You have to cordially, professionally, and earnestly engage anyone and everyone. Not because you are trying to brand your hotel… but because you are a real service provider that is inherently interested in fulfilling guests, helping the community, and creating harmony in people’s lives. This isn’t advice…. this is a way of life.

Once again, I get carried away with a response to a blog post. I am sure this counts as real business right? Newsweek’s Budget Travel has a great article about TripAdvisor trying to deal with the long coming revelation that many of their users and reviews are not legitimate. This is, frankly, a huge blow to the site, and should pose a happy problem in it’s early adolescence as they deal with all the changes that come along with growing into adulthood. Frankly, I am thrilled that this may provoke User Generated Content sites to seek the same verification model other sites have.

These conversations about archaic forms of communication will fall to the wayside during the tremendous fervour for hotels’ future comm abilities, where we will have to adopt a more pro-active and less wary view of technology, so the hospitality industry can be carried forward by technology and the advent of 2.0 – at the intersection of commerce and the community that is selling your brand.

But many of my clients don’t understand some core aspects of what we do… namely the amount of time we spend just *getting* to the conversation. Sometimes the important conversations aren’t that apparent, or don’t just come to you via your facebook page. What’s more, I am concerned about measurement for *me*, and not just my clients (because of the time it takes explaining it).