The phenomenom of social media is continuing to grow with firms being guided and encouraged to embrace it further by actively marketing via social media tools.
I had the benefit of participating in a webinar last week called “Capitalising on the Conversation” by Social Media Magic. It sought to show how to position your firm for business success in social media by using best practices and top tools to generate revenue, increase traffic to websites, build new partnerships and bring in new qualified leads.
There is a paradigm shift taking place in marketing where the old approach of telling and selling is dead according to Jim Stenegal, Chief Global Marketing Officer at Procter and Gamble. Further, Mitch Matthews, former Head of Marketing, Microsoft said "The old model was informing, persuading and reminding... the new model is demonstrating, involving and empowering."
The now well known Web 2.0 media of blogs, microblogging, video sharing, message boards and podcasts are increasingly mainstream and are the fastest growing categories on the web where according to Social Media Magic co founder John Souza, 73% of online users read a blog, 45% have started their own blog, 39% subscribe to an RSS feed and 33% visit social media sites to engage in product research before making a purchase decision. Interestingly, 92% said customer reviews were very or extremely helpful when making a decision (JC Williams Group Consultancy, April 2006) and were 3 times more likely to trust peer opinions over advertising for purchasing decisions (Jupiter Research). In fact, one online word of mouth conversation is said to have the impact of 200 TV ads (Buzz Agent), but more information on this in a subsequent post.
The webinar suggested that by utilising tools like Twitter, LinkedIn and emerging niches like FastPitch!, Biznik, Plaxo, Merchant Circle and QAlias, marketing through setting up a business page on Facebook or establishing a specific group on LinkedIn and inviting others to join your groups can help businesses to generate exposure, increase traffic and bring in qualified leads in addition to increase search engine rankings, reduce overall marketing expenses and help to close business.
According to a social media marketing industry report produced in March 2009 by Michael Stelzner 88% of businesses indicated they were employing social media for marketing purposes. How are hoteliers using these tools? A number of major brands such as Intercontinental, Starwood Properties and Marriott are actively blogging but what are other smaller independent properties doing considering the constraints not necessarily of finances since these tools are inexpensive if not free, but may take up considerable time, a resource which may be as valuable and as limited as cash.
In the next post I’ll look at case studies on how small hotels are using social media and how independent properties can capitalise on these new marketing without committing too many precious hours.
