Mr. McKean

Social Media & PR

Show Off on YouTube

By Michael McKean, CEO, The Knowland Group

As a hotelier, you want to shout from the rooftop about how wonderful and accommodating your hotel is. You want everyone to know – and you want to bring in more business.

Before you start running up 14-some flights of stairs, hold up because there’s a simpler, less strenuous way to spread the word about your hotel far and wide. We’ve all heard about it, heck most of us have probably used it: YouTube. The social networking, video-posting website isn’t just where people post videos of their dog doing a back flip, YouTube is also a place for advertising your hotel and what it has to offer. You can use the extremely popular site to showcase the hotel’s latest renovations, hip cocktail bar and views of the sunset from the top floor restaurant.

Here are some quick facts about why hopping on the YouTube bandwagon is a wise business decision:

• According to YouTube, every minute 24 hours of video is uploaded to the site.
• 2 billion videos are viewed EVERY DAY.
• The user age range is broad, 18-55, spanning all demographics, with an equal share of men and women checking out and uploading videos.

The best part of all this: YouTube is FREE. You don’t need to spend one penny to post your advertisements on YouTube – all you need is a video camera.

To be a successful hotelier in this social media era, you not only need to become a YouTube user, you need to own it. I’ll tell you how.

Create Your Own Channel

The first step is the easiest. Go to YouTube.com, click on “Create Account” to get started. You’ll have to fill out some basic information, pick a user name and password and then it’s go time!
From there – click upload and start posting videos.

It’s a good idea to personalize your channel with a background picture, color scheme, and font that fits the hotel theme. Take a little time to make your channel stand out from the rest.

Don’t Be Shy

Spend a small fortune on recent renovations? Have an amazing view of the ocean? Does your hotel include a swanky bar or hip nightclub? Post a video of it on YouTube – or a slideshow of snapshots! Let your future customers drool over the digs they could be staying in. Customers will imagine themselves in a fabulous room, toasting the sunset over the ocean, or cutting loose on the dance floor. Once they start daydreaming, it’s easy to reel ‘em in.

Keep it Fresh

Once you start posting, you can’t stop. You must constantly update the videos and photos; I cannot stress that enough. Even if it’s something relatively small, say, new fluffy comforters in all the suites. People store those images into their memory banks and when they need a place to stay, they will think of those fluffy new comforters and book with you.

In the same vein, check the comments YouTube users have posted onto your page regularly. Take note of the positive comments and manage the negative ones. Don’t get too wrapped up in the viewer comments, just strive to make your YouTube page look the best it can. Merge Your Social Media

Post links to the hotel’s YouTube page on your Twitter, Facebook, blog, etc. The information will reach all your followers faster – and show all your fans just how social media-savvy the hotel is. Don’t forget your hotel’s website! Post a link of a video or slideshow of pictures from the YouTube channel to the hotel’s homepage. By cutting out the middleman, your future customers won’t have to go around searching YouTube or the website to see the rooms, amenities and the unique attributes your hotel has.

The Phone Isn’t Only for Talking

We all know cell phones aren’t just for making calls or texting these days. With a Smartphone, millions of Americans are walking around with a mini computer in their back pocket.

What better way to use this to your advantage through YouTube. Think about it, Smartphone users fiddle with their phones countless times per day (whether they should be or not!) and many Smartphones come equipped with a YouTube application or a downloadable app.

No matter where someone is they can be reached through unlimited access to your YouTube channel. This is a huge advantage over hotels that don’t use YouTube and simply rely on traditional forms of media to spread the word about their hotel.

Think Outside the Box

Be creative and original with your videos.

Going by the book means posting a video of a particular hotel room, lobby, bar, front desk, and restaurant with soft elevator music in the background. Don’t get caught in that trap. Before turning on the video camera, plan out what you want to show, what you want to say, and how you want to do it. This takes some time and creative energy. If there is a five-star restaurant at your hotel with an award winning chef, show him/her in the kitchen whipping up their specialty. Put together a before and after video of newly reconstructed rooms. Let an employee who has a spunky personality be the voice of the videos. Don’t be afraid to take a chance.

Don’t be discouraged if the video production quality isn’t up to Hollywood standards. Not everyone is a professional photographer, but there may be someone you work with who knows their way around a camera. Even if there isn’t, keep pushing your staff to make your videos look the best they possibly can. Maybe even drum up some friendly competition between the hotel employees and give out prizes to whoever comes up with the most creative, well-executed video about the hotel.

If you have the funds to hire a professional production team – go for it. It’s not a requirement but if there is money in the budget, why not put it toward putting top of the line videos on YouTube?

Connect To Others

Piggybacking off the bullet points mentioned in the beginning of this article, two billion videos are watched every day. Let me repeat that, 2 BILLION VIDEOS ARE WATCHED EVERY DAY. That means you have a potentially massive amount of people to reach. To maximize your views, use YouTube as the social platform it was intended to be. Make YouTube buddies, check out their pages and respond to positive comments.

Tag, Tag, Tag

Assigning key words to your videos is a great way to increase the number of hits your particular hotel channel receives. As you upload a video, you will be prompted to throw in some key words to make your video searchable in many different ways.

A Good Example…

Hyatt is one hotel chain in particular that has taken the YouTube phenomenon and ran with it. If you check out their YouTube channel, you can see how it’s been customized and given an overall “look.” The background is of the inside of one of its hotels, each video is given a description – in short it has personality.

The videos are well shot, well put together and truly pull you in. The video about the Huntington Beach resort made me want to pack a bag, swimsuit and book a vacation immediately. Another video showcasing a Hollywood hotel’s trendy restaurant grabs the viewer right away with catchy music, fast-paced shots filled with beautiful people smiling, dancing and having fun.

Hyatt’s approach is working. The channel has nearly 450 friends and more than 1,000 subscribers. The channel’s homepage is peppered with positive comments about the hotel chain. How’s that for taking advantage of YouTube?

Take a page from Hyatt – log onto YouTube now and create your account. What do you have to lose?

Michael McKean founded the Knowland Group in 2004. He is directly responsible for the company's strategic planning, operations management and product development. His background in designing and implementing enterprise sized information systems has given him a wealth of knowledge that has served him well as the lead visionary behind the Knowland Group. Mr. McKean graduated from the University of Colorado and has taken graduate level courses in information systems. He is an active member in the Washington, DC chapter of the Entrepreneur's Organization. Mr. McKean can be contacted at 302-645-9777 Ext: 204 or MMcKean@KnowlandGroup.com Extended Bio...

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