Baert Cynthia
Final Exam first semester: Digital Marketing
1. Read the entire article linked below – then choose one Resolution that you think would have the most + positive impact on a hotel's internet success http://www.hospitalityebusiness.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/HeBS-BestPractices-2011-Social-Media-Resolutions1.pdf
Provide your analysis: Why do you feel this particular Resolution is most important – for what types of hotels I think that the resolution of putting fresh content on the Twitter page is one of the most important resolutions because by adding new content on a regularly basis, you show your fans and customers that you care and that you are interested in building a good relationship with and not only attracting them in order to make more money. By posting something new, fans are even more interested by your hotel and will really be attracted to try and it is 100% benefit for the hotel. Actually this is the key element of every sales strategy. Be sure that your customers feel at ease, be implicated, keep everything interesting and fans will grow and your success will grow even more. From my point of view, hotels that have to use this resolution are luxury hotels. As we see today’s world, we realize that everything is getting more and more expensive and hoteliers have to really compete on the market. Mostly luxury hotels have to be active on the social media to assure the customers about their quality and to attract more customers.
What additional actions would give that Resolution even greater impact – drive more impressive results In addition to putting new content on a weekly basis, it would be good for hoteliers to put more information about their daily routine on their twitter page. For instance, hoteliers could post the “menu du jour” on twitter in order to see what customers think about it. This would be a good way to create feedback. Customers would feel much more implicated and happier if they could give advice. Whether it would be positive or negative feedback it doesn’t really matter, although negative feedback in this case would be excellent for hoteliers to improve themselves. I give the example of the menu but there are lots of other things hotels could publish on twitter beside new content (“menu du jour”, events of the day and of the evening, karaoke, etc…)
Research 3 examples of hotels (or other businesses) that are successfully executing this Resolution online Take screenshots of each example Comment below the screenshot how the examples you have chosen supports the selected Resolution
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The Iron Horse Hotel (Milwakee hotel)
The first example is the Iron Horse Hotel. This hotel is on twitter and tweets about every single thing going on in their hotel. For instance, as I showed above, they put on twitter that they opened a library (new content) which is a good to share. It automatically generates feedback from fans who want to give books. Next to this, they also put information about their gastronomic chefs and about the power that went off. This is an interesting page to check.
Hotel Murano
Hotel Murano, as you can see above, uses the new content resolution in the same way as the Iron Horse Hotel. Here they are talking about a new concept for the bar: two happy hours. This is definitely a good way to improve their fan list. As you can see they also tweet open-ended questions on their pages which enables a good relationship with their clients. Even though it is not my selected resolution, I nevertheless wanted to show that this hotel is doing a good job on twitter.
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The Charles Hotel
The Charles Hotel is my third examples that I use to demonstrate the resolution of putting new content on your Twitter page. In this example, the hotel informs the customer about the reopening of on ice cream stand. By putting this on their page they can attract the hotel’s guests and eventually outside customers that follow the twitter page. We can also see that they put regularly new information on their page which allows us to think that they are quite active on the market.
2. From the article, what role does technology play in a hotel's internet strategy success? If you are an independent, limited budget hotel (or business) what steps would you take to compete effectively online? Technology plays an important role in a hotel’s internet strategy success because of the knowledge. Being active on the internet means being aware of everything that is going on; put regular post so that your fans, followers or customers keep being aware of your hotel. Technology evolves very fast and for a hotel being active on the internet, it is important to know the changes. Knowing about technology means having all the tools a hoteliers need to have when having an internet strategy. As an independent limited budget hotel I would first of all be active on the different social media channels as facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc… Second, I would make sure to be active on the social media by posting something at least twice a week. As an independent hotel, I would write engaging posts that would enhance people to go visiting my website and be more interested in what I sell. An other thing I would is to ask questions. For instance if we take the hotel “postiljon” in Antwerp (Belgium), I as manager would ask questions about Antwerp: How many people do know about this city? What is their favorite place in this city? What is their favorite restaurant? Still based on my example, I would share information about the destination itself. I would sell my hotel by giving some interesting excursions to do for tourist.
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Baert Cynthia I would ask my followers their opinion about the website, quality of the rooms or even more other ideas in order to be more competitive and actually create a real relationship with my fans. o
Research 2 hotels or businesses that are creatively reaching customers, without expending large resources – as the large chains are capable of doing.
1. Clean Bottle Clean Bottle started a marketing campaign during the Tour the France. This whole new concept is not just a company that started from scratch and wants to make profit. This company specifies that 10% of their profits go to donations. They have a blog, on which they are very active and put regularly comments.
As many companies they are also on facebook and twitter. The difference is that there posts are quite creative. In the article that I read about social media resolution, they talk about creative posts and here we are. This company posts regularly in order to convince people to think green, live in a healthy way. Next to that they put regularly new tips about how to be efficient, healthy. They are in fact very active on facebook, putting new posts quite often. They have a lot of feedback and this is a very creative way of communicating with people and making sure to enlarge their popularity. They obtained all this by only subscribing on free facebook.
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They are also active on twitter but their posts are not as often and not as creative as on facebook.
3. From the Build Your Own Brand video series – what are they KEY elements to online branding, according to Loic LeMeur? The key elements to online branding: Be as active as possible on the different social medias (create account on twitter, facebook, flicker,‌) Share as many things as possible. Whether it is a location, a sentence, a picture, it doesn’t matter. Just share If you have different pages on different social medias, use the same name and share the same information, as long as it is not noise ( for instance, do not share a conversation from facebook on twitter) Keep attention to not create a loop by sharing information on different social media. The best thing to do is to send information to ping.fm and they will transfer it to the others. Share about something you know really well. Answer to comments whether they are negative or positive because listening is even more important than sharing Read and learn as much as you can in order to share it and enlarge your community of friends and fans. Use videos to share information. You will affect more people because it is more human.
Search 2 examples of hotels or businesses that use the key elements in your point of view. Hilton hotels and resorts is very active on social media, as well as Ritz Carlton. They are respectively active on facebook, Twitter, Flickr, linkedin, as you can see below. I choose the examples of Hilton hotels and Ritz Carlton because they communicate regularly on the social media. Actually they communicate as often as possible which is one of the biggest key elements to respect when branding online. They are already present on four social media channels which is a lot because usually businesses are present on facebook and twitter and stop there.
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Baert Cynthia They use the same name on every channel and they update various things on their channels. For instance, on facebook that put posts about awards. What is also important here is that they posted videos which is important because of the human character. Next to the video, they put all information about their actions and implications and events on their social media.
1. Hilton hotels
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4. From the Build Your Own Brand video series – choose any 2 online tools that were mentioned: user voice/ four square 1. User voice This online tool is often used to know what your customers precisely want. This goes by vote and in that way a company can easily know what your target is. It has benefits for both parties. On one hand, it empowers customers to discuss, feedback and vote about your product or company. On the other hand, it gives the companies the exact information they need to improve themselves and attract more customers. A hotel could use this tool to suggest a new service, or a new event that is coming up to see what the guests answer. Thanks to these feedbacks, a hotel can anticipate and exactly know how to handle in a positive way. Actions that need to be put in place for using these tool, is the sharing of as much as information as possible. At first there is an action needed to get a budget to use this tool, but once the budget is decided, it is all about sharing the information. For instance, a hotel thinks about renewing the menu of their restaurant. By putting this suggestion on uservoice, guests / customers can vote and discuss on whether they like the idea or not. This would solve the problem of unsatisfied customers. Although it will not erase all unsatisfied customers, it will diminish already a lot. This tool gives more visibility for a hotel and the guests. A problem that could occur because of this tool is that a hotel cannot anticipate quickly enough in order to satisfy the customers and that this might create another reason non satisfaction for the customers. I choose this online tool, because I strongly belief that using this, could help improving lots of hotel service through discussion. When I heard about it, I was immediately fascinated by the concept. It is a positive evolution for everyone who want to use it.
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Four Square
Four Square is an online tool used to get more aware about things to do in the city where you are. It gives information about roadmaps, where to go, places where it is the cheapest, the best,etc… This again is a tool that benefits for two parties: on one hand the customer, on the other one the company or in this case the hotel. If you are listed on this tool, it will be easier to create popularity and fans. This would not be a service offered by a hotel but just a tool for the hotel to attract more clients. In order to do so, it is important to subscribe to foursquare. It is only used by phone but as a hotel is only using it to reach customers; this is not of a big importance for us. A hotel will have to get information about how to be listed in this, what they have to pay as fee etc… Thanks to this tool, a hotel could be more competitive as it could give customers more information about cities etc… By being on this tool, it would assure a hotel that whomever has this tool and looks at it will definitely see your hotel and maybe take a look at it and why not even try it out.
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Baert Cynthia The problem with this tool is that we don’t really know how to use it efficiently. Another issue is that a hotel cannot do actions on this tool in order to create more awareness. This could be a huge tool for the development of hotel if certain adaptation can be made in time. That is the reason why I choose this tool. It is complicated but will have positive results in the end.
5. Select 5 of of the following terms. Define in your own words – include a screenshot example of each term
1. White Label : A white label is a product or service that is made by a company but is sold by another one under their own brand.
The brand of Harry’s
The white label called monoprix
2. Rate Parity : Rate parity means that a hotel has the same rating structure on all distribution channels. Hotel Postiljon on Booking.com
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Hotel Postiljon rates on the official website
3. PPC PPC means pay per click. Some companies that publish ads on search engines like google or booking.com pay a fee at every single click a potential consumer does.
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4. Tweets : A tweet is a comment or a post that you put on twitter. By putting a tweet, you will have feedback of your friends or followers.
This is a tweet !
5. Social Media : Social Media is the assembly of all the internet channels through which companies, hotels and people communicate. For instance, Thon Hotels is active on facebook in order to communicate with customers about their new events.
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