Social Media by Alia Outarahout

SOCIAL MEDIAS Digital marketing in Hospitality Alia Outarahout

Resolution

Choose one resolution from the article. Why do you feel this particular Resolution is most important? – For what types of hotels? I have chosen as resolution to Regularly post new content. Of course social medias are important, but without an effective presence, having a Facebook page or not is basically equal. If you don’t post something 3 to 5 times a week on your page, your readers may get bored, or worst, they can forget you. But if you maintain an average of four posts a week, your business will be frequently on the latest newsfeed. The result will be an enhancement of your awareness. Moreover, studies have shown that there’s a direct correlation between frequency of posts and the number of fans a page acquires. Bearing in mind that with the crazy increase of smartphones, everybody is connected almost 24/7, so we talk about minute-to-minute information. Which means, the more active you are, the more fans you will have. Besides, there is a lot of competition in terms of social medias marketing nowadays, so the most performing hotel or business on line may have great outcomes, but someone posting only once a trimester (as so many do) will be seen as obsolete. The hotels that are specially concerned by this resolution are mostly Urban Hotels, especially those with Bar, or Restaurant. They need to have something to say in their frequent posts, so the best hotels to apply this resolution are hotels with frequent events, and regular happenings. Thus they will be able to communicate through their social medias pages about each event. Also, they will drag more fans if it is welllocated hotel, so many people would know its place etc. What additional actions would give that Resolution even greater impact and drive more impressive results The chosen strategy can have a boosted impact if we add to it other resolutions. If your posts are made frequently and you give your readers a reason to visit your page, the impact will be greater. Because not only it will help to catch readers’ attention, it will also maintain your followers reading your posts. But actually, these two resolutions are kind of linked to each others because: You can post everyday something on your page, but of the content is boring, you would just bother your readers, and they may “hide” your posts on their newsfeed if they feel invaded by them. Vice versa, if you have really good contents in your posts, which worth being read, but you only post them once every 2 months, you won’t reach your target, and no

one will pay heed to it. I think that the key to success is to combine these both resolutions to ensure a good online communication. There is another action that we can add to the frequency of posting. I am talking about the contests. People love this concept, and especially if there is a reward behind the game itself. Be it a photo competition, or collecting ideas for a name thing, or just a classical quiz, online followers love the idea, because they feel involved, and they know that their participation might be a change for the hotel. An additional action can be to share a maximum a photos of every events you previously talk about, so people can recognize and tag themselves on the pictures. The result of this will be a strengthening community around your brand, and a relationship between your page and your customers. 3 examples that shows the use of a frequent posting strategy

o 1/ Fnac Official page

Fnac Posts a feed every days (except on weekends), and every post is either liked or commented, hence a high number of feedbacks

A high number of fans

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Fnac posts promotional and nonpromotional information, and the feeds are about many topics, such as the upcoming lives, meeting at the stores, contests, etc.

As we can see, Fnac answers the posts, and adopts a friendly tone, and gives the previous comments all the information requested

o 2/ Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Arc Paris: trendy Restaurant and night club Very frequent posting, either to send pictures of the latest event, or to promote the upcoming events

It is appropriate for such a business to communicate via Facebook, because their can instantaneously warn people about a party for the same night.

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Text link to their website, and their twitter page

o 3/ Virgin Mobile USA: One of the leaders in telecoms. They have a particularly active Facebook page, in where they post phone plans, promotions, and special event organized by the company

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A post per day, and the idea is that they always send it at the same daytime, because it seems that it is the peak hour for fans to get on their page.

II - From the article: What role does technology play in a hotel's Internet strategy success? Technology is basically one of the most important key factors to success for many reasons: - Nowadays, Social networking is more and more developing, so there is a broader audience to get by these mediums - It helps to generate an online reputation - It increases interactions between customers and the Hotel, so the readers can give their feedback, that will help the Hotel to evaluate its own strategy - It also helps to know the customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; habits, thus, to be more effective in your communication - It is a distinction factor because today there is many hotels that are not up to date, so it gives a competitive advantage to use wisely internet as a marketing Â

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tool Thanks to the technology, it is possible to monitor the online reputation, but also to watch easily the competitors’ strategy The social medias becoming a trend, it is also a way to obtain support partnership or just advices by making your fans/followers/readers participating, since they can also be social influencers

If you were an independent, limited budget hotel (or business) what steps would you take to compete effectively online? If I were an independent limited budget hotel, I would use Internet and the social medias as marketing tools: - First of all, I would maintain a constantly updated website, and add in there all the buttons towards my others pages - Secondly, I would be actively present on social networks, and mostly on Facebook and Twitter, which are the most used in France. - There would be a link between each others so it will create a spider net around my Hotel, to drag the maximum flow possible. - As I said before, I would post regularly comments on my pages, (but not the same one) - My post would be as interesting and creative as possible, so I could attract my readers’ attention, and build a relationship - My interface would be pleasant, with a high imagery and branded background, and the same font and style than on my official website - The communication would be personalized, with as much videos and pictures including my fans, as possible, in the more creative way so they can spread my pages to their own friends and enhance for free my brand awareness - I would demonstrate in every possible manner that I am available and reachable, by answering the posts (negative or positive) – that will help the relationship strengthening - I would set-up follow-up tools, such as Google alerts, RSS feeds, etc, so I could be reactive on monitoring my online reputation - Finally, my pages would be referenced on the main search engines, so they could be easily visible 2 businesses that are creatively reaching customers, without expending large resources:

o 1/Dunkin Donut They have a pretty great strategy to reach their customer: the formal profile picture represents the « Fan of the week » intead of representing the usual Logo

Impressive number of fans

o 2/ Victoria’s Secret VS overtly asks for their fans a feedback on vifferent topics. That prompts them either to like, or to comment, so they generate a hudge flow of people for each post. Moreover, the company uses subtle ways to make the fans participate, as detailed bellow.

Here is a creativity contest

Here is a sharing concept to send love message to who you want

Here is a Live chat appointment for fans,

Here is the application to “share the love” very simple but it is a clever idea to drag more fans

III - From the Build Your Own Brand video series What are they KEY elements to online branding, according to Loic LeMeur? According to Loic Lemeur, the Key elements are as follows: - Share frequently, and be interesting - Share more and be generous by sharing your expertise - Be present on diverse social medias, but differentiate what you post depending on where you post it - Be visible and adopt the same name on each social media - Avoid confusion: don’t use the @.... on Facebook, and avoid to talk about “liking” on Twitter - Put your social media pages link on your website and vice versa - Always show that you are available, by answering every feedback - Stimulate your audience by retweeting, liking, answering, etc - Think in terms of community communication, and not only about your products - Set-up real-life meetings with your audience, and prompt them to bring their own friend, so you can increase the numbers of fans - Get advice from the audience 2 hotels or businesses that are using the KEY elements successfully, in your view

1/Four Season There is a whole section specially dedicated to fans: they offer surveys, links to their twitter and website

The Facebook page: -‐ Prompts peoples to share their feelings -‐ Invites fans to join the Twitter community -‐ Shows the iPhone application In general, the Facebook page use a personalized communication, as if Four seasons was speaking to its community of customers through their Facebook page

Link to their new blog

Link to the social media pages

2/Skittles: I have chosen Skittle because this brand has built around its name a whole world, with an imaginary concept of a rainbow experience. The number of fans and follower is astonishingly high, and the website is very original. There is a whole community built on this brand

Their post are not promotional, they just send funny thought or things to ponder Although, they attract an incredible number of feedbacks for every posts There are links for both their twitter account and the official website They are very active on posting They offer contests and rewarding gifts for the online loyalty

The website overtly prompt people to like or follow them

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Choose any 2 online tools that were mentioned I have chosen Klout and Seesmic. How a hotel could use these tools to effectively engage their customers? Klout: Klout is a tool that gathers all your social medias pages. It enables companies or brands to know how big influencers they are, and who are their best influencers. It is based on the number of tweets, posts, comments, the velocity, the audience etc… and calculates you a score ranking from 0 to 100. So as a Hotel, you can see how influential you are, but also what other influencers (i.e.: with a high Klout score) are saying about you. It is very important to monitor the online reputation for a Hotel since everything is done through internet nowadays, very few goes to a travel agency to get reviews about a hotel, but everybody Google it, and read about what is told. As social medias are ubiquitous today, Klout is a good tool for a hotel to know which place it takes in the social networking universe. Seesmic: Seesmic is a dashboard that gathers all your social networks in one single page. As the monitoring online is crucial to maintain a good online reputation, and since there are more and more tools everyday to do that, Hotelier are released thanks to Seesmic. They don’t have to run after the information, but only to keep an eye on their Seesmic page, that sums up all their social interaction. What actions would be needed to put the tools in place, in a Hotel? • • •

For both these tools, the preliminary actions would be first obviously to create accounts at least on Facebook and Twitter (and other if the Hotel wants to) The second thing to do is to create an account on these tools’ websites, then it will gather all your social networks pages Third and lastly, the Hotel will have to watch out closely these two pages, (Klout and seesmic) since it sums up the general activity he may have: Klout by quantifying and scoring the activity, and Seesmic by gathering the different pages.

What problems would the use of the selected tools solve? Klout: Klout will help the Hotelier to understand the impact of his actions online. A lot of people chat, tweet, blog, etc. but they don’t get why it can either be succesfull or a huge failure. Thank to this measuring tool, they will now know what to do to have a reputation enhanced. Seesmic: Seesmic allows people who are not used to these new trends to have a simpler way to manage their online activities. It is easy to use, and is updated in real time, so there is no more difficulty to manage 3 different pages.

What problems would the selected tools create? Klout: The scoring system can prejudice hotels who are performing, but not enough to get a 85 score. So it gives a good and accurate idea about what your influence represents, but people must not stick only to this score. Seesmic: Gathering all social pages can also be dangerous because by treating 2 or 3 social medias the same way, you will decrease the quality of your posts. Users and especially hoteliers should keep in mind that even if they log in One page and have only One interface, Seesmic actually deal with more than One single social media Why did you selected these specific tools I have chosen these two tools because to me, for people who are not very familiar with these new tools, as most of the Hoteliers in France, Klout and Seesmic can be helpful. Klout quantifies your online activity and generates a influence score, and Seesmic gathering your different pages so you don’t have to manage several different sites, but one unique page.

IV - Definitions Tweets: Is the equivalent of a Post in Tweeter. It is limited to 140 letters.

White Label: A White label is a when a company produce something that another company or brand markets as if she has done it herself.

Social Media: Are basically all the tools and website that allows to share something with other interested people.

Aggregator Site An aggregator site is a site that gather information about one certain topic from different other website. The aim is to help people to find an aggregation of information about what they are looking for

Location Based Service (LBS) Is a serve that enable people to share with their community the place where they are. You can also know were you friend are in the real time, and even meet, or just know what is going on around you.

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