How to monitor your hotel through the Social Media

Laura Valerio – Expedia

Hotels should learn from the information travelers leave behind – how can I use this info (photos videos) – how can this be used to increase my sales ?

Morris SIM – Band Karma

top 20 websites in the world – 8 of them are powered by UGC – things have changed considerably in the last 3 years , none of the SM sites were there (twitter was a stranger last year)

Facebook – use it as a CRM tool

Sm does matter to travel in Italy – 4th most popluar travel destination – FB and YouTube are very popular and will be used to organize travel – Sm and Social Network does have an impact.

What makes Social Media Social ?

look at some of the top social media stories

• has to do with a cause and a hope, empowering of a generation
• real time news
• Susan Boyle, Michael Jackson has to do with the personality, empathy relate to the experience they are going through

• Help or hello world
• is it noteworthy ?
• does it move me ?
• I act !

empathy: the human emotion, the understanding and affinity of another’s situation feelings and motives – the attribution of one’s own feelings to an object.

Social Media is now the current media to transmit empathy.

Brand must reward my loyalty – Brand must personalize for me (30-40)

New media brand architecture – Empathy, do they put themselves in the shoes of the customer – bathrooms work – it’s about the design and the experience it provides to the guests.

no longer you don’t control your brand – users are your partners !

• empathy
• design
• story

As people perceive your brand they are also influencing your brand.

Trends for 2010

MY STORY TRUMPS YOUR BRAND STORY

78% trust peers – your brand story is fragmented online on many sites

I want holistic experience – no longer is it ok to get the guest into the room, people want more services and a better experience

Free internet access is becoming a strong demand – you don’t charge for electricity in a hotel room – why should you charge for internet access ??

Social media is going to demand a policy for staff and employees

FB will have 0.5 billion users – what are your employees talking about on FB ?

A new distribution star will be born – convergence of SM and Search

Q&A

Which are the 3 main suggestions to approach SM ?

• listen & monitor what is going on before you do anything – google yourself and see where you are and see how many results point to SM sites, search YouTube FB and the rest …
• measure it: measure what people are saying about you so you can detect patterns and trends
• engage: not by putting ads but extend your CRm how you would interact with customers. you’re looking for fans of your brand not friends – people who want to be part of what you have to offer. Don’t put up you own message (sooo 2001)

there is a link between reputation in SM and my revenue ? YES there is hotels with a focus on being top on SM sites with their review – every position increase is an increase in revenue.

Hotels oing to Fb and Twitter:

FB. create fans not friends – a page with info that’s cool i need to differentiate myself from competitors – looking for fans, not friends – fans are people I don’t have to share any info with build a relationship passing the power over to the fan. A fan will tell other friends about it – credibility is with the fan, the trust relationship is with the fan who does the endorsing – what you offer uniquely to differentiate.

TWITTER: it’s harder – real time info – what is the VALUE of your real time information ? A different relationship the information exchanged must be valuable – if you cannot invest in information creation do not get involved in twitter !

What a about negative reviews ? It give you credibility – dealing with negative reviews: how to manage an angry guest in you lobby ? do not shy away from negative reviews – must be dealt with online and/or offline.

Guest satisfaction surveys – how are they different from all this ? Problem with guest survey is that you get answers only to the questions you ask ! in SM they talk about things that matter most to them in their words – SM is a focus group. For the most part surveys are private – SM is out in the media and everyone can see it.