This Argophilia post by Phillip Butler starts the conversation: Who is the big bad wolf of hotel marketing?  Simply put, there isn’t just one –  OTA’s, Franchise Fees, Internet Marketing Fees, Booking Engine Fees.  This is one leaky ship.

Here is my response, but I am more interested in what all of you have to say?
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Great read. Thank you much. =)

I always thought of the OTA’s as something that filled the gap during the off line to online distribution evolution. They were a stopgap solution. They are now becoming unnecessary, and getting in the way of commerce because they are becoming obsolete, where they used to promote some level of commerce for our industry. Distribution has changed… and their role will phase out. It won’t be in the next 5, maybe 10…. but this will all change. I adore how people revile when you suggest the guy on top won’t be there forever.  The fact is, nothing is forever, and new paradigms unfold.

Another big bad wolf, on top of franchise fees? Ridiculous internet consulting firm charges by hourly consulting model.  Buuteeq is doing some good with simple pricing plans… it makes a lot more sense, and you aren’t nickel and dimed for the internet marketing group’s mistakes or on the job training.

Lastly…. commissions to booking engines. Including the franchise fees, as well… Engines like Synexis get promoted by franchise and flag brands, which then take a cut. It’s incredible how much money is lost to an engine that simply helps facilitate online booking. Eventually, the hotels will realize the money lost can be recouped quickly by building and designing a proprietary engine of your own, off a template, for the hotel to own, outright. That can save 20K – 100K+ a year.  I imagine a management group could justify the development fees to an owner group, based solely off the last 3 years of annual or commissionable fees that the property made to the booking engine company.

Would anyone have any idea how much it would cost for development of a competent template, and simple engine with solid UI – that includes a mobile component? Is that $100k or more?  I know… you can always spend more. =)

This is something I have done in the past – talking about the history of hotel systems and amenities, and where we are today.  It’s likely horribly self indulgent, as well as terribly boring…. but coffe is such an afterthought, in so many situations, it deserves, at least, it’s own post.

We can start with my background in coffee:  I drink it. I drink quite a lot of it. I quite enjoy it.  I have a burr grinder. The burr grinder changed my coffee life.  As counter-intuitive as it is, I now understand why artisan roasters refuse to sell ground beans.  ”But the market is there for it”, my simplistic free market capitalist economy mindset cajoles my caffeine addled nerves… but self respecting roasters know their bean isn’t honored by letting it die a slow and lonely death as a tired ground in a depressing bag.

So… this is where we engage my hospitality mind, and wrestle with my pragmatic operations side, vs. my guest experience and brand equity side.

My last installment about the history of hotel minutia rambled on about hotel telephony: from PBX to modern software in place of hardware, and how it went from revenue stream to bungled system, all the way to how it exists today – a glorified in-house intercom (which marketers try to dress up with LCD screens, ad nauseum).  The story of coffee, however, might not be as interesting… especially to those tech & social fans who follow me (other than the giddy, amped ones who just placed another order for more caffeine related products from think geek).  To those fans – hopefully my rollicking, coffee fueled post will be the little bouncing ball over the karaoke lyrics.  Have fun.

Depending on how this one goes, I think this is my second to last or last post *ever* haranguing on, or thinking this deeply about, Facebook.  Blue in the Face makes one look crazy, especially if no one is listening… and beyond the simple fact that I may be wrong, and happily eat humble crow as I become more aware….. I do see some meaningful interaction on Facebook.  It takes some time, and for me it took *opening* my network.  This concept of a “closed” network seems bizarre to me, and it limited real, meaningful interaction, the likes of which I remember from IRC or topical boards.

You have seen me talk about this in regards to Hospitality Brand’s respective Facebook Pages, and the lack of real interaction… even when they are done well. When it comes down to it, there are some problems with the way Facebook Pages work.  This post is, to some degree, a slapdash missive of a rebuttal to this post about the Top Ten Facebook Brand Pages.  There are 100′s of those “top 10″ posts, but it’s a good post with some interesting thoughts… and they are the perfect pages to “pick apart”, so to speak.  I want to ask some questions (that I don’t have any answers to) that result from crunching interaction numbers, informally, as well as gauge what it means to have a “fan”.  Hopefully it sparks conversation?  I also want to delve into why there are real challenges for creating that meaningful interaction Facebook Pages.

Before we start looking at the nature of these brand page interactions, we need a little background on what Facebook is. First, Facebook’s narcissism problem is duly noted, and it means that Facebook users will wear a brand Page like a pair of Chanel glasses or Dolce purse.  In the Facebook universe, where interaction is “me” first, the network later, much (not all) of brand interaction is selfish, opportunistic, and all for show.  It isn’t at the brand’s convenience (nor should we expect consumers to act like that), so much as being an emblem for the consumer, and not something they expect to have a real relationship with.  In fact, I talk passionately about how bizarre “hiding streams” is within Facebook, and how that effects the way we post, the attention we lost, and the importance of curating it.  For example, the above “top brand pages”, while researching this article, had this post, right by the brand name:

I think it might suggest, based off the “Top Ten Brand Pages” article, that we need to look at how we interact with our communities.  It’s only one example, but at least they said something.  If stats are right, 70-90% of other people didn’t say a word and just hid their wall posts from view, forevermore. Another reason I won’t be posting much more about this Facebook nonsense: I sound like a broken record, stuck in a rare groove.  But as I have said before…. People are just understanding the crisis of perception in social media: it’s not about the “me”. It is about everyone else. In general, no one gives a hoot about your photos of dinner, your baby, your vacation (not to be dour; just grumpy hyperbole to pilot an idea into the harbor).  It makes people look arrogant and self absorbed – back to the narcissism study.  Of course, there are *many* *many* Facebook users that are *not* like that, and you are probably one of them.

Those who spend time on the meta level of social tech (IE not the ones who respond, when you are looking for a conversation, with “internetz iz serious bidness”) are definitely not the ones passively or flippantly interacting, nor the 70% who are simply “lurkers” or people that do not actually interact.  That data is from Forrester’s Groundswell, a book I suggest you pick up.  This recent article talks about 90% non participants who exist to consume information, and links to this article has data on the idea that 90% lurk. As I mentioned in a previous post, “lurkers – we know you are out there eating our posts” Social media works best when it is about EVERYONE else… real communication, real collaboration.  For example, you should be able to view this thread from my profile.  Instead of talking about me, I asked what they did. There wasn’t just *more* interaction, but it was personal, meaningful, and more robust than one off comments on viral videos like “lol” or “That’s great”.

The “Like” button is an activity and concept that I can wrap my head around, but it becomes incredibly frustrating when you realize Facebook’s attempt to hook itself into the framework of the internet leads to the single most passive social interaction that has ever existed, and that’s going to be an issue for brands and pages.  At least, it might make us take stock about what we really know about Page usage, and if it’s better to sit silently, curate attention, and post only when vital.  Allow people the pleasure of brand advocacy, and comment and follow up when necessary…. but it may be that our forced excitement and expectation in using these tools is putting off our consumers. If everyone focused on the network, instead of, naturally, being more self interested… think of the level of real interaction that would create between people, brands, and one another?

Herein lies an obvious problem, of whether it is my place to even suggest that people should change their underlying instincts or natural patterns in how they interact.  In fact, I could be trying to yoke a powerfully ingrained genetic compulsion.

One person is simply a node… and nothing else. If Oprah or Ashton dropped from Twitter, all that would happen is that the network map would fill itself. People do not matter… it’s the network that matters. It’s about the multiple nodes, weak ties, and flow of ideas and communication…. and one node could disappear without a blip. Cancel your facebook account and see how much it actually effects your network.  An important issue is that, if you start hiding streams in Facebook, in my opinion, it may make the network unstable, or at least, less meaningful.  Weak ties are less obvious to the network, and this PDF (following link autodownloads) of Granovetter’s “Strength of Weak Ties” article has some pretty amazing conjecture about them being markedly important in regards to Network Science. It’s a big problem even judging how many eyes on your page.

As soon as people realize this, we will start using social tools in a more intelligent and organized way.  To defer potential conceit on my part, I want to remind anyone reading this that you are likely ahead of the curve as well, and I am unabashed in suggesting that users need to mature somewhat before these tools can reach their potential.  The Read Write Web login debacle might be proffered forth, yet again, as evidence of Facebook, or Google, users’ relative dimness as to how to use the internet.  Of course, the point can be said is that it’s Google and/or Facebook’s fault because they need to be able to explain this stuff to users.

These social conversation tools are the single biggest shift in human communication in history, and people are taking photos of amuse bouche or retouching a vacation shot to make other people jealous…. the same other people who aren’t actually looking at another person’s page because they are quite busy acting like a star on their own page, hoping people notice *them*.  Facebook’s potential competitor from Google is tentatively named “ME” – well played Google. Is that deliberate, guys?

I wouldn’t spend my time on this, but I am somewhat irked that everyone has shrugged their shoulders and said, “I guess Facebook is as good as this will get,” and are, again, allowing FB to hook itself into the framework of the internet.  It’s a difficult proposition for me.  It’s quickly becoming bigger than a monopoly (a linked article that comments on the fact that the internet is *incredibly* well linked, interactive, and stable *outside* of Facebook).  If Facebook becomes the internet, some form of public utility that is not removable from the architecture of the internet, that is a big problem. It stifles creativity, and competition cannot exist in an uneven market like this.  Even with a smattering of bungled launches or app experiments that have gone viral (like Wave), Google needs to knock it out of the park with the competitor.  I am not so sure someone is in the position to really compete.

I have some ideas for Google Me… maybe it’s simply my own network I am talking about.  Could you imagine a social network based off of proximite geo-community, hyperlocality, and topical interests…. rather than some wholly arbitrary closed network that allows you to conntect to 20 year dead contacts that are as arbitrary as having a locker near them in grammar school?  If anyone wants to help build it, inquire within.  I sure as hell can imagine it. =) But the real point isn’t this complex new science of networking, nor is it the immediate issues with the existence of Facebook. It’s the existing interaction and community that is really happening around these brands.

Let’s look at Jones Sodas first, since we unfairly took a one in a million negative comment that I barely caught upon their profile.

So in this one snapshot (which is hardly enough to make this a proper study) – the first post has .0001003 / .01003%  likes, and .0000522 / .00522% comments.  What is a normal impression, or what is expected of 90% non contributors?  The second post has .0003772 / .03772% likes, and .0001164 / .01164% comments. I only include the percentages, because there is a HUGE difference between .037% interaction vs how people sometimes look at a number that small..contes. 3.72%.  It’s the former, and that’s tiny.

At the time of my post, Redbull has 7,957,179 fans. Pardon me for not having it in this picture.  That’s about the population of London or Chicago.  The two interactions showing have interaction rates (this is not even a standardized metric, by any means.. but it illustrates a strong point) as follows:  #1 = .0003777 / .03777% “likes” and .0000269 / .00269% commented.  #2 (sex sells) =  .0005072 ‘likes” and .0000387 / .00387% commented.

I was going to go through this for the entire list of 10, but you may understand my point (that I am, sloppily, beating into the ground).  I will do one more, as I already did Burt Bee’s interaction info on Twitter, as well.

At the time of posting 9,084,488 people “liked” the Oreo fanpage.  In the above, .0005586 / .05586% liked (a little more than one twentieth of one percent or 1/20%) and .0003344 / .03344% commented, the second posting was .0001671 / .01671% liked and .0000216 / .00216% commented.

I think you get the point…. even the most successful brand pages are creating interaction and real community involvement that is such a small percentage of their supposed community, we have to ask how this actually works?

I understand it’s a distribution channel, and you need to be available to guests and consumers that wish to interact with you on their own terms in their own comfort zones…. but numbers this small are almost impossible to fathom.  The way people are prostelytized by brands, I, personally, would imagine interaction levels much higher… at least into whole percentage points.  Is this Facebook’s fault?  Is this something greater involving the crisis of perception in social media?

More questions: Is having a contest that garners fans on your page a good measure of a potential consumer?  Are you attracting consumers that like contests, or consumers focused on the quality of your brand?  Is gaining a fan more important than interaction and community?  When you discount on a Facebook page, are you giving back money to a branded consumer that was already prepared to pay full price? These numbers are similar across the board, and I see endless smaller brand or hotel pages that don’t have a powerhouse of a community to energize.  Should we spend our time on this?  Should we spend our time on this …. *yet*?

Henry Harteveldt’s sage wisdom was so simple and zen:  ”Give it time.”

The Twilight Fan Page on Facebook has over 12 million fans… that’s the population of Calcutta or Los Angeles.  But, interaction levels are about the same, as they are for all major brands.  Crunch the numbers yourself, it’s fairly easy.

I am not claiming this to be a bona fide metric, but it begs some very important conversation.  Is this simply a wiki page for your brand advocate’s to show off their incessant narcissism – more about how you make them look & feel, rather than wanting a connection to a community?  If that’s the case, how much energy and time (and labor dollars) does a hotel invest on this brand advocacy versus legitimate conversation?

My main question is this: (as I sit and panic, and quandry, and furrow my brow):

Are numbers this small to be expected?

In the world of hard to track impressions and marketing measurements that dp provided a modicum of data and guidance (however skeptical I always am) – some people have said, “so what, who cares, it’s to be expected”.  But numbers *THAT* small?  Is that part of the Pareto Efficiency, or does the principle come into play (if you believe in that)? I am not saying you shouldn’t be on Facebook with a page, but what are we trying to do? This isn’t meant to be about misery or confusion, but I would quite like to see a conversation struck up about this.

What do you think?  I would love to know!

ED Note: A couple new articles in the past few days.

70% of FB users that have “liked” your page do *not* consider that permission to market to them.  Hey… I am on your side. That’s just idiotic.

And there are other “virtual crumedgeons” out there… fairly intelligent ones. In that link, the Economist reviews Jarod Lanier’s new book “You are not a Gadget”.

It’s nice to know that the 100% solar, 100% off grid Wilbur Hot Springs has seen this market opening up for some time… the unplugging escapists.  They highlight a number of fascinating New York Times articles here, and make a case for backing off a bit. Your brain on computers, indeed. See you at Wilbur.  (Full disclosure – I put that piece together for them).

Ed Note (7th Sept 2010):

Chris Brogan’s “The Coming Social Crash” article is interesting… about the impending mass step back from all these overwhelming tools.

But I stumbled on this today, and thought it was far too relevant to not attach.  I love the analogy of the story of social networking… but “Have we lost the plot in social networking?”  Some of the questions raised in that article are profound.  Can you really be #1 simply because you *are* #1?  How long is that model going to work for them?

There is a big discussion going on about the equity of attention in social media, and that curating attention is more important than posting information.  Curation is a fine line, and studies have shown that curation works better through less posting of more pertinent info, than more posting of one-off links, stories, etc.  Social Media is becoming quite good at capturing attention (think contests, PR stunts, promos, or other gimmicks), but maintenance of these relationships is becoming more important, difficult, and confounding.  If you look at Groupon, Homerun, and other coupon services (like San Francisco’s SF Gate deals that just started) – it isn’t hard to build a network so much as keeping that network interacting, which is the real challenge.  These coupon services are ideal examples: People will sign up for a specific offer (relevant to their interests), then react like the rest of the email offers (which they opted-in to) are part of their “daily spam regimen” (delete, delete, delete).

It is important to step out of your world as the business using social media to reach guests, and think how users of social media would like to be reached.

So… Facebook Pages, over-posting, and hiding streams.

We need to address this issue about how people use Facebook, versus how businesses wish people would use Facebook.  There is a fast growing problem that fledgling social media enthusiasts & page administrators are not aware of; although, they are encountering it daily in their happy-go-lucky power posting of relevant information for their hotels.

There are less eyes on your Facebook page than you realize, and you are losing more all the time.

It is a universal gripe…. even though no one truly enjoys Facebook, we need to be there as a business simply because that’s where potential guests are located, and that’s where we can perk up our ears to listen for mentions about our brand, and grow when we encounter advice or commentary.  Firm ROI is secondary to our experimental presences on Facebook profiles and pages.  Some are, in fact, successful in driving incremental revenue to outlets, some achieve positive brand building, some act as help-all concierges, some operate as ombudsmen, and still others have zero idea what they are doing or why they are there.  But businesses know they need to be available to their potential clients, even without a mitigated plan.  I think this is where a slight disconnect occurs for the business (and I have a whole post about this coming up):  People think it is about the business using social media (YAY! We’re HERE!), but it’s more about the availability of the business for the consumer.  More precisely, it’s about being available, but not being intrusive.  The way some people post on their Facebook Hotel Page, it’s tantamount to pounding on your guest’s door all hours of the day with little bits of information.  It’s overwhelming, and it is off-putting.

There is one simple fact, and it’s that the way you want consumers to use Facebook is *not* the way that Facebook users are using it. Yet.

We all know that Facebook is buggy, and for some businesses and neophytes, figuring out all of the settings and controls must be like wading through syrup.  For business’ savvy enough to realize you need to reach your audience where that audience chooses to congregate (chat rooms, groups, Twitter, etc), it isn’t made any easier by Facebook, and their lack of interactivity or ability to create real commerce with people.  Connections happen, and they are wonderful to see develop, but people are still reticent to have any real interaction with “business-as-commerce” versus “business-as-brand”, which is obvious in Facebook’s positioning with the ease of “liking”.   The throwaway simplicity of “liking” a brand at this point is meant to identify user profiles for targeted ad marketing, and not to promote any real deep interaction with the brand page itself.  Meaning, people are quite ready to “wear” a Facebook page brand as they would Gucci sunglasses or Prada bag, but they are not ready to transact with the brands themselves.  A lot of feedback from Facebook users is that business page posts still have the “feel” of being “spammy”.  With that in mind, we are already fighting an uphill battle in seeking out ways to connect with Facebook users that are fans of our specific brands.  This becomes precarious, however, because many businesses over-post pics and info in an eager and noble attempt to share their services/products.  This can actually drive people away.

Of course, the logical way a social network would remedy this is to have the brand advocate user “unfriend” or “defan” a page.  That way, a business page could use data exhaust and user actions to help learn in real time about what they do well, or what they might be doing wrong.  This works quite well on Twitter, and their are even Apps built on the API that allow users to find out precisely what they did that lost, or gained, followers.

But leave it to Facebook, a company obviously more concerned with user-experience less than the monetary value of those previous “likes”, to create the ability to “hide streams”.  It isn’t Facebook’s concern that a page isn’t curating attention, so much that the user enjoys a brand.  To Facebook, liking the brand is more important than telling the brand they are interacting poorly.  Once a Facebook user has chosen to “LIKE” a page, they will do almost anything to maintain that superficial connection for ad-model demographic targeting reasons.

Leave it to Facebook’s closed, corrupted environment to allow disingenuous networks; instead of Facebook creating meaningful networks of truly interactive partners, they have allowed users to hide streams, so you can be part of a network without really interacting with it. For those that are completely unaware, the option exists within Facebook to “hide” a stream, be it a page, an app, or person.  This is wonderful if you are sick of Foursquare check ins or Mafia Wars updates from friends, but it violates a vital aspect of social media’s earnest and transparent attempt at communication, and interactivity.  When a “stream” becomes overactive (constant updates, possibly via RSS or blog feed), or hyperactive (admin posting multiple links rapid fire, attempting to batch process relevant content for the hotel)…. users are hiding your stream.

This is a problem – not just for businesses, but for Facebook, as well.  Facebook is creating vast, HUGE false networks, or at least connections without interaction.  I don’t mean to be glib – but doesn’t it strike you as worrisome that a vast community of people isn’t really that much of a community at all?  I know it’s a vague concept, but how much trust will you stake in a network based off of false pretenses? The network that is supposed to connect everyone in the world is doing more to create a completely “tromp l’oeil” experience in regards to social media – it looks more like a network than it really is.  In the simplest terms, this is going to come back to bite Facebook big time, and they will have to make some decisions about hidden streams in the future.

The entire aspect of being able to be friends with people, or like a page, with the ability to “hide” their stream is disastrous on the effect of real networking, communication, and building potential commerce from within Facebook.  When your stream is hidden, you have no idea that it has happened.  When a Facebook user hides your posts, they still  “like” your brand, and are associated with it….. *WITHOUT EVER SEEING YOUR CONTENT*.  You disappear from their eyes, and you now have “phantom fans” who don’t interact with you.  Of course, Facebook made “liking” something inordinately easy to do, a couple months ago.  But in accomplishing their social graph concept, it further dismantles meaningful communication and interaction in lieu of passive, meaningless brand identity meant for ad-marketing, with zero regard to relevant idea exchange.

So, when users “hide” the stream, they still look like fans, but they don’t receive your posts anymore. Facebook, or the fan, doesn’t alert you, nor are you informed in any way.  The business, as a result,  has no idea they have been “hidden”, while the Page’s fan count will remain constant.  It’s been happening for a lot of business pages, and it’s becoming a problem for people that don’t understand the interaction people expect from a business, versus the interaction a business wants (wishes) to have with their clients.  If a business can’t learn from their mistakes, how will this experience improve for the people involved? If a user can haphazardly “like” at the same time as “hiding” those people or pages, is that really a relevant connection?

Your hotel may have 1000 fans, but what if 100 have hidden you? There has been so little conversation en masse about this “hiding” phenomenon, that I can’t accurately gauge what percentage of “like”-fans end up hiding pages, but in every day conversation about Facebook, in an extensive group of acquaintances, it seems to be a very common, and very popular, activity.  That’s scary.  If it’s a commonly known function in Facebook, you could have 30-70% of your audience not listening anymore.  That’s really scary.

Frankly I find it markedly cynical, and disingenuous.  If I had any clout, I would ask Facebook to stop it right now, and not because I don’t like being able to hide things in my own stream.  I love not seeing any of those apps populating wall, but it does make my decisions to “follow” and “like” pages less meaningful, and less legitimate.  If I couldn’t hide a feed, would I really fan a page, if I knew I were meant to legitimately interact and communicate with that brand?  Would the brands be intelligent enough to know how to court users, or captivate them enough so as not to drive them away?

I have had some success with how I manage interaction on Facebook… I post a link occasionally, but save most of the meat for a blog post which includes events, commentary, relevant google alert posts, comments, info – and then let that blog post feed into Facebook.  It is a whole bunch of posts / links in one single post.  That way people can access and interact with it if they want, at their leisure.  Instead of the links coming across their wall as one post at a time, they all sit in one place for the guest’s convenience.  One post with 20 links seems to be received much more favorably than 20 links posted once at a time.  Remember, this isn’t about you or your business force marketing or pushing your brand onto Facebook users; this is a place for you to be available to potential guests. Don’t get carried away.

If you overpost, you risk becoming irrelevant without having any knowledge or metric from Facebook to see how you are doing, or what you can do to curate the attention necessary to strike a balance.  Attention, in this new “economy”, is equity.  And curating the attention is now your sole job.  That’s interesting – because in our rush to curate attention, a lot of us forgot to ask how, precisely, to do that.  In an eager rush to share exciting news about your hotel, you may be losing eyes without having any say in the matter.  The only real option is to patiently fence sit, and be a skeptic.

My thought is to be patient, and ride out this precarious situation.  For the time being, Facebook users are hesitant to interact with businesses; when it becomes more acceptable, *then* get more interactive with your fans regarding products, selling, etc.  For now, we want to curate, and maintain, this attention.  The best way to do it is by being calculating, and to some extent… quiet.  At least make sure your formula = less posts + better content.

I, unfortunately, don’t have any answers.  It’s simply something that has been on my mind, and it’s not a conversation people are having on the implementation level of social media.  There are the tech bloggers yammering about equity, curation, & attention, but businesses have a way to go before they understand this aspect of Facebook.

This may change…. FB may cement itself and people will eventually get used to it as a vast & interactive portal, or it could fall apart under poor management and lack of acumen in development of the business pages side of the site.  Most Facebook users are still stuck in the concept of a private dialogue between close friends, where Twitter has evolved into a more interactive real world community.  It is sorely obvious that Pages…. are…. yet…. another…. slapped together…. on top of old architecture…. idea…. which Facebook threw together because they were worried about losing brands to Twitter’s opt-in propensity for real commerce.  Pages weren’t thought out in any real detail, and as these problems begin to mount, FB will need to make some serious choices about how to fix their site.

Until then….

This specific issue is why I organize most of our relevant links into a blog that lists all the information, pics, stories, etc.  Other than that, I reply to people’s comments and responses on the page. I post natively whenever possible, for reasons which I will address in a subsequent blog post.

In the end, this is less about Facebook, and more about you and your business page.  We are a captive audience to Facebook’s shortcomings, and it is a necessary evil for the time being.  In thinking about how you use Facebook Pages for business, you may want to consider the above; especially if you are one of the Pages that continues with a rapid-fire, staccato-like posting of brand mentions, deals, articles, press releases, etc….

It’s time to rethink your eagerness versus effectiveness on Facebook Pages.  Of course, as I write this… all I can do is wonder about Facebook’s effectiveness, overall.

Google PLACES (or where did my Local Business Center shove off to?)

One of my favorite developments in the last few weeks, aside from Google’s experimentation with populating rates of hotels into it’s maps, is Google “Places”.  The blogosphere is abuzz with gentle, quiet speculation on what in the heck is going on here.  It’s obvious repositioning to compete with the likes of Yelp and Foursquare.  But Google is rolling some of the features attached to the new name a bit slow, and we will see how it reshapes our mobile experience.  I, for one, really trust Google’s methodical approach to entering this space… and when they unroll their entire suite, I think it will challenge Yelp to Expedia and other OTA’s.  If you can advert with Places in your market… let me know how it goes!

As Google positions, Tripadvisor works to get ads going in the first place

Tripadvisor toils in it’s monetization attempts… First hotels, now tourist boards.  You know how I feel about paying for your hotel to be listed with information on TA… DO IT!  Think about what percentage of your traffic comes from OTA’s, then start figuring out depending on your market and rank on TA how much of that traffic jumps to Expedia or others straight from Tripadvisor.  That 25% markup those OTA’s are stealing from you will come back, and likely quickly pay for the Tripadvisor listing fee.  It’s a smart move, and a cheap experiment.

Something else that might be a costly experiment in regards to Tripadvisor is losing you reservations to Expedia, and hurting your SEO.  Tripadvisor badges or widgets that aren’t actively blocking search engines are likely bad for business.  I posted (the below) article about how it hurts your hotel site’s SEO, but bolsters Tripadvisor’s.  What I didn’t realize was this – if people link from your website and booking engine to Tripadvisor via that widget – and like what they see on Tripadvisor – they are usually sent to EXPEDIA to book their room.  You just linked your guest to a page that will make you pay a 25% commission.  I don’t have all the answers, but in the comments section of *THIS ARTICLE*, the gent describes a fancy way to blind the widget.  I have also seen hotel sites that simply copy and paste the review from Tripadvisor or Yelp into different parts of their website – thus stuffing a page full of relevant keywords that can also help the guest decide to book… while continually mingling with your booking engine the whole time, never chancing lost control of your inventory.

MORE SOCIAL TOOLS, INFO, & Tech Talk

Unique and fairly intelligent ways to leverage twitter… a non hotel article to get you thinking about what twitter is, and how you can leverage it to benefit your property.

A brief link, but a good question – who do you use for hotel videos? Hired actors? Regular line staff? It’s important to consider how you want to represent your hotel, and how people will receive the information.  Honestly, I think the manipulated, high gloss marketing message is in shambles, and when it looks too slick, people will immediately not trust it or find it disingenuous.   Whatever the case, this is all about having a plan and understanding as you tackle new media…. if you don’t these things come out of left field and surprise you.

Design Hotels launches a Facebook Booking Engine…. (call it an F.B.E. for short!).  This will, once and for all, solve the problem of wondering whether people are on Facebook to proselytize and chatter about brands as a showy display of feathers (I LIKE THIS BRAND! It means I am AWESOME!), or is it a place to commune, share, and ultimately – BOOK?  Just checking it out, it seems fairly confusing.  I enter my dates, and then I mysteriously land on an unassociated page without it transmitting the choices I made.  Seems like FB booking has a way to go.

I for one am a) sick of hearing about the IPAD, b) sick about the marketing reinventing history as if Apple invented the tablet, and c) sick of hearing about all the giddy fanboys trying to adopt slick but inherently flawed tech as nothing more than a marketing gimmick.  HOWEVER…. this article, IPAD: Hotel Hype, or Help?,  says it is making Intercontinental’s concierge more personable & functional (not to mention cool like they are from Star Trek), and it isn’t just hype.  I know the tablet will be the future or consumers and content ingestors…. but I just think we are a bit of a way off from it being functional for content generators.  This is simply a machine to advertise to consumers, no more, no less.  Playing a game or reading the paper is incidental.

HOTEL TALK!

RevPar laws basically state – Trading Rate for Occupancy isn’t that smart of a move (Labor, among other operating costs, rise significantly, and the added dollars don’t always even out on the bottom line).  So why is the “Name your own price” phenomena rearing it’s ugly head?  Phocuswright tries to explain here.

Not to mention… most of us still think it is perceived value that has a big part in selling hotels… and not handing back money to someone who would have paid the higher rate you just tanked, anyway.

Do you think modern marketing for hospitality is at a crossroads?  I do.  But then again, maybe I think the doormen are more about the hallmark of our industry – hospitable, friendly customer service – than marketing.  When marketers start calling normal operations “marketing”, you know they are scrambling to make sense of the confusing new world of social media.

TIG shares their wealth of knowledge with hoteliers, and more!

TIG releases more reports, further exemplifying why people want to work with Thayer.  Wow.  The reports are on Microsites, Mobile, & Apps, as well as a 2 part on Social Media & the DMO Marketer. Double Wow equals video leveraging of insider’s tips…. Quick, simple, instructional videos from TIG on internet marketing, hotel SEO, and more!  If you ever have the budget to work with these guys, there is only one answer about whether you should…. YES. You should.

MOBILE IS A POINT OF SALE, but remember it isn’t all or nothing!

This one is a slam dunk, because Mobile Marketing is Good News for Hotels! Beyond that article, what you really want are actual tips – not just on energizing your comprehension of mobile marketing – but getting into it and doing it right.  Some have deemed it the “new point of sale” – and Mashable helps you figure out how to work with it.  Mashable is sometimes a bit vacuous with mindless social media fandom…. but these *9 tips about location based marketing* are winners.  If you need some help finding the business page in Foursquare.. well.. it’s right here.  If you are trying to figure out more, and it’s over your head… you might want to consider EYE FOR TRAVEL’s conference on Mobile in Travel & Hospitality in London, early June. I linked the agenda back there, and if it doesn’t get you excited about the potential of mobile (or kinetic energy at this point), nothing will.  Social Mobile is the ROI everyone has been salivating for.  Pay attention to it.

But remember… as mobile burgeons, traditional channels still provide results.  Not only do those channels hold tight, so does email marketing (something Hotel Marketing Strategies has been a big supporter of)… as you can see with some surprising information he put together on a recent post.

COFFEE TALK, or *PHEW* I am sort of getting overwhelmed because I am a hotelier, not a tech guru or social geek!

I think it’s important to take all these rapid changes with gentle aplomb, some furrowed brows, but a lot of thoughtful shoulder shrugging too.  It’s important to be a fence sitter sometimes… accumulate as much data as possible before making any decision.  I am not saying delaying action, but I am suggesting to be thoughtful.  Don’t automatically become a convert to this new world, because no one really understands it yet.  *NO ONE*.  I think Dick Feynman (a hero of mine) could have said it best:

“in any organization there ought to be the possibility of discussion… fence sitting is an art, and it’s difficult, and it’s important to do, rather than to go headlong in one direction or the other. It’s just better to have action, isn’t it than to sit on the fence? Not if you’re not sure which way to go, it isn’t.”

Everyone expected the telegraph to kill newspapers (you need to be a paid Economist subscriber to read that fantastic article), the TV to kill the radio, social media to kill traditional methods of marketing… but we all know that “sky is falling” nonsense is just about capturing attention to headlines, and the future will be a mish mash of everything.  Don’t panic…. just try to comprehend.  And if you still need a basic review of how to engage in social media, here is a fairly competent and quick article about how to do it well.

BUT THAT’S JUST CONSERVATIVE HESITATION, because the future is now….

That warning being said, here’s something that I call jaw dropping, and possibly a slight peak at the future of a semantic web (as they keep saying.  It’s the new “mobile is here! 2006, Mobile is here 2007, mobile is here.. maybe 2008, mobile is coming… 2009, MOBILE IS TOTALLY FREAKING HERE 2010!) -

SPEED MATTERS…. This is where the start of today’s post gets somewhat scary.  Did you just finish a website re-design, or pump endless cash for years into internet marketing branding and design?  Well… those flash laden pages that are pretty when they finally do load are a drain on your Google ranking… and your SEO suffers the more bulky or content laden your sites are.  GOOGLE ANNOUNCES SPEED IS NOW TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT IN REGARDS TO INDEXING. In fact, Hotelmarketing.com has a good suggestion… if you use flash, you might want to take a peak at your own speed…. and see where you stand.

Which leads us to Adtech SF, and some interesting tweets that I am commenting on in regards to the concept of the dying brand website.

Apparently the brand website is dead (or committed to an iron lung), and you don’t need it anymore.

At a fairly important conference about the advertising & the internet, they basically said that a brand’s website is dead.  They are dealing with some fairly complex issues of sustainability for business in online competition, coupled with the need to have accessibility to how your brand exists online.  I am extrapolating off the conversation I heard, but it’s basically the following:

Basically, a website should be for a booking engine, and directions, but anything else might not work, especially as google is starting to improve rankings based off of load time and speed of website.  The idea is that the way the internet is headed into a more communal area where it is about niches of relevant interests, and it will be nearly impossible to leverage a small brand website versus all the community based chatter in regards to certain topics.  In addition to this, it isn’t in the best interest of ANY of these communities to lose the potential power of consumer dollars spent through their portal, so why should they happily direct people to you in the first place?  In this, your website is moot because everyone is forming their opinions in conversations with user generated pictures, stories, etc.  The way search is changing, even booking engines will exist within social platforms (IE Facebook), and people will slowly stop visiting your site, and ultimately, no one will be going to them all together.  Also… the SEO era is moving into a “semantic” era where search engines will be reading user generated photos and videos, whether they are tagged or not -

Meaning there is *your* contribution.. a couple expensive photos, an expensive site – but the internet community members with keywords and chatter alone will overwhelm any input you have.  You won’t be able to compete with the niche communities that are actively owning *your* brand, vs making your site relevant or even noticeable in return.  Therefore, your site will be less relevant, be pushed down overall, and even the anciengt codger who won’t give up the old fashioned way of booking through the hotel’s site – well – it’s going to be even harder to find.

Scary stuff.  And not that far off.  It’s fairly interesting too, but…..

Time for me to retire. haha.

No – seriously.  Anyone have an island they could lend?

If those well researched and thoughtful representations of how things will be changing isn’t far enough in the future, let’s move a decade down the road… to 2012 (haha).  These sanguine and cogent predictions aren’t the typical crazy, wide eyed guru’s ramblings.  These are smart… and likely.  Marketing Times has 11 Predictions for social media in 2012… and they might interest you.

It sure as hell interests me.

The below words are basically a mashup of every single tweet (processed & filtered) from the #smtravel conference (blended with my commentary in the parentheses).  I arranged the information best I could, however *completely* subjective said arrangement is. I hope it makes some form of sense – or at least you can potentially peer into the chasm that is my logic.  At the least I hope I didn’t misquote or misrepresent anyone.  Speaking of transparency – I left some fairly meaty and helpful implementation/action ideas at the end that were not necessarily even part of the conference… I figure if you can find them and actually read that far down, well.. you deserve them.

I will go out on a limb saying that 100% of the data is accurate, because I basically copy and pasted from the tweet stream. I am sad to say the nature of making the “tweety casserole” of our conference helped it to lose much in the reference & citations arena, but if you need to see the authority and professionalism of those involved, please refer to list of speakers at the conference. For those that don’t know me – I am a big skeptic, and vigilant about data and non skewed statistics, as well as generally skeptical about enthusiastic marketing. If anyone would like to challenge any of the information or data below, please do! I am always up for conversation and learning…. and if incorrect data was given out at this conference I assume we would all like to know (this is highly unlikely)! So let’s have at it – Eye For Travel’s Social Media Conference #smtravel 2010!  (Boy I hope this makes sense)

My attempt at organizing the concepts throughout the conference:

1. Social Media (general)
2. Facebook
3. Twitter
4. Geolocation / Mobile / Augmented Reality
   
5. ROI
6. User Generated Reviews / Content
7. Takeaway / Important Thoughts
   
8. Action / Implementation

You will note a lot of information on Geolocation/Mobile & User Generated Reviews/Content.  I think that’s because there is real data, opportunity, and engagement in those areas.  The other areas are more guesswork and hoping.  Twitter provides ROI, to be sure… but I think we should focus on what provides results, vs. what we like to think *may* work.  In that, I personally suggest you alot some of your Facebook time to understanding and interacting with Geolocation, as well as becoming more involved in the review sites.

I) Social Media

Stats:

• 83% of adults use social media
• 70% of participants in Social Media are spectators (lurkers – we know you are out there eating our posts)
• 18% of US online leisure travelers do not have a destination in mind when they start their trip planning
• For every 1/2 sec improvement in landing page download speed, you can increase page views 1-3% (I know.. this is SEOweb design. Sue me)
• 58% of travelers use Facebook monthly, 40% use YouTube, 32% to Wikipedia, but 1 in 4 don’t visit any social media sites (this is in tune with understanding traditional marketing vital, still important, and should be integrated and aware of SM plan)
• Email marketing still important but not as effective as it used to be. (I don’t think I need a stat for that, but 1) it still seems to be effective for some people & 2) it’s amazing how others simply won’t let it go when it is no longer effective. It used to be a cure all salve to some marketers)
• Consumers follow and fan brands on FB and Twitter to learn about discounts (32%). Learn about new products (19%)
• 35 Million LinkedIn updates/week, 600 tweets per second, 5 billion pieces of facebook content a week
• An angry customer can lose you more customers than a happy customer can bring you new ones
• Social networking is the new “morning coffee” – 4 in 10 people wake up to their social circles
• 4 in 10 people recommend products on social media
• eMarketer reports 81% of marketers say social media significantly extends their e-mail to new markets

Commentary/Conversation:

• You can choose not to participate in social media conversation but….. that is *probably* not a good thing.
• Most social media /generated content is crap. (This reminded me of a very relevant talk by Google CEO Schmidt, and the resulting piece The Cesspool We Call The Internet)
• Social media is about relinquishing control
• Social media/user generated content is the new brochure, and you have no say in how that brochure is made or what it looks like (I like the sentiment but mildly disagree… I think you be accountable of everything in your control and offer a worthwhile product and the brochure will be to your liking).
• Transparency is not for the faint of heart, and it may not work for everyone. When people get an update, they want more on a regular basis. (IMHO, It doesn’t just happen, you have to fight culture of secrecy that most business cultivates).
• Top 5 trends in Web 2.0 – 1) Semantic Web 2) SMO (social media optimization) 3) SGO (social graph optimization) 4) Affinity Graph (feel free to elaborate on this one) 5) HyperLocal
• It is about the quality, not quantity, of followers. 500 committed followers is worth 10,000 non brand interested ones (what sort of followers do contests breed?)
  
• Soc Media is a communication TOOL – not a PLATFORM – “do you ask for ROI on your telephone?”
• Social Media is not a campaign, it’s a commitment.
• How do you measure the value of a relationship? Lifetime value = more than the sum of transactions.
• It’s amplified word of mouth, right? It’s been happening for years. It’s about creating community again – SM just a new channel for old-fashioned business sense.
• Social Media let’s your customers do the talking for you.
• Social media shares elements w/journalism: Who, what, where, why, how. Formula for getting the full story on a subject.
• World has moved form 6 degrees of separation to 2 thanks to social media
• Conversation about your brand will happen without you being aware or taking part…. you might as well listen.
• Whoever earns trust, wins

Best Practices:

• SOCIAL MEDIA DOES NOT EQUAL DIGITAL MARKETING – Social Media is 2 way communication (interactivity, conversation, dynamic growth), marketing is one way communication (forced/push marketing, print, billboards)
• Good social media is about the 4 E’s: Educate, Excite, Engage and Evangelize.
• Monitor, Engage, Respond.
• Have a clear plan – where do you fit and how can you add value to your guests and social media. But you have to be prepared to manage the conversation. It’s not a campaign, it’s a commitment.
• Bake social media DNA into everyone in the organization
• You wouldn’t put someone behind the front desk without training. Don’t put someone in social media without training
• Guest services should respond to social media just like email or phone calls.
• Real time recovery is vital to hospitality’s use of & engagement w/social media – the internet is fast and speed is key.
• It’s not about you the brand, it’s about them – about being available & listening
• Non participation is akin to ignoring customers – a lost opportunity to engage, learn and make amends.
• Social should live across departments like PR, cust svc, marketing, etc. It becomes “something everyone does” like email.
• You can become pen pals with some of your customers thru social media. good way to build relationships, brand ambassadors (time consuming)
• Using persona’s to identify your average customers is useful – but be real, be earnest, be transparent, and have fun.
• Utilize effective management to maintain productivity, instead of limiting massively effective tools for business (social media being banned in the workplace)
• Social media can be a very powerful recruiting tool
• Use analytics & monitoring tools: Omniture, Cision, ReviewAnalyst, eBuzz, Revinate, Radian6
• Social Media should be fun with the appropriate tone of conversation.
• Manage Social Media both from corporate and property level – “Speak in the tone of the medium”
• Blogs bring value to SEO efforts
• Best ideas are often driven from the bottom up. Always listen to your front line people!
• Experimentation is the key to social media success. Fail cheap, fail fast.
• Social media is not free. Someone has to own, monitor, track, analyze etc.
• The Return is on customer engagement, and ROI may take some time.

II. Facebook

Stats:

• 100 million people now using Facebook mobile app at least once a month (how many are exploring brand pages?).
• 56% users check Facebook each day
• 48% of people talk about products on Facebook
• 5 billion posts of content from Facebook per week

Commentary/Conversation:

• “Facebook will remain relevant because of its privacy controls” (- My rant: I wholeheartedly disagree – twitter inherently allows the user to opt out of privacy, so the user is quite aware of what they are entering into.  Buzz is similar in this respect.  Conversely, Flickr VIGOROUSLY champions the right of privacy & ownership, so does Tribe.net.  Facebook is constantly altering their architecture so as to potentially generate constant cash flow.  These attempts at creation of revenue wholly disregard the individual users’ privacy & bungles the process constantly, while adding layers to a flawed structure/network that is based off of non-meaningful geo-connections.  Connections, of course, should include *immediate* social circles, but the strongest connections are based off interest, not educational institution – which pits classmates across broad socioeconomic and political backgrounds into similar social circles.  The preceding line is precisely why Facebook *could* eventually fail. The sky is not falling, and the landscape is changing constantly… but until Facebook figures this out, their dominance is tenuous.  You cannot create a solid network based off of “loose interests”.  Topics/Subject matter drive content creation, and content creation drives social networks.  There can be no meaningful brand interaction in “loose interest” networks – there is limited opportunity to get the network effect started around brands if one user who likes you suggests your brand to a user completely foreign to it’s necessity or disinterested in it’s existence).
  
• I voice constant concern about Facebook – is the conversation meaningful? Do they book?
• Facebook pages for brands as a “fad” was brought up, many disagreed with the concept.

Best practices:

• Instead of attempting to create a new social network, connect with an existing one: FB connect picks up that slack – interactivity is at leisure of user. Facebook connect allows published content and comments on both your website and Facebook. Helps build engagement in both places. Travelmuse received a 30% increase in membership from using Facebook Connect. One of the best ideas was this – “It’s easier to buy access to someone else’s audience than to try to build up your own in order to market to them”
• Add a booking widget, customize the tabs and cross-integrate your Social Media channels (connect but do not auto-post – remain native)
• Tag FB pages w/Omniture(Analytic) tags to help measure ROI
• “5 Essential Apps for Your Business’s Facebook Page”
• Competitors’  followers should be at the top of your list of who to find & target
• The Facebook ads that work best to grow a fan base show the user their “friends” that are fans, and has a “Become A Fan button” on it.
• FB doesn’t always grab people not coming to your hotel, so it is often better used locally. FB pages work GREAT for F&B, spa (incremental revenue).
• FB apps can best be seen as complimenting a good FB marketing campaign instead of the center of it
• (I just started realizing the mapped network of facebook pages creates a tighter community online if you connect – try to get as many local businesses to highlight your page, and vice versa. Creates a stronger local presence overall.)
• Create “status questions” (what are you doing today?) so you can check engagement and how often guests interact/check-in with you.
  

III) Twitter

Stats:

• Michael Perhaes with MGM Grand said Twitter is 5x more effective than email for us, & GM Grand’s Twitter customers have higher ADR than email customers (someone suggested this as savvy, but honestly I would imagine a savvy consumer to find a lower price?)
• 600 tweets per second

Commentary/Conversation:

• If you’re going to make money, Twitter must become a transactional platform at some point
• Twitter is the new flight attendant call button
• Twitter drives revenue, no doubt about it.  Twitter = ROI, Facebook = idle brand chit chat.
  
• Young kids don’t trust it, and think it’s for old people or fame seekers

Best practices:

• Twitter is not a direct marketing platform
• Twitter can be used as an R&D tool
• Uses “extended” shelf space by having multiple twitter accounts to represent brand :chef pages, nightclubs, hotel, spa, etc. Multiple Twitter accounts for multiple audiences
• Consider integration with API to expose what is tweeted about your brand (like highlighting reviews, it does suggest letting go of message)
• Even if you do have a group of people working on social media, don’t forget to tweet (fb/blog) with personality – be a real human voice & be real – but be transparent, be consistent,
• Separate conversation – promotions, customer service, etc should be separate Twitter accounts so as not to confuse (this is debatable depending on your brand)
• competitors’  followers should be at the top of your list

IV) Geolocation / Mobile

Stats:

• Google estimates 50% of web traffic to come thru mobile devices w/in 5 years (if that doesn’t blow your mind, re-read it slowly, twice).
• 240 million people mobile browsers in 2010, surpassing PCs for first time
• 100 million people now using Facebook mobile app at least once a month
• According to a recent comScore report, 30.8% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3 points from 22.5% one year ago.
• Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112% in the past year, while Twitter experienced a 347% jump.
• 1 in 3 mobile search queries have local intent
• Mobile Shopping to balloon to $119 Billion by 2015

Commentary:

• Morgans Hotels tagged NYC airport codes on Foursquare during recent blizzards, ran ads, & generated some sales.
  
• Are iPhone apps a “flavor of the month”? Or should you just develop a good mobile-optimized Web site?
• Geolocation tools like Foursquare mark a significant shift in social-real time interaction – it’s valid, useful information
  
• hyper local = search + social graph + mobile + your location
• Impressive: Morgans Hotel leverages themed twitter hashtags, 4Sq hotel checkins, Artist Generated Content and analytics tools
• Location-based marketing will be a trend. “It’s clearly good.”
• Adding hotel rates to Google search results enhances relevancy of listing – mobile access & booking to skyrocket. One thing, however, is that rates in Google maps is customer friendly, but maybe not so great for suppliers (link to maps blog post here: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2010/03/experiment-to-show-hotel-prices-on.html)

Best Practices:

• You got me. I think, again, I defer to Del Ross from ICH – “Experimentation is the key to social media success. Fail cheap, fail fast.” But frankly, FOCUS ON IT. I would be willing to bet my name that it’s worth limiting some Facebook time to interacting with Foursquare.

V) ROI:

Stats:

• What we are after (and trying to define)! *or* “No clear, easy way to track back social media ROI” says panel, “An attribution model has yet to be developed.”
• Forrester Research says it is a way to enhance relationships with customers, build brand, help hiring & recruitment, engage in customer service, and helps to build employee morale.

Conversation:

• If social media goals are not clearly communicated, how do u know what “good” looks like?
• If you aren’t paying attention to conversation about your brand, who is? A different ROI – Return on Ignorance
• Interesting perspective on generating demand vs conversion in social media. Examples: FB = demand, Yelp = conversion
• Will virtual cash become taxable? (It apparently already is, in some places.)

Best Practices:

• Social media is not free. Someone has to own, monitor, track, analyze etc. It is ROCS – a return on customer satisfaction in early stages
• Measurement involves many different goals, not just sales. Overall revenue, room nights (Hilton’s ROI measurement) are just two of them.
• Southwest measures SM ROI by: employee satisfaction; ratio of cust compliments to complaints; new signups; conversions.

VI) User Generated Reviews / Content

Stats:

• Their data shows that people believe online strangers to friends and family in regards to reviews, user generated content. Expedia
• Travelers search 20 different sites when planning a trip
• 44% of online travelers trust other travelers before commercial advertising
• 32% of Yelp reviews are 5-stars. Only 15% are 1- or 2-stars
• TripAdvisor has 32 million reviews and gets 16 new contributions every minute.
• TripAdvisor gives less weight to older reviews than newer in terms of ranking
• Content submitted to TripAdvisor at its start 10 years ago is still on the site. There are no plans to remove those.
• Management response to critical reviews more important than review content according to Tripadvisor research
• TripAdvisor says an average traveler reads about 30 reviews
• Only 4% of hotels respond to tripadvisor reviews

Commentary:

• By being confident, taking ownership, & being enthusiastic, authors have altered or taken bad reviews.
• Immediacy of customer feedback on mobile posed to change how companies use social media
• Online Reviews allow satisfied customers play “ambassadors” of your business
• Negative reviews play an important role too, you can’t please 100% of the people 100% of the time
• it’s better to join the conversation than not. Reviews can go from 3 to 5 stars because of this

Best Practices

• Be humble, be swift, be specific – How a hotel property responds to criticism says more about them than the criticism itself
• By replying to reviews, you humanize the brand – it’s less of a place to complain & more about commerce
• Every negative comment is an opportunity to turn around the relationship, and create a long term brand centric consumer.
• Bad reviews are exciting to highlight, celebrate, and learn from. Great marketing opportunity. Your reaction is vital.
• responding is never a knee jerk reaction #smtravel they take a LOT of thought, editing attention. Good impulse control – required quality for persons chosen to respond to customer comments on social media

VII) Takeaway & Important Thoughts

Stats/”Subjective Facts” :

• Social media is about relinquishing control
• Google estimates 50% of web traffic to come through mobile devices w/in 5 years
• Investing money in search visibility reduces need to spend money elsewhere.
• If anyone says they are a social media expert, they are lying to you. We are all learning and failing constantly.
• For every 1/2 sec improvement in landing page download speed, you can increase page views 1-3% (content heavy, uber-marketed sites are going bye bye)
• User Generated Content (UGC) is the 21st century’s word of mouth, and your new brochure – and you’re not the one writing it. your customers are your new copywriters (Jennifer Davies, Expedia)
• Virgin will soon have 3 FTE people handling SM. Hilton has 1. Southwest has 6.
• The new big three in travel = Brazil, China, and India. New travel up 50% in recent years.
  
• People under 30 use email only to talk to you if you are over 30, or to talk to brands/companies (suggests the data… there are exceptions to these facts)
  
• Social media matters, but does not replace traditional channels. One in four travelers are not on social networks
• People want to connect, people want to share: this is what drives social media growth

Commentary:

• Ignoring social media today is like ignoring Google in 1999.
• Customers no longer search for news & deals — they want the deals to find them
• It’s a conversation, not a broadcast. Be authentic, honest, transparent.
  
• Think about shaping conversation, not controlling it
• When social media relationships become “real” they become private & go offline
• Social Media is most powerful when integrated directly with the product
• Work with your competitors to create a “trend” for media coverage
• Social media is not a “nice to have” anymore. It now must be a part of an integrated marketing strategy (but it isn’t just marketing, and it isn’t just a strategy)
• It’s easier to buy access to someone else’s audience than to try to build up your own in order to market to them
• Consumers want you to engage with them in social media, but only when and where they want to hear from you.
• Not sure contests are meaningful so much as getting endless non brand centric people following you for free “stuff”. Free stuff followers are not as useful as brand followers.
  
• “Social Media builds employee morale” was a concept that came up a couple times during the conference.
• You don’t market what you want to say. You market what your customers want to hear.

Best practices:

• Social operates on a shoestring at most brands – requires empowerment, education and training to succeed
• Not all social media programs are the same.
• It’s important not to isolate social media for the organization; you need to immerse your business in it. It’s everyone’s job…. it shouldn’t be just one person.
  
• Make conscious choice for structure – do not do the easy thing and lump it with PR or Marketing
• Use everything as an opportunity for learning – Don’t overreact to customer comments
• Flickr, YouTube good social media for hotels to use for customer engagement. Visual content very importnat for hotels (and has SEO value too)
  
• Leverage existing social networks and influencers – go to existing communities instead of wasting time and money building one (Facebook Connect, for example, expanding between brand site and “vibrant” community).
• Consider a dedicated page on your website for social media – Hard Rock Hotel has one full page dedicated to all social media & review sites. To shatter industry benchmarks, it’s essential to bake your SM strategy into your site. Consider your market – go to where they are and engage them. Morgans Hotels has whole website section dedicated to music
• Employees can take brand message, localize it, and put their personality behind it. – participation FUN for employees! Don’t just throw a bunch of rules at them.
• The days of content heavy & marketed website are changing – they go to review sites and then go to the hotel site for booking. Consumers don’t trust pretty, over the top, content laden sites.
• By utilizing closed loop promotions you maintain parity with OTA’s.

VIII) HHOTELCONSULT’S Action / Implementation

For FB:

• Add booking widget, customize the tabs and cross-integrate your social media channels.
• Add analytics tracking wherever you can to gauge success in raw data form
• virtual gifts/money (First 10 to post get a comp glass of wine, and then after posts say the deal is the free glass has to be for a close friend… be tricky, have fun, get creative)
• Leverage Facebook Connect when possible.
• allow management to post changes, updates, pics
• Birthday related offer?

For Twitter

• compartmentalize social media campaign by having smaller departments reach out – multiple twitter accounts across all hotels for different reasons – chef, F&B, sales/banquets, spa (whichever works or would be viable)
• add analytics tracking
• integrate/allow management to post changes, updates, pics
• Reached out to influencers at smaller groups – 500-700% ROI from inviting “influentials” to a tasting
• Twestival?
• Birthday related offers?

For Geolocation:

• Research about Gowalla, Twhrrl, others we can possibly interact with?
• Create Foursquare Mayoral Advisory Board
• Foursquare deals/offers
• Flash mob or Swarm Badge opportunity?
  

Website

• local tweet map on site mashing up tweets with brand mentions, associated conversations
  
• have one dedicated social media page per hotel
• If you offer discounts, info, events, etc online, make them “Facebookable” and “Twitterable”

Misc:

• Be creative – Morgan’s printed QR codes on cocktail napkins
• showing OK Go on YouTube $100,000 spend to sponsor video – less than 3 weeks 10 million views on YouTube. Press exposure
• Fairmont launched dedicated Presidents Club forum on FlyerTalk in July ’09. Now has 412 threads; page views >200,000

Follow Up Questions (endless, frankly – and I WANT TO HEAR YOURS! What didn’t we talk about that you wanted to talk about?):

• I would like to chat more about HOW, & not WHAT: how to integrate API’s, how to interact w/mobile-geolocation, how to implement facebook connect, etc. Check out mobile hotel app – Smart Stay
  
• Contact morgans about themed hashtags – Morgans Hotels tagged NYC airport codes on Foursquare during recent blizzards, ran ads, & generated some sales.
  
• Live streaming video & webcam opportunities?
  
• Is creating a list of your hotel’s followers on twitter necessary?
• How do you use FB connect for one small hotel?

• Stop using 2009 rates in recovering economy! That’s about all I can say about this, because I would never want to encourage price setting and have the Feds after me.  Still… if you all do it independently, well that’s just good business. Collusion, however, is a nasty word.

• Cornell hotel school has their 2009 wrap up, 2010 report, & another couple studies… like fairness & perceived differences in rate differential, or cases in innovative practices.  If you don’t look at anything, I suggest you take a gander at this…. chock full of info, especially the 2010 report with articles and excercises for marketing, spa, F&B, Operations and more!

• Neil Salerno with “Does Anyone Remember When A Suit Came With Two Pair Of Pants?“ Beyond having quite a fine tailor, it’s a smart idea that Neil takes into the world of hotels skillfully, with a powerful and accurate piece on hotels, social media, websites, and more.

• TOURISM IS SOCIAL – a 90 minute love note to the power and impact of social media in Hospitality, the need to have less manipulative marketing, and the need to create a powerful community advocating your brand.

• Successful email marketing is all about reaching an appropriate demographic, that you can target more specifically, while not “spamming” people who don’t have the same interests, *but* are fans of your hotel.  By setting up preferences in email marketing, Hotel Marketing Strategies has advised our world yet again!  Think of a branded guest that loves wine and food, but not the spa… while you have other fans of the spa that are into health and not so much fine dining.  Sure they cross paths often enough, but here is a way to target them individually and be even more successful.  Well done Hotel Marketing Strategies!

• Speaking of Josiah, well we have to say well done on this GOOGLE BUZZ primer for hotels and marketing people.  Fantastic stuff.. learned a lot!

• Some good news!  Hotels are gaining attention from lenders, travelers are ramping up leisure trips, and some interesting insight into your luxury branded guests…..

• Attempting to reach affluents, luxury brand guests, online?  Where here are some facts that may raise your eyebrows about their behaviors.

• Some not so good news for you F&B people – or just more about the complexity of being green, community rooted, and sustainability focused…. like  the implications of sourcing locally.

• Service is the new Sales – a piece in line with listening, learning, being engaged and involved – and tempering traditional marketing methods that sell glitz and gooey glamour.  That stuff is out this year, and true, refined, classical luxury is in.  I know it’s just one of millions of hyperbolic or effusive blog titles in this world of too many posts, but I might say that service has always been on the front end of sales…. since the local Main St. Hardware store and before.  Service has always been paramount in helping you sell.. this is nothing new.  The article has some great points, though.

• TOURISM IS ALL OF US blog chats about “filling seats” (a la movie theatre analogy) with social media in hotels.  An interesting approach to understanding what your internet presence really is….

• Optimizing your hotel’s “Social Graph” - a great and simple visual way to understand social media’s impact on your guests and potential guests.

• Hotels experimenting with social communities: Foursquare, Yelp, Blogs, Tripadvisor and more.  Discussion about some of the ideas and methods hotels are using for interaction, listening, and community.

• It’s Okay To Be Anti-Social? – I don’t always agree with what I am posting here so much as attempting to engage thought and discussion.  I think this methodical approach to understanding the impact of social media is fading as more and more people find meaning and potential conversion from interacting with the online world.  His sanguine points are well taken, however, and he does help get a bird’s eye view on this madness that is too much media.  What do you understand? What do you have time for?  This article probably helps in going over all of it.

• It’s about time…. an affordable iphone/droid app for European hotels… Referred to as groundbreaking, but what isn’t at this point.  I remember groundbreaking used to mean we just broke ground, and have 18 months (or lesS) from pouring concrete to opening the doors.  It is much more ethereal than the brick and mortar world… but important, potentially useful news nonetheless.  I haven’t contacted them to find out more, as I am Stateside.  But this is something we all have our eyes on, and if you don’t… you should.  Mobile is the future, and it’s fairly important (I assume you have been following my blog, and will spare you the endless linking).

• Are you sick of too much info?  Too much data?  Does it feel numbing as you sit by and try to beat the internet every day?  Well… MS has innovative approaches in how to sift through massive amounts of raw data and content with “Pivot”.

• If that isn’t enough for you, I would highly suggest the new Economist special article about Data… none of this is about business for you, or your brand.  It’s about collecting data, and you are just part of something so big it will melt your head.  Like issues of Privacy in the 2.0 age… and how it basically doesn’t exist anymore.  Try controlling your brand’s message… sure, right after you figure out how to stop being stalked by the internet.

• Google Wave starts to come of age – and real meaningful commerce is happening!  If you can get past the fact that I was quoted in this article, maybe you can envision Google Wave this way:  No more misplaced log book in PBX, and no more yellow sticky notes on the desk.  That’s sort of how I want to play it…. NO MORE STICKY NOTES! =)

• It isn’t about you… at all.  It’s about them.  I am starting to realize this about everything… social media, website development, new marketing… it’s “what can you do for me, what have you done for me lately”.  Well, hotel blogosphere goes on a bit in regards to this, and reminds you that it might not be about what you know, but what, fundamentally, it means to potential clients.   What’s more, he hits the nail on the head in regards to hotel websites, relevancy, and standing out.

• This is perhaps one of the most affordable, functional, and cool devices I have seen in a long time – zero sticker shock, stunning savings, obvious ROI, and green to boot.  Amazing what these guys are doing - the future of waste management on hotel property:

• Martha Stewart Wedding magazine and Hello Lucky take on one of my favorite escapes in the world… WILBUR HOT SPRINGS! (I am sharing this for no other reason than it’s a beautiful place!  The pics from the print edition are out of this world!

• (Also… if you hadn’t been aware of what’s going on here, social media in travel becomes legitimate business force)

Sign of the times – Ritz Lake Las Vegas to close 2nd May.  The economy may be leveling off it’s slide, but foreclosures lurk everywhere.

Gulliver points out a fairly brilliant honors scheme hatched by Intercontinental Hotel Group over Hilton’s disastrous alteration of honor awards points.

This is sort of scary, but nothing new to our industry:  Hotel industry needs flexible graduates.  “Skeleton staffs don’t bode well for hospitality students preparing to enter the market today. As if the long hours and weekends shifts in the hospitality industry weren’t unattractive enough, students entering the job world in today’s economy are forced to be more flexible than ever, often taking jobs outside of their geographical preference and much lower on the corporate ladder than they had hoped.”  Honestly – if I had known the hours I was going to work prior to starting my career in hospitality, I don’t know if I could have done it.  Of all the things I have dealt with in my life, the hours as manager at every property were dehumanizing and exacerbating.  Looking back, I don’t know how I did it for over a decade.  But that is what our industry is… high pressure, fast paced, grueling grinds, and the self delusion that it is as important as saving lives and that it will all be better tomorrow – oh, and that “lateral promotion” you took to get out of the department you are currently pigeonholed in… was totally worth it. (a little cynical humor, of course – not at all from my career.  Riiiiiiiiiiight).

Why do hotels have so much trouble answering emails? This is an epic, well timed, post.  It’s a HUGE problem, and not enough companies have corporate policies.  It becomes a disaster for communication if people think they can reach you, but have zero real access to you.  It makes our industry look bad, and it has to stop.  On the up side…. if you make it a priority to reply to emails, and it becomes everyone’s priority, maybe they will slow down with better communication.  More phone calls, less emails (including those horrible passive ones hiding the real question of “why haven’t you answered my emails?) – but that might just be wishful thinking.

Interesting and thoughtful piece on being a cautious, calculating restaurateur & entrepreneur in these times.  Fact is, it pays off big in a lot of situations.

Hotels converting F&B space into meeting space. A lot of hotels are looking for revenue, and this was an actual conversation we had with a client in the last couple weeks…. nice to see the article agreeing with us.  Lounges and comfy spots don’t generate revenue – but meeting space does.

Here are some interesting thoughts on Luxury Lifestyle and Travel Trends for 2010

Is Social Media the next Search Engine?  Some people think it is, just as we find out Facebook directs more online users than Google.

Augmented Reality is buzzed about for a reason… and not just because it is PHENOMENALLY AWESOME.  But it may actually create business, even for small businesses.

Is geolocating the future of hotel marketing?  I love that hyperbole, I really do… but let’s just leave it at “a really important, impacting development” before waving the white flag at all other types of marketing.  I actually think it is… for one, there’s FourSquare.  But I don’t like getting *too* carried away. =)

Foursquare does have some strategic growth;  First Zagat, then Chicago.  Some pretty big stuff happening, and it makes me excited that with all this activity, and other industry people cloning their format in multiple ways, Foursquare seems aware and fluid enough with a solid enough business acumen, to withstand the turbulence in this crowded arena.  They seem smart, and I think you need to keep an eye on them.  If you haven’t gotten a google alert from them about someone “checking in” to your hotel or business, trust me… you will.

The future of marketing in hotels? This is a tech guy with idealistic notions of what hospitality *COULD* do – with money, foresight, more labor, and planning.  It’s a good idea, some luxury brands might try to get there with this as a gimmick, to start….. but interesting and enthusiastic read nonetheless.  Beyond that, I liked the idea… and don’t mind plugging him.  He has got to be one of the only people out there that I know building Iphone (and I assume Android as well) apps that has even the most rudimentary understanding of the hotel business.  A lot of people are yapping about apps in our industry…. we might not be able to afford one, but for those that moved enough of your 2009 marketing budget online, and have a bit to spare…. check him out.

An interesting blog about the development of social media in the Kenyan hotel industry, and can possibly be extrapolated to other small inns and boutique properties that don’t have the monster marketing budget, but know there is an audience to reach.

The UK heats up about online hotel reviews, looking for some sort of validation process for Tripadvisor.  Is this another aspect of GPS & Geolocation that could help curtail fraud and shill reviewing?  Whatever the case, I think the industry can handle itself…. it’s in their best interests.  Getting the government involved to regulate seems a bit much.  The only winner when you start legal proceedings are the lawyers.  Very few other people actually win besides them.

Speaking of Tripadvisor… here are a couple best practices for a top ranking.

Social media as customer service for hotels.  Thank you for not saying social media as a way “to sell” or “drive revenue”.  Social Media may have a valid ROI, but this is more about being a cost of operations than a revenue stream.  We can all drive revenue with it…. but it is simply more important to *ENGAGE*.  Because in the end, ignoring it will cost you.

Here’s an odd piece – great thoughts… horrible grammar.  I didn’t understand this, so I include it to see if you have any thoughts?

That’s it!  Just thoughts and links and interesting stuff!  A real post is coming soon, I promise!

And… anyone that wants to look at and figure out this abstract from a couple UK universities:

A model of hotel occupancy performance for monitoring and marketing in the hotel industry

Spas adapt to these rough times:

appetizer sized spa portions… down economy forcing a reorientation of full sized treatments

green recoverings – donating used linens for the needy
a simple, PHENOMENAL program that would be easy, and beneficial, to implement.

What would google do? – vilifying google for content distribution

Gradigio / Hotel Marketing Strategies – Josiah’s best of 2009 and Strategies for 2010

Social Media integrated with email marketing for hotels

How sustainable tourism effects travel and your wallet

Google study suggest marketing imperative to travel

Some great books for the businessperson just entering social media, and trying to make sense of it.

La Croix meets hotel uniforms to equal high fashion on the frontlines

Google’s Real Time Search, and hotel social media marketing

And The CMO of Morgans talking about their “Recess is on” recession campaign by staying and being “outrageously” cool.  I will tell you what…. I am including this because I just think these guys are way off.  Time will tell…. but using words like psychicgraphic.. is idiotic.  Their new campaign is “get dirty (two dirty martinis), get wet (big bathtub), get blown (in room salon services).  They are, apparently, adding value… and asking guests to trade up.  It just feels like a syrupy mess of creepy and scummy come together.  Which is why The Clift in SF, likely, is known as “The Place where locals go to cheat on their wives”.  Ugh.

Sorry I have been to busy to blog, everyone.  I have about 10 hanging about, and will get through them in the next couple months.  Cheers, be well, and happy new year!

Well… I am cautiously optimistic.  The Dow hit 10,000 today, briefly, and a “painful recovery” is nothing in light of 80% of economists saying “The Recession is Over”. What’s more – It isn’t just the normal public mags, but trade mags are being VERY cautious in saying… “recession lifting, let’s get back to it!”.  In fact, not many are even highlighting articles about it… it is just a general “how to weather the rest of it”, “ideas for getting out of the recession” and the like.  There are articles like this (and here about a community’s B&Bs, and I have seen many like this about international markets)  all over the internet… little niches surviving or doing great!

It is a good feeling to see people conversing about an end to our economic woes.  Of course, I don’t forget that it is the talk and panic that drives the initial problem, as well as talk and optimism that can drive us out of the “mud” on our bottom line…… that is……decidedly….. black.  In fact, that negativity and existential concern about hotels and their future still pervades the news feeds.  But let’s not give the time of day to those who pander to the lowest common denominator… let’s look at a tried and true brand who’s consistent and professional tone to the industry is a good earmark for our collective concerns:  Marriott’s blog post.

I think it sums up the problem we hoteliers currently have… we would like to celebrate the dow at 10K, or the economists reporting, en masse, “it’s getting much better!”.  The problem is the reality, and that many hotels in standard, normal markets can feel the pinch for some time longer.

Another reason to hesitate…. we are growing, but current growth is *slow*.  I don’t have the articles on me, but I do know that lenders are still holding all the keys because the value of properties since 2007 have basically halved (Hotel Business Vol. 18 No. 19 Oct 7-20, 2009)… which is ground shakingly tragic.  The foreclosured and distressed will hit the market soon, and more problems will be discovered than are currently known.  But on the other side of this coin, it is time for equity and ownership to start finding PHENOMENAL deals.  Everyone should be able to buy a hotel in the coming year (joke)….

Economic recovery and slow growth is one thing… but we are hotels, and we might need to take a closer look at the national unemployment rate.  The economy might be recovering, but our industry is so COMPLETELY controlled by labour and unemployment, I am worried it will give a false sense of security when certain segments might still get hit hard.   I saw Tom Callahan the other day from PKF in San Francisco, and he said the basic consensus is that we will not hit q4 2007 or q1 2008 ADR and RevPar until 2014… which is…. depressing.  But it is only a climb up from here.  As long as you retained some rate parity, the property should be able to bounce back.  If you are like Vegas, you may have dug a hole so deep, you will have issues “digging up”. =)

(To be fair, even some people think that Vegas is finally on an upswing, or at least battling the recession.  True their tourism is down, their rooms are empty…. but finishing City Center in a climate like this is amazing, and frankly… although they are reducing flats @ $2000 / sq ft possibly to below $1000 / sq ft…. I am shocked 55% of it has been sold.)

All this being told… I think the slide and panic is over.  Our awful day at the beach is done, and what happens next is shaking out the blanket to clear the sand…. and we will see what is jarred loose from the hotel economic fabric.  The problems that are still to come are not pro-longed troubles for hotels, it is simply the back end of the recession working itself out.  Until then…. buckle up…. I doubt it will be too bumpy a drive home, but it’s gonna be a long ride.

Yes I am fully aware of how many metaphors I used in this.  =)  Good luck EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU… be well, hang tough… and see you on the other side!