New Breed of VIP's : What are the risks involved in using 'Social Celebraties as brand advocates?

What are the risks involved in using 'social

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Comment on Camille's article - Gogobot, the Facebook of the travel industry?

This article is very interesting. I think that Gogobot, a new social travel site, is a very good tool and help for the users.

I totally agree with Camille, today, the majority of travelers prefer to book everything on internet when they prepare their vacation. They do not use Travel Agencies, and, they need to collect some information before to choose their destination, their hotel... and it can be difficult to do this alone. In this sense, you can find some reviews and comments on TripAdvisor for example, but you do not know the sources, the persons who wrote these reviews, so you can have difficulties in believe these comments. The principal advantage of Gogobot, is the fact that this site gather information of our friends on Facebook and of our followers on Twitter, so when you need some information about a specific destination, a hotel...Gogobot can give you these information, and you know their sources (your friends and followers).
I think that it is easier to believe the comments and feedbacks of the people whom one knows. There is more facility to be in a relationship of trust and of sharing of information.

To conclude, Gogobot is a good idea for the travel industry.

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Final exam Social Media Resolutions

Open publication - Free publishing - More marketing

Five Steps to maximize your hotel's social media results.

Today, I chose the article "Five steps to maximize your hotel's social media results" which is very interesting.

In our sector, like in many others, the use of social networks is very important. Indeed, even if all the hotels cannot have the same presence online, it is essential for each hotel to be present at least on two social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

In order to maximize the results, this article explains us that there are five principal steps to follow:

1. Put your on-staff experts to work => It is important to proposes at your fans and followers interesting and enriching posts, posts of quality. For that, it will be write by a person who is an expert on the topic. For example, if you want to write a post on the best restaurants around your hotel, your concierge will be the most expert on this topic.
2. More Social media online offers => It can be a specific rate code that you give only to your fans and followers on the social networks. With this step we can show at your fans and followers their importance for you.
3. Someone to really take a big part Foursquare / Facebook place leap => It is like an influencer, and you recompense this fan in order to encourage him to be a good influencer for your hotel.
4. Cross Promotion
5. Fewer minutias => It is primordial to write an interesting post. It cas be to present a futur event, it can be on your actuality, on your community...

Today, you cannot ignore social media in your marketing strategy. It is a new way to communicate with your community, and people search that when they search a hotel. Indeed, they want a hotel in which staff communicate with visitors, customers; a hotel in which the social, the communication take an important place. You can prove this only if you are present on social networks.


So, have an active presence on social networks, by writing interesting and diversified posts, answering all the questions of your fans and followers as often as     you can, talking in a friendly way...and you will   maximize your hotel's social media results!!
      

Measuring Social Influence : Klout

• How the tool can be used to increase brand awareness?

-       Klout allows the brand to find influencers based on topic or hashtag

-       Help your brand to understand your influencers’ network  value

-       Be focus on people recommendation and not advertisements

• How the hotel can be used to create service differentiation - for influencers?

-       A free week-end for 2 pax for the most important influencer

-       Discounts

-       Loyalties

-       Special amenities

-       A package to use all services of the hotel (spa, room service, fitness center, etc…)

• How the tool can be used to impact revenue?

-       Target important influencers and their community

-       Communicate we them to get more influencers

-       Use service differentiation for influencers

• Why this tool is better than others, mentioned in the article?

-       Focus and specified on Tweeter and Facebook

-       Use 35 variables of those social medias measuring True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score

-       Real analysis of what is said about your brand, not only a grade

Comment about Lea's article

This article and Lea's comment are very interesting. I think this survey is very important and can be useful for hoteliers.
Indeed, with those surveys, a hotel can know and understand how to attract more business travelers and so, increase its business customers.
I think that a hotel need to be creator and innovative, in order to attract more and more business travelers, because, in many hotels, more half of their customers are business travelers. Thus, it is important to do all the necessary, to attract more and more business travelers, and thus to guarantee a good occupation.
To conclude, I think that this survey is essential and primordial for hotels, because it gives a general view of the business travel trends.

Link to Lea's comment

Hotel loyalty members rely on mobile to communicate.

This article is about a study made by Loylogic, the leading provider of loyalty technology solutions; called "The 2010 Frequent Traveler Survey". This survey was completed between September 17th and October 15th 2010, and, reflects the opinion of 36 000 frequent travelers (members of at least one loyalty program).
The main goal of this survey was to better understand the point of view of these 36 000 frequent travelers on their loyalty programs, their ways of using these programs...

The main objective of a loyalty program in our sector is to drive the customer loyalty and to make the guest want to continue to choose to stay at our brand's hotel again and again. Many groups like Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Starwood ... offer a loyalty program.

One principal question required to these 36 000 travelers is "Which method they prefer to redeem points or check their account balance?".
The results of this study indicate to us that 58% of these travelers prefer to earn and redeem points or to check their loyalty program balances online (to use internet) ; 20% prefer their smart phones to do that; 11% of these travelers prefer to check directly at the hotel. 4% and 3% prefer respectively, SMS text and Facebook.

I think that it is very important and interesting for hotels. With this study, we can better understand which method the members of our loyalty program use in order to interact with this program, so, the method we need to use if we want to interact very well with our members.
Today internet and smart phones are more and more important and, this survey proves it. Indeed, 78% of the 36 000 frequent travelers questioned use internet or their smartphones to earn or redeem points or to check their account balances.
So, for 2011, I think that hoteliers should to focus their loyalty programs' strategy on these two interactions tools which are internet and smart phones. Moreover, the two last answers of this top 5 are related to the use of internet or / and smart phone.
As it is said in this article, today we want and we feel the need to be connected "anytime,anywhere" that it proves the internet importance, but also, the importance of smart phones with which we can go on internet.

To conclude, I think that it is essential for the hoteliers to have with spirit that internet and smart phones must have an important part in their marketing strategies, their strategies of loyalty programs (development, interaction with members...)...