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	<title>Hraba Hospitality Consulting &#187; ryanair</title>
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		<title>#SMTravel Conference Mashup &#8211; Hospitality/Travel/Tourism &amp; The Current State of Social Media</title>
		<link>http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2010/03/31/smtravel-conference-mashup-hospitalitytraveltourism-the-current-state-of-social-media/</link>
		<comments>http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2010/03/31/smtravel-conference-mashup-hospitalitytraveltourism-the-current-state-of-social-media/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:42:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Hraba</dc:creator>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/?p=1028</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I imagine this is one of the first mash ups of a live-twittered conference?  If not the first, one of the only ones because this was massively, overly, insanely, time-consuming.  I do think what came of it was worthwhile, and I hope this sort of serves as a testament to all we spoke about and considered during Eye for Travel SM SF 2010.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-size: small;">I imagine this is one of the first mash ups of a live-twittered conference?  If not the first, one of the only ones because this was massively, overly, insanely, time-consuming.  I do think what came of it was worthwhile, and I hope this sort of serves as a testament to all we spoke about and considered during <a href="http://events.eyefortravel.com/social-media/" target="_blank">Eye for Travel SM SF 2010</a>.  First thing: I am not going to list contributor names here &#8211; I assume this is mostly for those who <span id="more-1028"></span>attended, and we know who we are.  However, Susan Black was going to compile a list of everyone involved in the conference for further networking, and think we might be able to do that here?  Please comment and leave your info for people to connect with&#8230;. twitter, buzz, and anything else you wish to share about the conference. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">The below words are basically a mashup of every single tweet (processed &amp; 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 &#8211; or at least you can potentially peer into the chasm that is my logic.  At the least I hope I didn&#8217;t misquote or misrepresent anyone.  Speaking of transparency &#8211; I left some fairly meaty and helpful implementation/action ideas at the end that were not necessarily even part of the conference&#8230; I figure if you can find them and actually read that far down, well.. you deserve them. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">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 &#8220;tweety casserole&#8221; of our conference helped it to lose much in the reference &amp; citations arena, but if you need to see the authority and professionalism of those involved, please refer to <a href="http://events.eyefortravel.com/social-media/speakers.asp" target="_blank">list of speakers at the conference</a>.  For those that don&#8217;t know me &#8211; 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&#8230;. and if incorrect data was given out at this conference I assume we would all like to know (this is highly unlikely)!  So let&#8217;s have at it &#8211;  <a href="http://events.eyefortravel.com/social-media/" target="_blank">Eye For Travel&#8217;s Social Media Conference #smtravel 2010</a>!  (Boy I hope this makes sense)</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;">My attempt at organizing the concepts throughout the conference:<br />
</span></p>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social Media (general)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Facebook</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Twitter</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Geolocation / Mobile / Augmented Reality<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">ROI</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">User Generated Reviews / Content</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Takeaway / Important Thoughts<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Action / Implementation</span></li>
</ol>
<p>You will note a lot of information on Geolocation/Mobile &amp; User Generated Reviews/Content.  I think that&#8217;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&#8230; 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.</p>
<p><!--more--></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">I) Social Media</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Stats</span></span>:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">83% of adults use social media</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">70% of participants in Social Media are spectators (lurkers &#8211; we know you are out there eating our posts)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">18% of US online leisure travelers do not have a destination in mind when they start their trip planning</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">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)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">58% of travelers use Facebook monthly, 40% use YouTube, 32% to Wikipedia, but 1 in 4 don&#8217;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)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Email marketing still important but not as effective as it used to be. (I don&#8217;t think I need a stat for that, but 1) it still seems to be effective for some people &amp; 2) it&#8217;s amazing how others simply won&#8217;t let it go when it is no longer effective. It used to be a cure all salve to some marketers)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Consumers follow and fan brands on FB and Twitter to learn about discounts (32%). Learn about new products (19%)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">35 Million LinkedIn updates/week, 600 tweets per second, 5 billion pieces of facebook content a week</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">An angry customer can lose you more customers than a happy customer can bring you new ones</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social networking is the new &#8220;morning coffee&#8221; &#8211; 4 in 10 people wake up to their social circles</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">4 in 10 people recommend products on social media</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">eMarketer reports 81% of marketers say social media significantly extends their e-mail to new markets</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Commentary/Conversation:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">You can choose not to participate in social media conversation but&#8230;.. that is *probably* not a good thing.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Most social media /generated content is crap.  (This reminded me of a very relevant talk by Google CEO Schmidt, and the resulting piece <a href="http://ow.ly/1qqLb" target="_blank">The Cesspool We Call The Internet</a>)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social media is about relinquishing control</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">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&#8230; I think you be accountable of everything in your control and offer a worthwhile product and the brochure will be to your liking).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">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&#8217;t just happen, you have to fight culture of secrecy that most business cultivates).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Top 5 trends in Web 2.0 &#8211; </span><span style="font-size: small;">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</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">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?)<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Soc Media is a communication TOOL &#8211; not a PLATFORM &#8211; &#8220;do you ask for ROI on your telephone?&#8221;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social Media is not a campaign, it&#8217;s a commitment.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">How do you measure the value of a relationship? Lifetime value = more than the sum of transactions.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">It&#8217;s amplified word of mouth, right? It&#8217;s been happening for years. It&#8217;s about creating community again &#8211; SM just a new channel for old-fashioned business sense.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social Media let&#8217;s your customers do the talking for you.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social media shares elements w/journalism: Who, what, where, why, how. Formula for getting the full story on a subject.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">World has moved form 6 degrees of separation to 2 thanks to social media</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Conversation about your brand will happen without you being aware or taking part&#8230;. you might as well listen.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Whoever earns trust, wins</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Best Practices:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">SOCIAL MEDIA DOES NOT EQUAL DIGITAL MARKETING &#8211; Social Media is 2 way communication (interactivity, conversation, dynamic growth), marketing is one way communication (forced/push marketing, print, billboards)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Good social media is about the 4 E&#8217;s: Educate, Excite, Engage and Evangelize.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Monitor, Engage, Respond.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Have a clear plan &#8211; 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&#8217;s not a campaign, it&#8217;s a commitment.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Bake social media DNA into everyone in the organization</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">You wouldn&#8217;t put someone behind the front desk without training. Don&#8217;t put someone in social media without training</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Guest services should respond to social media just like email or phone calls.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Real time recovery is vital to hospitality&#8217;s use of &amp; engagement w/social media &#8211; the internet is fast and speed is key.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">It&#8217;s not about you the brand, it&#8217;s about them &#8211; about being available &amp; listening</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Non participation is akin to ignoring customers &#8211; a lost opportunity to engage, learn and make amends.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social should live across departments like PR, cust svc, marketing, etc. It becomes &#8220;something everyone does&#8221; like email.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">You can become pen pals with some of your customers thru social media. good way to build relationships, brand ambassadors (time consuming)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Using persona&#8217;s to identify your average customers is useful &#8211; but be real, be earnest, be transparent, and have fun.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Utilize effective management to maintain productivity, instead of limiting massively effective tools for business (social media being banned in the workplace)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social media can be a very powerful recruiting tool</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Use analytics &amp; monitoring tools: Omniture, Cision, ReviewAnalyst, eBuzz, Revinate, Radian6</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social Media should be fun with the appropriate tone of conversation.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Manage Social Media both from corporate and property level &#8211; &#8220;Speak in the tone of the medium&#8221;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Blogs bring value to SEO efforts</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Best ideas are often driven from the bottom up. Always listen to your front line people!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Experimentation is the key to social media success. Fail cheap, fail fast.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social media is not free. Someone has to own, monitor, track, analyze etc.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The Return is on customer engagement, and ROI may take some time.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">II. Facebook</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Stats:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">100 million people now using Facebook mobile app at least once a month (how many are exploring brand pages?).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">56% users check Facebook each day</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">48% of people talk about products on Facebook</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">5 billion posts of content from Facebook per week</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Commentary/Conversation:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">&#8220;Facebook will remain relevant because of its privacy controls&#8221; (- My rant: </span><span style="font-size: small;">I wholeheartedly disagree &#8211; 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 &amp; 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&#8217; privacy &amp; 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 &#8211; 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&#8230; but until Facebook figures this out, their dominance is tenuous.  You cannot create a solid network based off of &#8220;loose interests&#8221;.  Topics/Subject matter drive content creation, and content creation drives social networks.  There can be no meaningful brand interaction in &#8220;loose interest&#8221; networks &#8211; 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&#8217;s necessity or disinterested in it&#8217;s existence).<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">I voice constant concern about Facebook &#8211; is the conversation meaningful? Do they book?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Facebook pages for brands as a &#8220;fad&#8221; was brought up, many disagreed with the concept.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Best practices:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Instead of attempting to create a new social network, connect with an existing one:  FB connect picks up that slack &#8211; 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 &#8211; &#8220;It&#8217;s easier to buy access to someone else&#8217;s audience than to try to build up your own in order to market to them&#8221;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Add a booking widget, customize the tabs and cross-integrate your Social Media channels (connect but do not auto-post &#8211; remain native)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Tag FB pages w/Omniture(Analytic) tags to help measure ROI</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">&#8220;<a href="http://bit.ly/8YtjE7" target="_blank">5 Essential Apps for Your Business’s Facebook Page</a>&#8221; </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Competitors&#8217;  followers should be at the top of your list of who to find &amp; target</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The Facebook ads that work best to grow a fan base show the user their &#8220;friends&#8221; that are fans, and has a &#8220;Become A Fan button&#8221; on it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">FB doesn&#8217;t always grab people not coming to your hotel, so it is often better used locally.  FB pages work GREAT for F&amp;B, spa (incremental revenue).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">FB apps can best be seen as complimenting a good FB marketing campaign instead of the center of it</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">(I just started realizing the mapped network of facebook pages creates a tighter community online if you connect &#8211; try to get as many local businesses to highlight your page, and vice versa.  Creates a stronger local presence overall.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Create &#8220;status questions&#8221; (what are you doing today?) so you can check engagement and how often guests interact/check-in with you.<br />
</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>III) Twitter</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stats:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Michael Perhaes with MGM Grand said Twitter is 5x more effective than email for us, &amp; GM Grand&#8217;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?)</span></li>
<li>600 tweets  per second</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Commentary/Conversation:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">If you&#8217;re going to make money, Twitter must become a transactional platform at some point</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Twitter is the new flight attendant call button</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Twitter drives revenue, no doubt about it.  Twitter = ROI, Facebook = idle brand chit chat.<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Young kids don&#8217;t trust it, and think it&#8217;s for old people or fame seekers</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Best practices:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Twitter is not a direct marketing platform</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Twitter can be used as an R&amp;D tool</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Uses &#8220;extended&#8221; shelf space by having multiple twitter accounts to represent brand :chef pages, nightclubs, hotel, spa, etc.  Multiple Twitter accounts for multiple audiences</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Consider integration with API to expose what is tweeted about your brand (like highlighting reviews, it does suggest letting go of message)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Even if you do have a group of people working on social media, don&#8217;t forget to tweet (fb/blog) with personality &#8211; be a real human voice &amp; be real &#8211; but be transparent, be consistent,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Separate conversation &#8211; promotions, customer service, etc should be separate Twitter accounts so as not to confuse (this is debatable depending on your brand)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">competitors&#8217;  followers should be at the top of your list</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>IV) Geolocation / Mobile<br />
</strong></span></span></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Stats:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Google estimates 50% of web traffic to come thru mobile devices w/in 5 years (if that doesn&#8217;t blow your mind, re-read it slowly, twice).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">240 million people mobile browsers in 2010, surpassing PCs for first time</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">100 million people now using Facebook mobile app at least once a month</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">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.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112% in the past year, while Twitter experienced a 347% jump.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">1 in 3 mobile search queries have local intent</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Mobile Shopping to balloon to $119 Billion by 2015</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Commentary:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Morgans Hotels tagged NYC airport codes on Foursquare during recent blizzards, ran ads, &amp; generated some sales.<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Are iPhone apps a &#8220;flavor of the month&#8221;? Or should you just develop a good mobile-optimized Web site?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Geolocation tools like Foursquare mark a significant shift in social-real time interaction &#8211; it&#8217;s valid, useful information<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">hyper local = search + social graph + mobile + your location</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Impressive: Morgans Hotel leverages themed twitter hashtags, 4Sq hotel checkins, Artist Generated Content and analytics tools</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Location-based marketing will be a trend. &#8220;It&#8217;s clearly good.&#8221;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Adding hotel rates to Google search results enhances relevancy of listing &#8211; mobile access &amp; 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)</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Best Practices:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">You got me.  I think, again, I defer to Del Ross from ICH &#8211; &#8220;Experimentation is the key to social media success. Fail cheap, fail fast.&#8221;  But frankly, FOCUS ON IT. I would be willing to bet my name that it&#8217;s worth limiting some Facebook time to interacting with Foursquare.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: large;">V) ROI:</span></span></strong></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Stats:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">What we are after (and trying to define)! *or* &#8220;No clear, easy way to track back social media ROI&#8221; says panel, &#8220;An attribution model has yet to be developed.&#8221;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Forrester Research says it is a way to enhance relationships with customers, build brand, help hiring &amp; recruitment, engage in customer service, and helps to build employee morale.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Conversation:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">If social media goals are not clearly communicated, how do u know what &#8220;good&#8221; looks like?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">If you aren&#8217;t paying attention to conversation about your brand, who is? A different ROI &#8211; Return on Ignorance</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Interesting perspective on generating demand vs conversion in social media. Examples: FB = demand, Yelp = conversion</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Will virtual cash become taxable? (It apparently already is, in some places.)</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Best Practices:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social media is not free. Someone has to own, monitor, track, analyze etc. It is ROCS &#8211; a return on customer satisfaction in early stages</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Measurement involves many different goals, not just sales.  Overall revenue, room nights (Hilton&#8217;s ROI measurement) are just two of them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Southwest measures SM ROI by: employee satisfaction; ratio of cust compliments to complaints; new signups; conversions.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">VI) User Generated Reviews / Content</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Stats:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Their data shows that people believe online strangers to friends and family in regards to reviews, user generated content. Expedia</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Travelers search 20 different sites when planning a trip</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">44% of online travelers trust other travelers before commercial advertising</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">32% of Yelp reviews are 5-stars. Only 15% are 1- or 2-stars</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">TripAdvisor has 32 million reviews and gets 16 new contributions every minute.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">TripAdvisor gives less weight to older reviews than newer in terms of ranking</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Content submitted to TripAdvisor at its start 10 years ago is still on the site. There are no plans to remove those.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Management response to critical reviews more important than review content according to Tripadvisor research</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">TripAdvisor says an average traveler reads about 30 reviews</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Only 4% of hotels respond to tripadvisor reviews</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Commentary:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">By being confident, taking ownership, &amp; being enthusiastic, authors have altered or taken bad reviews.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Immediacy of customer feedback on mobile posed to change how companies use social media</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Online Reviews allow satisfied customers play &#8220;ambassadors&#8221; of your business</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Negative reviews play an important role too, you can&#8217;t please 100% of the people 100% of the time</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">it&#8217;s better to join the conversation than not. Reviews can go from 3 to 5 stars because of this</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Best Practices</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Be humble, be swift, be specific &#8211; How a hotel property responds to criticism says more about them than the criticism itself</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">By replying to reviews, you humanize the brand &#8211; it&#8217;s less of a place to complain &amp; more about commerce</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Every negative comment is an opportunity to turn around the relationship, and create a long term brand centric consumer.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Bad reviews are exciting to highlight, celebrate, and learn from. Great marketing opportunity. Your reaction is vital.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">responding is never a knee jerk reaction #smtravel they take a LOT of thought, editing attention.  Good impulse control &#8211; required quality for persons chosen to respond to customer comments on social media</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">VII) Takeaway &amp; Important Thoughts</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Stats/&#8221;Subjective Facts&#8221; <img src='http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' />   :</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social media is about relinquishing control</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Google estimates 50% of web traffic to come through mobile devices w/in 5 years</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Investing money in search visibility reduces need to spend money elsewhere.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">If anyone says they are a social media expert, they are lying to you.  We are all learning and failing constantly.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">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)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">User Generated Content (UGC) is the 21st century&#8217;s word of mouth, and your new brochure &#8211; and you&#8217;re not the one writing it.  your customers are your new copywriters (Jennifer Davies, Expedia)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Virgin will soon have 3 FTE people handling SM. Hilton has 1. Southwest has 6.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The new big three in travel = Brazil, China, and India. New travel up 50% in recent years.<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">People under 30 use email only to talk to you if you are over 30, or to talk to brands/companies (suggests the data&#8230; there are exceptions to these facts)<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social media matters, but does not replace traditional channels. One in four travelers are not on social networks</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">People want to connect, people want to share: this is what drives social media growth</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Commentary:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Ignoring social media today is like ignoring Google in 1999.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Customers no longer search for news &amp; deals &#8212; they want the deals to find them</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">It&#8217;s a conversation, not a broadcast. Be authentic, honest, transparent.<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Think about shaping conversation, not controlling it</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">When social media relationships become &#8220;real&#8221; they become private &amp; go offline</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social Media is most powerful when integrated directly with the product</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Work with your competitors to create a &#8220;trend&#8221; for media coverage</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social media is not a &#8220;nice to have&#8221; anymore. It now must be a part of an integrated marketing strategy (but it isn&#8217;t just marketing, and it isn&#8217;t just a strategy)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">It&#8217;s easier to buy access to someone else&#8217;s audience than to try to build up your own in order to market to them</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Consumers want you to engage with them in social media, but only when and where they want to hear from you.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Not sure contests are meaningful so much as getting endless non brand centric people following you for free &#8220;stuff&#8221;. Free stuff followers are not as useful as brand followers.<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">&#8220;Social Media builds employee morale&#8221; was a concept that came up a couple times during the conference.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">You don&#8217;t market what you want to say. You market what your customers want to hear.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Best practices:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Social operates on a shoestring at most brands &#8211; requires empowerment, education and training to succeed</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Not all social media programs are the same.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">It&#8217;s important not to isolate social media for the organization; you need to immerse your business in it. It&#8217;s everyone&#8217;s job&#8230;. it shouldn&#8217;t be just one person.<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Make conscious choice for structure &#8211; do not do the easy thing and lump it with PR or Marketing</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Use everything as an opportunity for learning &#8211; Don&#8217;t overreact to customer comments</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Flickr, YouTube good social media for hotels to use for customer engagement. Visual content very importnat for hotels (and has SEO value too)<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Leverage existing social networks and influencers &#8211; go to existing communities instead of wasting time and money building one (Facebook Connect, for example, expanding between brand site and &#8220;vibrant&#8221; community).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Consider a dedicated page on your website for social media &#8211; Hard Rock Hotel has one full page dedicated to all social media &amp; review sites.  To shatter industry benchmarks, it&#8217;s essential to bake your SM strategy into your site.  Consider your market &#8211; go to where they are and engage them. Morgans Hotels has whole website section dedicated to music</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Employees can take brand message, localize it, and put their personality behind it. &#8211; participation FUN for employees! Don&#8217;t just throw a bunch of rules at them.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">The days of content heavy &amp; marketed website are changing &#8211; they go to review sites and then go to the hotel site for booking.  Consumers don&#8217;t trust pretty, over the top, content laden sites.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">By utilizing closed loop promotions you maintain parity with OTA’s.</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">VIII) HHOTELCONSULT&#8217;S Action / Implementation</span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">For FB: </span></span></p>
<ul>
<li>Add  booking widget, customize the tabs and cross-integrate your social media channels.</li>
<li>Add  analytics tracking wherever you can to gauge success in raw data form</li>
<li>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&#8230; be tricky, have fun, get creative)</li>
<li>Leverage  Facebook Connect when possible.</li>
<li>allow  management to post changes, updates, pics</li>
<li>Birthday  related offer?</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For Twitter</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li>compartmentalize  social media campaign by having smaller departments reach out &#8211;  multiple twitter accounts across all hotels for different reasons &#8211; chef, F&amp;B, sales/banquets, spa (whichever works or would be viable)</li>
<li>add  analytics tracking</li>
<li>integrate/allow  management to post changes, updates, pics</li>
<li>Reached  out to influencers at smaller groups &#8211; 500-700% ROI from inviting  &#8220;influentials&#8221; to a tasting</li>
<li>Twestival?</li>
<li>Birthday  related offers?</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For Geolocation:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Research about Gowalla, Twhrrl, others we can possibly interact with?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Create Foursquare Mayoral Advisory Board</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Foursquare deals/offers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Flash mob or Swarm Badge opportunity?<br />
</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Website</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">local tweet map on site mashing up tweets with brand mentions, associated conversations<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">have one dedicated social media page per hotel</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">If you offer discounts, info, events, etc online, make them &#8220;Facebookable&#8221; and &#8220;Twitterable&#8221;</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Misc:</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Be creative &#8211; Morgan&#8217;s printed QR codes on cocktail napkins</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">showing OK Go on YouTube $100,000 spend to sponsor video &#8211; less than 3 weeks 10 million views on YouTube. Press exposure</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Fairmont launched dedicated Presidents Club forum on FlyerTalk in July &#8217;09. Now has 412 threads; page views &gt;200,000</span></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Follow Up Questions (endless, frankly &#8211; and I WANT TO HEAR YOURS! What didn&#8217;t we talk about that you wanted to talk about?):</span></span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">I would like to chat more about HOW, &amp; not WHAT: how to integrate API&#8217;s, how to interact w/mobile-geolocation, how to implement facebook connect, etc. Check out mobile hotel app &#8211; Smart Stay<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Contact morgans about themed hashtags &#8211; Morgans Hotels tagged NYC airport codes on Foursquare during recent blizzards, ran ads, &amp; generated some sales.<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Live streaming video &amp; webcam opportunities?<br />
</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Is creating a list of your hotel&#8217;s followers on twitter necessary?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">How do you use FB connect for one small hotel?</span></li>
</ul>
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			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2010/03/31/smtravel-conference-mashup-hospitalitytraveltourism-the-current-state-of-social-media/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
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		<title>The links to the Ryan Air episode:</title>
		<link>http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/03/10/the-links-to-the-ryan-air-episode/</link>
		<comments>http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/03/10/the-links-to-the-ryan-air-episode/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:17:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Hraba</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accountability in social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brand awareness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hijinks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pranksterism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ruses]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ryanair]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/03/10/the-links-to-the-ryan-air-episode/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My friend Marc inspired me to post the links and lessons so we can learn from the @ryanaironline spoof.  My blog article is a few posts down, but here is the fun stuff with the Telegraph, Times Online, etc.  I am including Marc&#8217;s comments too.  It was really fun, and I think I feel mighty [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>My friend Marc inspired me to post the links and lessons so we can learn from the @ryanaironline spoof.  My blog article is a few posts down, but here is the fun stuff with the Telegraph, Times Online, etc.  I am including Marc&#8217;s comments too.  It was really fun, and I think I feel mighty comfortable sharing this on a professional level.  No it won&#8217;t be on my resume, but I will have a <span id="more-567"></span>private smirk about it in the future.  Remember&#8230; creative pranks aren&#8217;t just fun&#8230; it&#8217;s healthy!   What started as an innocent, scotch fueled dabbled into creative pranksterism&#8230;. turned into a valuable lesson about brand mitigation, awareness, and accountability and verification needs in social media!</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-735" title="The @RyanAirOnline Debacle" src="http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/ryanaironline.jpg" alt="The @RyanAirOnline Debacle" width="532" height="355" /></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve got to say.  I have always wondered just exactly who it was that had the spare time to play these social media tricks.  It&#8217;s not surprise that it is Hraba.</p>
<p>But this experiment and the impact it had on the larger community is truly amazing. I&#8217;m not sure you can put it on your resume. But it clearly is something not nothing</p>
<p>Marc</p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-</p>
<p>Articles&#8230; I think this is most of them:</p>
<p>Remember that ryan air thing?  I had them so confused they claimed it was there twitter account.</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article5851864.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&amp;attr=1491494" target="_blank"><span>http://www.timesonline.co.</span><span>uk/tol/travel/news/article</span><span>5851864.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&amp;at</span>tr=1491494</a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/4943871/Ryanair-caught-up-in-fake-Twitter-account-controversy.html" target="_blank"><span>http://www.telegraph.co.uk</span><span>/travel/travelnews/4943871</span><span>/Ryanair-caught-up-in-fake</span><span>-Twitter-account-controver</span>sy.html</a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.travolution.co.uk/blog/2009/03/official---ryanair-joins-twitt.php" target="_blank"><span>http://www.travolution.co.</span><span>uk/blog/2009/03/official&#8211;</span>-ryanair-joins-twitt.php</a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.daxthink.com/2009/03/ryanaironline-abusing-other-airlines.html" target="_blank"><span>http://www.daxthink.com/20</span><span>09/03/ryanaironline-abusin</span>g-other-airlines.html</a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://journeysthroughtravel.com/2009/03/05/a-warm-welcome-for-ryanaironline/" target="_blank"><span>http://journeysthroughtrav</span><span>el.com/2009/03/05/a-warm-w</span>elcome-for-ryanaironline/</a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://gettincarriedaway.com/?p=189" target="_blank"><span>http://gettincarriedaway.c</span>om/?p=189</a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thingsinthesky/" target="_blank"><span>http://boardingarea.com/bl</span>ogs/thingsinthesky/</a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.techcentral.ie/article.aspx?id=13161" target="_blank"><span>http://www.techcentral.ie/</span>article.aspx?id=13161</a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.joeblogs.net/?p=269" target="_blank"><span>http://www.joeblogs.net/?p</span>=269</a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://twitter.com/Gadling/statuses/1283209392" target="_blank"><span>http://twitter.com/Gadling</span>/statuses/1283209392</a></p>
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		<title>&#8220;Lessons from Ryan Air Online&#8221; (as cross posted from my personal blog)</title>
		<link>http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/03/06/lessons-from-ryan-air-online-as-cross-posted-from-my-personal-blog/</link>
		<comments>http://www.hrabaconsulting.com/blog/2009/03/06/lessons-from-ryan-air-online-as-cross-posted-from-my-personal-blog/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:35:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Hraba</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Twitter]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[accountability in social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ethics in social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hospitality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public relations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ryanair]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[transparency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[web 2.0]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Just thinking and riffing and pondering and what not…. As for Ryan Air… they not only wouldn’t care… I doubt they would find this anything but funny. This isn’t about a PR machine… Ryan Air’s PR is a train wreck whether this account existed or not. It’s there style, and it is to be expected. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Just thinking and riffing and pondering and what not….</p>
<p>As for Ryan Air… they not only wouldn’t care… I doubt they would find this anything but funny. This isn’t about a PR machine… Ryan Air’s PR is a train wreck whether this account existed or not. It’s there style, and it is to be expected. The majority of research I unearthed from the past 48 hours suggested this was a brilliant PR stunt by Ryan Air. That, even to me, is hard to swallow.</p>
<p>It is comforting to know, for some, that if it wasn’t this specific spoof account, it would have been something else. The new marketing model allows much more consumer control than expected, to the point of <span id="more-558"></span>potentially (momentarily) derailing a brand with one spoof account…</p>
<p>There are very few brands that are self aware or playful enough to calmly approach this situation. Think about how *any* other brand would have reacted to this? It would have been in grand fashion, and this would have splashed across the world’s papers in regards to PR, etc. This didn’t show up anywhere because, frankly, Ryan Air knows not to take itself, or social media, or life… too seriously.</p>
<p>That being said, I am sure the faux account holder was likely aware that the immediate to long term ramifications to the brand were slight if anything at all. That person, however, might not have realized how much a funny idea would unexpectedly take off.</p>
<p>This is simply satire that has crossed into the business realm. Not all comedy has a point, but much of it works on different levels than one might first notice.</p>
<p>Performance art takes many forms…. and *this* conversation on this page might be exactly where the “lunatic blogger” was going.. eh?</p>
<p>In the future some poor, innocent brand (possibly not having the same reflection as Ryan Air) will be hijacked (no pun intended) by a disgruntled client that intelligently lures people into thinking a blog, account, etc with social media is real. When it happens, it will be nowhere near as overt or obvious. But it will be a disaster.</p>
<p>As of now, Twitter has no real verification process, nor do “user generate review” sites. If you take a quick peek at TripAdvisor, any single human being can reply as management on behalf of an entire property, let alone slander hotels at casual whim. Almost any social site has this conundrum: “How to create verification or confirm validity of an account or review.” Some don’t care yet, but when the integrity and ethics of a site is constantly brought to attention (look at yelp in the past few weeks) they will soon take notice.</p>
<p>There is a transparency and accountability problem in social media. A huge one. Whether it is a fake celebrity account founded by a bored blogger, or a false review written by an angry merchant…. social media might have to reflect past it’s hipster social clubs and office fridges full of beer, and start thinking about how their product effects the world of brands, and how to start making headway with repairing the relationship that is starting to make brands weary.</p>
<p>I for one am thrilled to see the previous marketing paradigm shifting… with consumers having ultimate control instead of corporations splashing money at marketing campaigns or for PR spinning on damage. The message is no longer in control, and the brand is only as valid as the ethos and intent behind it. If you aren’t an ethical brand that someone identifies with and endorses, you are completely and totally irrelevant.</p>
<p>I assume the original dork that started this was simply having fun, but like much of social media…. what started as a fun idea turned into real business.</p>
<p>Hopefully something like this will start more conversations in regards to the lack of accountability in social media, and the dangerous way it might erode the trust of both users and brands.</p>
<p>That’s it. I wouldn’t mind ending with something witty or with some flare, but I am still sad to see @ryanaironline get booted so quick! whatever the case sorry to be some random interloper! I just found it all so interesting!</p>
<p>@uncleFishbits aka @hhotelconsult (yeah a personal and business account&#8230; everyone does it.  I worry about transparency so often I feel it might be necessary to mention forthrightly so you don&#8217;t think I am duplicitious)</p>
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