Social media plan for Hilton
Social media strategy – Hotel
Hilton The Hague
Table of Content:
Social media Trends 2012 - 2013
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Which Social Medium Channels To Use
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Target Group Of Hilton The Hague
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Type of Content Shared
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Part 1
Face book
1.1. Description of face book
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1.2. Objective Face book
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1.3 Strategy/Frequency/Guidelines
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1.4. How to start
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1.5. How to improve Face book
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1.5.who to add and why to add
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Part 2
Twitter
2.1. Description Twitter
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2.2. Twitter (VS Blogging)
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2.2. Objective Twitter
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2.3. Strategy/Frequency/Guidelines
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2.4. How to start
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2.5. How to improve Twitter
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2.6. who to follow and why to follow
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Part 3
Google+
4.1. Description
Page 14
4.2. Why Google+
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4.2. Objective of Google+
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4.3. Strategy/guidelines/frequency
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4.4. How to start
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4.5. How to improve Google+
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Part 2
LinkedIn
2.1. Description of LinkedIn
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2.2. Why Linked In
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2.2. Objective of LinkedIn
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2.3. Strategy/Frequency/Guidelines
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2.4. How to start
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2.5. How to improve Twitter
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Part 3
Foursquare
4.1. Description of foursquare
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4.2. why foursquare (VS face book check Ins)
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4.3. Objective of Foursquare
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4.4. Strategy/guidelines/Frequency
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4.5. How to start
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4.6. How to improve
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How to promote social channels offline
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References
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Social media strategy – HILTON Hotel
Social Media Trends of 2013:
According to hotel Business review the ten hospitality industry trends of 2013 are as follow:
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Increase in Travels Personals value
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Expect more international visitors
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Social media and mobile will be inseparable
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Photo sharing will dominate
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More unrehearsed marketing videos
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Content marketing will replace traditional marketing
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Social shopping and social bookings is going to become the norm
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People/ users will form virtual communities and will spend more leisure time on the web
Which social Channels/ tools should be used for Hilton Hotel?
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Face book – buuteeq - nearby - instagram (91 %of hotels in Europe have optimized face book) Twitter 86% of the hotels in Europe have an interactive twitter account
Google+ (is home to 73% of hotels )
LinkedIn 57% of hotels in Europe have active LinkedIn account
Check in to the 58% of the hotels are on foursquare
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The target group for Hotel:
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Community: Expat community, International schools, individuals, families
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Hilton Ambassador: Influential people like from international embassies,
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Business corporate/ Guests: shells and frequent business people/employees who stay at Hilton
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Families and leisure travelers
Content Shared on the social media channels:
The content that will be shared through the social media channels can be divided into three parts:
1) Behind the scenes: Blue energy, department highlight, employee highlights etc
2) What happens at Hilton the Hague: events, news from Hilton the Hague etc
3) What happens in the city The Hague: activities and places to visit during the week or weekend etc.
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Facebook
Description:
With more than 1 billion users on Face book, out of which 220M users log onto face book daily, It also has fastest growing demographic segment of 35 years and older thus it‘s essential for your business to reach out to this captive audience. There are several ways to do so. Try to employ as many of the following strategies as possible. 7% say they interact with brands through the wall; by reading posts & updates Auto-posting decreases likes by 70% and 58% like brands ―because they are a customer‖ 57% like brands ―for deals & coupons‖ 56% say they are more likely to recommend a brand they follow on
Face book.
Main Objective:
The main aim of the content of face book is as follow:
1. ―Branding‖ - post advice, reviews, happenings in the hotel, upcoming events, establish yourself as a local travel resource
2. ―Serving customers better‖ – using face book for customer service, responding to both inquiries and complaints
3. Post pictures, videos and ask questions. It gives more engagement.
Strategy/ Guidelines/Frequency;
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Face book for hotel should be updated 3 times a week. Like on Tuesday Wednesday,
Friday) According to Max Runfeldt‘s social media marketing study it shows that hotel guests are most engaged on Face book on these days
And at least 2 times a day it should get updated (reply on posts queries) don‘t post and provide new information more than twice a day it can overwhelm customers. (In the morning and afternoon). You can also upload videos to Face book. This is an easy way to give people insider access into recent events you 've hosted! Maybe it will inspire them to book for next year.
How to start:
Create a Facebook Fan Page
A Facebook fan page is the central point for your business on Face book. Your Face book Fan Page allows you to make announcements, interact with your fans, post images and videos, host contests,
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and launch products, to name a few ideas. All this activity will consistently keep your brand in the minds of potentially millions of people, allowing them the option to convert.
Create Facebook Ads
If you‘re willing to put some of your budget into advertising, consider Face book Ads. As you follow your ad campaign, examine whether visitors who click on your ads are actually becoming leads.
Launch a New Product With Facebook: (Bar) new cocktails, dishes
These days, a product launch doesn‘t need to involve a million dollar TV ad campaign. With most consumers involved in at least one social network, promoting your new product through social media can be influential and cost effective.
Add the ―Like‖ Button
When Facebook users ―Like‖ fan pages, posts, or comments, all of their friends will see their actions and the effects are viral. Studies have shown that consumers prefer peer recommendations to traditional advertising. Therefore, you need to encourage Facebook users to Like really anything and everything about your brand. Place Like buttons on your company website, blog posts, and e-mails.
Add the ―Subscribe to Facebook‖ Button
If you have a member profile page in addition to your Facebook fan page, you can optimize it for marketing as well. Simply add a Subscribe button to it. Read our post to learn how to accomplish this.
Host Contests on Facebook
Contests are fun for everyone and a great way to bring your product or service to life. Here‘s how to create one:
Promotional Rules – As you plan a contest strategy on Facebook, it is important that you are aware of
Facebook‘s Promotion Guidelines. Make sure that you review and understand all of these before starting, or you‘ll risk having your Page taken down.
Top practices to improve your facebook fan / business page: (Advice)
Generate content with photos and post questions on daily bases for making the facebook page interactive ( like about events, conferences and cultural events)
Directly answer the queries or complaints keep the followers interested
Keep the information relevant to the hotel and to the customers
Don‘t pose questions more than twice a day research has stated that it can overwhelm the customers. One of the best ways to use Facebook is to interact with your guests, former and future, not simply posting information. If you 're making changes at the hotel, ask what they think! Engage them in conversation about local restaurants and shops Load pictures of client events: people enjoy seeing tagged photos from events. Tagging each other and commenting will make the business page in the centre of attention.
Offer an incentive to sign up for people
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Get fans / customer upload and tag photos ( this generates trust and loyalty)
Add a facebook discounts
Get people to join facebook page via SMS send a text message to 32665 with words ―fan Hilton
Hotel‖ or whatever the user name is bear in mind this needs to be without the quotation marks
Connect your page to twitter connecting our page to twitter will convert our followers to facebook fans, using this strategy will cause all of your posts to be sent to twitter, with a link back to the facebook version of the post
If Hilton is doing email marketing then let them know about your fan page
Get business cards promoting your social media sites/ tools or in this case Facebook
Fiver : Is an online market place where services are sold for 5 bucks, check out their social marketing and Advertising section and here are some people who are willing to sell their 5000 fans for just 5 dollars ( but in this case you have to make the person who is selling his fans an admin of your page
Run a fan only contest
Have a reservation / Booking widget
Post extravagant pictures, memorable events, and also update about your surroundings / happenings Do a fan of the month promotion
Create a redirect URL : for example; www.hilton.com/joinmyfacebookpage.
Who to add and why to add:
Potential Customers
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Expats in the Hague
Shell headquarters the Hague
Feel at home in the Hague
Angloinfo ( corporate event and management)
Existing Customers
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Accenture
Bain & Company
Permanent Court of Arbitration
Blackrock
AT&T
NCI Agency
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PricewaterhouseCoopers
McKinsey & Company
Chiyoda Corporation
Hewlett Packard
Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI)
Transamerica
Roland Berger Project
Kabinet van de gevolmachtigde Minister van Sint Maarten
On which grounds are the above mentioned points made?
They are made on the grounds of business Insider (jan. 31, 2012) ―10 awesome Hotel facebook pages‖. After carrying out a competitor analysis of the following facebook pages which have been listed as top 10 facebook fan pages of 2012
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One and only palmilla
Distrikt Hotel NYC
Marriott Napa Valley hotel and Spa
The Algonquin hotel
The Fitzwilton Hotel Waterford
Gaylord Opryland Resort
The Hermitage Hotel
The Westin Dragonara Resort Malta
The Stanley Hotel
Beacon Hotel
Twitter
Description:
Twitter is important and necessary following individuals and companies (usually in the hope of being followed back); retweeting content that‘s relevant to prospects and customers; engaging with others; tweeting generally useful or newsworthy information.
Why Twitter: (Comparison with Blogging)
Twitter is real time, blog posts take time to write,
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You can have actual conversations on Twitter compared to only commenting back and forth. On blog posts it is only possible (if the author approves your comment).
Feedback and comments from a wide range of Twitter folk can happen in a matter of minutes compared to reading endless comments on a blog post.
Unless you‘re subscribed to blogs, Twitter delivers the blog posts to you via PPC tweets rather than you having to search for them or be completely oblivious to their existence.
Typically PPC Twitter folk only tweet relevant topics and posts so you‘re only reading those blogs most likely to be of high interest to you and not those that are the same old story just on a different day.
The immediacy of Twitter and the fact that it is a network that can spread word of a story, idea, question or thought quickly around the world to many thousands of people very quickly makes it unique. Whereas blogging can‘t do the same. Blog are also great for more in depth posts.
Google Analytics stats show that Twitter.com is now the 2nd largest referrer of traffic to websites and blogs
The practice of ‗ReTweeting‘ has really come into its own over the last 6 months. While people have always‗re tweeted‘ what others have tweeted – a lot more tools and services have risen up around the practice of late. Some see retweeting as a measure of authority of a twitter user –
I‘ve personally been more interested in its viral nature, particularly when your link is the one being retweeted.
Twitter is twitterrific for making short, burst announcements. Kind of like those 30 second infomercials you hear on the radio. Short and tweet, and to the point.
Objective of twitter:
1. The ultimate goal of twitter for Hilton is to create a voice for Hilton.
2. ―Building and managing online reputation‖ – word of mouth, spread positive comments about
Hilton
3. The majority of content should be @replies to people talking about your hotels, your brand, your niche 4. Use Twitter to micro – blog it allows you to use 140 characters.
Strategy/ Guidelines/Frequency;
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Minimum of 2 times a day and three times a week to fully use twitter‘s potential should be tweeted (research of 2011, by social media the new marketing tool) – By Frans van Der Reep
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Our target audience for twitter will be employees of the companies, families, executives and normal followers who have active twitter account.
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Tweets are more likely to be re tweeted (shared) because: The tweet was interesting (94%) It was funny (84%) The tweeter had a personal connection with the author (66%) The Tweeter was a celebrity
(21%) The Tweeter offered incentive (32%) The Tweeter said “Please re-tweet”(26%) - [“Popularity of social media” 2012 jan. article by van Jay Bear]
How to start:
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Twitter account will be made an informal localized account subjected to The Hague. Localized accounts are used to be more personal. HiltonThe Hague/Twitter
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Hilton the Hague will follow more followers and will post and promote other businesses or people that are relevant to Hilton.
What types of tweets??
Responding to questions, comments and mentions. For hotels, Twitter remains primarily a service and conversational medium. Responses build relationships and show your
Twitter involvement is not exclusively to push commercial messages.
Retweeting positive feedback. Retweeting positive messages helps others act as salespeople for your brand. This can be done too often, but sharing the occasional recommendation as a retweet will show you acknowledge advocates and appreciate their comments.
Retweeting other resources. This helps you curate what is cool while giving credit to the source. You could always tweet links directly, but retweeting other content producers helps build important relationships by raising their own Twitter profile. Plus, retweets introduce your followers to new sources of information.
Sharing recommendations. The Opus Hotel in Vancouver shares style tips via Twitter
@OpusHotels. This strategy helps build a brand personality, which is something that should be outlined in a social media style guide for your staff. Lifestyle information can be very popular on Twitter, so define the image you are building and then share information and recommendations around this.
Spotlighting media mentions. If hilton hotels get mentioned in the media, pass that information along to your Twitter followers. Highlighting stories on Twitter can amplify the coverage by providing an opportunity for additional exposure through retweets and viral word of mouth
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Asking questions. Twitter can act as a 24/7 virtual focus group, and can be a powerful way to do market research. Next time you have a question - or want to get a second opinion - crowdsource the answer by posting to Twitter e.g: what kind of cocktail or mix drink would you like to see in the Hilton bar etc.
Running contests. Some of the best contests leverage the power of questions to increase participation. A recent promotion from Apex Hotels asked followers to submit their favorite things about Edinburgh. In this single contest, more than 460 people participated - providing valuable market research, ideas for future blog posts, and perhaps tips for a city guide in the future.
Offering real-time information. it is possible to use this real-time medium if there is a storm or bad weather, for example. By following and acting quickly on a news event, you can help stranded travelers - which we‘ve seen a few airlines and hotels do successfully recently. This real-time format also works well for events, sharing timely tips for attendees. Sharing personal thoughts. Depending on the voice and style you want to communicate in your Twitter account, it may be appropriate to include personal thoughts in your hotels‘
Twitter stream. Typically this approach works best for localized hotels where the owner also acts as the public spokesperson. A good example of this is Guido vanden Elshout, owner of the Haagsche Suites, but better known on Twitter as @HappyHotelier. Instead of just promoting his hotel, Guido publishes links and resources on topics he is fascinated by: design, food and travel.
Having a separate HR twitter Hilton account. Recruiting staff. Twitter can be a valuable way to recruit talented team members. Apex Hotels built a separate Twitter account for human resources: @apexcareers. Danielle, the Recruitment Officer at Apex, uses the account to offer career advice, CV tips, and guidance to potential applicants. ―Engaging with the wider recruiting world ensures that Apex maintains an excellent standard of service by employing the right people at the very top of their game,‖
Top Practices to improve twitter (Advice):
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Use a hashtag which is simply a pound sign that categorize certain types of tweets, also search for them which is relevant to Hilton and follow them
Sigh in each day to thank your followers or those that mention your hotel. Engage others in a fun way
Rule of thumb in twitter is to promote others 10x more than your hotel
Track your tweets through Bit.ly or google URL builder to see what topics generated the most clicks and interest from your followers
Post about discounts/offers for the hotel as well as recommendations on places to eat or things to do at the hotel or in the area
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Room offers and contests are always nice (and interactive). Reminders/announcements about upcoming events or happy hour specials too.
Reply to tweets within minutes like Indies
Twitter is an amazing way to get feedback on your product, from some of the biggest influencers out there. What do people consistently asks for or get confused about? Use this information to make your product better.
Who to follow and why to follow:
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Local papers & organizations: As you all have a vested interest in bringing in tourism to your area. Major food critics & writers, interact with them & engage in debate no matter how serious or light hearted it is. Personal favourites are: @Marinaoloughlin (The Guardian);
@JayRayner1 (The Observer); @TimHayward (Fire & Knives amongst others) and@MillyMollyManda (The Caterer)
According to the Cornell Hospitality Report (2012), if a hotel enhances its review score by one point on TripAdvisor’s five-point scale, it can increase its rate by 11.2%, while maintaining the same occupancy or market share.
Beer and Beans, Hecktic Travels, Y Travel Blog, are traveler‘s blogs that you can always tweet or share on your twitter account.
Google+
Description:
Google+ profiles are a way for Hotels to represent themselves on google products and across the web.
A typical Google+ profile includes images, text, and video and shared content. The target market on this social site can be divided into different segments like planners, industry, current and future guests‘ conference and social events attendees. It is a very important tool as each day 3,000,000,000 people search on google and 77 of the world’s top 100 brands have a Google+ page. This makes it very important for
Hilton to have one account on Google+.
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Why Google+:
Google announced on 6 December 2012 that it has 135 million active users checking their Google+ streams each month, up from 100 million in mid-September. If you run the maths that means Google+ is now growing at the same pace as face book when it was similarly sized. Some of the advantages it has over face book are listed as follow.
Integration with Google Services:
The biggest wedge Google has for driving people toward using Google+ is integration. That is,
Google will build Google+ social networking features and tools into almost all of its existing online services from Search to Documents to Video (YouTube). Google+ is already integrated into the navigation bar at the top right of almost all Google products; this lets you monitor all
Google+ events (updates, messages, etc.) as well as share content with friends without ever leaving the Google service you happen to be using
Better friend management;
Google is right that the ―Circles‖ concept is more in line with the way we make friends in real life. We have many different kinds of friends, and we interact with them and communicate with them in very different ways. Face book‘s Groups feature lets you form ad hoc groups of friends, but compared to the way its done in Google+ it seems cumbersome. After all, Face book‘s
Groups feature is pretty new; it was ―built on‖, while friend "circles" are the bedrock of the
Google+ platform
Better mobile app:
If you 're an Android user, you may find that getting content from your phone to your social platform is easier, cleaner more functional with the Google+ mobile app. The app is already great, but Google will seek more and more ways to make your Android phone a seem less appendage of your Google+ social platform. Google hopes to use its huge Android user base as a wedge against Face book, whose mobile app, while nice-looking, is a little clunky to use.
Easier to find stuff to share:
Google‘s Sparks feature is another important differentiator from Face book. Spark is Google leveraging its search engine to do something Face book can‘t do—give users an instant wellspring of relevant information to share with friends. Because Face book has no search engine, its users must leave the site to find shareable data or wait for their friends the share it with them. The question "how do I find stuff to share" is immediately answered with Sparks
You can retrieve your data back:
Face book is notorious for its poor stewardship of personal data. You are forced to make certain parts of your personal data "public" for example, and It is very hard to permanently delete your
Face book profile. Google, on the other hand, makes it possible for you to pick up all the data
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you‘ve banked at Google+ and walk away. This is done through a Google+ tool called ―Data
Liberation.‖ With just a few clicks you can download data from your Picasa Web Albums,
Google profile, Google+ stream, Buzz and contacts.
Better photo tagging:
When viewing photos in Google+ you can ―tag‖ the people in them similar to the way you do in
Face book. You draw a little square around a person 's face, then type in their name in the box below it (or choose one of the names Google+ guesses). But there‘s a big difference in the way
Google handles the privacy aspect of photo tagging Also, Google has wisely decided to shy away from using facial recognition software, which Face book now uses to automatically identify people in photos uploaded to user albums.
Strong group chat features:
Google+ has Face book beat in the area of chat. Forming ad hoc group video chats using the
Hangouts feature in Google+ is easy, and forming ad hoc groups for a little chat seems like a natural and fun thing to do in a social networking setting. Similarly, the new Huddle mobile app makes it easy for mobile (Android) users to start up group text chats. Face book simply doesn 't offer Safer content sharing:
Privacy advocates have long called for social networking sites to let users assign a privacy level to each piece of content they share, instead of using a pre-set list privacy settings to govern all shares. Google obviously heard those calls, and built the capability into Google+. For instance, when I share an article or upload a camera image, Google+ gives me choices of which friend circles I‘d like to share that content with Advantage Google+.
Google+ is a better Steward of your personal data:
Running a social network is all about responsible stewardship of users ' personal information.
Face book is a young, fast moving company that has proved itself to be cavalier in its movements, lacking in respect for user data privacy, and accident prone
Objective of Google+
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To separate weekday versus weekend guests, business versus leisure guests, family versus couples, and so on.
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Using information provided through your Google+ account can: o Allows Hilton Hotel to target marketing campaigns to specific guests in your circles
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o
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Provide knowledge on what guests want to use for specials, packages and valuable information Having a google+ account will improve your search engine ranking. It has huge impact on the
Search Engine Optimization.
Strategy/ Guidelines/Frequency:
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As the main aim of using Google+ is to advance the SEO of Hilton and divide the target customers into different segments and cater to them more precisely.
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Only that kind of information will be provided that the admin thinks is relevant to the users In order to prevent of overlapping of information across different social medium channels.
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Should be updated once a week and twice a day
How to start:
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Setting up a google+ page
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Get a verified google+ name which will show that it is the official page of Hilton The Hague
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Get a tagline on google+ e.g: Welcome to the Hilton google+ page feel as comfortable as you do when staying at Hiltons
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In the ‗About‘ tab you‘ll see Recommended Links near the bottom. You should add links to your blog and your company homepage. Also consider adding links to various offers you may have.
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Photos are popular on Google+. Often the most popular posts on Google+ are pictures. To see this, go to the What‘s Hot section (click on the ‗Explore‘ tab on the left) and you‘ll see pictures.
Pinterest is proof that people prefer looking to reading. I would recommend putting pictures of your employees, housekeeping, the chef and his team + the dish etc. This will help to personalize your account.
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The statuses are important on google+ as they will and can be appeared on the search results
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Hilton should celebrate a milestone by offering discounts on google+ like the opening of the bar for instance
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Please note that Google does not allow brands to run contests in the Google+ platform itself.
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The google+ allows you to add author tag this will ensure that in search results a picture comes with the article.
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Top practices to improve Google+ (advice)
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Use the circle feature to share only the most relevant content to each person this targets the rights info to the right customer
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Add the +1 button to your blog or website(s) where users could share this content on Google+
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Post relevant pictures on Google+ this will help Google‘s image search
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Google+ allows basic formatting that other social media sites don‘t, you can add some flair to your posts by giving them headlines or separate blocks of text.
LinkedIn Business Page
Description:
LinkedIn Business page is an opportunity for companies to share information about their mission and services as well as obtain followers. LinkedIn business page aggregates automatic feed on Google news and company blogs posts to share on the company‘s LinkedIn profile.
Why LinkedIn:
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Online presence
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Recruiting
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Networking
Main Objective:
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Recruiting and vacancies posting
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Networking with clients, vendors, peers, and potential job candidates
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Strategy/ Guidelines and frequency:
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The target market for Hilton on LinkedIn is potential and current employees, planners, conference organizers, clients, local organization, professionals, media and thought leaders.
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Should be updated/posted when there is an vacancy, job opportunity or when recruiting
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Check in once a week. To stay updated and for news, networking and recruiting
How to Start:
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Set up a Hilton LinkedIn profile.
When you create Hilton Business overview page, use informative descriptions about whom you serve (your idea customer) and how you serve them.
Complete the designated specialties area and use keywords that will resonate with your target markets Build out your services pages on your profile to include an image, description, list of key features, landing page URL to your site, a link to special promotion and or embedded a you tube video. Once Hilton business page is set up, you then have to official designate who can update the company page within your settings.
Top practices to improve LinkedIn (Advice):
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Increasing Hilton‘s followers will increase Hiltons visibility. Your updates will be seen throughout
LinkedIn and can easily be shared by your followers with their professional networks.
Encourage existing employees to follow the page and help extend your company‘s reach by sharing company‘s news and blog posts with their connections on LinkedIn.
Follow the company pages of industry peers, vendors, current and prospective customers: many of them will reciprocate the action.
Follow companies outside of your industry that are in the same geographic location.
If you want to engage followers make it all about them and provide interesting value- added updates that can help them to succeed in their business.
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FourSquare
Description:
Foursquare is a social location-based platform for smart phone users. Users check-in virtually to locations, earn points, post tips and can link their ―check –in‖ to various social media accounts such as
Twitter or Face book.
Why foursquare: (Comparison with foursquare check in’s)
1. Free word of Marketing:
Because each check-in is broadcasted to a user‘s friends, there‘s natural word of mouth advertising that occurs through the site. Marketers‘ theory is that if users see their friends check in to a location, they may be more likely to visit.
2. Reviews:
Most location-based tools allow users to write reviews of the places they frequent. These reviews are then shared with other users who check in to those locations. This can have a real impact.
3. Specials:
Sites like Foursquare and Face book Places allow businesses to run specials that are unlocked by users who check in to their locations.
Now let’s compare the two major players—Face book Places and Foursquare
Users:
In 2010, Foursquare announced that it had more than 6.5 million members worldwide. Face book, on the other hand, said that as of October 2010 (just two months after its launch), more than 30 million had tried its Places service. It‘s unclear how many of these users can be considered active versus simply setting up accounts
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The same trends of increasing popularity of Foursquare are increasing in Europe as well. It is not a fad
Activity
In 2010, Foursquare claimed that its users checked in to locations more than 380 million times. Face book has not yet released its Places check-in numbers. But Business Insider (2010) recently ran a onemonth comparison between the two services, looking at the difference in total check-ins at several popular restaurants and hotels in Europe.
Foursquare overwhelmingly dominated in the experiment, with 5x (or more) the number of check-ins in some cases. It‘s unclear if these numbers apply to all businesses in all cities, but Foursquare users appear to be far more active than Face book Places users.
Deal Options
As mentioned, both Foursquare and Face book Places encourage businesses to create specials that reward users for checking in to their locations. But options for these specials vary slightly per site. For example, as part of its ―Charity Deals,‖ Face book businesses donate a certain amount of money per check-in. This type of special is not currently available through Foursquare. Foursquare, on the other hand, allows businesses to run what‘s known as ―Mayor‖ specials. These deals reward the individual who has checked in the most to a location. Foursquare is also in the midst of expanding their check-in deal options for businesses to better compete with Face book, so you‘ll begin to see a lot of overlap between the two
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Reach:
One of Face book‘s key advantages over Foursquare is its large, built-in network of users (600 million+ of them!). And because Face book launched long before Foursquare, many of its users had time to build up their own networks of friends.
In fact, the average Face book user is connected to 130 friends. This means that on average, each
Face book Places check-in has the potential to be seen by 130 of a user‘s Face book friends.
Foursquare users appear to have much smaller networks, and thus a much smaller reach. The site doesn‘t appear to disclose data about the size of its average user‘s network. But anecdotally, it‘s hard to find many users with more than 50 friends, meaning that each check-in may be seen by just a small group of users.
Quality of Reach
The majority of Face book users are connected to their intimate social networks—friends, family, coworkers, etc.—while many Foursquare users are connected to those they‘ve never met (e.g., Twitter followers). From a word-of-mouth standpoint, it can therefore be argued that Face book check-ins are more valuable than those spread strictly through Foursquare. It‘s the difference between telling your best friend where you‘re hanging out versus telling a complete stranger. Your best friends are going to be far more likely to trust your recommendations.
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Main Objective:
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To promote businesses especially Hotels and their amenities such as restaurants, spas and lounges, through word of mouth marketing.
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Users check in virtually and share their location with their networks. Foursquare offers a map, tips from other users and specials offered by the venue.
Strategy/Guidelines/Frequency:
The main target market that Hilton wants to reach through Foursquare is business travelers, conference attendees, media, and hospitality and tourism industry. Foursquare will be updated twice a month so two promotional offers twice a month should be launched and 4 Specials a year on quarterly bases.
How to start:
A conference centre can get started on a foursquare business listing by first searching for possible existing listings of their venue and choosing ―claiming this venue‖. If this venue does not exist yet on foursquare, create the venue.
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When claiming or creating a venue, you must answers a series of questions and submit a pin number provided by foursquare via phone or email verification
-
Once claimed, venue managers are able to customize how their Hilton location appears on
Foursquare.
-
Before you jump right in to creating a Foursquare Special, take a moment to review the various types of Specials available. Foursquare divides its Specials into two main categories.
Top practices to improve Foursquare (Advice):
-
Identify your top customers by analyzing the data from the foursquare page. This social media tool is free.
-
Grow your Hotel with foursquare specials!. Create and update special campaigns within foursquare at any given time. The special can attract new businesses or reward current clients eg: reward most loyal customers with something free at a gift shop or even provide a discount to new check –ins
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-
Another secret to foursquare is the ability to identify their greatest customers. With using the tool
Merchant Dashboard on the foursquare page, a conference centre is able to view over any specific time total daily check – ins, most recent visitors, most frequent visitors, gender breakdown of customers, what time of day people check-in, and what portion of your foursquare check-ins are broadcasted on Twitter or facebook.
-
The guest can also leave feedback on Foursquare by leaving tips. The tips assist the guest in choices as well as the conference centre in finding out what guests liked or disliked. By responding to ―tips‖, positive and negative reviews can be addressed instantly.
-
Double tree Hilton North Shore offers a ―loyalty special‖. Guests who link their foursquare account at www.topguest.com/hilton receive 50 Hilton HHonors points every time they check in at a Hilton.
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Facebook
Objective
Twitter
Google+
LinkedIn
Foursquare
Branding serving +
Building and managing Online reputation +
Provide target audience with the right information +
Recruiting and vacancies post+
Micro blogging
optimizes
Hilton’s SE
Promotional +
Informative + facilities awareness e.g bars and restaurants, conference rooms etc
word of mouth, spread positive comments about Hilton,
Targeted information for different segments,
The majority of content should be
@replies to people talking about your hotels, your brand, your niche pictures,
customers
Better + promotion Nature of Posts post advice, reviews, happenings in the hotel, upcoming events in the city, establish yourself as a local travel resource, Interactive and engaging
-Posts short,
(less than 80 characters) - specific and attractive -Frequent use of photos and links Goal
Keep the fans engaged + and updated + making it interactive by hosting networking
To distribute vacancy posts,
Promotional
And
promote other social networking sites of Hilton
Informative
Building awareness of the location
Bringing the right information to the right target audience, Hire new team members, Promoting
F&B,
expose B2B awareness, Bar, other services By posting
inviting
Tweeting about people who you are following and which are relevant to
Hilton
Twitpic / promotions, information
Follow industry leaders and strike up conversation, Respond to mentions and
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contests + launching new products or services or pose questions
frequency
direct messages extravagant pictures Include deals and offers
Being consistent in order to advance the
SEO
Tuesday,
Wednesday,
Friday and
Sunday - three times a day
Tuesday,
Wednesday,
Friday
Once a week twice a day.
customers for professional seminars
No. of Posts vary due to the availability of the vacancies
1 promotion post per week
Top 6 ways to promote your social media channels offline:
-
Involving front desk staff into monitoring social media can be useful, at times the night-auditors or even receptionists are not constantly busy and could contribute to the process. They are already dealing with guest emails, so why not with Tweets or Face book posts?
-
Ask front desk to bring social media channels up in their conversation while interacting with guests. -
Create a QR code
-
Electronic Picture Frames at the Front Desk
- Electronic Key Cards or Key Packets : icons sticking on the cards
- Social Media Icons Displayed Prominently on your Website
-
Social Media Links in your E-mail Signature
- Invite colleagues from management up and down. Make them a part of your Hilton pages. More exposure More ROI and more sales and revenues.
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References:
Social media marketing, which social media channels to use hotels, 2012, Available online at: http://blog.milestoneinternet.com/web-2/social-media-strategies-for-hotels/ [Accessed on 12.03.2013]
A guide to social media, 2012, Top practices to improve face book, Available online at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/getting-started/ [Accessed on 14.03.2013]
Top ten awesome hotel face book pages to like, (2012), Business insider, Available online at: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-01-31/lifestyle/29965676_1_facebook-page-choice-hotels-web-page [Accessed on 11 March 2013].
How to improve business twitter business page, 2012, Available online at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/getting-started/ [Accessed on 11 March 2013].
Ernst & Young on new ways of reaching Hotel guests, (2013), hotel marketing, Available online at: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/ernst_young_on_new_ways_of_reaching_hotel_guest s [Accessed on 11-03-2013].
Ten Travel Bloggers to watch in 2013, (2013), Available online at: http://blog.hotelscombined.com/2012/11/ten-travel-bloggers-to-watch-in-2013/[Accessed on 11-032013]
How Google+ is beneficial for hotels, 2012, Available online at: http://blog.milestoneinternet.com/web-2/5-reasons-google-is-beneficial-for-hotels/ [Accessed on
15.03.2013]
Three main reasons why foursquare still matters to Hotel. 2011, Available online at: http://www.reviewpro.com/hotels-foursquare-5264 [Accessed on 17.03.2013]
Selecting the right channel for the right message, 2012, Hilary Murphy, social media strategist, Available online at: http://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/2951/selecting-the-right-channel-for-the-rightmessage-in-social-media-marketing [Accessed on 21.03.2013]
Hilton hotels competitor analysis, SWOT Analysis, Available online at: http://saraalgoe.hubpages.com/hub/Hilton-Hotels [Accessed on 21.03.2013]
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References: Social media marketing, which social media channels to use hotels, 2012, Available online at: http://blog.milestoneinternet.com/web-2/social-media-strategies-for-hotels/ [Accessed on 12.03.2013] A guide to social media, 2012, Top practices to improve face book, Available online at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/getting-started/ [Accessed on 14.03.2013] Top ten awesome hotel face book pages to like, (2012), Business insider, Available online at: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-01-31/lifestyle/29965676_1_facebook-page-choice-hotels-web-page How to improve business twitter business page, 2012, Available online at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/getting-started/ [Accessed on 11 March 2013]. Ernst & Young on new ways of reaching Hotel guests, (2013), hotel marketing, Available online at: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/ernst_young_on_new_ways_of_reaching_hotel_guest Ten Travel Bloggers to watch in 2013, (2013), Available online at: http://blog.hotelscombined.com/2012/11/ten-travel-bloggers-to-watch-in-2013/[Accessed on 11-032013] How Google+ is beneficial for hotels, 2012, Available online at: http://blog.milestoneinternet.com/web-2/5-reasons-google-is-beneficial-for-hotels/ [Accessed on http://www.reviewpro.com/hotels-foursquare-5264 [Accessed on 17.03.2013] Selecting the right channel for the right message, 2012, Hilary Murphy, social media strategist, Available
Hilton The Hague
Table of Content:
Social media Trends 2012 - 2013
Page 5
Which Social Medium Channels To Use
Page 5
Target Group Of Hilton The Hague
Page 6
Type of Content Shared
Page 6
Part 1
Face book
1.1. Description of face book
Page 7
1.2. Objective Face book
Page 7
1.3 Strategy/Frequency/Guidelines
Page 7
1.4. How to start
Page 7
1.5. How to improve Face book
Page 8
1.5.who to add and why to add
Page 9
Part 2
2.1. Description Twitter
Page 10
2.2. Twitter (VS Blogging)
Page 11
2.2. Objective Twitter
Page 11
2.3. Strategy/Frequency/Guidelines
Page 11
2.4. How to start
Page 12
2.5. How to improve Twitter
Page 13
2.6. who to follow and why to follow
Page 14
2|Page
Part 3
Google+
4.1. Description
Page 14
4.2. Why Google+
Page 14
4.2. Objective of Google+
Page 16
4.3. Strategy/guidelines/frequency
Page 17
4.4. How to start
Page 17
4.5. How to improve Google+
Page 17
Part 2
2.1. Description of LinkedIn
Page 18
2.2. Why Linked In
Page 18
2.2. Objective of LinkedIn
Page 18
2.3. Strategy/Frequency/Guidelines
Page 18
2.4. How to start
Page 19
2.5. How to improve Twitter
Page 19
Part 3
Foursquare
4.1. Description of foursquare
Page 19
4.2. why foursquare (VS face book check Ins)
Page 20
4.3. Objective of Foursquare
Page 22
4.4. Strategy/guidelines/Frequency
Page 22
3|Page
4.5. How to start
Page 23
4.6. How to improve
Page 23
How to promote social channels offline
Page 26
References
Page 27
`
4|Page
Social media strategy – HILTON Hotel
Social Media Trends of 2013:
According to hotel Business review the ten hospitality industry trends of 2013 are as follow:
-
Increase in Travels Personals value
-
Expect more international visitors
-
Social media and mobile will be inseparable
-
Photo sharing will dominate
-
More unrehearsed marketing videos
-
Content marketing will replace traditional marketing
-
Social shopping and social bookings is going to become the norm
-
People/ users will form virtual communities and will spend more leisure time on the web
Which social Channels/ tools should be used for Hilton Hotel?
-
Face book – buuteeq - nearby - instagram (91 %of hotels in Europe have optimized face book) Twitter 86% of the hotels in Europe have an interactive twitter account
Google+ (is home to 73% of hotels )
LinkedIn 57% of hotels in Europe have active LinkedIn account
Check in to the 58% of the hotels are on foursquare
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The target group for Hotel:
-
Community: Expat community, International schools, individuals, families
-
Hilton Ambassador: Influential people like from international embassies,
-
Business corporate/ Guests: shells and frequent business people/employees who stay at Hilton
-
Families and leisure travelers
Content Shared on the social media channels:
The content that will be shared through the social media channels can be divided into three parts:
1) Behind the scenes: Blue energy, department highlight, employee highlights etc
2) What happens at Hilton the Hague: events, news from Hilton the Hague etc
3) What happens in the city The Hague: activities and places to visit during the week or weekend etc.
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Description:
With more than 1 billion users on Face book, out of which 220M users log onto face book daily, It also has fastest growing demographic segment of 35 years and older thus it‘s essential for your business to reach out to this captive audience. There are several ways to do so. Try to employ as many of the following strategies as possible. 7% say they interact with brands through the wall; by reading posts & updates Auto-posting decreases likes by 70% and 58% like brands ―because they are a customer‖ 57% like brands ―for deals & coupons‖ 56% say they are more likely to recommend a brand they follow on
Face book.
Main Objective:
The main aim of the content of face book is as follow:
1. ―Branding‖ - post advice, reviews, happenings in the hotel, upcoming events, establish yourself as a local travel resource
2. ―Serving customers better‖ – using face book for customer service, responding to both inquiries and complaints
3. Post pictures, videos and ask questions. It gives more engagement.
Strategy/ Guidelines/Frequency;
-
-
-
Face book for hotel should be updated 3 times a week. Like on Tuesday Wednesday,
Friday) According to Max Runfeldt‘s social media marketing study it shows that hotel guests are most engaged on Face book on these days
And at least 2 times a day it should get updated (reply on posts queries) don‘t post and provide new information more than twice a day it can overwhelm customers. (In the morning and afternoon). You can also upload videos to Face book. This is an easy way to give people insider access into recent events you 've hosted! Maybe it will inspire them to book for next year.
How to start:
Create a Facebook Fan Page
A Facebook fan page is the central point for your business on Face book. Your Face book Fan Page allows you to make announcements, interact with your fans, post images and videos, host contests,
7|Page
and launch products, to name a few ideas. All this activity will consistently keep your brand in the minds of potentially millions of people, allowing them the option to convert.
Create Facebook Ads
If you‘re willing to put some of your budget into advertising, consider Face book Ads. As you follow your ad campaign, examine whether visitors who click on your ads are actually becoming leads.
Launch a New Product With Facebook: (Bar) new cocktails, dishes
These days, a product launch doesn‘t need to involve a million dollar TV ad campaign. With most consumers involved in at least one social network, promoting your new product through social media can be influential and cost effective.
Add the ―Like‖ Button
When Facebook users ―Like‖ fan pages, posts, or comments, all of their friends will see their actions and the effects are viral. Studies have shown that consumers prefer peer recommendations to traditional advertising. Therefore, you need to encourage Facebook users to Like really anything and everything about your brand. Place Like buttons on your company website, blog posts, and e-mails.
Add the ―Subscribe to Facebook‖ Button
If you have a member profile page in addition to your Facebook fan page, you can optimize it for marketing as well. Simply add a Subscribe button to it. Read our post to learn how to accomplish this.
Host Contests on Facebook
Contests are fun for everyone and a great way to bring your product or service to life. Here‘s how to create one:
Promotional Rules – As you plan a contest strategy on Facebook, it is important that you are aware of
Facebook‘s Promotion Guidelines. Make sure that you review and understand all of these before starting, or you‘ll risk having your Page taken down.
Top practices to improve your facebook fan / business page: (Advice)
Generate content with photos and post questions on daily bases for making the facebook page interactive ( like about events, conferences and cultural events)
Directly answer the queries or complaints keep the followers interested
Keep the information relevant to the hotel and to the customers
Don‘t pose questions more than twice a day research has stated that it can overwhelm the customers. One of the best ways to use Facebook is to interact with your guests, former and future, not simply posting information. If you 're making changes at the hotel, ask what they think! Engage them in conversation about local restaurants and shops Load pictures of client events: people enjoy seeing tagged photos from events. Tagging each other and commenting will make the business page in the centre of attention.
Offer an incentive to sign up for people
8|Page
Get fans / customer upload and tag photos ( this generates trust and loyalty)
Add a facebook discounts
Get people to join facebook page via SMS send a text message to 32665 with words ―fan Hilton
Hotel‖ or whatever the user name is bear in mind this needs to be without the quotation marks
Connect your page to twitter connecting our page to twitter will convert our followers to facebook fans, using this strategy will cause all of your posts to be sent to twitter, with a link back to the facebook version of the post
If Hilton is doing email marketing then let them know about your fan page
Get business cards promoting your social media sites/ tools or in this case Facebook
Fiver : Is an online market place where services are sold for 5 bucks, check out their social marketing and Advertising section and here are some people who are willing to sell their 5000 fans for just 5 dollars ( but in this case you have to make the person who is selling his fans an admin of your page
Run a fan only contest
Have a reservation / Booking widget
Post extravagant pictures, memorable events, and also update about your surroundings / happenings Do a fan of the month promotion
Create a redirect URL : for example; www.hilton.com/joinmyfacebookpage.
Who to add and why to add:
Potential Customers
-
Expats in the Hague
Shell headquarters the Hague
Feel at home in the Hague
Angloinfo ( corporate event and management)
Existing Customers
-
Accenture
Bain & Company
Permanent Court of Arbitration
Blackrock
AT&T
NCI Agency
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-
PricewaterhouseCoopers
McKinsey & Company
Chiyoda Corporation
Hewlett Packard
Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI)
Transamerica
Roland Berger Project
Kabinet van de gevolmachtigde Minister van Sint Maarten
On which grounds are the above mentioned points made?
They are made on the grounds of business Insider (jan. 31, 2012) ―10 awesome Hotel facebook pages‖. After carrying out a competitor analysis of the following facebook pages which have been listed as top 10 facebook fan pages of 2012
-
One and only palmilla
Distrikt Hotel NYC
Marriott Napa Valley hotel and Spa
The Algonquin hotel
The Fitzwilton Hotel Waterford
Gaylord Opryland Resort
The Hermitage Hotel
The Westin Dragonara Resort Malta
The Stanley Hotel
Beacon Hotel
Description:
Twitter is important and necessary following individuals and companies (usually in the hope of being followed back); retweeting content that‘s relevant to prospects and customers; engaging with others; tweeting generally useful or newsworthy information.
Why Twitter: (Comparison with Blogging)
Twitter is real time, blog posts take time to write,
10 | P a g e
You can have actual conversations on Twitter compared to only commenting back and forth. On blog posts it is only possible (if the author approves your comment).
Feedback and comments from a wide range of Twitter folk can happen in a matter of minutes compared to reading endless comments on a blog post.
Unless you‘re subscribed to blogs, Twitter delivers the blog posts to you via PPC tweets rather than you having to search for them or be completely oblivious to their existence.
Typically PPC Twitter folk only tweet relevant topics and posts so you‘re only reading those blogs most likely to be of high interest to you and not those that are the same old story just on a different day.
The immediacy of Twitter and the fact that it is a network that can spread word of a story, idea, question or thought quickly around the world to many thousands of people very quickly makes it unique. Whereas blogging can‘t do the same. Blog are also great for more in depth posts.
Google Analytics stats show that Twitter.com is now the 2nd largest referrer of traffic to websites and blogs
The practice of ‗ReTweeting‘ has really come into its own over the last 6 months. While people have always‗re tweeted‘ what others have tweeted – a lot more tools and services have risen up around the practice of late. Some see retweeting as a measure of authority of a twitter user –
I‘ve personally been more interested in its viral nature, particularly when your link is the one being retweeted.
Twitter is twitterrific for making short, burst announcements. Kind of like those 30 second infomercials you hear on the radio. Short and tweet, and to the point.
Objective of twitter:
1. The ultimate goal of twitter for Hilton is to create a voice for Hilton.
2. ―Building and managing online reputation‖ – word of mouth, spread positive comments about
Hilton
3. The majority of content should be @replies to people talking about your hotels, your brand, your niche 4. Use Twitter to micro – blog it allows you to use 140 characters.
Strategy/ Guidelines/Frequency;
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-
Minimum of 2 times a day and three times a week to fully use twitter‘s potential should be tweeted (research of 2011, by social media the new marketing tool) – By Frans van Der Reep
-
Our target audience for twitter will be employees of the companies, families, executives and normal followers who have active twitter account.
-
Tweets are more likely to be re tweeted (shared) because: The tweet was interesting (94%) It was funny (84%) The tweeter had a personal connection with the author (66%) The Tweeter was a celebrity
(21%) The Tweeter offered incentive (32%) The Tweeter said “Please re-tweet”(26%) - [“Popularity of social media” 2012 jan. article by van Jay Bear]
How to start:
-
Twitter account will be made an informal localized account subjected to The Hague. Localized accounts are used to be more personal. HiltonThe Hague/Twitter
-
Hilton the Hague will follow more followers and will post and promote other businesses or people that are relevant to Hilton.
What types of tweets??
Responding to questions, comments and mentions. For hotels, Twitter remains primarily a service and conversational medium. Responses build relationships and show your
Twitter involvement is not exclusively to push commercial messages.
Retweeting positive feedback. Retweeting positive messages helps others act as salespeople for your brand. This can be done too often, but sharing the occasional recommendation as a retweet will show you acknowledge advocates and appreciate their comments.
Retweeting other resources. This helps you curate what is cool while giving credit to the source. You could always tweet links directly, but retweeting other content producers helps build important relationships by raising their own Twitter profile. Plus, retweets introduce your followers to new sources of information.
Sharing recommendations. The Opus Hotel in Vancouver shares style tips via Twitter
@OpusHotels. This strategy helps build a brand personality, which is something that should be outlined in a social media style guide for your staff. Lifestyle information can be very popular on Twitter, so define the image you are building and then share information and recommendations around this.
Spotlighting media mentions. If hilton hotels get mentioned in the media, pass that information along to your Twitter followers. Highlighting stories on Twitter can amplify the coverage by providing an opportunity for additional exposure through retweets and viral word of mouth
12 | P a g e
Asking questions. Twitter can act as a 24/7 virtual focus group, and can be a powerful way to do market research. Next time you have a question - or want to get a second opinion - crowdsource the answer by posting to Twitter e.g: what kind of cocktail or mix drink would you like to see in the Hilton bar etc.
Running contests. Some of the best contests leverage the power of questions to increase participation. A recent promotion from Apex Hotels asked followers to submit their favorite things about Edinburgh. In this single contest, more than 460 people participated - providing valuable market research, ideas for future blog posts, and perhaps tips for a city guide in the future.
Offering real-time information. it is possible to use this real-time medium if there is a storm or bad weather, for example. By following and acting quickly on a news event, you can help stranded travelers - which we‘ve seen a few airlines and hotels do successfully recently. This real-time format also works well for events, sharing timely tips for attendees. Sharing personal thoughts. Depending on the voice and style you want to communicate in your Twitter account, it may be appropriate to include personal thoughts in your hotels‘
Twitter stream. Typically this approach works best for localized hotels where the owner also acts as the public spokesperson. A good example of this is Guido vanden Elshout, owner of the Haagsche Suites, but better known on Twitter as @HappyHotelier. Instead of just promoting his hotel, Guido publishes links and resources on topics he is fascinated by: design, food and travel.
Having a separate HR twitter Hilton account. Recruiting staff. Twitter can be a valuable way to recruit talented team members. Apex Hotels built a separate Twitter account for human resources: @apexcareers. Danielle, the Recruitment Officer at Apex, uses the account to offer career advice, CV tips, and guidance to potential applicants. ―Engaging with the wider recruiting world ensures that Apex maintains an excellent standard of service by employing the right people at the very top of their game,‖
Top Practices to improve twitter (Advice):
-
Use a hashtag which is simply a pound sign that categorize certain types of tweets, also search for them which is relevant to Hilton and follow them
Sigh in each day to thank your followers or those that mention your hotel. Engage others in a fun way
Rule of thumb in twitter is to promote others 10x more than your hotel
Track your tweets through Bit.ly or google URL builder to see what topics generated the most clicks and interest from your followers
Post about discounts/offers for the hotel as well as recommendations on places to eat or things to do at the hotel or in the area
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-
Room offers and contests are always nice (and interactive). Reminders/announcements about upcoming events or happy hour specials too.
Reply to tweets within minutes like Indies
Twitter is an amazing way to get feedback on your product, from some of the biggest influencers out there. What do people consistently asks for or get confused about? Use this information to make your product better.
Who to follow and why to follow:
-
-
-
Local papers & organizations: As you all have a vested interest in bringing in tourism to your area. Major food critics & writers, interact with them & engage in debate no matter how serious or light hearted it is. Personal favourites are: @Marinaoloughlin (The Guardian);
@JayRayner1 (The Observer); @TimHayward (Fire & Knives amongst others) and@MillyMollyManda (The Caterer)
According to the Cornell Hospitality Report (2012), if a hotel enhances its review score by one point on TripAdvisor’s five-point scale, it can increase its rate by 11.2%, while maintaining the same occupancy or market share.
Beer and Beans, Hecktic Travels, Y Travel Blog, are traveler‘s blogs that you can always tweet or share on your twitter account.
Google+
Description:
Google+ profiles are a way for Hotels to represent themselves on google products and across the web.
A typical Google+ profile includes images, text, and video and shared content. The target market on this social site can be divided into different segments like planners, industry, current and future guests‘ conference and social events attendees. It is a very important tool as each day 3,000,000,000 people search on google and 77 of the world’s top 100 brands have a Google+ page. This makes it very important for
Hilton to have one account on Google+.
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Why Google+:
Google announced on 6 December 2012 that it has 135 million active users checking their Google+ streams each month, up from 100 million in mid-September. If you run the maths that means Google+ is now growing at the same pace as face book when it was similarly sized. Some of the advantages it has over face book are listed as follow.
Integration with Google Services:
The biggest wedge Google has for driving people toward using Google+ is integration. That is,
Google will build Google+ social networking features and tools into almost all of its existing online services from Search to Documents to Video (YouTube). Google+ is already integrated into the navigation bar at the top right of almost all Google products; this lets you monitor all
Google+ events (updates, messages, etc.) as well as share content with friends without ever leaving the Google service you happen to be using
Better friend management;
Google is right that the ―Circles‖ concept is more in line with the way we make friends in real life. We have many different kinds of friends, and we interact with them and communicate with them in very different ways. Face book‘s Groups feature lets you form ad hoc groups of friends, but compared to the way its done in Google+ it seems cumbersome. After all, Face book‘s
Groups feature is pretty new; it was ―built on‖, while friend "circles" are the bedrock of the
Google+ platform
Better mobile app:
If you 're an Android user, you may find that getting content from your phone to your social platform is easier, cleaner more functional with the Google+ mobile app. The app is already great, but Google will seek more and more ways to make your Android phone a seem less appendage of your Google+ social platform. Google hopes to use its huge Android user base as a wedge against Face book, whose mobile app, while nice-looking, is a little clunky to use.
Easier to find stuff to share:
Google‘s Sparks feature is another important differentiator from Face book. Spark is Google leveraging its search engine to do something Face book can‘t do—give users an instant wellspring of relevant information to share with friends. Because Face book has no search engine, its users must leave the site to find shareable data or wait for their friends the share it with them. The question "how do I find stuff to share" is immediately answered with Sparks
You can retrieve your data back:
Face book is notorious for its poor stewardship of personal data. You are forced to make certain parts of your personal data "public" for example, and It is very hard to permanently delete your
Face book profile. Google, on the other hand, makes it possible for you to pick up all the data
15 | P a g e
you‘ve banked at Google+ and walk away. This is done through a Google+ tool called ―Data
Liberation.‖ With just a few clicks you can download data from your Picasa Web Albums,
Google profile, Google+ stream, Buzz and contacts.
Better photo tagging:
When viewing photos in Google+ you can ―tag‖ the people in them similar to the way you do in
Face book. You draw a little square around a person 's face, then type in their name in the box below it (or choose one of the names Google+ guesses). But there‘s a big difference in the way
Google handles the privacy aspect of photo tagging Also, Google has wisely decided to shy away from using facial recognition software, which Face book now uses to automatically identify people in photos uploaded to user albums.
Strong group chat features:
Google+ has Face book beat in the area of chat. Forming ad hoc group video chats using the
Hangouts feature in Google+ is easy, and forming ad hoc groups for a little chat seems like a natural and fun thing to do in a social networking setting. Similarly, the new Huddle mobile app makes it easy for mobile (Android) users to start up group text chats. Face book simply doesn 't offer Safer content sharing:
Privacy advocates have long called for social networking sites to let users assign a privacy level to each piece of content they share, instead of using a pre-set list privacy settings to govern all shares. Google obviously heard those calls, and built the capability into Google+. For instance, when I share an article or upload a camera image, Google+ gives me choices of which friend circles I‘d like to share that content with Advantage Google+.
Google+ is a better Steward of your personal data:
Running a social network is all about responsible stewardship of users ' personal information.
Face book is a young, fast moving company that has proved itself to be cavalier in its movements, lacking in respect for user data privacy, and accident prone
Objective of Google+
-
To separate weekday versus weekend guests, business versus leisure guests, family versus couples, and so on.
-
Using information provided through your Google+ account can: o Allows Hilton Hotel to target marketing campaigns to specific guests in your circles
16 | P a g e
o
-
Provide knowledge on what guests want to use for specials, packages and valuable information Having a google+ account will improve your search engine ranking. It has huge impact on the
Search Engine Optimization.
Strategy/ Guidelines/Frequency:
-
As the main aim of using Google+ is to advance the SEO of Hilton and divide the target customers into different segments and cater to them more precisely.
-
Only that kind of information will be provided that the admin thinks is relevant to the users In order to prevent of overlapping of information across different social medium channels.
-
Should be updated once a week and twice a day
How to start:
-
Setting up a google+ page
-
Get a verified google+ name which will show that it is the official page of Hilton The Hague
-
Get a tagline on google+ e.g: Welcome to the Hilton google+ page feel as comfortable as you do when staying at Hiltons
-
In the ‗About‘ tab you‘ll see Recommended Links near the bottom. You should add links to your blog and your company homepage. Also consider adding links to various offers you may have.
-
Photos are popular on Google+. Often the most popular posts on Google+ are pictures. To see this, go to the What‘s Hot section (click on the ‗Explore‘ tab on the left) and you‘ll see pictures.
Pinterest is proof that people prefer looking to reading. I would recommend putting pictures of your employees, housekeeping, the chef and his team + the dish etc. This will help to personalize your account.
-
The statuses are important on google+ as they will and can be appeared on the search results
-
Hilton should celebrate a milestone by offering discounts on google+ like the opening of the bar for instance
-
Please note that Google does not allow brands to run contests in the Google+ platform itself.
-
The google+ allows you to add author tag this will ensure that in search results a picture comes with the article.
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Top practices to improve Google+ (advice)
-
Use the circle feature to share only the most relevant content to each person this targets the rights info to the right customer
-
Add the +1 button to your blog or website(s) where users could share this content on Google+
-
Post relevant pictures on Google+ this will help Google‘s image search
-
Google+ allows basic formatting that other social media sites don‘t, you can add some flair to your posts by giving them headlines or separate blocks of text.
LinkedIn Business Page
Description:
LinkedIn Business page is an opportunity for companies to share information about their mission and services as well as obtain followers. LinkedIn business page aggregates automatic feed on Google news and company blogs posts to share on the company‘s LinkedIn profile.
Why LinkedIn:
-
Online presence
-
Recruiting
-
Networking
Main Objective:
-
Recruiting and vacancies posting
-
Networking with clients, vendors, peers, and potential job candidates
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Strategy/ Guidelines and frequency:
-
The target market for Hilton on LinkedIn is potential and current employees, planners, conference organizers, clients, local organization, professionals, media and thought leaders.
-
Should be updated/posted when there is an vacancy, job opportunity or when recruiting
-
Check in once a week. To stay updated and for news, networking and recruiting
How to Start:
-
Set up a Hilton LinkedIn profile.
When you create Hilton Business overview page, use informative descriptions about whom you serve (your idea customer) and how you serve them.
Complete the designated specialties area and use keywords that will resonate with your target markets Build out your services pages on your profile to include an image, description, list of key features, landing page URL to your site, a link to special promotion and or embedded a you tube video. Once Hilton business page is set up, you then have to official designate who can update the company page within your settings.
Top practices to improve LinkedIn (Advice):
-
Increasing Hilton‘s followers will increase Hiltons visibility. Your updates will be seen throughout
LinkedIn and can easily be shared by your followers with their professional networks.
Encourage existing employees to follow the page and help extend your company‘s reach by sharing company‘s news and blog posts with their connections on LinkedIn.
Follow the company pages of industry peers, vendors, current and prospective customers: many of them will reciprocate the action.
Follow companies outside of your industry that are in the same geographic location.
If you want to engage followers make it all about them and provide interesting value- added updates that can help them to succeed in their business.
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FourSquare
Description:
Foursquare is a social location-based platform for smart phone users. Users check-in virtually to locations, earn points, post tips and can link their ―check –in‖ to various social media accounts such as
Twitter or Face book.
Why foursquare: (Comparison with foursquare check in’s)
1. Free word of Marketing:
Because each check-in is broadcasted to a user‘s friends, there‘s natural word of mouth advertising that occurs through the site. Marketers‘ theory is that if users see their friends check in to a location, they may be more likely to visit.
2. Reviews:
Most location-based tools allow users to write reviews of the places they frequent. These reviews are then shared with other users who check in to those locations. This can have a real impact.
3. Specials:
Sites like Foursquare and Face book Places allow businesses to run specials that are unlocked by users who check in to their locations.
Now let’s compare the two major players—Face book Places and Foursquare
Users:
In 2010, Foursquare announced that it had more than 6.5 million members worldwide. Face book, on the other hand, said that as of October 2010 (just two months after its launch), more than 30 million had tried its Places service. It‘s unclear how many of these users can be considered active versus simply setting up accounts
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-
The same trends of increasing popularity of Foursquare are increasing in Europe as well. It is not a fad
Activity
In 2010, Foursquare claimed that its users checked in to locations more than 380 million times. Face book has not yet released its Places check-in numbers. But Business Insider (2010) recently ran a onemonth comparison between the two services, looking at the difference in total check-ins at several popular restaurants and hotels in Europe.
Foursquare overwhelmingly dominated in the experiment, with 5x (or more) the number of check-ins in some cases. It‘s unclear if these numbers apply to all businesses in all cities, but Foursquare users appear to be far more active than Face book Places users.
Deal Options
As mentioned, both Foursquare and Face book Places encourage businesses to create specials that reward users for checking in to their locations. But options for these specials vary slightly per site. For example, as part of its ―Charity Deals,‖ Face book businesses donate a certain amount of money per check-in. This type of special is not currently available through Foursquare. Foursquare, on the other hand, allows businesses to run what‘s known as ―Mayor‖ specials. These deals reward the individual who has checked in the most to a location. Foursquare is also in the midst of expanding their check-in deal options for businesses to better compete with Face book, so you‘ll begin to see a lot of overlap between the two
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Reach:
One of Face book‘s key advantages over Foursquare is its large, built-in network of users (600 million+ of them!). And because Face book launched long before Foursquare, many of its users had time to build up their own networks of friends.
In fact, the average Face book user is connected to 130 friends. This means that on average, each
Face book Places check-in has the potential to be seen by 130 of a user‘s Face book friends.
Foursquare users appear to have much smaller networks, and thus a much smaller reach. The site doesn‘t appear to disclose data about the size of its average user‘s network. But anecdotally, it‘s hard to find many users with more than 50 friends, meaning that each check-in may be seen by just a small group of users.
Quality of Reach
The majority of Face book users are connected to their intimate social networks—friends, family, coworkers, etc.—while many Foursquare users are connected to those they‘ve never met (e.g., Twitter followers). From a word-of-mouth standpoint, it can therefore be argued that Face book check-ins are more valuable than those spread strictly through Foursquare. It‘s the difference between telling your best friend where you‘re hanging out versus telling a complete stranger. Your best friends are going to be far more likely to trust your recommendations.
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Main Objective:
-
To promote businesses especially Hotels and their amenities such as restaurants, spas and lounges, through word of mouth marketing.
-
Users check in virtually and share their location with their networks. Foursquare offers a map, tips from other users and specials offered by the venue.
Strategy/Guidelines/Frequency:
The main target market that Hilton wants to reach through Foursquare is business travelers, conference attendees, media, and hospitality and tourism industry. Foursquare will be updated twice a month so two promotional offers twice a month should be launched and 4 Specials a year on quarterly bases.
How to start:
A conference centre can get started on a foursquare business listing by first searching for possible existing listings of their venue and choosing ―claiming this venue‖. If this venue does not exist yet on foursquare, create the venue.
-
When claiming or creating a venue, you must answers a series of questions and submit a pin number provided by foursquare via phone or email verification
-
Once claimed, venue managers are able to customize how their Hilton location appears on
Foursquare.
-
Before you jump right in to creating a Foursquare Special, take a moment to review the various types of Specials available. Foursquare divides its Specials into two main categories.
Top practices to improve Foursquare (Advice):
-
Identify your top customers by analyzing the data from the foursquare page. This social media tool is free.
-
Grow your Hotel with foursquare specials!. Create and update special campaigns within foursquare at any given time. The special can attract new businesses or reward current clients eg: reward most loyal customers with something free at a gift shop or even provide a discount to new check –ins
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-
Another secret to foursquare is the ability to identify their greatest customers. With using the tool
Merchant Dashboard on the foursquare page, a conference centre is able to view over any specific time total daily check – ins, most recent visitors, most frequent visitors, gender breakdown of customers, what time of day people check-in, and what portion of your foursquare check-ins are broadcasted on Twitter or facebook.
-
The guest can also leave feedback on Foursquare by leaving tips. The tips assist the guest in choices as well as the conference centre in finding out what guests liked or disliked. By responding to ―tips‖, positive and negative reviews can be addressed instantly.
-
Double tree Hilton North Shore offers a ―loyalty special‖. Guests who link their foursquare account at www.topguest.com/hilton receive 50 Hilton HHonors points every time they check in at a Hilton.
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Objective
Google+
Foursquare
Branding serving +
Building and managing Online reputation +
Provide target audience with the right information +
Recruiting and vacancies post+
Micro blogging
optimizes
Hilton’s SE
Promotional +
Informative + facilities awareness e.g bars and restaurants, conference rooms etc
word of mouth, spread positive comments about Hilton,
Targeted information for different segments,
The majority of content should be
@replies to people talking about your hotels, your brand, your niche pictures,
customers
Better + promotion Nature of Posts post advice, reviews, happenings in the hotel, upcoming events in the city, establish yourself as a local travel resource, Interactive and engaging
-Posts short,
(less than 80 characters) - specific and attractive -Frequent use of photos and links Goal
Keep the fans engaged + and updated + making it interactive by hosting networking
To distribute vacancy posts,
Promotional
And
promote other social networking sites of Hilton
Informative
Building awareness of the location
Bringing the right information to the right target audience, Hire new team members, Promoting
F&B,
expose B2B awareness, Bar, other services By posting
inviting
Tweeting about people who you are following and which are relevant to
Hilton
Twitpic / promotions, information
Follow industry leaders and strike up conversation, Respond to mentions and
25 | P a g e
contests + launching new products or services or pose questions
frequency
direct messages extravagant pictures Include deals and offers
Being consistent in order to advance the
SEO
Tuesday,
Wednesday,
Friday and
Sunday - three times a day
Tuesday,
Wednesday,
Friday
Once a week twice a day.
customers for professional seminars
No. of Posts vary due to the availability of the vacancies
1 promotion post per week
Top 6 ways to promote your social media channels offline:
-
Involving front desk staff into monitoring social media can be useful, at times the night-auditors or even receptionists are not constantly busy and could contribute to the process. They are already dealing with guest emails, so why not with Tweets or Face book posts?
-
Ask front desk to bring social media channels up in their conversation while interacting with guests. -
Create a QR code
-
Electronic Picture Frames at the Front Desk
- Electronic Key Cards or Key Packets : icons sticking on the cards
- Social Media Icons Displayed Prominently on your Website
-
Social Media Links in your E-mail Signature
- Invite colleagues from management up and down. Make them a part of your Hilton pages. More exposure More ROI and more sales and revenues.
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References:
Social media marketing, which social media channels to use hotels, 2012, Available online at: http://blog.milestoneinternet.com/web-2/social-media-strategies-for-hotels/ [Accessed on 12.03.2013]
A guide to social media, 2012, Top practices to improve face book, Available online at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/getting-started/ [Accessed on 14.03.2013]
Top ten awesome hotel face book pages to like, (2012), Business insider, Available online at: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-01-31/lifestyle/29965676_1_facebook-page-choice-hotels-web-page [Accessed on 11 March 2013].
How to improve business twitter business page, 2012, Available online at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/getting-started/ [Accessed on 11 March 2013].
Ernst & Young on new ways of reaching Hotel guests, (2013), hotel marketing, Available online at: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/ernst_young_on_new_ways_of_reaching_hotel_guest s [Accessed on 11-03-2013].
Ten Travel Bloggers to watch in 2013, (2013), Available online at: http://blog.hotelscombined.com/2012/11/ten-travel-bloggers-to-watch-in-2013/[Accessed on 11-032013]
How Google+ is beneficial for hotels, 2012, Available online at: http://blog.milestoneinternet.com/web-2/5-reasons-google-is-beneficial-for-hotels/ [Accessed on
15.03.2013]
Three main reasons why foursquare still matters to Hotel. 2011, Available online at: http://www.reviewpro.com/hotels-foursquare-5264 [Accessed on 17.03.2013]
Selecting the right channel for the right message, 2012, Hilary Murphy, social media strategist, Available online at: http://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/2951/selecting-the-right-channel-for-the-rightmessage-in-social-media-marketing [Accessed on 21.03.2013]
Hilton hotels competitor analysis, SWOT Analysis, Available online at: http://saraalgoe.hubpages.com/hub/Hilton-Hotels [Accessed on 21.03.2013]
27 | P a g e
References: Social media marketing, which social media channels to use hotels, 2012, Available online at: http://blog.milestoneinternet.com/web-2/social-media-strategies-for-hotels/ [Accessed on 12.03.2013] A guide to social media, 2012, Top practices to improve face book, Available online at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/getting-started/ [Accessed on 14.03.2013] Top ten awesome hotel face book pages to like, (2012), Business insider, Available online at: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-01-31/lifestyle/29965676_1_facebook-page-choice-hotels-web-page How to improve business twitter business page, 2012, Available online at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/getting-started/ [Accessed on 11 March 2013]. Ernst & Young on new ways of reaching Hotel guests, (2013), hotel marketing, Available online at: http://hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/ernst_young_on_new_ways_of_reaching_hotel_guest Ten Travel Bloggers to watch in 2013, (2013), Available online at: http://blog.hotelscombined.com/2012/11/ten-travel-bloggers-to-watch-in-2013/[Accessed on 11-032013] How Google+ is beneficial for hotels, 2012, Available online at: http://blog.milestoneinternet.com/web-2/5-reasons-google-is-beneficial-for-hotels/ [Accessed on http://www.reviewpro.com/hotels-foursquare-5264 [Accessed on 17.03.2013] Selecting the right channel for the right message, 2012, Hilary Murphy, social media strategist, Available
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