So this is just a conversational thought experiment, and I want to know what you think about this, how insane or inappropriate it is, and how it would be received (especially regionally or wherever your market is). In regards to hotel (and all) marketing, I get cynical about it as toxic clutter and spammy noise….

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This is basically verbatim copy/paste from a Nextdoor question, and my answer, to a local looking for advice. Remember years ago when we were cautious of anyone using the word “guru” or “ninja”, etc?

Easiest way to consider social media: It’s isn’t a revenue generator. You need to disrupt the booking process to create revenue – so ad spend, articles, etc.  But social media is a telephone, and luxury

I know it might sound needlessly hopeful, but Tripadvisor forums can transform your brand, and help you become more successful in the long term. Having hotels move away from ineffective social campaigns on Facebook, to ROI producing ones that root you as experts in travel and hospitality, is something we have needed to do for years. The internet doesn’t happen on Facebook, Facebook users aren’t consumers. The internet happens on forums, and those forums are populated with potential guests that are ready to spend money. Help out that person asking questions with an interest in having hospitality change lives, and that virtual stranger might just end up as a physical guest. Even if we are exhausted by the end of a work day, it’s still our job to mentor up and coming hospitality professionals, and to help connect them with the spark that you once felt about hospitality. These forums might be a simple, easy first step to making that hourly desk agent who thinks of hotels as a “job”, into understanding that hospitality is a noble profession. When you start helping people, and you feel that positive reaction for having done so, it gives life a sense of purpose and hope…. so let’s get excited about hospitality, let’s realize we can make the world a better place with all that we do…. and helping a stranger in a Tripadvisor forum can be one small part of that.