Hi everyone! So clearly we're a day late this week with our weekly #WebWednesday social media news round-up. It's been a VERY busy week here at Revinate HQ, as our sales team is holding it's annual Sales Summit. Their energetic presence has certainly gotten us even more fired up to continue trailblazing in the online reputation management world and we hope you're as pumped up as we are! It was also a very busy week in the social media and online reputation world so we have lots of social media trends and news to report on below. Enjoy the rest of your week and the comic above - we live in that kind of world these days!
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our most recent free webinar on Reviews and Online Reputation Management best practices. We have held this webinar several times this year, and each time the content has been updated and well-received by attendees. As we do after every session, we are providing you with both the webinar slide presentation as well as video recording so that you can review the material covered. The assets are below:
Happy #WebWednesday friends! We hope you are having a great week and are staying up-to-date with the latest developments in social media and online reputation management. The stories below are a round-up of the best articles we have come across this week.
In the immediate aftermath
of the Boston Marathon bombing a few weeks ago, the Boston police quickly instructed
bystanders to leave the area and return to their homes and hotels until the
imminent danger had subsided. As the race finish line was in the tourist-trafficked
Copley Square, dozens of hotels were impacted by the event. With attendees
frantically rushing out of the area and desperately trying to contact loved
ones, it was imperative for the hotels to engage in the real-time social media
conversation, especially with cell communication cut off. Fortunately, many of
the area’s hotels took to their respective Facebook and Twitter accounts swiftly
and effectively to communicate with worried guests and assure their families
and friends that all everyone was safe.
A few of the nearby hotels stood out during this crisis
period with their real-time responses. The Fairmont Copley Plazatook to Facebook soon after the news of the disaster spread to assure
followers that the hotel’s colleagues were safe. The hotel also responded to
each and every tweet directed at the hotel. The Lenox Hotel was similarly quick
to update its Facebook page with updates on when the hotel would be re-opened
and answers to guest questions. Finally, the Mandarin Oriental, Boston posted updates on Facebook and
Twitter assuring followers that everyone was safe, despite the evacuation.
The Importance of
Crisis Management
What we can learn from each of these hotels is that, in the
wake of an unexpected disaster, real-time, responsive communication is
essential. These hotels were cognizant of followers’ concerns and swiftly
allayed them with direct and transparent messaging. Each property addressed
incoming questions received through each channel promptly and worked hard to
broadcast the safety precautions they were taking. Finally, each hotel
appropriately suspended any form of communication that was not relevant to the
ongoing disaster and avoided any form of promotional or unrelated posts that
may have been originally scheduled.
Contingency Planning
for a Crisis Situation
While no one wants to think about disasters, it pays to be
prepared and have a social media crisis plan in place. Clearly, each of these hotels
was prepared, evidenced by the swift and effective communication. Here are some
tips when crafting your hotel’s contingency plan for a crisis situation:
Create a social media crisis policy.In
times of sudden crisis, having a social media policy in place can certainly
fast track your response time and mitigate any negative impact to your hotel..
Consider who will respond to social media and who else has access to the
accounts, in case the primary person is unable to respond. Are social media
managers allowed to comment on the situation, or only the hotel’s response? In case people are injured, how much
information can be shared? While scary to imagine, you must consider all possible
scenarios and document your expectations.
Respond in real-time. Each of the
hotels above took immediate action on social media soon after the bombings
occurred. Each property deviated from its normal social media planning process
and took to each social network to communicate updates in real-time. When doing
this, be sure that your most senior social media communicators are involved to
ensure that you maintain your brand voice and stay consistent with your
messaging.
Keep only necessary stakeholders involved. When
there are too many “cooks in the kitchen” when managing your social media
presence, you lose brand consistency and face the potential of damaging your
hotel’s reputation. To avoid this problem, make sure that you involve only the
necessary stakeholders at your property. These individuals will usually be
members of your marketing, communications or public relations team, as they
will possess the best writing capabilities.
Follow-up with an official response.
Once the main crisis period has subsided, have your PR team craft an official
hotel response to the situation. This message should be shared across all
social networks and can also be fed to media, guests and colleagues around the
hotel.
Resume planned content strategy in time. The
worst thing a hotel can do in a time of crisis is to continue sharing
self-promotional messaging that has been scheduled in advance. Nothing leaves a
worse impression than showing a flagrant disregard for a real-time crisis.
After suspending this messaging, engage with fans in a responsive way until
order is restored and business is back to usual. Only then should you resume
your planned social media content strategy.
If you follow these five
tips, your hotel will be well positioned to handle any crisis scenario.
Situations like these come at unexpected times and almost always require
real-time, responsive response over social media. Therefore, having a crisis
plan in place is imperative and will empower your communication team to nimbly
navigate the turbulent waters during the state of emergency.
Thank you everyone for joining us for our webinar yesterday. Also, we'd like to say a special thank you to buuteeqfor co-hosting the session with us. In case you missed the webinar, here is a recording of the presentation, a copy of the deck used and a compilation of Twitter notes.
If you have any questions about buuteeq's digital marketing services, please email info@buuteeq.com.
Also, please subscribe to the blog for more tips on how to manage your hotel or brand's online reputation and social media presence.
Finally, please take advantage of all the free content that we develop for hoteliers by visiting our Best Practices page and signing up for future Webinars with us. And, if you liked what you saw and would like pricing information or want to learn more about Revinate, please let us know by e-mailing info@revinate.com.
Thanks to those that attended our Social Media 101 webinar on Tuesday. Both Ashley and I enjoyed sharing tips for managing your social media presence across various social media platforms. We hope that you are able to put our tips and tricks into action.
As promised, here is both the recording of the presentation as well as the Powerpoint deck we used:
Also, please subscribe to our blog for more tips on how to manage your hotel or brand's online reputation and social media presence.
Finally, please take advantage of all the free content that we develop for hoteliers by visiting our Best Practices page and signing up for future Webinars with us. And, if you liked what you saw and would like pricing information or want to learn more about Revinate, please let us know by contacting us at info@revinate.com!
I am admittedly a self-proclaimed social media addict. I am a super user when it comes to multiple social media platforms, but my obsession truly manifests itself the most on Twitter. I'm lucky to get to tweet for Revinate in addition from my own personal account, and if the above scenario played out I'm not sure what I would do with myself.
Thankfully this isn't the case and we can continue to keep up with the latest social media trends, which we report here each and every #WebWednesday on the blog. Before we get to the articles, we just want to remind you that we have two free upcoming webinars: one tomorrow on how independent hotels can showcase their properties online, and a second one on Monday on online reputation management best practices. We hope you can join us for either of these events, and have a great rest of your week!
Twitter has recently unveiled a new keyword targeting feature in their Twitter Ads platform that will allow businesses to more specifically cater to their most sought-after followers. There are two ways advertisers can use this targeting feature. First, advertisers can target Twitter users that have similar interests with a specific username (e.g. if you're a Washington DC hotel seeking promotion, you may want to target users similar to @washingtondc). Second, advertisers can target by more than 350 wide-ranging interest categories outlined by Twitter. In addition to the new targeting flexibility, advertisers now also have the ability to define exactly which platforms their promoted tweets will show up on (e.g. desktop, iOS, android, etc.) as well as target to a specific gender if desired. To learn more about this new feature, read Tnooz's recent report on the topic.
How many of you readers have been in a situation like this? Perhaps have a boss that thinks about social media this way? Or maybe you have even been guilty of this thought process at one point. Nevertheless, have no fear, as our weekly #WebWednesday round-up of excellent social media and online reputation articles are here to set you straight. Before you get to the reading, we want to remind you all that we have three free upcoming webinarsincluding one on Best Practices for Showcasing Your Independent Hotels Online. We hope you join us for the sessions and enjoy the rest of your week!
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