The Revinate Blog

Facebook Updates its Facebook Deals Offering.

Back in November, Facebook announced Facebook Deals to compete with Groupon and other daily deal or flash sales.

Today you might notice a story published to your feed with the headline “Deals on Facebook. Now Better With Friends”. The goal is to get users to subscribe to updates for Facebook Deals, and to invite their friends to subscribe as well. Promotions will be rolled out in waves, with the first cities to include San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas, Atlanta, and Austin.

In addition to marketing to end users, Facebook has also posted information for businesses. The page encourages business to complete a lead gen form to get more information on creating deals. Would love to know if you're planning on using Deals to promote your hotel, restaurant, bar or spa.

Updates to Facebook Pages

Yet more good news from Facebook today! Many page adminitrators have been frustrated by the fact that their person identity is exposed when liking or posting. Now, page administrators can select 'Use Facebook as <business>' to represent your hotel or brand when navigating and engaging on Facebook.

Other helpful new features for businesses include:

• Notifications when fans interact with your page or posts
• Ability to see activity from the pages you like in your news feed
• Ability to like other pages and feature them on your page

To get started, go to your Page and upgrade. Then take the tour to see the new features in action. Or, read more here.

Facebook Sponsored Stories

Late last month Facebook announced a really interesting advertising product, Sponsored Stories. Here's how it works:

Today, when I check into your hotel using Facebook Places, some of my friends get that story in their feed. The ones who see it will be the people who interact with me the most. If the update is popular and generates a large number of likes and comments, more of my friends will see it.

Facebook’s new ad product allows brands to pay for that same message being distributed inside of an ad unit to all of my 500 friends with the goal of providing wider distribution and visibility to influence more friends. Historically, a brand could only put videos or content they created inside of ads – now they can leverage the true social conversation by highlighting content from users.

Facebook Sponsored Stories shows up inside of an ad unit on the right hand side of the page that is clearly marked as an ad unit, but contains the content of the actions you and your friends have taken. Hoteliers - would love to know if you plan to run any Sponsored Stories. Comment below with any thoughts.

Read more from Mashable here.

 

 

Social Media Odds and Ends

Last week I was in Charleston meeting with clients and some questions came up that I think many people are also asking so I thought I would use this post to highlight some frequently asked questions. Please add a comment if you have any additional questions that you would like me to answer.

Q. Can Facebook page owners send private messages from the business?

Surprisingly, the answer is 'no'. According to Facebook, "Facebook Pages do not currently have an Inbox, and can't be used to contact individual people directly." It sounds as though Facebook is considering whether to add this feature in the future but for now, if you choose to send a personal message to a user, it will appear to come from you and not from the Page. Similarly, users aren't able to contact Page admins through the Page.

Q. Who is the best person at a hotel to respond to reviews?

The best person to respond to reviews really depends upon the property and the staff. But one thing you should keep in mind is that you are really responding to the thousands of review site visitors that will read the review, not the reviewer himself. As a result, the person who responds should be someone with a marketing slant who is able to make the property shine and illustrate its focus on excellent service. This person might be the GM, an executive assistant or a marketing manager.

Q. Why is my comp set getting so many more reviews than me?

While it's hard to know for sure, if your comp set is getting a lot more reviews than you there's a good chance they are doing at least one of the following:

• Asking guests to write reviews, either upon check-out or with a follow-up email after the stay.
• Placing reminders within the rooms and at front desk encouraging reviews or showcasing review site status. (eg Travelers Choice)
• Including a link to TripAdvisor at the end of the Guest Survey to allow guests to share their feedback publicly.
• Advertising prominently on review sites or OTAs.
• Providing exceptional service and amenities that people want to praise.

 

 

It's Official - Facebook Deals is Announced!

Just a few months after allowing people to 'check-in' using Facebook Places and a SmartPhone, Facebook is now taking things to the next level by allowing businesses to provide a deal to those that check-in. And, adding a social element, there will be a way to share deals with your friends so when you check in and tag your friends they will all get the same deal.

The opportunities are endless for hoteliers. In fact, one of the first deals is for the Palms in Las Vegas. People that check-in for a two night stay get a third night for free. Or, if they can't stay a free day they get a free room upgrade.

So hoteliers, start thinking about the deals you can offer. Maybe you want people to eat in your restaurant and will give away a free app or dessert? Or maybe you want to team up with a local charity to give away $1 for every check-in... There is no fee to create a deal and the system is entirely self-service so I imagine it will be very popular with businesses.

Right now the deal creator is only open to 20,000 businesses, but as soon as there is more information I will post again. Very excited about this one! You?

Check out this video on the Facebook site to see Deals in action.

 

Facebook Deals - - Coming Soon?

Facebook Places allows people to 'check-in' to your hotel using a SmartPhone and the Facebook Application. It looks like Facebook may be taking Places to the next level by allowing businesses to show special deals when the user checks in.

If true, this new feature, covered in AllFacebook, could provide businesses with great opportunities to reward loyalty and surprise and delight guests. Stay tuned for more information...

Hoteliers Guide to Facebook

By partnering closely with many leading-edge hospitality companies, Revinate is in the unique position to learn first-hand about the social media strategies that work, and don’t work, for the hospitality industry. The Hoteliers Guides are our way of sharing what we have learned with the larger community.

This guide is an introduction for hoteliers who are new to Facebook. The guide will help you understand the opportunity that Facebook presents, how to get started using Facebook, and best practices to employ to drive success.

Download the entire Hoteliers Guide to Facebook now.

 

Using Social Media to Differentiate on Service

I recently met with an executive at a leading hotel marketing group. A legend in the industry, he has spent more than 30 years working in hotels. He genuinely loves hospitality and is a stickler for great service. He told me that he is apprehensive about all the new technology coming out because he fears it will make the staff in a hotel obsolete. He said, "I worry about what will happen when people can just check in online and open their door with a bar code that is emailed to them. How will we be able to differentiate on service?"

As much as I love technology, I can see where he is coming from. A few nights ago night I stayed at the Elysian in Chicago and from the moment I pulled in, I was met with smiles and staff that couldn't do enough to make my 12 hours with them special. My name was passed from one staff member to the next so every conversation was personal. Upon checkout, when I expressed concern about making my flight, a front desk manager told me that they would love to have me stay with them another night. I genuinely believed him. And that's when it hit me. Encouraging staff to connect with guests is the most important thing a hotel can do. I will overlook a lot of imperfections if a staff member exceeds my expectations or makes my stay memorable.

And, as I explained to the executive, technology can play a roll. I showed him examples of hotels that were using Facebook and Twitter as an e-conierge and, as a result, surprising and delighting guests. One of my friends recently had a terrible experience with a large luxury brand and as soon as he tweeted about it, he was contacted and told that the situation would be handled immediately. He then tweeted how impressed he was with the brand. He was willing to forgive, and even promote the brand, because of how the situation was handled when he returned home.

What do you think? Can Facebook and Twitter help drive connections between guests and hotels? Will hotels be able to differentiate in this way?

Facebook Places - Claim those hotels!

All my social networks are colliding. I used to check in on Foursquare and share it with my friends on Facebook. Now, Facebook is showing that location based service products are ready for the masses by launching Facebook Places.

Here's how it works. Using a mobile device, you can find places you are at and check in. When you check-in, you can also tag the people you're with. These actions will create a story that is posted to your activity feed. (Your friends who were tagged need to allow the story before it is posted to their activity feeds.)

According to Mark Zuckerberg, the three main things Facebook is focusing on with this release are helping people share where they are, helping people see who is around them, and helping people seeing what’s going on. I think this can be huge for hotels for a number of reasons. First, we all turn to friends for recommendations on where to stay. Now, we can easily see where our friends stay when they travel for business and pleasure. It's like an endorsed ad every time someone checks in. Second, the lobby might get just a little bit more social now that you can see friends who might be nearby. I live in San Francisco but travel to New York often. I would love to know if my Cornell friends are nearby as I check-in with Places. Finally, Places sounds like a great place to share hotel activities such as happy hours, yoga classes or conference events.

Businesses will be able to claim their places, similar to the other location based services and Google Places.

I can't wait to download it tonight and try it out. More to come once I have delved in deeper.