Hraba Hospitality Consulting

Let’s make a definitive list of who hotels should follow, for the new guys that come in trying to wade through all this.

Hotels should find other hotels, for industry awareness, networking, and for the more cynical lot, to “track the competition / opposition”.

=)   (can you use happy faces in blog posts??)

I *will* go on the record as saying I think it isn’t so much about “competition” anymore as a value proposition for the customer coupled with niche or specific amenities that set your property apart from others.

I don’t think this climate of brand marketing needs cutthroat business practices targeting competing brands and setting yourself apart from them.  There are too many choices to focus on one competitor, and… not to zen out too much… a brand or hotel property needs to look inward, and focus on themselves, their operations, and their ethos.

But as for new hotels on twitter, there are ways to impact their market, and the INCREDIBLE responses I received from some other industry folks were a real treat (thanks people!)…. and it seems almost everyone is inline:

Hotels should follow hotels.  It is good partnership, networking, and socializing.

Hotels should look in their local arena.  Geographic searching of important twitterers and people that might be interested in your product is imperative.  One of the fantastic things is that friending people isn’t considered spam at all.  In fact, Twitter is “OPT-IN”, which is a wonderful tool for people to regulate their endorsement of your brand, while still allowing you to search out network hubs and important influencers in your markets.

If you have any other thoughts as to how hotels can effectively establish their presence… please comment!

also… here is a great article for reasons that hotels, or more to the point “product placements”, don’t succeed.  Follow FAIL!

Wow.

My blog posts in the last couple have been longer rambles than I have ever previously threatened you guys with.

Whoops.  Sorry, and I will cut them shorter, methinks.  Cheers all.

=)

Twitter is wonderful, but as more people read my blog, I am hoping to engage twitterererserss’ in conversation.  If you won’t comment, no worries!  I just want to get myself thinking, so maybe this will do the same for you.

This is taking for granted that your hotel account is not some marketing gimmick and actually someone adding to the conversation.  Remember… your brand is not something to spam or push on others.  It is something to be endorsed, and this happens by people accepting your brand as something they can identify with.

Who should your hotel follow?  Should it follow other hotels?  Is that network useful?

I really don’t know the answer to this.

I do know that looking close to home is an intelligent solution to joining the mix is having a geographic base for a hotel.  You can use Twitter Grader to search out important network hubs (look back at some of the network science posts) in your area.  It is not so much spam with your brand when you follow these people as much as becoming part of the localized twittering community.  It is also a way to get people noticing you locally, talking about you, and generally realizing you exist.

I am interested if people have any opinion about whether hotels should befriend hotels.  Any thoughts?