Thank you to Ciaran for inviting me to speak here. Dublin is a very special place for me, since spending 6 months studying here while in university literally changed my life. If it wasn't for that experience, I probably wouldn't be speaking here today. See, I was in general technology, but while here I met some really cool hotel people, and traveling around Ireland inspired me to open my own hotel one day. Since then, I've been taking my technology background and applying it to the hotel sector.
But before we go any further, I have a confession to make. Social media in travel. bores me. As a traveler and consumer, I probably don't want to spend my 10 minutes on Facebook hearing about your hotel offers. I want to see photos from my friends. As a business manager, I don't want to hear the same shit over and over about how millions and billions of people are on Twitter.
Unless it's fucking cool or makes me a ton of money.
So I started Hotel Marketing Strategies with the purpose of telling stories of what was actually working in social media, and now I’m helping to build ReviewPro to help hotel managers get the insight they need to increase guest satisfaction and grow revenue. Most of my days are spent talking with hotel managers in diverse organizations around the globe - from small resorts in Thailand executives in the biggest hotel groups in the world - and I wanted to talk about something that would be relevant in all of those scenarios - and also to those of you working outside the hotel industry.
And perhaps the concept I see as most important and having the broadest appeal is not a new concept.....
Branding: more important, more powerful than ever in today's complex noisy, & fast-paced environment.
We crave direction, and brands can make our life easier. A powerful brand tells a story, and connects with us - something we are or want to become.
When I was in branding class here in Dublin, I used to groan everytime Guinness was used as an example of an irish brand, but we’re here in the storehouse so I thought I’d use this.
Product design - and in the case of travel - experience design - plays a critical part of branding. Key to remember that since consumers have control over much of what’s said about your brand...they are defining it....that great product design ensures that 1) You get noticed 2) People start talking about you. Seth Godin: Take your advertising budget, invest in product design.
Let’s see how this looks at a hotel. citizenM is one of our clients at ReviewPro, and they have some of the most brilliant branding today.
The way their hotels are built is remarkable....[elab]
And this creative design gets people talking. Trendiest hotel in the world.
But not all of us manage marketing for citizenM, so I’d like to approach this from another angle. It’s not just iconic brands that can use these concepts. Individual hotel properties that are part of a larger chain - like this Napa Valley Marriott - also have created a brand position that sets them apart... [Elaborate]
Most importantly, branding affects everything you do in social media: the type and format of content, the tone of that content and the platform you’ll distribute on. As social businesses we need to think through a framework...
How are you going to quickly communicate what you stand for? (Define) What will you stand for?
How will you distribute this message? Marketing?
How will you deliver on that promise? Operations
How will you defend and stay true to that message? Reputation management
...all key online
[Image: Feedback
The social web is the biggest brand-building opportunity we’ve ever had.
[image: background mosaic of review site logos, focus on TripAdvisor, Yelp, Foursquare, YouTube]
There’s an incredible diversity among review sources today. People say whatever, whenever.
The SoMoLo trifecta can get especially interesting for us.
There’s an incredible diversity among review sources today. People say whatever, whenever.
The SoMoLo trifecta can get especially interesting for us.
Technology is an enabler, but not the primary success factor. The fundamental change in social enterprise is that your brand is defined with every single interaction with any of your employees. And this makes your team critical to
Human resources, recruiting and retaining the right type of people has become a new frontier in social enterprise management. Employees should be allies...not ready to revolt.
Employees should be allies...not about to revolt.
Speak human. Hire great copywriters. Words matter.
Technology is an enabler, but not the primary success factor. The fundamental change in social enterprise is that your brand is defined with every single interaction with any of your employees. And this makes your team critical to
Human resources, recruiting and retaining the right type of people has become a new frontier in social enterprise management. Employees should be allies...not ready to revolt.
Employees should be allies...not about to revolt.
Speak human. Hire great copywriters. Words matter.
Operations is
Want to leave you with a few thoughts: How can you use social technologies to take your organization to the next level? Or more specifically, how can you
