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?
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