Recently, there has been some discussion in the SEO community regarding traditional link-building methods in the face of the new updates from Google.  With link building coming into full-focus again, it is important to refresh your link-building strategy and realign it with the overall goals of your online marketing campaign.  We have already given you a link-building 101 refresh with ideas on how to earn links with partners in other industries, so I'm here to tell you another non-traditional way to get quality links and positive publicity.

Hotels can take advantage of link building with business relationships that are already established through your sales, catering, and events teams. While these teams play an integral role in hotel business, they are often overlooked because of the "heads in beds" focus in the industry.  However, the business brought in by the sales, events and catering team offers low hanging fruits of link building opportunities that are ripe for the picking! I'm here to give you a few non-traditional link building tips that can easily help you leverage your efforts by strengthening existing business relationships.

Every time you host an event at your hotel, you could be missing out on a number of link building opportunities.  It doesn't matter whether you are a small boutique hotel or a convention property, or whether you are hosting an annual convention, company retreat, sales presentation, theme party or formal affair.  Regardless, these tips will help make sure you are getting the most online marketing value from your existing business relationships and the events that you host on property.

1. Websites for groups and events - During the sales and event planning process, make sure that your sales managers inquire about the online status of events or groups that will be coming in-house.  Ask if the group has a webpage and if they have a separate landing page for the event that you are hosting at the hotel.  If they do, ensure that your hotel name, address, phone number and website address are listed on the event/group webpage.  You can also provide a link to the custom group webpage on your hotel's website or a booking widget for that group, which allows attendees looking to easily make a reservation.
2. Social media channels for groups and events - In the same conversation about the status of the group's website, ask if the group is active on social media.  If they are, make sure to give them permission and encourage them to link to your social media channels.  In promoting the event on Facebook, encourage the client to link to the hotel's profile page, post on the hotel's wall, and tag any pictures of the event with the hotel's location.  In promoting the event on Twitter, encourage the client to use the hotel's handle (@username), create a hashtag (#sample) for the event that both the client and you as the hotel can follow, and tell the event attendees to do the same. Now, when we talk about link building strategies we usually talk about inbound links (links on other channels pointing to our website) more so than outbound links (links from the hotel pointing to other websites).  Social media is one platform that can benefit from using outbound links.  In order to gain more social media exposure, a good practice is to promote events, groups, meetings, and weddings through our social media channels, with the permission of the client.  Outbound links to the client's social media profiles allow you to promote the event to attendees, engage with them while they are on property and ask for feedback or offer assistance during the event. This is just another avenue to get the word out about your social media presence and extend your online presence.  With sales and event managers often preoccupied with managing the group on property, it is easy to forget that the attendees are engaging with the hotel in online areas while they are on property.  By working together with the event planners to create a hashtag for the event and promoting that for attendee use, you can easily track what the attendees are saying about the event and their experience at the hotel.  Monitor your hotel's Foursquare account to see who is "checking-in" at the event and engage with those guests to ensure they are having a good time and offer assistance if needed.
3. Vendors associated with the in-house group - In getting to know a client--whether it be a couple that is hosting their wedding ceremony and reception at your hotel, a family hosting a bar or bat mitzvah, or charity hosting a banquet or silent auction--most hotels allow outside vendors to contribute to the production of an event.  These vendors include florists, photographers, bakeries, dance lesson companies, or caterers who most likely have web pages and are active on social media.  By learning about the different vendors with which you will be working and co-coordinating, you can easily cross-promote services, build links, and increase engagement.  Another important factor in linking with vendors is the ability to share and link firsthand imagery and photography on both your social media outlets and on your webpage.  Get permission from the event hosts to take pictures of the event and post them on your website and social media channels. You can also ask them to tag their own photos at your hotel along with the other vendors that they have used.

These outreach tips are much easier to implement than other traditional linking methods and are a great way to cross-promote groups, meetings, and events at your property. All of these interactions provide valuable publicity and strength in your online marketing campaign, particularly within a given in-house group. There's also a good chance that your competitors aren't doing this type of link building, so it's an excellent way to set yourself apart from the crowd.

In an increasingly technologically savvy world, it has become second nature for both business and leisure travelers to turn to the internet to research for a hotel destination, whether through a search engine, social media channel, brand website or online travel agency.  The internet has made it fast and easy to research properties, view photos, read traveler reviews, and compare rates from virtually anywhere--at desktop computer in their own home, on their mobile phone or on a laptop computer.  With the increased availability and access to information, hotels are not the only ones controlling their brand image and the content available to travelers and consumers.

The growing sophistication of online marketing in the travel industry has created more sophisticated consumers, who cut through the hype and marketing provided by a hotel and seek out independent opinions and reviews as their most influential source of information.  In a recent survey conducted by TripAdvisor and Forrester Consulting, 81% of travelers said reviews were important when deciding which hotel to book, and almost half said they wouldn't book a hotel unless it had reviews.

The relationship between OTAs, review sites and hotels has always been complicated, but with the proper knowledge and practices, the hotel and third party sites can grow to have a loving, successful relationship!  A major part of regaining control of the content about your hotel and making a significant impact in the minds of travelers is to respond to the reviews that travelers have posted online, often known as reputation management.

Here are Blue Magnet's top tips on how to respond to online traveler reviews of all types--the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Until proven guilty, assume all reviews are real and true

Do your due diligence in investigating each review.  If a guest review is negative, investigate the issues presented by the guest and take the necessary steps to get to the bottom of the issue.  Look to see if the guest issued a complaint while on property and ask your Director of Operations if there have been any issues in any departments that could attribute to the review.  There are going to be false and misleading reviews posted about your hotel, but it can only help your cause by taking the high road and treating these reviews as real.  If you do discover that the review is false, be sure to report it to the site with all of your supporting information in order to have the review removed as soon as possible.

Take a deep breath before submitting a response

It is easy to get defensive about your property and the criticism that a reviewer posts publically.  But remember, you are representing the hotel brand, the property and all of its employees.  Your response should demonstrate that all feedback, both positive and negative, is important to you by being polite and professional.

The guest is always right...online

No matter how much you believe this to be true or false deep down in your gut, your public online response must address the needs and concerns of the guests first.  For example, a guest writes a review that they were unable to control the temperature of their room because the directions on how to use the thermostat were hard to understand.  If you were to look at the directions, as part of the hotel staff they might be clear to you since you are familiar with the thermostat system.  However, the guest is always right and there is usually a kernel of truth to extract from their experience, which you can use to improve your product.  Take the opportunities that guest reviews provide to reevaluate the issues that guests bring up to strengthen your property thus enhancing the guest experience.

The following steps will help hoteliers structure their property's online reviews and manage their online reputation more effectively:

1. Sign up for notification emails
   Most consumer review sites allow management to receive notifications when a new review is posted. Ensure that the correct members of your hotel staff are signed up to receive these notifications and are available to act on behalf of the property. Preferably, a hotel's response should be sent from the General Manager, Hotel Manager or Director of Guest Services.
2. Respond in a timely manner
   Once you receive a notification that a new review has been posted, respond as soon as possible.   This demonstrates to the guest that their feedback is important and that you value customer service.
3. Remember one of the first rules your mother taught you: "Say please and thank you!"
   The very first line of the response should read:
   
   "Dear [insert the username of the traveler to make it personal], Thank you for taking the time to write a review on [insert name of travel website].  We truly appreciate your feedback regarding your stay with us at [insert the name of your property] [and include the time/date of the stay if the review mentions it]."
   
   It is important to express your genuine appreciation to guests who have taken the time to sit down, type out and submit their review about their experience at your property--good or bad.
4. Highlight the positive
   Highlight the things that the guest noticed/appreciated during their stay.
   
   "Thank you for your kind words regarding the service you received from our Front Desk Guest Service Agent and the Bellman.  We pride ourselves on superior customer service and I am glad to see that these team members went above and beyond to make your stay more comfortable.  I'll be sure to share your feedback with them and their supervisors."
5. Address specific complaints
   If the guest voices a complaint, your response should include an apology and direct acknowledgement of the specific complaint.  You should also include a description of the action you are taking to improve the situation and what the guest can expect during their next visit.
   
   "I'm very sorry for the inconvenience you experienced when housekeeping did not refresh your room or provide clean towels or new amenities.  I will address your concerns with the Director of Housekeeping to ensure this situation is avoided in the future.  During your next stay with us, please do not hesitate to call down to the front desk and inform them of the situation as they will be happy to make sure a room attendant addresses your room right away."
6. Be original and transparent
   Avoid using a cookie cutter response for all reviews by personalizing your comments to each response you receive. This will demonstrate to the guest that each individual review and all feedback are important to you and that you took the time to actually read the review.
7. Don't offer public service recovery
   If a review is bad enough it warrants a very personal response. Take the conversation offline.  Provide a direct phone number or an email address where the person can contact you directly about the issues they experienced.  Since online channels protect the anonymity of the reviewers, management is not able to get the direct contact information of the guest.  By providing your contact information you are inviting the guest to have their comments directly heard and addressed by the management.  This will help you resolve the issue faster than working through the online system and it will alleviate the potential for miscommunication.
   
   "Dear Traveler, Thank you for taking the time to write a review on TripAdvisor.  We truly appreciate your open and honest feedback about your experience at our hotel over the holiday.  I'm very concerned with the comments you made specifically about the appearance of bedbugs in your guest room and I would welcome the opportunity to address your comments personally with you over the phone.  Please feel free to call me at your earliest convenience.  Your satisfaction and well-being are of most importance to us and we hope to rectify the situation as soon as possible.  Thank you."

According to TripAdvisor, 50 million travelers are utilizing the site every month, so it is crucial to your hotel business to be an active part of the online correspondence.   Management responses give you the opportunity to engage with your past guests and market your property to future guests.  Industry research shows that management responses are highly influential with travelers during the booking process.  When an owner responds promptly and professionally to a review, addressing any specific complaints as well as the positive comments, it can make a big impact on prospective customers!  While responding to reviews might seem like a trivial, grass-roots public relations effort, it does make a strong impression on travelers when it comes time for them to book.

"In the United States alone, hotels represent more than 5 billion square feet of space, nearly 5 million guest rooms, and close to $4 billion in annual energy use. Business meetings in the United States constitute a $175 billion industry, and Americans make more than 400 million long-distance business trips each year." - United States Green Building Council

Take a look at those numbers and think about the environmental impacts of the hospitality and travel industry. All hotels, whether a big box hotel or a boutique hotel, have a considerable opportunity to lessen their carbon footprint and make a positive impact on the green movement. Each area of a hotel--guest rooms, event space, back of house operations and general facility use--have operations that can have negative environmental impacts. Energy and water efficiency, waste reduction and management, sustainable and local purchasing, and use of alternative transportation are all areas that offer opportunities for better cost efficiency and environmental efficiency. The most recent topic that has been considered in the green movement is the status of human health. Hotels can contribute to this cause by providing healthy, comfortable, and productive indoor environments with improved air quality, locally and organically grown food, access to daylight, and guest control of lighting and heating control in guest rooms.

In order to stand out in today's marketplace and in the hospitality industry, hotels can now attain a certification for their eco-friendly practices. As of today, the most prominent green building certification a business can achieve is a LEED-certification. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is an independent, non-profit, third-party rating system established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). By becoming a LEED-certified property, hotels provide numerous benefits for the environment.  In turn, hotels reduce operating costs gained from energy efficient practices and utility cost savings, while also attracting a widely growing population of eco-conscious guests.

How can my hotel become LEED certified?

When it comes to achieving LEED certification, Kermit the Frog might have said it best back on the very first episode of Sesame Street when he sang, "It's not easy being green."  He of course meant it in the literal sense, but this phrase has been used by some to describe the process of achieving environmentally-friendly certifications.

The LEED certification process can be tedious, time-consuming, and costly, but the benefits of this certification outweigh the costs tenfold when you look at the long term effects on the environment, the human health element, and your hotel's bottom line.  Let's take a look at the steps towards becoming LEED certified:

• Step One: Begin the process by registering your LEED project online and submitting an application fee.
• Step Two: After you are registered, the hotel must assemble a project team to demonstrate the sustainability of its property through documentation.  The USGBC provides forms to enter in the information about the hotel's eco-initiatives, procedures and characteristics.  The hotel itself decides on the time frame that it would like to use to gather the documentation and put together the full application.  This process can take anywhere from six months up to two years.
• Step Three: Once all of the documentation has been collected and the forms completes, the LEED application can be submitted online along with a second fee that is reflective of the size and complexity of the property and project.

Levels of LEED certification:

The LEED certifications depend on a 100-point scoring system.  In order to attain the lowest level of certification a hotel must meet a minimum of 40 points. Whether you are building a brand new hotel from the ground up or are currently operating a full service hotel, LEED certifications are available for new construction or existing buildings.  The four levels of certification based on the qualifying points of the 100-point scale are:

• Platinum: 80 points or higher
• Gold: 60-79 points
• Silver: 50-59 points
• Certified: 40-49 points

There are seven different categories in which your hotel has the opportunity to earn points.  These categories are as follows:

• Sustainable Sites
• Water Efficiency
• Energy & Atmosphere
• Materials & Resources
• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Innovation in Operations
• Regional Bonus Points

Why should I strive to be a LEED-certified hotel?

LEED certification is fast becoming the standard in the hospitality industry.  By focusing on environmentally friendly practices there are multiple benefits for both the hotel and guests.  From cost savings to the positive publicity surrounding the green movement, a LEED certification can bring substantial business to your hotel. The Hotel & Conference Center Environmental Questionnaire located at the end of the Green Venue Selection Guide is a perfect tool to help you get started in the green certification process.  This questionnaire can help you outline your property's progress on key environmental metrics in LEED certification.  Check it out and get your hotel started on the path to LEED certification!

For more information visit: www.usgbc.org/hospitality

Congratulations! You’ve taken the big leap and jumped into the unknown and ever-changing (sometimes overwhelming and scary) realm of social media.  You have read and understood the importance of social media, you’ve created captivating and useful content, and now your social media outlets sit anxiously waiting those fans and followers like a new hotel awaiting its first guests.  However, what happens when you’ve spent all this time, energy and money in learning about social media, creating and implementing a strategy, and are finally ready to see your efforts through to fruition with no fans or followers to tweet or post?   Part of your social media strategy should include creative ways to get your ONline channels in people’s OFFline views.

How to Promote your Social Media Efforts Offline:  Let Guests know you are Online

When asking guests how they heard about a hotel, the majority of those surveyed replied from a friend or family.  Social media is the perfect tool to strengthen this response and increase word of mouth communication.  Here are six ideas to help promote your online efforts to the offline community.

1. Create a QR code

As Blue Magnet Interactive has demonstrated in our posts, a creative QR code can have various capabilities for a hotel.  One of these capabilities is to bring offline activity online – specifically to your social media sites.  Most people have seen these and aren’t quite familiar with how to use them, but they are slowly gaining understanding and popularity. Create a QR Code (Quick Response Code) to connect to the hotel’s Facebook and Twitter pages and then prompt the guest to become a fan or follow the page. Build a better fan base on social networks and create current dialogue on the site with guests.  This QR code can be used in conjunction with the other popular social media icons which we will talk about in a second.

2. Social Media Decals

When your guests first arrive on property, they’ll pass through the entrance to your hotel.  A subtle way to introduce your social media presence is to purchase social media decals to adhere near your hotel entrance.  This will notify guests as soon as they enter your property that you are present on social media.  An added bonus of these decals is that if you are located in an urban area, passersby will also notice these subtle decals and be able to follow your social media channels.  Social media decals are available to purchase online and can include your social media username, web address, or QR code to get people to your online site fast.  Popular social media decals are utilized for Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare.

3. Electronic Picture Frames at the Front Desk

One of the first things that guests do upon arrival to a hotel is check-in. Some hotel brands feature electronic picture frames at each guest service agent station at check-in.  Here hotels feature pictures of guest rooms, opportunities to up-sell executive levels or suites, photos of the pool or fitness center and other amenities/special offers.  This is a perfect opportunity to create a slide showcasing the hotel’s Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, or YouTube account names.  Each social media channel could be displayed as a separate slide or combined into one single slide.  If the guest sees the slide and mentions it to the GSA, this could be a perfect segue into further explanation of what the hotel’s social media channels can offer the guest– and the guest will be more likely to engage with your social media channels during their stay.

Another idea promotion idea involving the front desk includes having a guest check-in on Foursquare and showing that check-in to the GSA, which could result in a exclusive amenity or coupon for that guest to use during their stay.

4. Electronic Key Cards or Key Packets

If guests miss the electronic picture frame or your property does not have those, you can still capture the guest’s attention upon check-in by printing the social media icons or QR code on the guest’s room key packet or on the keycard itself.  Since guests will have their room key on them at all times, this will help remind the guest to go onto your social media outlets when they have a moment.  You can also use the key cards or key packets to promote outlet specials or other property amenities.

5. Printed Material/Signage in Guest Rooms

Once a guest arrives at their guest room, most will look around the room to inspect it to make sure it is up to their standards, figure out the amenities and get comfortable.  Printed material placed in the guest room is the perfect place to add the social media icons that won’t intrude on a guest's stay.  Information about the hotel history, hotel amenities, and local area attractions is usually located in a binder in each guest room.  Make sure there is printed material either in the information binder or on the desk/dresser area that has the QR code you created and the social media account addresses listed so guests can easily access those from their guest rooms.

These subtle hints will remind guests that they can interact with the hotel through various outlets.  Also, if the guest has a problem and posts about it on social media during their stay, the hotel has a better opportunity to catch it and enact service recovery while the guest is still on property.

6. Electronic Reader Boards

Similar to the concept presented for the electronic picture frames at the front desk – electronic reader boards are a great use of digital advertising space.  Create a slide or a banner ad that can be displayed on the electronic reader boards on property.  Conferences, groups-in-house, or transient guests will look at these reader boards for information regarding maps, meeting agendas, and see the advertisements for social media.

Tips to Remember to Include in your Online Marketing Strategy:

Social Media Icons Displayed Prominently on your Website

Depending on your brand guidelines and brand web pages, this option might not apply to all hotels.  However, this is a very vital link that will help you drive the most traffic to your social media sites.  Your social media icons/links should be prominently displayed on your hotel website.  You could even include just the “Like” button from Facebook or the “Follow” button from Twitter if you wanted to ensure that your potential guests stayed on your website and visited your social media sites at a different time.

Social Media Links in your E-mail Signature

All hotel team members that have an email address should have a uniform email signature.  On this signature, be sure to include your standard contact information, a link to your hotel website, a small photo banner of your hotel and links to all of your social media outlets.  These links can be in the format of written out links such as facebook.com/yourhotelusername or the recognizable social media icons.  This will provide a direct link for your email contacts to find you on social media.

As fellow Blue Magnet team member Katharyn said best: "Social media is word of mouth marketing at its best!" Word-of-mouth marketing can drive significantly higher traffic and value to your business. Make sure you implement the proper offline marketing strategy to enhance and power your online marketing strategy. The suggestions I provided will only help strengthen your connection with customers by letting them know you have a presence on social media channels with which they can engage and benefit.