Social Media Minus A Budget!


This from Hotels Mobile by Adam Kirby made me really sit up and take notice!

“Just because an individual hotel lacks a big budget for social media does not mean it cannot compete for followers and fans—even in a hyper-competitive market like Las Vegas. The marketing budget for Las Vegas Hilton is miniscule when compared to multi-property powerhouse rivals like MGM Mirage, Harrah’s Entertainment and Wynn Resorts. And despite being relatively late to the social media party, the hotel has picked up enough incremental business from Twitter and Facebook to convince once-skeptical executive management to fund a full-time social media coordinator position.

The Hilton’s first “tweet-up” last year drew 130 participants to the hotel—the vast majority of them as first-time guests. “It caught the attention of our executives—they said, ‘Wow, you did this with nothing?’” says Peter Arceo, executive director of casino marketing. “These have become loyal customers spending money at the bar, talking about the hotel. That was the buy-in [the executive team] needed to fund this.” Monthly tweet-ups keep growing in size.

In less than a year, @LasVegasHilton has accumulated more than 23,000 Twitter followers. While other properties in Vegas complement social media marketing with heavily promoted contests, viral videos and even digital Twitter billboards, the Hilton has no social media budget, so it instead focuses on building personal relationships with brand advocates that extend beyond the computer screen into real life. “We’re trying to build solid, loyal fans and followers—people who want to come here,” Arceo says.

A shoestring budget is no excuse for a hotel not to jump into social media, Arceo says. Very likely, an existing hotel employee would be willing or even eager to champion the property in the social media realm. “Nine times out of 10, I promise you there is someone on property—it could be a housekeeper, your greenskeeper, your valet—they could be your best voice for your property, and they might not even want to be compensated,” Arceo says. “They might just want to be known as the social media voice on your property.”

Why did it make me sit up and take notice?
– It shows that working with Facebook and Twitter can eventually bring you business.
– We’re a small lodge with no budget for things like social media.
– 23,000 followers on Twitter? And I thought we were doing well with 500+!
– I love the idea of “Tweet-Ups” and have a new goal to host the first one in Livingstone!
– I like the idea of one or two of the Chanters Girls being involved in our social media thing!

The picture?
Alice (centre) Acting Head Cook, Shupiwe (left) her number two, and Sandy (right) a trainee, having fun at Chanters Lodge in Livingstone.

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Tnooz and Ryanair


I really like Kevin May’s Tnooz and recommend it to anyone in the travel or hospitality industry. Kevin has his finger on the button and tends to just tell it, minus clouding things with too much of his own opinion – on Tnooz anyway, though on Twitter @kevinlukemay he’s pretty vocal! Here’s a piece he posted about Ryanair. I’ve never flown with them, but personally I think they’ve got it wrong. Interaction on social media sites has gone right up our list of priorities in the past year and it’s starting to pay dividends in terms of real business.

“Low-cost carrier Ryanair has put a halt to suggestions it will start reaching out to customers through social media. The airline has had a love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship with the concept of social media for years but expectations were raised earlier this week when it announced it is adding reviews to its website. It was initially thought that Ryanair would also be making tentative forays into social media through the usual networking sites – a suggestion since dismissed emphatically.

What is expected to happen in the coming months is the launch of a series of destination pages hosted on the main Ryanair website where users can post reviews of restaurants, bars and hotels. Ryanair’s often outspoken director of communications Stephen McNamara says: “This will be one way communication – passenger reviews of local hot spots etc, but [we] will not be ‘engaged’ in social media.”

Ryanair has steadfastly refused to be drawn into the online social bubble with its marketing, unlike its European rival EasyJet (which has the @easyjetcare handle for customer relations) or US counterparts such as SouthWest. Allowing almost every piece of customer criticism in the social channels to go unanswered, Ryanair has only once dropped its veil when it infamously told this author that bloggers were “lunatics” – an outburst which was picked up by news organisations around the world.

The interest comes as Ryanair also confirms it is considering some kind of “price comparison” website – a confusing concept for a single carrier to implement unless it is significantly looking to change its web proposition. McNamara says the idea is only in the planning stage and refuses to give any indication what such a site would be used for or its model.”

What do you think? Is interaction important between company and client?

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Modern Procrastination (Or Mucking Around On Facebook)


I love Seth Godin’s blog – short, easy to read and always on the ball! Check this one:

Modern procrastination

The lizard brain adores a deadline that slips, an item that doesn’t ship and most of all, busywork. These represent safety, because if you don’t challenge the status quo, you can’t be made fun of, can’t fail, can’t be laughed at. And so the resistance looks for ways to appear busy while not actually doing anything. I’d like to posit that for idea workers, misusing Twitter, Facebook and various forms of digital networking are the ultimate expression of procrastination. You can be busy, very busy, forever. The more you do, the longer the queue gets. The bigger your circle, the more connections are available.

Laziness in a white collar job has nothing to do with avoiding hard physical labor. “Who wants to help me move this box!” Instead, it has to do with avoiding difficult (and apparently risky) intellectual labor.

“Honey, how was your day?”

“Oh, I was busy, incredibly busy.”

“I get that you were busy. But did you do anything important?”

Busy does not equal important. Measured doesn’t mean mattered. When the resistance pushes you to do the quick reaction, the instant message, the ‘ping-are-you-still-there’, perhaps it pays to push in precisely the opposite direction. Perhaps it’s time for the blank sheet of paper, the cancellation of a long-time money loser, the difficult conversation, the creative breakthrough…

Or you could check your email.”

Brilliant as usual!

Or perhaps more succinctly – something I saw on Facebook this morning:
Put ♥ this ♥ on ♥ your ♥ status ♥ if ♥ you ♥ are ♥ mucking ♥ around ♥ on ♥ facebook ♥ instead ♥ of ♥ getting ♥ shit ♥ done

Lol! As they say!

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