crossroads presentation
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Crossroads PresentationTRANSCRIPT
WRS: MAXIMIZING YOUR ONLINE EXPOSURE
THE SOCIAL MEDIA CRAZE:
WHAT’S DRIVING IT?
SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS
New stats from Nielsen Online show that by the end of 2008, social networking had overtaken email in terms of worldwide reach. According to the study, 66.8% of Internet users across the globe accessed “member communities” last year, compared to 65.1% for email.
SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS
Some other key findings from the Neilson report:
- Globally, Facebook reaches 29.9% of global Internet users, versus 22.4% for MySpace
- MySpace remains the most profitable social network, generating an estimated $1 billion in revenue versus $300 million for Facebook in 2008.
- Facebook is the top social network in all countries except Germany, Brazil, and Japan (Nielsen still has MySpace as tops in US in the report, but as of January ’09, that had changed).
- On Twitter, CNN, The New York Times, and BBC have the greatest reach among mainstream media companies as of late February.
SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS
THE GROWING DEMOGRAPHIC
WHAT ADDS TO THE TREND
As we get busier and busier we get the need to connect with people yet don’t have the time. Social Media sites allow us to:
Surround ourselves with a network of friends online.
Communicate with people we normally could not stay in touch with in seconds
Gives us an outlet for our inner thoughts and fears
YOUR COMPETITORS
Are no longer the hotel down the street
The Internet has made hotels more competitive based on price, location, and customer reviews
Getting a leg up on them through online reputation management and visibility is key
SO AS A BUSINESS, HOW TO YOU TAP INTO THE 30% OF INTERNET USERS AT YOUR DISPOSAL?
PRESENT YOUR HOTEL TO THE SOCIAL MEDIA
SCENE
Set up Pages on Social Media sites that entice consumers to interact with you.
Facebook Sample: Northwoods Resort
MySpace Sample: Crowne Plaza
Phoenix
Twitter Sample: Crowne Plaza
Phoenix
UGC: WHAT IS IT?
USER GENERATED CONTENT
UCG is content that is fresh and written by the end user
Hotel Staff
Customers
Bloggers
Reviews
Destination Writers
USER GENERATED CONTENT
Why is it important?
Search Engines like it
Consumers appreciate it
Buying decisions are being made with it
SAMPLES OF UGC
Trip Advisor Reviews Destination Site Reviews USA Travel Guide Blogs Twitter Wikipedia Wiki Travel Your Website Yelp Yahoo Answers You Tube
Top 10 Top 10 User User GeneratedGeneratedContent SitesContent Sites
Yahoo Answers Sample:
WRS actively looks our for
questions that could be
relevant to our markets or hotels and
submits answers
Yelp Sample: WRS actively looks our for
review opportunities that could be
relevant to our hotels and
submits content, images, or data that can make
hotel more attractive to
potential buyers
SAMPLES BLOGS AND ARTICLES
Article:Article:Spring Spring Break Break Safety Safety TipsTips
USA Travel Guide
(WRSOL Blog) post
actively picked up by Google
USA Travel Guide (WRSOL Blog)
actively delivers 1000 visits a day
on average to the blog then to our hotels, via the
articles. Here’s the article picked up on Spring Break
Safety Tips
More sample
searches where our blog is on page 1 in Google
This particular
search took
visitors to our page on one of
our hotels,
Phoenix Park
Hotel.
This particular search took
visitors to our page on one of
our hotels, Northwoods
Resort(see next slide)
USA TRAVEL GUIDE TRAFFIC TO THE BOOKING CALENDARUSA TRAVEL GUIDE TRAFFIC TO THE BOOKING CALENDAR
You can see that our blog sent 130 visits to
Northwoods booking calendar in April - our blog readers are also
interested in rates and booking room nights!
Travel Reviews are
actively being found by the
search engines and
read by potential guests!
Keeping a close eye on
them is critical to your
conversion rates.
THE BUYING DECISION
Only 4% of all online
bookers are not looking at
more than one customer review before
making the buying
decision…
Trip Advisor is #1 Review Site
But many others follow:•Yahoo•MSN•eBookers•Expedia•Hotels.com
Only to name a few…
KEEPING UP WITH REVIEWS IS CRITICAL
Subscribe and bookmark review sites
Use a review consolidation tool
Actively participate in review areas where you can
UGC: HOW TO MAXIMIZE IT
Enhance your profiles:
Add Photos
Write Posts
Add Website Links
Market Special Events
Promote Special Offers
Add Videos
IMAGE AND VIDEO SUBMISSIONS
Pictures and Video are the second largest search in the search engines.
Optimizing your images and submitting them to image sharing sites like Flickr can help you gain search engine presence.
PHOTO SHARING SITES
POSTING IMAGES AND THE IMPACT ON
SEARCH
You’d be You’d be surprisedsurprisedwhat’s out what’s out there there tagged with tagged with your hotelyour hotelname on it.name on it.
ONLINE VIDEOS
Optimize Online Videos
You can create your own videos out of hotel and destination images with a marketing message and tag with keywords.
Submit videos to online video channels like YouTube.
RSS FEEDS (REALLY SIMPLE SYNDICATION)
SOCIALBOOKMARKING
What is Social Bookmarking?:
Have you ever e-mailed a friend or family member and sent them a link to a website you thought they might find interesting? If so, you have participated in social bookmarking.
What is social bookmarking? It is tagging a website and saving it for later. Instead of saving them to your web browser, you are saving them to the web. And, because your bookmarks are online, you can easily share them with friends.
SOCIAL BOOKMARKINGSITES
HOW CAN YOU BENEFIT FROM SOCIAL
BOOKMARKING
The more your customers bookmark your site
The more links you help for SEO benefit
You’ll get higher quality search results
The more credibility your site will have to the end user.
The more branding exposure
The more traffic
The MORE BOOKINGS you will get $$$$
THE IMPACT OF CUSTOMER REVIEWS AND INCREASED
ONLINE PRESENCE
OPPORTUNITIESHOLIDAY INN EXPRESSINDEPENDENT SITES…
http://www.hioldtownhotel.com/index.html
Site Production
ROI (vs. Costs)
Pittsburg (needs a site?)
Kendall East (needs a site?)
Shelton (recent build by WRS- cost $1k total)
http://www.hiexsheltoncthotel.com/
HOTELPOSTS
BENEFITS TO HOTELPOSTS
Access to all review sites with one login
Access to all hotels or groups of hotels for corporate and regional staff
Ability to post management reviews from the one login
REVIEW SITES
Shows you where your reviews are
coming from
You can also see
at a glance which sites
reviewed you
REVIEW SAMPLES FROM HOTEL
POSTS.COM
Weekly updates on all reviews for the week
with a link to the “management response” area
so hotel can respond from
one place.
BRAND OPTIMIZATION
Hampton St. LouisCrossroads Hotel
Hampton Colorado SpringsCrossroads Hotel
Hilton Garden Carlsbad BeachCrossroads Hotel
Hilton Garden BostonCrossroads Hotel
Hilton Garden BushCrossroads Hotel
WRS KEY STRATEGIES
Rich Content that is user friendly and highly search engine friendly
Full use of site interlinking to encourage search engine visits to all site pages
Full use of Anchor text and Title tags to highlight key terms for search engines (see next 2 slide highlights and results)
Landing pages to promote demand generators, special events, hotel selling points
Hilton Singer IslandWRS Client since 2006
Optimize Key Phrases, including area attractions …
HILTON SINGER ISLAND TOP SEARCHES – PAGE ONE PLACEMENT
FOR ALL TARGET PHRASES
Page 1, Place 5
Page 1, Place 3
Page 1, Place 4
GET VISITS BEYOND BRAND HOME PAGE
Search gets you to our landing page inside brand.com site for hotel that
features our property(see next slide for the actual page)
Hilton Garden ChicagoWRS Client since 2007
BRAND OPT PACKAGES
Hilton and Marriott Brands:
Conversion improvement plan Content, landing pages, images, brand tools
Update content to be SEO friendly
Interlinking for more SE traffic, keywords
Linking
Blog Inclusion
HotelPosts.com access
Volume Pricing Available
IHG OPPORTUNITIES
Independent Site Management and Optimization
RECOMMENDATIONS
Take the time to read up on different social media outlets and don’t be afraid to “play”.
Embrace Social Media Sites and maximize content opportunities
Get your customers involved- UGC is the most effective and lowest cost form of search engine boost
Subscribe to HotelPosts review tool to manage all of your social media and review sites.
Let WRS do an audit of all hotel sites and conduct an SEO/Brand Optimization package on those that need it.
COSTS
HotelPosts.com:
$99 per month per hotel that participates
10% discount if more than 50 hotels sign up.
SEO/Brand Optimization Packages:
$500 per month for up to 20 hotels
$400 per month for 21-50 hotels
$300 per month for over 50 hotels
Independent Sites for IHG hotels
$1k one time fee for 10 page site (Shelton sample)
