Social Media Best Practices

for Hospitality
Social Media AZ
FEBRUARY 2011
Agenda

• State of the Nation

• Common Challenges
• How to Solve Them
• What’s Possible?

Mike Corak
VP of Strategy
@mikecorak
Hospitality and Social Media

STATE OF THE NATION

Social = Hospitality
Suggested social behavior mirrors inherent off-line
day-to-day activities on property:
Touch-points throughout the customer lifecycle
Pre, during, and post visit
High value, high trust interactions
Vacations, important business trips, etc.
Customer service and reputation management focus
Advocacy promotion
Building buzz and community
Collecting and analyzing feedback to improve satisfaction
Facebook Page Marketing
AltimeterGroup–JeremiahOwyang

http://www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/the-8-success-criteria-for-facebook-page-marketing?from=embed
http://www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/the-8-success-criteria-for-facebook-page-marketing?from=embed
Common Hotel Facebook Activity

x
x
http://www.mrchrishill.com/2009/12/be-hospitable.html
So if Successful Social Media is all about
Hospitality, Why Then Is It So Challenging
for Hospitality Organizations to Implement
Social?
COMMON CHALLENGES
Hospitality and Social Media
Operational Anarchy (Where’s the Plan?)
Content Marketing – Who’s Doing It?
Grasping Social Beyond FB & TW
BrianSolisandJESS3

http://www.theconversationprism.com
Other Common Challenges

Defining the opportunity

Resourcing against the opportunity
Training
Tools
HOW DO WE SOLVE THEM?
8 Best Practices to Improve Your Hospitality Social Media Efforts
1. Understand Content Demand In Relation
to Your Business
Beyond brand, develop a keyword
target list to guide your content
planning and distribution efforts:

Search
What keywords perform best beyond
brand phrases?
What phrases are you targeting?
What content is of interest to the
public?

Website / Microsites
What content is most highly consumed?

Offline/Brand
What are you known for?
2. Identify, Quantify, and Examine the
Opportunity Around Topical Points of Interest
Social Isn’t Only About Participating in
Conversations, It’s About Starting Them
Distribute Content to
Prioritize Topical
Relevant Outposts With A
Interest
Defined Purpose
Create &
Awareness Optimize
High Priority
“Must Have” Keywords Content

Medium Priority
Keywords that are important but not targeted

Low Priority
“Nice to haves”
3. Organize Internally for Success

• Roles and Responsibilities (Hire a Community Manager!)

• Empower Subject Matter Experts With Training and a Plan
• Armed with Content Demand Insights
• With Measurable Goals and Frequent Check-ins
http://www.slideshare.net/jeremiah_owyang/keynote-social-business-forecast-2011-the-year-of-integration
4. Be Hospitable! Reputation Management
Offense and Defense
What drives bookings?
-51% Reputation, recommendations and online
reviews
-48% hotel location
-42% Price
Market Metrix, Jan 2010
Reputation Management Benefits:
Woodside Hotels
• 4 of their 5 hotels are number 1 on
TripAdvisor

• With strong focus on review

management, Revinate alerts allow
executive team, as well as property
team to see all
new reviews across the leading
review sites and OTAs

• Uses Revinate to better

understand competition and get
constructive ideas for improvement
Your Best Friend – The Negative Review

Popular platforms provide opportunity for public customer service and advocacy

* Trip Advisor and Yelp allow private messages

http://blog.reachlocal.com/23785/2010/11/15/how-to-deal-with-negative-reviews--complaints.html
 Best Practices for Responding to Negative
Hospitality Reviews
• Thank reviewer for taking the time to write a review and
share their experiences
• Thank the reviewer for any positives in the review
• Apologize for an atypical experience and assure them that
you will personally make sure that the feedback is used to
improve operations
• Turn a negative into a positive – Relay to the reviewer that
customer satisfaction is number 1 and you know your property
can do better and you would love the opportunity to prove it.

• Pro-Tips:
- Actually implement any operational changes you mentioned
- Leave the conversations up for all to see as possible
5. Encourage the Behavior You Desire
Include calls to
action in all relevant
outposts and
messages

Set user expectations

Cross promote
interaction across
platforms based on
purpose (sites, social
outposts, email
integration, drive
paid advertising to
social outposts as
applicable)

RUN FACEBOOK ADS!

http://www.facebook.com/montelucia?v=app_4949752878
6. Social Location/Mobile Opportunities
Own accounts across various location based services
Facebook Places and Foursquare
Consider messaging and up-sell upon engagement

Create a mobile friendly version of the site addressing

mobile needs
Check your analytics to view the percentage of visitors from
mobile devices
Review most commonly viewed content
Point users towards social location outposts
7. Get the Right Kind of Help
In-House Resources Agency Resources

• Internal Buy-off
• Day-to-Day Account • Demand Research
Management • Social and Content Planning
• Conversation • Periodic Consultation and
Recommendations
Participation • Web/App Development
• Content Creation (Input) • Outpost Adjustments
• Scheduled Distribution • Latest and Greatest
• Daily Measurement and • PR Related Tasks (influencer outreach
relationship building, etc)
Adjustment • Display advertising
• Reputation Management • Tool selection (and licensing)
8. Utilize Remarketing to Relevantly Extend
the Conversation Beyond the Social
Network (Display, Paid Search, Email)
 Callaway Gardens: Social Success
Callaway Gardens’ Social Media Program launch – 1 st Quarter Results Tactics:
- No paid advertising, fueled by content demand understanding, content distribution,
cross platform and effort promotion

1. Bookings Directly Attributed to Social Media

• Revenue Up Over 1,000%
• Total Bookings Up 600%
• Average Value Up 82%
• Visits Up 95%
2. Social Media Interactions
• 3,000+ Facebook Fans
• Seven+ Interactions per Day
• 10 Positive TripAdvisor Reviews

http://www.facebook.com/CallawayGardens?v=app_17037175766
Thank You
Resources
Websites and Experts Networks

• Altimiter Group • Facebook

• Jeremiah Owyang • Twitter
• Brian Solis • Yelp
• JESS3 • Trip Advisor
• Revinate • Expedia
• Radian6 • Hotels.com
• Market Metrix