Social MediaWith a Little Hospitality Providing guests with truly personalized service …in an hour (or so) a day

What is Social Media?FacebookTwitterLinkedInFlickrSocial Media is a buzz term for a web based conversation that relies on and revolves around media – written, photographed or filmed.

Social ReviewsSocial media has formed a great platform for user generated reviews. These five sites alone receive 70 million unique visitors a month. Social review sites are more likely to show up in search engine results, due to the volume of content and frequency of updates.*Compete.com, Traffic Statistics, September, 2009

Customer Service PlatformCompanies, new and old, are taking advantage of this unique opportunity to engage with customers and provide a level of customer service unparalleled at any point in history.

Why Should I Care?80% of Americans use social media monthly.Of those using social media, 75% rely on social reviews when making purchasing decisions.More than half of frequent travelers check online reviews before making a hotel reservation.*Forrester, The Broad Reach of Social Technologies, August 25, 2009*BusinessWeek, Does social media sway online shopping?, August 31 2009*BazaarVoice, Power of Word of Mount, 2009

TripAdvisorTweets!Yelp!TripIt!MyTravelGuideFacebookFanPageTravelPostHotelicopterBlog PostsOysterBut I have a hotel to run!

You can do it!You already do!

Three Steps to Success123Outreach &EngagementCreative Customer ServiceYour Story

Your StoryWhat is your hotel’s personality?What is the history of your hotel?How do you convey this message currently?

Your Story Three Rules of Social Media:Be humanBe interestingBe relevant

Your StoryBlogs, Twitter, Facebook! It can be overwhelming.Assign roles and responsibilities to every member of your team.Conduct training on the company story and rules of social media use.Quality over quantity – focus on a few social networks and assign manageable daily tasks.

Outreach and EngagementFacebook ads allow you to micro-target prospects based on detailed demographic information, geography and information listed in their profile.FacebookFanPages are a great place to organize a pre-existing community. Fans come together and opt-in to receiving information from your brand.

Outreach and Engagement

Outreach and EngagementGoogle Local is the most common way to locate brick and mortar businesses.Doing a search for “Hotels in Seattle” the local/map search results appear before TripAdvisor or any other website.Visit http://www.google.com/local/add/ to ensure your hotel shows up in Local Search and get access to powerful, free analytics.

Outreach and EngagementOnline review sites are the most important piece of hotel marketing.These sites have the power to persuade people to stay, or stray, from your hotel. Make sure that your voice is heard, and encourage your regular guests to support your brand.Registered Users: 6 MillionMonthly Visitors: 24 MillionNumber of Reviews: 25 Million+

Outreach and EngagementPeople are NOT just finding hotels on TripAdvisor. Other major outlets include:Social ReviewEditorial Review

Outreach and EngagementSocial Review OptimizationStart by unlocking the business owner tools on as many sites as possible. Fill out a thorough profile with your hotel’s history, photos and other interesting information.Turn on email alerts for the sites you choose to engage with so that you are notified whenever a new review is posted. Feel free to (politely) respond to both positive and negative reviews.

Outreach and EngagementSocial Review OptimizationMost social review websites use an algorithm to filter out reviews that are potentially fake. This algorithm relies on two main pieces of information:Reviewer Authenticity – Is this one of the user’s first reviews? Does the user post a few reviews and never return?IP Address – Are there more than one users on a network posting reviews of the same hotel in the same week?

Outreach and EngagementSocial Review OptimizationIf you answered “Yes,” the reviews will be flushed out of the site, whether they are real or not.Best practices call for you to avoid soliciting or syndicating reviews.If you plan to ask regular guests for reviews, be sure to keep this information in mind.

Creative Customer Service

Creative Customer ServiceTwitter is a great place to generate excitement.It is an amazing customer service opportunity.Put a personality behind your Twitter handle.

Creative Customer ServiceHyatt Hotels became the first company to launch a 24/7 Twitter Concierge to service all of their hotels.Monitoring Twitter for mentions of your hotel will present you with many chances to proactively respond to complaints and promote praise.

Creative Customer ServiceSocial media presents a great opportunity to learn about your guests.For truly personalized service track your guests on Twitter before, during and after their stay. Many CRM systems now integrate with Twitter to allow for seamless monitoring.

Creative Customer ServiceRemember that your guests are not only active on Twitter – many have blogs and other social media accounts. A quick Google search leads to tons of valuable information that will allow you to personalize their stay.

Creative Customer Service

Building a PlanBegin by defining your hotel’s goals – increasing sales, improving customer service or generating publicity. Next choose the social networks you will focus on.Finally compile a 6-month plan, committing you and your staff to a social media routine. Remember this is a marathon not a sprint.

Creating a ScheduleNext assign social media responsibilities through out the organization. Getting the whole team involved makes the process more manageable and endows individual team members with personal responsibility for the brand. Create a schedule committing individuals to ½ to 1 hour of social media work a day.

Finding the ToolsFinally ensure the right tools are in place.Use Google Alerts to receive email notices any time your hotel is mentioned online.http://google.com/alerts

Finding the ToolsTwitter Search is a great way to search the Twitterverse for mentions of your hotel on a weekly basis.http://search.twitter.com/

Finding the ToolsCoTweet is an excellent way to have more than one person manage more than one Twitter account. http://cotweet.com/

Finding the ToolsTweetFeel allows you to track the sentiment of the Tweets posted about your hotel in real time. http://www.tweetfeel.com/

The OpportunityTo tell your hotel’s story to the world.To actively engage with future and past guests on an ongoing basis.To provide unrivaled customer service by learning about guests and anticipating their needs.To involve your entire team in building your brand.

“I stayed in a really old hotel last night. They sent me a wake-up letter.”Steven WrightAmerican Comedian1955

SmarterSocialMedia.comTwitter.com/SmarterSM(888) 400-5995Bryce MaddockBryce@SmarterSM.comTwitter.com/BryceMaddock