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It has been tough in 2009 for marketers working within the travel and hospitality sectors in China (as in most sectors last year). However, it appears that the year of the tiger has started with a roar as the marketing spend for the travel sectors looks to be returning to pre 'Global Downturn' levels. Further, interest by hoteliers, airlines and tour operators is increasing in marketing areas like social media and search marketing... not as discrete channels but integrated into a single campaign. I know that this is something most of us have been pushing with our clients; fully integrated digital marketing campaigns. However, for me I have not seen this level of interest for nearly 9 months in executing these..
So with the apparent tide turning in the favor for getting into channels like social media I thought it would be of value to outline a list of best practices for the travel sectors as a guide to these practitioners and those wanting to learn more. The following list (with inputs from ) provides marketers working within the hospitality/hotel/airline groups some points to consider in your next social media adventure.... for those outside this sector then you will also some great points that can trans
Some basic Social Media tips for Travel & Hospitality Marketers.
- Develop a social media code of conduct for your hotel- mixed messages or worse unprofessional online conduct can kill a lot of online good will.
- The conversation about you will go on with or without you. It’s better to be involved. Here in China, we love SNS, BBS so encourage your team to support your hotel/airline etc.
- Serve as a concierge of the organization – “how may I help?”
- Start by figuring out your social media goals. Is it education? sharing? community?
- Once you determine your goals- set your criteria to determine success... without understanding how you will measure success, you may never know you are on track.
- Present your blog and social media presence as a way for people to connect with their peers, not just receive your marketing messages
- Embrace a light branding approach – let your customers tell the story and build the brand.
- “Guestsourcing” is the technique savvy hotels are using to involve their guests in the content production process. It’s the combination of user-generated content and crowdsourcing.
- Guestsourcing can build loyalty and raise your online visibility. Active participation in content production creates a sense of brand ownership.
- If you’re small, people may not be talking about your business by name….but they’re probably talking about your region and issues you care about.
- Monitor who writes about the topics you care about. Build relationships with them.
- If your online content sucks, you’re wasting your money and my time. Make something remarkable.
- Monitor for negative as well as positive social media enagement/comments/voting/feedback
- Have a plan in place for responding to negative user generated content
- People love to look at pictures…are you giving people lots of pictures online? Encourage your fans to take & upload their own photos.
- Add photos of your hotel’s design to your Hotel Blog
- Hosting your hotel photos on Flickr increases your web presence, building awareness among potential guests (don't forget to also use Facebook fan pages as well)
- Use Creative Commons licensing on all photos to increase distribution
- Introduce your staff with video interviews, and post to Youku, 56.com or YouTube
- Viral video is for generating buzz and awareness…to grow a general awareness about a new promotion or hotel product
- Hyatt Hotels launched @HyattConcierge to provide 24/7 global concierge services via Twitter. Could you do the same using the Sina microblog in China?
- Use Twitter search or Sina Microblogging search to locate people searching for hotel products
- SNS Sites (Facebook/Renren/Kaixin etc) marketing is all about “transitive trust” – reaching people through people. Helping your fans tell their friends.
- SNS aren't about answers. It’s friends sharing with friends.
- This makes SNS's a poor platform for direct marketing but is great at developing a platform for sharing information and requesting feedback.
- Encourage people to like and comment on your fan pages (of your SNS pages) content as much as possible to raise visibility.
- Get a “vanity” personalized Facebook URL as soon as you can for search optimization purposes (you need 25 fans first)
- Employee blogging is more powerful than executive blogging. According to Edelman research, readers find them five times more credible. Get your team involved.
- Consider using multiple sites/blogs for each of the niche audiences you’re trying to reach. It's all about amplification of message and presence
- Use destination blogs to attract corporate and leisure travel planners. Especially in rural or remote areas, your biggest competition is not the hotel down the street but another location.
- Get your social media fans to meet up offline as much as possible. “Tweetups” are a popular way to do this or sponsoring 'local' events and getting involved in the grassroots social media groups.
- Create a social media management routine to ensure consistent participation
- “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie.. I agree Dale!
So I hope that you found some of these tips helpful and you leverage these in getting your Hotel General Manager or your Corporate Marketing team interested in leveraging social media to drive your room sales or grow your Food/Berverage business.
Written on Wednesday, 03 March 2010 21:22 by Matt McDougall
