Vine is the newest application to sprout from the Twitter family and into the social media scene. The free mobile app is to video what Twitter is to text: a platform built around a content constraint that promotes creativity and viral sharing. Vine’s six seconds of video (and sound! Take that animated gifs!) creates a plethora of possibilities for rapid reach, engagement and influence. High profile Vines include everything from comedy...

to sports...

 and even the White House!

Why Vine?

Blue Magnet has previously covered strategies and tactics for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Foursquare. With a robust market of social media apps, why should hotels consider adding Vine to their social media marketing mix? Social applications are developing into increasingly influential factors of consumers’ brand affinity and purchasing decisions as digital and mobile technology become more pervasive in our daily lives. A 2012 Nielson study of 28,000 global consumers found that the top two most trusted forms of media are earned media (word-of-mouth, recommendations from friends, etc.) and online consumer reviews. These two sources garnered a 92% and 70% trust rating respectively compared to approximately a 45% trust rating for traditional media such as television, magazines and newspapers. Consumers are listening to their friends and family and their friends and family are highly engaged in social media. Digital Marketing Ramblings has a post regarding recent (May 2013) social media usage stats. The numbers may shock you (hello 1.11 BILLION Facebook users)!

With this in mind, marketers need to focus on tactics and platforms which best reach their audience. Regardless of the target, video is the clear cut king when it comes to influence across social networks. A new study from Adobe reports social video engagement has risen to 70% from 42% the previous year. Video content accounts for 77% of all viral reach. Hubspot has posted an excellent infograph which shows that videos on Facebook are shared twelve times more than all text and link posts combined. As the Adobe report points out, offering more video should be the prime objective to fully realize social media potential.

Size It Up: The Good & The Bad of Vine

PROS 

•  Easy to use!
•  Consumers love video
•  Easily shared on Facebook and Twitter
•  Guests generate buzz about your hotel
•  Engaging content

CONS

•  Challenging to consistently create good content
•  Cannot edit what guests are saying
•  Another channel to monitor and manage

Let’s Get It Started!

Download the app and start creating video content right away! When setting up a Vine account, a user can link their Twitter and/or Facebook account. Once registered, on the home screen, select the camera icon to begin. When the viewfinder opens, simply tap and hold the screen to begin recording. Release the screen to stop. After capturing six seconds of video, checkboxes allow you to easily integrate your snippet of video with your Twitter or Facebook profiles.

For a more in-depth look at setting up a Vine account see the CNet video tutorial below or here if you can't view the video:

One Hotel’s Vine Success Story

The hospitality industry has already made its mark on the Vine scene. The Cavendish London Hotel’s #ValentineVine contest has been recognized as the first ever Vine contest:

The contest asked for romantic submissions via Twitter to @Cavendish_Hotel tagged with #ValentineVine. The winning Vine received an overnight stay at the London hotel along with cocktails, dinner, and breakfast. This contest was a great way to engage potential customers. It created a call to action, engaged consumers’ creativity, incorporated a popular holiday, and highlighted the property. In addition, it also generated a significant amount of international press, inherently creating powerful backlinks (from blogs like this one!) to the hotel’s website. 

Wow! Neato! But How Can I Use Vine For My Hotel?

Vine’s fledgling landscape is still untapped. Your hotel marketing team can utilize this opportunity to showcase their imagination, the uniqueness of the property and become a pioneering leader of this social media channel. There are several additional ways in which hotels can differentiate themselves and exercise their creativity by maximizing Vine’s video platform:

• Renovations - Has your property recently undergone renovations? Provide a mini-tour or sneak peeks and build excitement for the new additions.
• In-House Restaurants - Do you have a restaurant you would like to highlight? Use Vine to showcase new dishes, weekly specials, Chef profiles, catering, or events recently hosted at the restaurant.
• Welcome Guests & Groups - Filming a “welcome” Vine for visiting conferences, business meetings, wedding receptions, or family reunions is a great way to show your hospitality, engage attendees, and hopefully receive shares in their social circles.
• Unique Selling Features - On a cold, snowy day, maybe your Denver hotel shows off the crackling fire in the lobby to warm guests up, on a hot day, maybe your resort would do a video of kids splashing in the pool – how else can your hotel show off their best assets and evoke envy on people who are not at the hotel?
• Live Events - Showcase live events at your hotel or bar to use for promotional material. Do you have a live band playing weekly? A themed happy hour during certain holidays like Cinco De Mayo or Halloween?
• Pet Policies - Are pets allowed at the hotel? Show this off with a video of pets checking in!

Be sure to include hastags on every Vine post! People can search for your posts (using tags such as #HotelName) directly on Vine as well as Twitter.

The Future of Vine

Although Vine was only launched in late January 2013, it has enjoyed a more rapid and sustained growth in its first four months than other less robust competitors. According to Onavo Insights, April alone saw Vine take nearly an 8% market share and a 96% active user increase from March! Similar offerings from Gifboom and Cinemagram have seen their user base steadily decline during this same period.

Active Vine users will stay on the rise if developers remain responsive and continue making improvements based on feedback from the community. For example, an April 29 update included user mentions and the much clamored for support of the iPhone’s front facing camera. At the writing of this post, Vine is the #3 free app on iTunes. 

Vine is the next step in social media. The statistics support this--users crave and share videos! Many major hotel brands currently have Vine accounts, but beyond a couple initial posts, few are active. Local properties, such as Cavendish London Hotel, which utilize Vine in its infancy, will likely garner extra buzz and credibility for being early adaptors. This novel new app, with the muscle of Twitter behind it, has the potential to be the next ubiquitous piece of the social media landscape.

Bringing It All Back Home

Consumers have always trusted friends and family when it comes to purchase recommendations, but with the increased reach of social media this source is becoming even more influential. Video is the most significant medium on social media when it comes to viral marketing. Users are drawn to brief, easily shared video clips. Vine is all of the above, essentially everything today’s social media users are looking for. Hotels can use the platform to highlight amenities, renovations, restaurant offerings, special events, and engage customers in contests, promotions, or reviews. Vine, with an appealing and engaging content offering, can raise the profile of your hotel, build a stronger reputation, start earning recommendations from travelers and, over time, drive more bookings!

Recently, Pinterest gave business-orientated users the long awaited insights they’ve been looking for by rolling out “Pinterest Web Analytics.” The Pinterest facelift (which is still slowly revealing itself to users – Mark Zuckerberg style) was generated with users in mind and to differentiate businesses from individuals. Pinterest first introduced business accounts at the end of last year, along with tools to help expand their pinning presence outside of Pinterest (i.e. the “Pin It” button). The most notable changes in the “new look” are the larger pins and the greater accessibility to older pins. Pinterest already generates a large amount of traffic (see “Fast Facts” below), there is substantial room for growth, and the referral ratio is any advertiser’s dream.

Fast Facts: According to Pinterest Insider, as of April 2013, Pinterest has a total of 48.7 million users. In addition, Pinterest hit an independent site milestone, reaching 10 million unique monthly visitors in record time.

Pinterest Web Analytics to the Rescue

It’s clear that companies have long felt the need to be on this particular social media network, but never knew precisely why it was beneficial. Many questions remained unanswered: How do we measure the performance? How does this help my business? What’s the ROI?  While there are already some third party sites and tools available to help facilitate insight, the recent launch of Pinterest’s reporting tool was highly anticipated (and is free for users). Google Analytics can provide insight in regards to referral traffic from the channel, but couldn’t offer any details as to how people were interacting on the social channel itself. Pinterest Web Analytics yields a better understanding on how the users, aka pinners, are interacting with the pins that originated on your website. Not only will you have a clearer understanding of the amount of traffic being driven to to your site, you will know what pins on Pinterest are driving the most traffic. This new tool is an eye opener to companies, helping them to comprehend the type of content that is generating the most interaction and showing how many times a photo was clicked.

Not Just Numbers

Your results aren’t displayed in spreadsheets or tables; Pinterest, of course, ensured that their data was as visually fascinating as your “Places I’d Love to Travel to Board,” by providing engaging graphics pertaining to your content. If you are more interested in the numbers themselves and less in the flashy graphs, Pinterest’s new tool gives you the option to export the data into a CSV file.

The Freeway to Pinterest Web Analytics: Verification Lane

In order to take advantage of the renovations, you must (a) have Pinterest’s “new look,” and (b) a verified business account. In order to be considered a business on Pinterest, you must verify your website. Once your site has been verified, you’ll notice a white check mark in a red circle on your account (next to your URL). After you’ve verified your account, you can find the analytics tool in the menu on the top right of your account, or by visiting pinterest.com/source/yourwebsite.com. If you’d like users to be able to pin items directly from your site, be sure to add the “Pin It” button to applicable areas onto your website itself. Before diving head first into analytics, it’s a good idea to make sure your profile is optimized as well.

One Small Step For Pinterest, One Giant Leap for Marketers Everywhere

Analytics is a big step for Pinterest and adds additional value to your presence on the network. Still questioning why this matters to you? Instead of just pinning for the sake of pinning and appearing “active,” you can now pin according to what your target market interacts with the most. Get inside the heads of pinners who are likely to stay at your hotel! Which of your pins was repinned the most? Which pins are being clicked on? Was it the picture of the wedding you hosted last weekend? The beach located next to your hotel? That picture of the beautifully decorated tuna appetizer? Plan your Pinterest strategy appropriately. Web analytics allows you to choose timeframes you want to see too. If pictures of the sunny hotel pool are re-pinned more in the winter when people are day-dreaming of warmer weather, then you can tailor your content during that time accordingly. If you have the opportunity to tailor the content of your boards to what pinners love most – you should take the opportunity and run with it!

“But I don’t have a business account…”

No problem. Here's how to set up your Pinterest business account today:

1. The first step is making sure you are switched to the new look. If you are not, this can be done by hovering over your account information in the upper right hand corner and selecting, “Switch to the new look,” then click “Get it now.”
2. In the bottom right corner of your Profile box, click on the gray pencil icon.
3. If your website is not in there already, type in the URL and click “verify website.”
4. There are two ways to verify your website (you will need access to your site to verify the account).
   
   1. Option 1: Pinterest will prompt you to “verify by upload,” download the verification file, and then upload the file to your website.
   2. Option 2: Pinterest will provide you with a meta tag that you will then add to theof your index.html file.
5. Hit “Complete Verification” and you should see the check mark next to your URL on your Pinterest page!

Now that Pinterest has given us the tools to answer many of our questions users, we can’t help but ask ourselves, “What’s next?” Will Pinterest come up with ways for the site to create more revenue-generated opportunities? Paid advertisements? Sponsored pins? Stay tuned!

Recently, Mark Zuckerberg and his crew released their third pillar to the ever-changing Facebook platform with Graph Search. Joining the Newsfeed and Timeline, Graph Search was born into a lot of hype, questions, and concerns about its impact on online searches, marketing, and privacy.

Good people of the Hotel Industry, let me guide you through what this means for your business.

Graph Search Overview

First, let’s get acquainted with Graph Search. If there is one thing the Zucklehead wants you to know, it’s that Graph Search is not a search engine. However, Graph search does represent Facebook’s larger efforts to move from just communication sharing to information sharing. With Graph Search, searching for a term will generate relevant results from friends, places, and pages that already exist. For example: you can search something like “friends who like British Airways” or “people that like Florida and live in Chicago” and people that fit that query will appear. The thing that truly makes Graph Search interesting and important to marketers is that the searches being conducted on Facebook are chock-full of intent. The searches are basically polling their friends for suggestions on what to buy, watch, do, etc. This presents huge opportunities to advertisers that can now target audiences at incredible new levels. For example: Joe’s Bed and Breakfast could now advertise to current customers’ friends who are in the market to go on a vacation.

Why It’s Important to Hotels

If I didn’t hook you there, listen up because it gets better. Why should you care? Because Facebook cares. Facebook views travel as inherently social, and they plan on playing a larger role in years to come. They have already taken their first step by hiring the first Head of Travel, Lee McCabe.

Now, we’ve all seen The Social Network so we know Zuckerberg is a smart guy. He’s proving it here again by going after the travel industry with the Graph Search. Where the Graph Search fails with some industries, it fits perfectly with hotels. Google search is probably better suited for inquires about things like doctors or dentists, but hotels are a different beast all together. Graph Search works because people love to share pictures from vacations and talk about their stays. Therefore, finding a hotel based on your friends’ preferences comes naturally.

Here’s where Facebook gets a little creepy. Marketers can also use Graph Search to learn the likes and dislikes of their audience as well as their competitor’s audience. You can search what books they like, what kind of music they enjoy, where they have traveled recently, etc. Once that data is collected, you can base a whole social media strategy off it. Another thing Graph Search enables hotels to do is the see the “check-in’s” and photos tagged at the hotel. These used to be invisible to us as marketers, but by the mighty hand of Zuck, we can now see what kind of information is being shared about our hotel.

Finally, searching has become social. With Graph Search, a higher potential reach can be achieved through user searches. If you are still doubtful that people will actually use Facebook to plan their vacation, I’ve got news for you. It’s already the third most popular use for the Graph Search behind searching for friends and photos. So why is the Graph Search important to hotels? Because people are using it to find hotels. Facebook is right, travel is social, and travelers trust their friends’ opinions. The Graph Search can show them “likes” where search engines like Google can only show them links.

What Now?

Now that we have established Graph Search as a legitimate contributor to online hotel marketing, you may be asking yourself what your hotel should do. The main thing that you need to do is to make sure your page is categorized as “hotels.” It seems simple because it is, but without the correct category, your business won’t be showing up in searches for hotels.

Besides that, things haven’t changed too much in the Facebook game. You still need to optimize your page with cover photos, regular posts, and interaction, and you still need to create an active and engaged audience. Though, the Graph Search does give extra motivation to boost your page’s “likes.” To Facebook, the number of “likes” a page has is an indication of the business’s credibility. Think of it as the wisdom of the masses. Similar to a yelp listing with many positive reviews, pages with more “likes” will be given preference in the search results.

Wrap It Up

In conclusion, no, Facebook will not replace Google. Graph Search is Facebook’s long-term project aimed at bringing a social experience to online searches. Things aren’t very different yet, but that will change. Graph Search has given us a glimpse into the future and a new understanding of what direction the industry is heading. It seems inevitable that the social search will stick around, and just as many methods of online searching before it, it will evolve and take on more importance. As the online travel sector grows increasingly competitive, the more you know and prepare now to optimize your Graph Search visibility, the more successful you will be in the future.            

LinkedIn is often overlooked as a great online sales and networking opportunity for hoteliers. In a recent blog post, I outlined how to begin using LinkedIn as a sales tool. Now that you are aware of several lead generation techniques afforded by this social network, it’s essential to build engagement and enforce your new strategy. But how? For your convenience, I have created a checklist in the form of an infographic that will help hotel professionals effectively utilize LinkedIn and engaging target audiences. Make sure to save this on your desktop, email it to your sales staff or post it on the cork board in your office. Some of these overarching tactics will also be of value to your hotel’s other social media strategies. Now get out a pen, start checking...and selling!

Is your hotel’s Facebook page struggling to grow fans? Do you feel like you are communicating into an empty void on this supposedly social network?  But you’re doing everything you can to achieve the exact opposite results, right?   Sometimes it takes a little more than on-page optimization, creative content and eye-catching photos to get the response and growth you’re looking for.

While there are many ways to remedy these issues, the quickest solution isn’t a new trick or a new Facebook feature; it’s the old hat trick of Facebook ads.  Before you say “I have no idea what Facebook ads are, let alone know how to set them up” or “We don’t have the budget for ads,” hear me out!  Setting up Facebook ads is actually quite simple, and as for cost, you need to try it before you dismiss it, because a little bit of money can go a very long way towards growing your Facebook network.

Facebook ads can be set up under one of two different advertising models: the pay-per-click ad model (a la Google Adwords) or pay-per-impression ad model. Choose whichever model best suits your goals. The ads appear as Sponsored Ads on the right-hand side of the desktop version of a Facebook page.  From the ad a user can click to visit the business page or simply "like" the page without even clicking through to view the business page.  The ads include information on how many people like the page, or if a friend in the user’s network likes the page as well.  This is actually valuable information that helps increase conversions and actions.  Seeing that a friend already likes the page assures the user that this is a recommended page worth liking and clicking on.  Now that we’ve reviewed the placement of the ads and what all is included on the ad, let’s dive into the process of setting them up.

Step-By-Step Facebook Ad Set-up

1. Begin with logging into the Facebook account that has administrator access to the hotel’s page.
2. On the left-hand side click “Ads Manager,” which will take you to your campaign page to set up a new ad.  At the top right corner click on the green button "Create an Ad."
3. On this page it will ask you to select the Facebook destination; meaning which page are you wanting to promote.  Your hotel page should appear below since the account has administrator access.
4. Next you will select what you want to promote, the hotel or a specific post.  In most cases you will select the hotel.  However if you have a particular message you want to get across or to guarantee a certain amount of people see the particular post you would select the latter option.
5. Then choose new ad about the hotel in the “People will see” section.
6. In the next step you set up the actual ad.  The headline is predetermined by the title of your hotel’s Facebook page.  Fill in the ad copy within 90 characters and load an image to be sized at 100 pixels by 72 pixels.
7. The last question in this section asks “Where will people be taken to when ad is clicked?” You can choose the hotel’s timeline or if you have different applications like a welcome page or booking page you could choose those as well.
8. After setting up the ad you need to determine the audience the ads will target.  Target your audience by location (country, state, city, zip), age, gender, precise interests, connections (people already connected to page, people not connected to your page, or opt for advance setting to target people connected to specific pages).  As you fill in these requirements, on the right hand side you’ll see your audience reach update which shows you how many people your target settings will qualify to see the ad.

Hang in there, only a few more quick steps till your ads are complete and ready to run!

1. Now you need to define the objective of your ads.  Do you want to reach people who are most likely to click on your ad and visit your Facebook page, or do you just want maximum exposure to those people who will simply like your page?  Select “click on my ad” to set up the ad on a cost-per-click model since your objective is to have people click on your ad.  The other option, “show ad to people most likely to like my page” will set the ad up on a pay-per-impressions model.  I recommend the cost-per-click model since the goal for most advertisers will likely be to reach fans with a true interest in the page. These are the people that are likely to visit the page for more information and interact with hotel.  Plus, it is easy to control your budget and spend in cost-per-click structure.
2. Finally set a campaign name, budget (cost/day or lifetime budget), schedule (continuously or defined date range), and your bid.  Facebook offers a suggested bid range, however I advise starting on the low end and after a bit if you are not seeing the results you want, you can increase bid later.
3. The very last step to complete the set-up is to click the place order button and add billing information to the account.

Congratulations, you’ve just set up Facebook Ads to promote your hotel to thousands of Facebook users!  Keep reading for additional tips to effectively use the ads to benefit your social media strategies and goals.

Improving the Performance of Facebook Ads

Start by optimizing the ad itself. The ad copy is your first impression and chance to summon the interest of a multitude of Facebook users.  You only have 90 characters to do this so be savvy in writing catchy copy that lets people know what makes your hotel unique with a call-to-action to click on the ad or like the hotel’s Facebook page.  The image on the ad is very small so use this space intelligently as well. Load an image that is of high quality and easy to see in such a small format.

Use the ads to target valuable fans. In a successful social media campaign the account has a large and constantly growing fan base with a genuine curiosity in the business.  By targeting individuals that already have a shared interest in the hotel you’ll be more likely to gain fans that are truly interested in your business with a desire to interact with the hotel on Facebook.  Select precise interests such as the hotel brand, travel, vacation, local area and other relevant topics to the hotel.  Honing in on people with shared interests will have a positive effect on the hotel’s Facebook page in the long run due to increased engagement, to being the top of mind hotel in area, and growing dedicated fans that will not unlike the page weeks later.

Use the ads as a vehicle to promote more than just your hotel’s Facebook page. Facebook ads can and should be used for more reasons than to just build awareness of your hotel and grow fans.  Use the ads for other objectives such as promoting special events happening at the hotel.  Keep Facebook ads in your “distressed inventory strategy” toolbox to promote special offers for dates the hotel needs to drive occupancy.  Create additional hype about the hotel on Facebook by running a contest and use the Facebook ads to reach a large audience for maximum exposure.  Facebook ads will become an essential tool to expand your hotel’s reach, cultivate fans, inspire response and realize successful campaigns.

Don't forget about your non-paid Facebook posts. As powerful as Facebook ads can be for growing fans and increasing interactions, the ads are not to be used as the single voice and activity on the site.  After driving all these new fans to your Facebook page it is crucial to maintain Facebook management best practices to keep the new fans and inspire the desired interactions.  Continue to post frequently about relevant and interesting topics, share photos, and offer great deals to foster long-lasting relationships with your fans.

Monitor your results. As with most pay-per-click campaigns, the ads are not to be set and forgotten about.  Keep a constant eye on your budget and monitor results.  Within the campaign you can run multiple ads to test different copy and images to determine which ad yields the best results.  Increase or decrease bids accordingly to make the most of your budget.  Set goals for your ads such as attaining 50 new fans a month.  Once you reach the goal turn off the ads to save money and restart ads the following month.  By closely monitoring your campaigns you’ll quickly see that you can easily control spend.

There are plenty of benefits to running Facebook ads.  Obviously the ads will bring in a quick and steady pace of new fans.  More fans means more people will see what the hotel is saying.  More eyes on the content increases the potential for even more interactions.  More interactions and engagement with users will increase your organic reach and help the page to grow fans through unpaid efforts at a greater pace than before.  And in the end the hotel can decrease dependency on the ads to acquire new fans, but have the knowledge to use the ads for other objectives when needed.

Many hoteliers are missing out on the opportunity to find valuable sales leads and connections through the social network that some refer to as the "professional version of Facebook." Often an overlooked social media opportunity, LinkedIn can be an extremely valuable networking tool for hotels. As the world’s largest professional social network, LinkedIn is an effective source for connecting with 175 million users, including those with similar educational backgrounds, past and present coworkers, old and new clients, influential industry leaders and potential new business connections. If you don't quite know how to use LinkedIn to your advantage, keep reading to see how your connections can lead to potential business opportunities.

What is a LinkedIn Company Page?

LinkedIn Company Pages provide a single page within the LinkedIn community to represent your business or organization. Businesses are then able to effectively differentiate from the competition by displaying offerings through multiple informational tabs, including: overview, products & services, careers (this is a paid feature) and analytics. In addition, LinkedIn recently announced updates to LinkedIn Company Pages that have made them available on the LinkedIn mobile app, so now professionals can connect with your business on the go!

To get started, here’s a quick breakdown of each tab on the LinkedIn Company page:

• Overview – Use this section to showcase your brand and optimize for keywords (see “Incorporate SEO techniques” section below). With the new page design, the business summary will be displayed at the bottom and a large image will appear at the top. Make sure this image truly represents your brand and makes an impact.
• Products & Services – Showcase your hotel’s special offerings and gather recommendations from clients or business partners on this page. Update with images, video links, links to PDFs, contact information and more.
• Careers – This paid service allows you to share job openings. Other online job boards like Monster or CareerBuilder can result in an excess of unqualified applicants.  LinkedIn allows companies to post job openings for social savvy job hunters and recruit more qualified talent, ideally from within your professional circles.
• Analytics – View graphs of impressions and engagement with your page based on monthly data. The Analytics tab allows you to learn who has visited the page and which areas are of interest to these visitors. Then, turn these viewers into customers or business partners and produce the most effective content in the future.

LinkedIn is a valuable tool for hoteliers. You've likely heard similar praises time and time again about using LinkedIn as a sales tool; therefore, we have developed some guidelines for optimizing your LinkedIn efforts.  In fact, according to a HubSpot study, "LinkedIn is 277% more effective at lead generation than Facebook & Twitter. In a study of businesses using social media, LinkedIn traffic to the businesses’ website resulted in a 2.47% conversion rate rather than the .98% conversion rate of other social media channels."  With that in mind, here are some strategies to consider in using LinkedIn:

LinkedIn Lead Generation Techniques

• Incorporate SEO techniques into your LinkedIn Company Page. Make sure that you are including keywords throughout the profile that relate to your target audience (i.e. “meeting professionals” or “event planning”). By optimizing your page with important keywords and joining associated LinkedIn groups, your hotel is more likely to appear in related search results on LinkedIn. Also, make sure to include links to your company website in order to build authority in the eyes of search engines.
• Join LinkedIn groups in the hospitality industry. LinkedIn groups not only allow your hotel to be identified with target keywords, they also allow your event and sales team to become better connected to other industry professionals. There are currently over 4600 "hotel," 8500 "meeting" and 640 "event planning" related LinkedIn groups. Designate a staff member to participate in various group discussions in order to voice your hotel’s expertise and join in the industry conversation. This is a great space to seek out new partnerships, clientele and referrals. Similarly, join in the conversation on LinkedIn’s answers page where you can connect with business-minded peers, respond to questions, give advice and ultimately gain a following for the business.



Notice that searching for LinkedIn groups bolds your keyword query.  
In this instance, "event planning" stands out for this particular search.

• Create your own LinkedIn group if you are an industry expert. If your hotel or business is leading the area’s meeting and event space industry, this is the perfect opportunity to showcase your expertise. This would also be a great avenue to feed out blog content and other updates to your followers. By demonstrating your expertise in the field and delivering original content, your target audience will become increasingly engaged. However, this is only effective if your company is creating unique content on a consistent basis and actively managing the account.
• Fill out your Products & Services page. This is a great way to showcase your hotel’s room types, special packages, special events, meeting space, catering options, etc. Make sure that these pages are consistently updated along with all of your other online channels as good measure for lead generation. LinkedIn’s new company pages that will make it easier for LinkedIn users to see who recommends your various services. Also, include contact information for your DOS or catering manager so that meeting planners and hosts can easily connect with your hotel. This easy step could eventually be beneficial for generating large group business.



• Use LinkedIn as the networking medium it was intended to be. Encourage sales and event managers to reach out to convention or trade show attendees before and after their live dates. We suggest that hoteliers in this position use LinkedIn to share business connections, answer industry related questions, provide others with marketing or sales collateral and recommend vendors to new contacts. This is a simple way to stay in touch with others in the industry.
• Try out LinkedIn ads. These paid ads are extremely targetable and allow you to pinpoint a specific job title. In contrast, only about 1 of 6 people associate a job title with their Facebook profile, making LinkedIn the more desirable way to connect with professionals. LinkedIn ads are a self-service option that can produce a good ROI due to the targeting options (gender, workplace, location, job title, groups, interests, etc.).
  • Text ads include 2 lines of 75 characters and a 50x50 pixel image
  • Beneficial to call out a specific group in the ad (i.e. “Hey event planners! Join us at our hotel for your next area event.”)
  • Choose between cost-per-click or cost-per-impression (similar to Facebook) with a minimum bid of $2

Once you have effectively completed a LinkedIn Company Page and are developing techniques for gaining leads, it’s critical to stay engaged on the site. Stay tuned for my next blog post, which will include tips for staying engaged with your network on LinkedIn. Remember, LinkedIn isn't only for connecting with coworkers or employees; it is a valuable B2B tool. Nominate someone to keep your hotel’s Company Page informative and engaging. These guidelines will allow you to effectively keep an eye on the competition, connect with business partners and find great new business opportunities. Now that you know how LinkedIn can help generate new leads for your hotel, get started today!

Google knows how to generate buzz for their new products from the get-go, even if that particular endeavor isn't being rolled out to the public until much later. So, while it may seem like all that hype about Google+ back in June 2011 was anticlimactic, Google had a master plan brewing. With Google's strategic approach to put Google+ on the map (both literally and figuratively), it's time to make your hotel's Google+ presence shine above that of your competitors.

The Merge

In recent months we have slowly but surely witnessed the subtle integration of some Google+ suggestions into organic search results. Soon after, Google announced a big change to local search: business listings on Google Places (the standard business listings that appear on a Google Map search) were automatically merging with Google+ Local listings.

This transition reorganized the layout of the photos, content and reviews to align more closely with other Google+ initiatives. It also established a unique plus.google.com URL for each local listing, which allowed for business owners to provide a link directly to the listing. Additionally, it abolished anonymous reviews by requiring that customers log into a Gmail account before leaving a review, adding an element of authority.

Google then proceeded to announce that any local businesses that had joined Google's social network by creating a Google+ Page could finally merge their Google+ Page with their Google+ Local listing. Combining all of these various Google platforms allows businesses to have one standard listing that unifies content and photos across all Google search results, map listings and social channels. Business owners will no longer need to visit multiple local and social pages to monitor their reviews, edit content, upload photos or post announcements. Customers will benefit from businesses establishing one all-encompassing listing because they are more likely to receive accurate information that comes directly from the business itself.

We hope you followed our advice several months ago when we recommended that your hotel jump on the Google+ bandwagon because, now that Google's social media platform is gaining momentum, it's time to ensure that your hotel's Google+ Page is standing out among the pages of your competitors. Follow our suggestions to ensure that you are effectively marketing your hotel on Google+.

Create a Google+ Page for your hotel

1. Before creating a Google+ Brand Page, you will need to create a personal Google+ Profile. Similar to how Facebook brand pages work, the owner of the page must have a personal profile in order to create a Page. Your Google+ profile must be a realistic name rather than a brand name.
2. In the left hand navigation tab, select "Pages " and "Create New Page."
3. When it prompts you to select a category, choose "Local Business or Place." Only Google+ pages set up as a local business are able to merge their page and Google Places listing thus far.
4. Enter your hotel's phone number to locate it on the map. Select the correct listing and confirm your initial information before creating the page.

Merge your hotel's Google+ Page with your hotel's Google+ Local Listing

1. When you view your Google+ Page, Google will boldly publicize that it is unverified and it will prompt you, as an owner of the page, to "Verify your business to be found across Google, including Search and Maps."
   
   
   
   
2. Google will then require that you verify via postcard which may take up to 1-2 weeks. Enter the name of the person at the business who will be responsible for retrieving the postcard.
3. The postcard will contain a PIN that will need to be entered on the Google+ Page to verify that you are indeed the owner and finalize the merge of your Google+ Local and Google+ Page.

Ensure your hotel stands out from the crowd

Just by merging your listings this early in the game you will automatically be ahead of most of your competitors, but don't sit around waiting for the rest of the not-so-tech-savvy world to catch up. Make sure you optimize your listing with relevant information and incorporate creativity to highlight your hotel's unique personality.

Optimize the content

Begin optimizing your hotel's Google+ page by filling in the fields under the about tab such as: Introduction, Hours, Website, Contact Info and Address. In comparison to many other social networks, Google+ provides the business with a liberal amount of creative control when describing the hotel in the Introduction section. For starters, you will probably be relieved to find that there is no character limitation forcing you to pick and choose what information guests may need to know. You can keep your Introduction short and to the point or you can add flowery language and innate details.

As you're inserting the text, take advantage of the basic formatting tools that Google+ provides, such as bolding or italics, to call attention to key phrases, organize your content or insert hyperlinks. In the example below, the hotel uses a bullet point list to make the amenities easily readable and incorporates two direct links throughout the copy to send potential guests to their brand.com home page and the hotel's restaurant page.

In addition to providing a link to the hotel's website, brands can create a list of other URLs they want to link to on their Google+ page, including social media pages. Hotels can use these additional links to grow their social media followers on Facebook or Twitter, to showcase their hotel's photography on Flickr or to captivate guests with video tours on YouTube. If the hotel's restaurant publishes its menu online or takes reservations via opentable, publicize it here! Since this Google+ page is now acting as the Google+ Local page as well, the listing is ideal for capturing customers that search for hotels or restaurants by location on their mobile devices.

Showcase your hotel's personality

Now that you've got the content in there, it's time to get creative! Similar to Facebook pages, Google+ uses a standard thumbnail image (250 x 250) accompanied by a rectangular cover photo (940w x 180h). If you haven't yet opted in to the cover photo, you may still be privy to the 5 square thumbnails in a horizontal row. (It's important to note, once your curiosity gets the best of you and you switch over to the single horizontal cover photo, you will not be able to revert back to the 5 horizontal images.)

As both an hotelier and as a guest, you are probably well aware that hotel photography can be a powerful "make-it-or-break-it" factor when deciding between 2 or more comparably priced hotels. So, take advantage of these first-impression photos on Google+ and provide alluring images that show guests why your hotel should be added to their Google+ circles.  To get your creative wheels spinning, think about what sets your hotel apart from others. What do guests repeatedly comment on or why do guests keep coming back? Does your hotel have a distinct personality due to the location (i.e. Nashville's country music scene)?  Do your rooms offer spectacular views of the city, the lake or the mountains? Do guests choose your hotel for a particular amenity? Does your hotel pride itself on being pet-friendly? Does your hotel mostly cater to business and meeting guests? Are you known for being an amazing wedding or reception venue in the area? Determine what your hotel's strengths are and highlight them at the forefront of your Google+ Page. Think about your cover photo as a billboard.

For example, the hotel below, which is widely recognized as a landmark in San Antonio and is nicknamed the "Official Hotel of the Alamo," thrives on the city's rich history and culture. Due to its unique architecture and proximity to the Alamo, the hotel captures a big leisure and tourist audience, so the Google+ Page draws on Texan authenticity and must-see nearby tourist attractions.

While the polaroid-inspired montage above may take some extra creative skills  that require time, effort and even possibly outsourcing, it very clearly sets the hotel apart from the typical Google+ page -even a hotel that has great, high-res photography. If you use a design program, you can even add text on top of the photos for additional branding opportunities, as in the example below.

Respond to your reviews

Reviews, which were previously found on your hotel's Google Places listing, are now hosted on your Google+ page. In an attempt to weed out false reviews or spammers, Google requires reviewers to be logged into a Gmail account. As an hotelier, you already know how important it is to respond to most of your reviews, whether good, bad or mediocre. Reviews on Google+ are no exception. Crafting a well-written response and putting a positive-spin on any negative feedback will show the reviewer as well as any other potential guests on Google+ that the hotel has a caring management team and appreciates guest comments.

Google+ makes it easy page admins to respond. When you are logged into your Google+ Page, select the About tab and scroll down to see the reviews. Make sure they are sorted by "Latest" so you are responding to the most relevant reviews. Hit "Respond" and enter a quick, personal note of gratitude for their positive feedback or mention the steps the hotel is taking to improve upon whatever the complaint may be.

What's next for Google+?

In related news, Google+ is now allowing page owners to invite up to 50 additional admins to co-manage the Google+ page. This lets multiple people monitor and edit Google+ pages without having to share confidential login information. Although only one person can be the actual owner of the page, ownership can be easily transferred to another person.

In typical Google fashion, Google+ has finally announced that it is rolling out vanity URLs to select brands, celebrities or public personalities that are in a large amount of peoples' circles. While most of the Google+ world will have to wait it out, some fortunate folks are now able to select a unique URL where the brand name replaces the long string of numbers in the standard plus.google.com URL. For example, if the Emily Morgan Hotel wanted to promote their Google+ page on printed marketing collateral, they would provide the following link: https://plus.google.com/b/118259268316760754340/118259268316760754340/posts, instead of something more concise such as: plus.google.com/emilymorganhotel. Having key phrases, like your brand name, in the URL will be beneficial for both SEO efforts and for marketing your Google+ Page.

Don't say we didn't warn you! Google is determined to make Google+ a powerful force in the search, social and local world. Setting up, merging and managing a bold and well-optimized Google+ Page will ensure that your hotel is one step closer to dominating the search engine results!

Want more information?

Give us a call at 877-361-1177 x202 or send us a note if you are interested in finding out more about independent websites or how Blue Magnet can help you achieve your hotel's ecommerce goals.

As a hotelier, you rely on many different tools to sell your product: professional photography for marketing collateral, training programs for the sales team, advertising in traditional media, wining and dining potential clients, emarketing and even business cards. They all come at a price. Whether it's at the property level or supplied by the brand, someone has to pay for the tools that are essential to marketing and selling your hotel. So what is the ROI on those tools? If you've never bothered to calculate the return, why not?

Most likely you've never bothered because it's difficult to measure the ROI on things like photography, sales training and social media, but that doesn't mean there's no return on those investments. Instead of always focusing on the direct financial return on those investments, consider the other value those tools bring to your business.  These might be things such as:

• Gaining insights into customer sentiment
• Receiving feedback about your product
• Encouraging happy customers
• Diffusing angry customers
• Offering customers another channel with which to communicate with your hotel
• Improved rankings in search engines
• Improved rankings in TripAdvisor
• Assisted Conversions (see below)
• The billboard effect and branding

How do you calculate the ROI on business cards?

What always strikes me as odd and somewhat hypocritical is that many hoteliers will automatically include in their annual marketing budgets items of such nebulous ROI as business cards, printed brochures, training and traditional advertising; however, when told to budget for social media marketing suddenly the alarm bells ring, red flags go up, and the familiar scrutiny over this channel's dubious ROI suddenly rears its ugly head. Why do the hackles go up and the purse strings tighten at the mention of Twitter, Facebook and Google+?

When was the last time you questioned the ROI on business cards that you purchased for your team? Surely you know the return on investment for your hotel's photography. Were you able to isolate the ROI on that out-of-state training seminar your sales team attended? What kind of return were you able to measure from that investment?

Clearly there must be value in these investments; otherwise it's just wasteful spending for no better reason than because "it's just where hotels have always spent money." But when was the last time anyone questioned why you were spending $10,000 a year on printed brochures of your meeting space? Has it ever happened? Although the cost may be scrutinized and negotiated, my experience is that hotels see that kind of collateral (as well as many of the other aforementioned expenses) as a necessary cost of doing business as a hotel. The ROI is never questioned, even if it should be. What if every potential client that receives your $10,000 printed brochures dumps it in the trash after their thorough site visit of your hotel? It seems to me that $10,000 would be better spent elsewhere.

Why do we invest in tools that have an unknown ROI?

Most travelers--and I would hope by now, most hoteliers--would agree that professional hotel photography is a crucial component of a hotel's success in marketing itself both online and offline. Not only can we draw from our own personal experiences (I know I head straight for the photo gallery when researching various accommodations), but most hotel website analytics will point to the photo gallery page as one of the most visited pages of a hotel's website.

So how do you attribute a return on that investment? Good photography isn't cheap, so why do hotel's put money aside for it when the ROI is unknown? One possible estimate would be to say that X% of visitors that booked a room also visited the photo gallery page. It still doesn't give you an exact ROI though. Instead, it tells you that photography is important to visitors, but it doesn't tell you by how much. Of that X% that checked out your gallery before booking a room, how many would still have booked if your hotel had no photos? You don't know an exact number, but all signs point to photography being a marketing component that is important to your potential guests. Even if you assume that $1 million in revenue was generated from visitors who also access your photo gallery, you can't possibly attribute all that revenue to the effects of the photos. What if those visitors entered through your email campaign? Certainly some of that $1 million in revenue would be attributed to the ROI of the email campaign as well as the photography.

The point is, it's difficult to attribute exact ROI figures to certain necessary items like quality hotel photography or training for your sales team, despite the fact that both are crucial to the hotel's overall sales process.

It's just the way we've always done things

I get it. Social media is unfamiliar territory for many hoteliers. Business cards, printed brochures and photography are old stand-bys--tried and true friends that have been around since the day Statler first met Waldorf. Hotels have continued to invest in those tools because it's what they've always done as part of their sales process. It worked last year, so it'll work this year. ...at least, you assume it will.

When it comes to ROI for many sales and marketing investments you simply need to guess or make a guesstimate or make an educated guess, but in the end it's still a big question mark. It's just like when you purchase a billboard ad and the ad agency assures you an average of 500,000 cars pass by that billboard each month. That's great, but how many people are really looking at the billboard? Then, how many of those people actually took action after seeing that billboard? Do you ask guests at your hotel: "so did you hear about us from our billboard ad?" If not, you should...if you care about the true ROI of that ad.

But billboards are simple. Their purpose is clear. A business advertises, consumers read and consumers consume. Social media, on the other hand, can be used to benefit businesses in so many different ways that many hoteliers become overwhelmed by this open-ended channel and lack of a singular purpose. As a result, they become wary of social media's effectiveness and ultimately pull the plug, or never start at all.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it

We've seen echoes of this trepidation towards new technologies and communication tools throughout the hospitality industry's past. For example, when the hospitality industry was just starting to get its feet wet on the web, there were many hoteliers that rejected building websites due to cost or because it didn't seem like a viable booking channel at the time. Or, in cases where they did have a website they may have heard about this crazy new thing called "search engine optimization," but dismissed it as another vial of snake oil cleverly marketed by those dastardly SEO companies. Looking down the barrel of hindsight we get great examples of opportunites missed.

In the end, this hesitation paved the way for the OTAs to dominate the online travel world. Their websites were designed well, provided better usability to customers and were properly optimized for the search engines. In addition, they enhanced their online visibility through paid advertising. The OTAs had embraced these online tools that many hoteliers and major hotel brands had rejected. As a result, many hotels websites are still trying to catch up to this day. As philosopher George Santayana cautioned in his famous quote in the subtitle above, the hospitality industry needs to learn from these past mistakes and realize that social media is not a passing fad. While the tools of social media may change drastically (Myspace who?), the core concept of word-of-mouth marketing will continue to be one of the most trusted marketing channels available. Hotels can't afford to be late adopters in such a competitive arena anymore.

Losing control

Not only is social media unfamiliar territory, but as a hotelier, you no longer have complete control of your marketing message. In fact, your customers are now part of your marketing team, and that scares the hell out of many hotel folks. Still, sticking your head in the sand and pretending you don't need this crazy Twitter or Facebook thing, doesn't mean people will stop talking about your business. If you're rowing against the social media tide, then every day will be a public relations struggle.

It may be the case that your social media ROI remains as elusive and mysterious as the sasquatch; however, ignoring this important channel means your customers have the final say in your hotel's reputation online--not you. The goal isn't to completely control what every guest is saying, but rather to be a participatory voice to help foster loyalty, diffuse discontent, and learn from the comments of your customers.

Measuring other returns on social media success

There is a way to measure the ROI on social media, but it depends on what you consider to be the "return." While metrics such as Facebook likes and Twitter followers may not tell you exactly how much revenue social media is generating for your hotel, other social metrics can give you valuable insights (such as feedback and customer sentiment about your property).

Some savvy hotels and emarketers even assign estimated ROI values to those figures. For example, if a customer complaint is diffused by the hotel through conversations on Facebook, what is the value of that resolution? How much is it worth to you, being able to prevent that irate customer from blowing up on TripAdvisor with a full-page, scathing review of your hotel? Is it worth the value of that one customer's stay? Or do you estimate the value based on how many people you would have lost had you left that customer to fume and paint the web with expletives about your hotel? How much is that prevention worth to you?

If you are hellbent on assigning a financial return on your social media investment then you need to agree on the value of these interactions. How much is it worth to your hotel to accommodate an angry customer? To gain feedback about problem areas at your hotel? To get "billboard effect" type exposure across your social networks? To connect with potential guests interested in your city? There is a value here, but it's up to you to determine its worth.

Measuring direct financial ROI on social media

In addition to those more amorphous means of attributing ROI to social media, you can measure its direct impact on your revenue. Provided you have the appropriate analytics integrated into the backend of your website, you can see the direct contribution of various social media channels to your bottom line. That's right, exact dollar amounts! You can even see Assisted Conversions. An assisted conversion occurs when a visitor returns to your hotel website multiple times through multiple channels (Google search, email campaign, pay-per-click ad, social media, etc) before finally making a purchase.

For instance, consider this customer's path through the booking cycle:

1. The guest initially visits your hotel's website from a friend's Facebook link about your property.
2. Soon that visitor leaves your site to do more research.
3. Five days later that same guest is finally ready to book, remembers your hotel and returns to your site through a natural search result in Google.

In this example, the final step in the customer's booking funnel was a search engine, so Google gets credited with the direct conversion. However, the Facebook link was the first channel that drove the customer to your site. Facebook was the site that got that customer started down the booking funnel, and thus gets credited with an assisted conversion. These channels work together to assist each other and help move the potential customer down the sales process. So even though Facebook didn't result in a direct booking for the hotel, it did assist in the conversion and thus deserves credit for revenue booked as well.

The value of an assisted conversion

Take a look at the Google Analytics chart below for one of our hotels. It shows that 18 Assisted Conversions generated about $4,260 for the property. In addition, if you look at the column labeled Last Interaction Conversions you will find the number of conversions that were a result of the user coming directly from a social media channel. In this case, the hotel made almost $12,000 from visitors who arrived directly from sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and others.

Also, keep in mind that this hotel has no active social media presence. The conversions shown above are a result of a basic presence featuring minimal engagement with their potential customer base. If this is what the hotel is generating without even trying, just imagine the potential of social media if they actually invested in an active marketing campaign!

Direct revenue from social media is low? So what?

Yes, financial return that is directly attributed to social media will likely be low for most hotels. So what? If you think about it, people don't join social networks so they can read advertisements or be spammed with special offers. If that's your idea of social media then your campaign definitely needs a new strategy.  Consumers are there to connect with friends and families. Fortunately, many people also follow companies and brands they like, as long as those businesses provide interesting, valuable content, and don't spam their followers with constant advertisements.

Social media for most hotels will never be the revenue generator that organic search has been, so stop thinking of it that way. Social media is a more open, friendly communication. It's the General Manager walking around the hotel, shaking hands and asking, "So, have you had a pleasant stay with us?" It's not so much about advertising your product, but rather it's about making your product more valuable, more approachable and more accessible to your customers. Social media is that handshake with customers before they even enter your doors.

It's how your customers choose to communicate with you

Even if you completely write off social media ROI as nothing more than smoke and mirrors, social media is the way customers expect to be able to contact your hotel in the 21st century. It's not the only way customers want to connect, but it should be an option offered by the hotel. Currently people can make reservations at a hotel by calling or booking online. But if the hotel suddenly dropped its phone service and forced new customers to only book online, there would certainly be a lot of unhappy customers who would have preferred to call in their reservation. Although offering both options certainly comes at a higher cost for the hotel, it also makes it more accessible to a wider audience who might prefer one mode of communication over the other. Hotels should want to provide as many channels for their customers to communicate with them as possible.

Social media makes other features of your hotel more valuable

Your hotel would still function without a concierge, without a pool and without a bellhop, but those features add value to your overall product. Social media is the same. It doesn't function in a vacuum. This means you need to fully integrate social media into your overall marketing plan. When paired with natural search, added to your website, tied in with local events and encouraged onsite at your property, social media makes it easier for customers to connect with your hotel. Moreover, it gives them the opportunity to provide you with valuable feedback and then share their experience easily with friends and family. Best of all, it means your own customers can become the most valuable marketing tool in your entire arsenal: a positive, word-of-mouth recommendation.

Everything online has a social component these days, so don't be a wallflower

Even if you don't subscribe to the concept of "connecting with customers," consider this: search engines such as Google and Bing have quickly moved towards more socially-integrated platforms. This means that your rankings in the major search engines are already impacted by your reputation (or lack thereof) on popular social media networks. Google's local search has already been assimilated into their own social media platform, Google+. Likewise, Bing has been taking social cues from your Facebook friends and relevant experts in order to provide you with more useful search results. Even TripAdvisor has integrated Facebook, highlighting hotels that your friends and family have liked or visited. The popular travel site then uses that information to give ranking preference to those hotels more highly favored among your social network.

Social media is still important even if it never creates a single direct booking for your hotel

Even if you never know how much direct revenue is being generated by your social media campaign, at this point it should be clear that social media has a tremendous impact on your hotel's other online marketing channels. When a significant portion of your online revenue comes from search engines, and social cues are influencing search engines rankings, you can not afford to leave social media out of your marketing mix.

Although most people focus on the financial return when they consider the R in ROI, that's not always the case. The return on your investment is the additional value (different from money) that is created through your investment. The value of this return could come in the form of:

• Illustrating complex data more efficiently (ie, printed floor plans)
• Enhancing the aesthetic appeal of your product (ie, professional hotel photography)
• Improving your team's skills (training programs)
• Providing your contact information on a handy-dandy note (ie, business cards), or...
• Connecting with brand supporters, understanding customer sentiment, and ranking better in search engines (ie, social media marketing)

In the end, you may not know exactly how much exact revenue each of these tools generated for your hotel, but there's no question each plays a valuable part in the overall marketing of your hotel. Next time you demand to know the ROI on your social media campaign, consider the other kinds of return that will likely be realized, beyond the direct revenue. It may difficult to assess that value, but not every important investment needs to have direct financial return in order to be valuable to the growth of your business.

Want more information?

Give us a call at 877-361-1177 x202 or send us a note if you are interested in finding out more about independent websites or how Blue Magnet can help you achieve your hotel's ecommerce goals.