The Economist this week bolstered the internet ad model revenue stream as growing and potentially immune to downturn in this economy, in lieu of a failing print and standardized ad media. (you may need an account with the economist) “Internet Advertising will be relatively unscathed during this downturn”.
In this article (http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4030635.search?query=online+marketing+tools+for+hotels) it states that in 2007, of surveyed hotels, nearly 70% shifted marketing from offline to online … which is a stunning amount. Because of print media wasting away, and the economic downturn on top of it, it is only going to grow.
However, I do not think the Social Media side is the “be all end all” of the internet. I am highly distrustful of it, in that a networking effect doesn’t equate to dollars, and ROI is quite difficult to quantify. Albeit the 2.0 sales people suggest that you can highly target consumers, I still haven’t seen evidence indicating it as a clear cut success.
In fact, the big guys are concerned too. CEO Falco from AOL suggested that no one has any idea how to monetize Social Media (http://gigaom.com/2008/04/10/aols-falco-gets-something-right/). The ad model is in question for these 2.0 web outlets: Facebook, Youtube, Yelp, and others. They are not profitable yet, and they have a long way to go. (http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-04/bz_socialnetworks, http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/11/technology/facebook_sandberg.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008041213, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/31/facebooks-growing-problem/)
They have not been able to monetize the massive networking effect that has happened, and the generally accepted problem is this: Marketers are forced to pay the money for the social ads, while the social users are generally uninterested or distrustful of marketing and advertising. A large majority of users ignore or simply “don’t see” the ads.. actually mentally blocking them out. Some of gone so far as to intentionally ignore all of the ads, considering them spam.
So, I do not endorse striking out with mitigated advertising schedules on social media channels. The ad model isn’t solid, and there is very little quantifiable evidence that it works at all. I must admit, the problem of the original survey (half of CMO’s uninterested) is that it *seems* only to appeal to online ad spending, and not brand building. The survey *does* suggest that the word of mouth aspect of social media has a value that far outweighs other methods of communication, so that shows some potential statistical inaccuracy within the study.
Here are some personal thoughts on Facebook. I link it again below, but if you have time you might appreciate it (even longer than this): http://www.squidoo.com/hrabahospitalityconsulting
I think where we spend our online marketing dollars is in aggressive website SEO, comprehensive linking programs, and google keyword accounts, while making sure we also optimize the site for mobile browsing: http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/hotel-mobile-marketing-thoughts/.
*HOWEVER*
There are a number of things about these social media sites that are important to understand:
1) You do not have to spend traditional marketing dollars. You can have free pages, free linking, free SEO just by participating in these sites, boards, and social linking. Every single time you link on one of these sites that is a hugely popular social media venture, their pagerank will make your hotel much more optimized in organic search indexing for google.
2) This is endless brand building. It is free… and it fits into the concept of social media members as “endorsers” (that is a hyperlink to a lot of personal thoughts on brand building within facebook)
3) It is a one to one relationship with guests… and you can reach out and build brand and communicate DIRECTLY with them. Whether the guest was thrilled, or the guest was angry… you can engage them, listen to them, learn from them… and have a real time read and pulse of the consumer and their needs.
4) You have access to honest, immediate, and helpful operating advice that can also be a PR tool. Many people are reviewing hotels within moments of their first experience. Think of being able to reach an unhappy guest *while* the stay is happening, you have created an opportunity for immediate resolution. If you show that sort of awareness – being “dialed in” – you can take the worst experience and change the guest into a long term branded client. Beyond operational help, it becomes a PR tool.
5) Being an active participant in these online channels helps with overall damage control. When social internet reviewers know you are an active and participating property with online review responses, they are less likely to muckrake or slander the property when upset. Typically, non-online, inactive hotels in the social realm have negative reviews because there is no need for accountability in the reviewer. It is like graffiti.. no one really knows who wrote it, and the people it comments on never see it. But, it can be very damaging if not dealt with, depending on who sees it. Conversely, if a reviewer is aware that you are an active member of any given community… they typically are more earnest and grounded in their complaints or suggestions. They give you more credence, and it becomes a two way professional conversation instead of one person alone, shouting negativity at anyone who will listen.
Just because you decide not to focus on web 2.0 doesn’t mean they aren’t talking about you. Twitter, events boards, local boards, review sites, blogs, and an endless stream of travel and hospitality chat sites exist that you need to watch over, maintain, respond to, etc. But this, again, isn’t in terms of impressions or traditional marketing dollars. It is a Social Media Optimization expert, or on staff representative than can find the labour hours to deal with this phenomenon.
I have an internet marketing plan we could go over at some point more convenient. Pardon the long email, but this stuff is wildly interesting, as well as infinitely complex and hard to follow. Just thought I would share what I am on top of.