agents – always keep your words – integrity – always deliver
premier service – deliver one percentage extra – do what you say Determine what is important to your customers, and how you can help
their needs and wants How can help your customer achieve their goals by visiting your Hotel? How to keep in touch with your customers? Social Hotel Programs to capture important customer information Agree on Listening Outposts that fits the Hotels needs best Create a Goodwill program for your loyal customers Agree on the budget for this process Measure the progress Rinse and Repeat Contact me for coaching on more advanced opportunities
Look for my contact information in the end of this report.
Recommended Recourses Disclosure: You will find products here that I am affiliated with. All products I present here is products that I found have added a tremendous value to my own business. I stand behind these products because of the value they provide. This is my personal opinion and experience with these products.
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Wordpress Theme
I highly recommend getting a Professional Wordpress Theme for your blog. Headway Theme by Grant and Clay Griffiths is a very flexible and easy to use theme. It doesn’t require any coding experience to utilize. I really enjoy it because of their Visual Editor. Optimizing my blog has never been easier. This Theme is now introducing one of the most powerful SEO options for your post and pages.
Blog Training
Online Visibility Secrets is a 26-week training program from my friend Denise Wakeman. Denise has designed one of the best hands-on training programs that will help your blog get more visibility.
Blog Masters Club is a comprehensive 6-month training program detailing out all the nuts & bolts of blogging from my friend David Risley. David is a professional blogger, and on this training David really provides great value.
Newsletter / Email Marketing
Aweber provides a real solid and robust email marketing service. You can use among over 100 pre-designed templates, or if you are savvy you can upload your own design. I love their service because of the flexibility, and their ability to always apply new features in relationship to what their customers want and needs.
Wordpress Plugins
I really love Wordpress Plugins that enhance the value of your blog, and that makes it easy for you to run your blog smoothly.
Scribe SEO is one of my most valuable plugins. I just love how this plugin really help me optimize my articles for SEO. This is such a time saver for me. I have put my SEO on autopilot. This plugin checks my content, keyword and provide link building info.
Akismet control and prevents spams.
Google XML Sitemaps helps your blog get indexed on major search engines.
Share This encourages your visitors to share your content on various Social Networks.
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Tweetmeme allows for retweet of your articles. Provides also statistic information. Supports both Tweetmeme and Twitter button.
Jetpack is a simple and powerful plugin that shows you some valuable blog statistics.
WP-DBManager manages your Wordpress database. Allow you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database, drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database.
WP Super Cache helps you speed up your blog. This is real valuable plugin that will help you run your blog smoothly.
Disqus is a robust and powerful comment management plugin.
Gravity Forms is a powerful and feature rich contact form.
One tip with Wordpress Plugins is make sure they are up to date with the latest version of Wordpress. Users has experienced unexpected conflicts due to plugins that is outdated.
Social CRM (Customer Relation Management)
Gist and Connect is two great resources I utilize for Social CRM.
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Learn How I can Serve You!
I will thank you for allowing me the opportunity bringing this information to your Hotel. I hope you have enjoyed this report and that I gave some constructive ideas and advices to work with.
I have two assignments for you.
1. Share this report with your friends, colleagues and Hotel family members. Feel free to distribute this mini workshop through Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Shot some videos of your progress, and how you have implemented these advises. Upload these videos on YouTube.
2. Take this report to the next level. I am passionate about this, and I want to help you and your hotel. I will be your friend, coach and mentor. Together we will build a workshop that is specially designed for your Hotels and Small business needs and wants.
Contact Me and lets get started. The time for adapting and change has never been better. New trends and markets are evolving like never before.
I will also do case-studies and demonstrate to customers what we have put in place to meet their needs and wants.
Learn more about how to get a Social Media Assessment Serve Your Guest for your Hotel.
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Connect Blog: Are Morch - Hotel BloggerFacebook: Are MorchFacebook Page: Hotel StrategistFacebook Page: Hotel Marketing & Social Media StrategistTwitter: @AreMorchLinkedIn: Are MorchGoogle+: Are MorchGoogle+ Page: Are Morch - Hotel BloggerYouTube: Hotel AdvisorFourSquare: Are MorchGmail: [email protected]: [email protected]
Cheers…
Are MorchHotel BloggerAre Morch - Hotel Blogger
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