Travel Industry Takes Social Media By The Horns

Posted on September 8th, 2010 by

Compared with other industries, the travel sector is ahead of the curve in engaging in social media concluded the USA Today in an article published yesterday examining the travel industry’s utilization of Facebook and Twitter.

Hotels are promoting themselves through bloggers and using social networking sites to gather feedback, monitor trends and provide concierge services. Communication between brands and their customers is proven to increase loyalty.

Hyatt Hotels launched a Twitter account last year to serve as a virtual concierge. Staffers, based in Omaha, Australia and Mumbai, respond to requests and questions within an hour and field queries ranging from where to find good sushi to alerts that a guest will be checking in late. The account has 12,000 followers. Hilton has a similar account.

Joe Palma, a chef at Westend Bistro at The Ritz-Carlton in Washington D.C., uses Twitter to send messages about specials, restaurant news and holiday hours, and to ask fans what they would like to see on the seasonal menu. Last year, he held a contest to select a new fall dessert menu item, and the winner received dinner for two.

In addition to increasing customer loyalty, deals, incentives and freebies offered on social media channels cultivate new customers.

Marriott is launching a campaign in October that invites loyalty program members with large Facebook and Twitter followings to help spread the word about its SpringHill Suites chain. They’ll get free stays and other incentives in return for positive messages sent to their followers.

Social networking is the new advertising frontier. New technologies are even being created to cater to this phenomenon.

InterContinental is working with start-up company Topguest. People who sign up at Topguest’s website can walk into any hotel, restaurant or bar operated by InterContinental and receive a small allowance of the hotel company’s loyalty points. To receive the points, they must alert their “friends” of their location on Foursquare or Facebook Places, two of the most popular location-based social networking tools.

Not everyone is convinced. What about the baby boomers? Are they using Facebook and Twitter? Is there an inevitable loss in the quality of customer service when you substitute social media outlets for human contact?

To read more, check out USA TODAY.

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#1 Reason to Customize Your Facebook Fan Page

Posted on July 30th, 2010 by

This post was originally seen on www.socialmediabeast.wordpress.com.

We had the good fortune of meeting with a high-level exec from Facebook Chicago office yesterday. He was extremely informative and compelling. Sure, that’s his job, but the numbers and facts he shared with us resonate.

Facebook membership is just eclipsing the 500 million mark, with over 60% of members in the US. As he reported, if you exclude babies and kids who aren’t yet computer literate and elderly folks on the other end of the age scale,  1 in 3 American’s are using Facebook. This is an astounding number and compelling for those in business that remain skeptical. As we have been saying for some time, fish where the fish are! Consumers are embracing Facebook at an astounding rate and in astounding numbers. They are talking about everything from baby diapers to where to stay in Puerto Rico. Most importantly, we go on Facebook for referrals and recommendations from friends. Don’t you want to have a presence there in the ever more powerful word-of-mouth arena?

The Faebook Page for business can be an incredibly powerful tool. It’s important to consider customizing that page and using it as a companion to your website’s homepage. Some business’s are even moving toward using the fan page as an alternative to their website since the reach can be enormous. Remember, your website is static while Facebook is dynamic and in real-time. And, consumers “opt in” to it, so your posts are greeting with enthusiasm, rather than dread, as with many advertisements.

A great resource for better understanding the tools and tricks of the fan page is on one of Facebook’s blogs I follow.

Have you gotten creative with your Facebook page? Please share any clever tricks you’ve put in place.

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