Social Media Ambush

We all “hear it through the grapevine” theoretically, although today’s grapevine is much different from the original. Today, our grapevine consists of texts, apps and everything Internet. The phenomenon of Twitter and Facebook have transformed keeping in touch to knowing about anything and everything at anytime. These mediums of communication are the perfect tools for virtually any industry dealing with customers, especially the hospitality industry.

The age-old question for the hospitality industry is: How do you make guests happy and make them want to stay with you again? Well, you need to know what they want and need and how they feel. What’s the easiest and best way to find that out? Simply join the millions of other people around the world using social media. Think about it. These are free sites allowing access to peoples’ everyday lives from all over the world. You have feedback within a few clicks.

Two recent articles, one from the Wall Street Journal and the other ehotlier.com, prove confusion in the area of social media in relation to the hospitality industry persists. The WSJ hits several added benefits to using Twitter, Facebook and TripAdvisor, like freebies and improved service, but there is much more to that story.

The other article believes it is wrong to get perks and complain through tweeting. He feels that social media should not be used for business and is merely a social outlet. Social media has turned into a business tool and few would oppose using a free and public tool in order to prosper. Looking at the big picture of social media in the hospitality industry, you can find many valuable and worthwhile benefits beyond the responses and complaints.

Being a so called, ‘army of sleuths’ at McConnell Marketing, our clients have ventured into this Internet playground and have seen some outstanding results due to our social media managing and monitoring. We have found commenting through social media can be an effective marketing communications tool. Besides the freebies and better service, it is the best way to share information about events, upcoming activities and attractions near the hotel. By having these pages, it is one of the best ways to gain more awareness and have our information sent to the people who it impacts. As for followers, we aim to capture the attention of friends and followers that were previous guests and have other ties to the hotel or area, such as the WSJ article suggests. And if the guests like the hotel, they will most likely pass it on to their friends and followers, hence the unlimited online grapevine. A hotel’s online presence has the opportunity to post photos, videos, information about contests, and special packages and hotel upgrades, so that we keep the guests informed and excited to stay with us.

Using Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, Facebook and TripAdvisor, our clients have several outlets to gain new guests and feedback. To say that a negative remark is a reason not to have one of these pages is an invalid point. What the author does not see is that those comments are what helps the hotel improve. The reviewer must certainly take discretion in social media because everyone has a different opinion. Some hotels, like the WSJ mentions, even use Twitter as a more effective way to correct issues during busy times.

With social media, it is all about how the hotel is going to use it. If the hotel uses it effectively, it has a profound impact. With about half of all travelers using the internet to find a place to stay, a hotel without presence on these sites are losing the battle of gaining and keeping guests. I understand that social media can have some interesting topics and not all of it can be good, but in reality, that’s isn’t a big enough piece of the puzzle to rule out the idea.

You can check out these articles and form your own opinion. What do you think?

Top 10 Tips for Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

10. Timing is Everything: Remember that not only frequency, but also times, dates, and days of the weeks are important when delivering emails. Instead of sending emails in the middle of the night – which are more likely to be misinterpreted as spam – business to business emails are best sent during regular business hours, from Tuesday through Thursday.

9. Customization is Key: By using a variety of subject lines and customizing email content, you can avoid flooding corporate servers with emails that sound too much like spam. Likewise, tailoring your content to match specific sub-groups can boost effectiveness and make your message more relevant to recipients.

8. Don’t Forget to Follow Up: Immediately follow up with the results of your email campaign as you would with a regular email. Waiting a few days or a week makes your response seem delayed or impersonal.

7. Steer Clear of Spam Phrases: Using words like “free” or “discount” or ALL CAPS text in the subject line can easily look like spam or come off as “cheesy.” Also, it is best not to use words like “remove” or “unsubscribe” when including instructions to unsubscribe.

6. Check Your Spam Score: Services like www.thecassiopeia.com can provide ways to track and regulate your email’s spam score.

5. What’s the Tradeoff?: While tracking “open” and “click through” rates, etc. may be time-consuming, the payoff comes in knowing that your email is less likely to look like spam and more likely to reach its intended recipient.

4. More Options, More Response: Giving your recipients a variety of ways to respond via email, phone, or even by visiting a website, increases the likelihood that they will do so.

3. Dedicate Your Domain: Besides helping you stay organized, this prevents your primary domain or company from ever receiving email complaints from your marketing campaign. For example, if your main website is www.xyz.com, use a domain like www.xyz-email.com for your marketing campaign.

2. Make it Personal: Emails that look like they were sent from a colleague or fellow professional are less likely to be dismissed. Opening with the recipient’s name and ending with a signature are excellent ways to do this.

1. Compliance is Necessary: The CAN-SPAM Act, a set of laws that governs the proper requirements and procedures for commercial messages, protects recipients from unwanted emails and gives them the right to opt-out of email campaigns, etc. For more information, visit www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm

Macaroon, Macaron. Tomato, Tomâto.

The word is out; if you want your macarons to be the talk of the town, make sure you put the little French pastries in a box designed by McConnell Marketing. The tasty treats are on the rise due to their recent portrayal as the “it” snack in the world of pop-culture. Anybody who is somebody now makes sure they polish off a box of the delicious dessert cookies after their dinner course. Proof of this is the large demand for macarons at some of the most upscale restaurants across the country. Most notably the macarons at The St. Regis’ Adour restaurants are being touted as the best around.

They have become so popular among patrons that Adour needed to have take-home macaron boxes designed for those who could not get enough, and wanted to continue nibbling at home. Adour by Alain Ducasse at The St. Regis New York was quick to call us for a stylish solution to their new cookie box venture. McConnell Marketing came through with a chic design for Adour that created a buzz among guests and increased the demand for a take-home order of macarons. NPR picked up on the macaron hoopla and featured a story during their broadcast.

Power Switch

Marketing is changing. Back in the day, companies spent a pretty penny on controlling their image without much trouble (barring tough competition). Back then, if you had the money, you could build a marketing strategy strong enough to propel your brand into the mainstream public consciousness (regardless of the quality of the product being advertised). These days, the Internet has made it possible for anyone to reach the masses on the cheap. While this is a good thing in many ways, it also leaves hotels vulnerable to the whims of (sometimes angry) average joes, armed with laptops and decidedly not on the company payroll.

So how much stock do potential guests put into the musings and reviews of their peers? As one of those potential guests, I can say with confidence: we take peer reviews seriously. Case on point: next week I’m heading to Vegas, so I checked Yelp for restaurant reviews. I trust Yelp because real people (without agendas) provide honest, no-holds-barred reviews. I'm sure sometimes the system is abused, but it has yet to steer me wrong after several trips all over the country.

Like so many others, I check out the user-submitted (cell phone-quality) photos of the restaurant's eats before planning my meal. Ever find yourself thinking that the food you see on television never looks like real-life? Its amazing what you'll find when you strip the stylization out – the truth is revealed. Take, for example, the following two pictures. One is a professionally staged and stylized photo, while the other was snapped from a camera-phone and shows the real food one can expect.

There is no stopping the momentum change. Either accept that control is being shifted, or brace yourself for the consequences. Besides unappetizing photos from the restaurant for the world to see, hotel guests are reviewing the speediness of room service, the friendliness (or unfriendliness) of the staff, even the water pressure in the shower. Time has come for marketing to meet operations to ensure a positive brand image.

Because of this change, McConnell Marketing designed systems like reputation management, social media packages, and mobile marketing technologies to make interaction between guest and hotel easy to design, execute and monitor. Your guests are out there talking; do you want to join the conversation?

McConnell Marketing Monster Mash

Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures from McConnell Marketing dance and sing to celebrate Halloween!

See our sweet dance moves at http://bit.ly/7nOYx

Speaking of Halloween treats, what is your favorite Halloween candy? And what was your best costume current or past?

Some of our favorite candy includes frozen Snickers, bottle caps, Kit Kat, Butterfinger, candy corn, and DOTS! Our best costumes include an Amish family, nightstand (complete with lamp), Ash from Evil Dead, Chipotle Burrito (wrapped in foil), pirates, and cowboys.

Happy Halloween from your friends at spooktacular McConnell Marketing.

Busy, not blogging

The absence of Mm blogs as of late is certainly not due to a lack of things to say. For anyone who knows our team, someone always has a comment about something. We’re busy. Yes, that’s right. We serve the struggling hi-end luxury hotel market and we’re very busy. Our clients have taken the strings off their wallets and are once again spending on marketing.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that “Hotel investors seem to be betting the current, prolonged recession is creating a pent-up demand for travel that will push hotel occupancy rates and revenues to soar in the recovery that follows. Marriott's revenue per available room fell 19% in the third quarter, but its share price has gained 109% since the March 9 market bottom.”

The article went on to portray a bleak picture of the hotelier future, but we’re hopeful. With clients ranging from InterContinental to Best Western, in locations from Scottsdale to Orlando, it seems that there is some positive business momentum. Stalled projects have gotten legs and new proposals are being requested all the time. Kudos to our awesome Director of Business Development AND to those of you who’ve decided to march forward and market. We’re very blessed.

Dream Client

As a part of my internship here at McConnell Marketing, Eric gave me the task of compiling a list of local prospects, to whom I would send a packet and eventually try and set up a meeting with. This got me thinking, if I could pick from any company in the U.S. to work with, who would it be?


After some thought, I narrowed my list down to Under Armour. As a sport lover, it would be a dream come true to be able to work with such a company. So I ask you, what is your dream company to work with?