Hraba Hospitality Consulting

Direct ROI from social media, such as tracking someone from a review page to your booking engine is only one small component of the overall ROI.  Your analytic program can find the dollar amount in those conversions incredibly efficiently.  You can even have a graph.  I like graphs, and charts. and lots and lots of data… great stuff.

But frankly, I am nearly done with the ROI conversation (except that my clients are not there yet, so here we go again). It is IMPOSSIBLE to measure EVERY aspect of how valuable it is, at least so far.  We can provide relevant insight into what we are doing from time to time, sort of like taking a snapshot of an electron.  What we show you now might not be what we are working on in the next nanosecond, but you can see one scintillating aspect of how we build your brand, create business, and return on your investment in us “hired gun” online concierges.  I am constantly thinking and developing better reporting tools for my client, but it sometimes works better just to show what I am doing.

We want and need a lot of freedom to work on all these channels.  It is a lot to manage, and sometimes you get lost in 20 projects… so this is not a short term thing.  For social media campaigns to work you need to be experimental, playful, trusting, and patient.  But framing that with a long term and consistent approach is paramount.  Once you start this thing, you can’t stop.  Not that you would want to, but it might have a damaging effect.  If people expect you to be there, and you are not…. the online word of mouth can go south really quick (as you can read HERE and throughout my blog).

On a popular review site, there was a “thread” (IE conversation) about local hotels with large bathtubs.  One of my clients fit the bill, and being an active community member my suggestion of the hotel wasn’t looked at as spam or solicitation… it was just another of my many recommendations (or annoying remarks, depends what user you are).  This wasn’t in official capacity of the hotel, this was in a personal capacity while online.  As I said, this job is like an online concierge, and I am often talking about much more than just the properties… it is about the community.  Hiking, rentals, theatres, the weather and more.  So I simply told her that might be able to get a deal, because I was part of the team that opened it, straightforward and honest.

The person that asked the question messaged me privately, and I got more information about her needs.  For the sake of argument your hotel is empty.  She basically needs a $600 RACK rate room type for $200, which isn’t much above our Friends & Family, with the CPOR being $129 or so (yeah it’s large luxury property).  If you accept the $200 rate *and* are able to give them a room with a 2 person or larger style bathtub… she is *very*likely to write a good review on her preferred review network, as long as the services are up to snuff.  What’s more, she will be a willing and receptive social media advocate… and likely post her review to her facebook account, make a second review on tripadvisor, and twitter about her stay (in fact, you can ask engaged participants in social media to review you…they don’t mind at all).  These people are helping grow our online footprint.. keywords, optimizing, etc.

It is possible they deserve a discount, but you have to release yourself to the fact that you can’t control the message.  You are simply, in earnest, trying to get an eager guest to stay at your property.  You can’t be disappointed when she is honest about her stay, or says something you don’t like.  In all likelihood it *will* be positive because you engaged them, and created a positive, enthusiastic climate of your brand from start to finish.  In essence, a rate that might make a revenue manager cringe, or that a desk agent would never give a walk-in, is worth considering due to the amplified voice your online guest has.

An active person in social media that becomes an endorser is a huge brand advocate.  Beyond $200 of revenue that may have not previously existed, she will virally and offhandedly promote Cavallo for years to come with reviews and indexed search keywords.

What’s more… the more keywords, and the more “real” conversation that exists about you… the better you are indexed and the more relevant you become in search engines.  As search indexing changes in the next few years – aggregating pictures, videos, reviews, and other content – it will be paramount to start creating as much corporate or property level specific content as possible.  Everyone should be uploading photos of themselves to photo sharing sites – constantly.  We should be in chat groups talking about our brand – constantly.  Buy Flip Video cameras for the Executive team and have them load videos on youtube.  Have your pastry chef do a demo.  Have your spa manager tour the spa.  EVERY employee diggs articles about the hotel.  You need to add as much content as possible to get way out ahead of these other hotels that… well, frankly… aren’t reading this right now.

But this isn’t a science, and this is where experimentation and patience come in.  Would you take a lower ADR for that nicer room type with the bathtub, investing in your online reputation?  There are no sure things, of course.  If she has a bad stay, you can’t control the message…. But extending yourselves to an active participant should bode very well for your online reputation.

Let me know what you think, and expect one or two more of these “social media optimization” snapshots in the coming days.

This was a real treat to start my day… somehow in my manic attempt to track stuff for all my clients, I missed something that involved what *I* am doing for them!  I remember deleting this alert as well, so shame on me!

Post Ranch Inn twitters well!

http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2009/1/14/114310/100/hotels/Hotels_That_Twitter_and_Twitter_Well

Thanks Hotel Chatter, VERY MUCH!  I really appreciate it.  A lot.

What’s more, I have something very exciting to share with all you hotel people trying to understand social media.  I know you… REALLY well.  I don’t think this is an ROI conversation.  I see this as a new job like an “online concierge”.  Just another cost of running a business about guest experience.  What I am doing already has garnered rave guest comments, and people are identifying with the properties because of how I reach out to them, earnestly, enthusiastic and participatory.  Eventually certain hotels will need to hire a FT manager, while smaller properties will need to delegate this experience as part of the job duties.  If anyone sees “social media management” in a job description, let me know!

Until then, I am seeing demonstrable ROI from twitter.  For the Stanford Terrace Inn, a cute retro eco-hotel I work with in Palo Alto / Silicon Valley, I have actually converted online twitterers talking about hotels and asking about Palo Alto properties.  It has happened a couple times now, and with one having stayed 8 nights…. that paid for their investment in me.

Of course, twitter is a very small component of a much bigger picture.  But it is fun, it is changing the way business happens (all social media is), and it is an honour to be part of all this.

Whatever the case, I hope my words and thoughts are continually intriguing or stimulating.  But I just wanted a moment of time to have a little press time for me!  Sorry about the congratulatory scratching of thine own back.

Back to the hotel biz!  Or Social Media biz!  Or BOTH!

Just kidding.  But get past it.  It is no longer an issue of money preventing you from getting to social media.  Because social media, whether you like it or not, is getting to you (yes a double entendre – it is effecting your brand, as well as driving many of us nuts).  So stop pining for hard graphs and data all of us skeptics desire, and realize this is a new concierge and you gotta foot the bill or get eaten up!

Enough scary “make the first sentences interesting nonsense”.  Let’s talk shop.

I really think you can take steps to make *parts* of it measurable… but you will never fully measure it.  Just like print “impressions”.  I never trusted print media and how you measure impressions to begin with.  Forcing your product in front of a face via TV or print ads doesn’t necessarily mean you are doing a good job reaching consumers.  Social media is even more difficult measure.  Ad revenue modeled network sites are not monetizing even the strongest of networks (think youtube, facebook, yelp, linkedin: not one is profitable).

There are so many of these articles about social media and ROI, such as this, this, and this.  They are all fantastic articles to be sure, but I think even talking about ROI might be lofty at this stage.  As much of the massive print media campaign budget moves into the online realm, some of that money can be dedicated to a Social Media Optimizer (SMO or whatever you want to call it), and you utilize that person with the same mentality as a concierge or doorman.  It is someone that provides a face to the hotel, added value proposition, and brands the image in the mind of the guest.  But the person handling your social media needs to be adept and deft.  Hell, I thought I was getting good at this, and I still get overwhelmed with the complexity in how to most appropriately handle responses.

But, the issue isn’t traditional ROI anymore.  The issue is the return on ignoring social media, possibly the return on influence It is about learning what you can about social media.  There are endless fantastic articles out there.  Like this Frause article “It’s okay to be anti-social“, which provide simple, concise explanations for the old school marketers eager to catch up!

But it is obviously not about social media and ROI anymore.  At least, not to the same degree.  Now, it seems there has been an awakening to the necessity of joining in, engaging the consumer, and starting a conversation.

Some say, ENGAGE OR DIE!

I just say that this is a lovely opportunity to really listen to consumers (filtering out the annoying nonsense we all need to ignore)… to really connect, and help your brand identify with the consumers that you want.  It is a fantastic tool that is still in its infancy…. and we should all stay as informed and learning on the way.

So… you can’t ignore it.  And it will cost you more in the long run to not participate in this “happening” where carefully manipulated brand images will become vastly more intricate and complex in their control, while real power has begun to transfer to the consumer for the first time in the history of marketing and advertising.  Actually… it might be the first time the consumer or public has had such a tool to really take back power from an elite class manipulating their own image.

This might be a bit much, but I can say this…. learn, join in, and enjoy!  Let employees on all levels of the property join in as well.  Tell them to post appropriate youtubes videos involving work.  Let them join in and twitter.  Of course front line employees will need to do this back of house, but the more your brand is included in the social media conversation… casually, naturally… without forcing it or being manipulative… the better presence and awareness people will have of your brand.

As for the cost in having someone manage this?  It may be more than a line employee.  It needs to be someone savvy, with the interest of the brand primary in their mind.  From excitement about a guest having a good time, to intelligent damage control, it is likely they won’t be an hourly employee.

There are, of course, talented and incredibly capable hotel social media consultants that can help with this.  Like me!

If you cannot afford anyone in these times (an obvious possibility), you might have to do some late night self training, and start logging into these places and developing yourself as the brand image and take care of it.  If not, it might be possible to distribute the responsibility across management.  Have rooms handle tripadvisor, and the restaurant handle yelp.  Split tasks and quiz the employee population and see who is excited about social media.  The sales assistant or HR rep already logging into facebook during work hours might be that person!

If someone on your staff seems excited, you could possibly get them involved, helping to bolster their identity with the company… resulting in staff retention… which is ROI right there!

Ha I proved it!

Whatever the case… get past the ROI conversation, get involved, be yourself, and have fun!