Mr. O'Connor, PhD

Social Media & PR

Managing Social Media

By Peter O'Connor, PhD, Academic Director & Professor of Information Systems, Institute de Management Hotelier International

Just as consumer adoption of the Web in the 1990s has changed how hotels were marketed and sold, the current explosive growth in the use of Social Media is poised to have similar effects. This change is being driven by customers’ growing need for information. In practically no other sector is current, topical and relevant information as important in the decision-making process as within travel. Its intangible nature, coupled with the impossibility of pre-purchase trial, leaves travel almost completely dependent on representations and descriptions as a selling mechanism. Travel products are also diverse, and in many cases it is this heterogeneity that makes them attractive. Lastly travel products are rarely bought in isolation, and the endless combinations and permutations of routes, transportation modes, times, and accommodation choices, all offered by competing suppliers, make travel planning highly complex. Thus it’s easy to see why today’s consumers hunt for appropriate information to help bridge the gap between their expectations and their experiences.

In the past, consumers typically acquired such information either directly from the hotel itself or through travel intermediaries. However information originating from such sources suffers from a credibility problem, as it is by its very nature sales orientated and thus highly biased. To read most brochures, every travel experience is unadulterated hedonism – a sharp contrast to the reality of today’s overcrowded, under-delivering, travel environment. Herein one finds the supposed added-value of the press, whose role is to cast an unbiased eye over such information, and filter and consolidate it into objective recommendations. In fact an entire industry has developed around the production of travel guides, from global brands such as Fodor’s, Lonely Planet and Rough Guides to more specialized publications focused on particular regions or niche experiences. However, today’s skeptical consumers are increasingly questioning the impartiality of such sources, driven in part by media reports of pay-to-play listings and glaring errors. Ideally, they would like a more trustworthy source to provide them with the detailed, topical, relevant information they need for travel planning. The growth in Social Media, particularly user-generated content such as social networks, blogs and user-reviews sites, offers just such a potential solution.

What is Social Media?

Although hard to precisely define, the term ‘Social Media’ is often used to describe an emerging trend centered around the user generation and sharing of information on the Web. Social Media sites tend to be highly participatory, encouraging contributions from anyone who is interested, thus blurring the line between the creators and consumers of content. Most are community-focused, facilitating the interaction of people with similar interests; as well as being connected, amalgamating links and content from different sources to add synergistic value. As such, Social Media reflects a fundamental shift in how information is disseminated. It enables users to interact with content and with each other whenever and however they like. As a result, consumers have access to a rapidly growing pool of impartial information, generated not by commercial interests but by their peers, which they can use to help in their travel planning process. This ‘wisdom of the crowd’ provides a credible alternative to the marketing-orientated content described earlier, and has rapidly gained traction as a credible source for today’s consumers. As this trend gains momentum, hotels need to change their mindset. In addition to using traditional push marketing, they need to actively manage their presence on Social Media channels to both protect their online reputation and exploit new opportunities to interact with customers.

Managing Social Media

The rapid development of Social Media has left many businesses struggling to figure out how to react. Most recognize its potential but are unsure how to positively exploit these opportunities in an environment where the online community can react violently to commercial content. In particular aggressive broadcast marketing has been shown not to work within Social Media. A more supple approach, focused on carefully building a relationship with customers within each channel is more likely to be successful.

To achieve this, a Social Media Management Continuum running from a base level of Monitoring through Presence and Activity to Engagement is proposed (see Figure 1). Each stage progressively builds upon its predecessors to build trust and credibility. Advancing along the Continuum requires effort and commitment in terms of time and resources, but should result in a better connection with the brand’s audience.

1. Monitoring:
   At the most basic level the hotel must actively monitor the Social Media space by putting in place automated procedures to track what is being said about them on Social Media channels. It’s important to see who is saying what, and where the conversation is happening, so you can respond appropriately. While monitoring could potentially be done manually, the large and ever expanding number of Social Media channels available practically mandates the use of a monitoring tool. General purpose tools (such as Scoutlabs or Radian6) can be used to monitor sentiment across the Social Media space. However, within travel, user reviews, (both on dedicated sites such as TripAdvisor or HolidayCheck, and on Online Travel Agency Sites such as Expedia and Bookings) are critically important and are typically not monitored by such tools. Instead industry specific tools (such as ReviewPro, Revinate, ReviewAnalyst or Brand Karma) should be used so that the hotel is fully aware of what hotel’s customers are saying about them.
2. Presence:
   Initially hotels need to create a minimum account on each Social Media channel so that they can be found by the customer. (This also allows “vanity” names (e.g. www.facebook.com/marriott) to be claimed before they are grabbed by third parties.) However in my recent Hotel Social Media Benchmark report, I found great variability in terms of levels of Presence. Only twenty percent of hotel chains were present on all Social Media channels assessed, while an official (or even seemingly official) presence could not be found for fourteen percent of the top fifty international hotel chains on any of the channels monitored. This indicates that hotels in general are not fully exploiting the portfolio of Social Media channels available and thus missing out on valuable opportunities to interact with their customers. Linked to presence is visibility. Even when present, few hotel chains have managed to build significant visibility by acquiring significant numbers of Fans, Followers or Subscribers. Once present on their selected networks, hotels then need to invest in growing visibility and building more extensive subscriber bases if they wish to successfully leverage the power of Social Media.
3. Activity:
   Once established on a channel, the hotel should start to generate activity by interacting with customers. By subscribing, customers are proactively indicating their willingness to engage in a conversation with the brand. Activity can take two forms: it can be reactive (for example, by systematically responding to comments, thus showing customers that the hotel is listening); or proactive (with the hotel starting conversations and reaching out to their community with comments, information and offers). Unfortunately in my Hotel Social Media Benchmark report, I found that only a small number of hotel chains were truely active. Of those who had presences, activity averaged 95 Facebook Wall posts (or approximately one per day) and 220 Tweets (just over two per day) over the three month period assessed. Such inactivity represents a lost opportunity as having developed a presence and grown a base of subscribers, most hotels are failing to leverage this potential by reaching out and communicating in a real way with this highly interested, qualified audience.
4. Engagement:
   Activity is pointless unless it resonate with fans and followers. Most Social Media channels provide facilities to judge whether interactions are on target. For example, on Facebook, Fans can show their approval by clicking on “Like” or by posting a comment, while on Twitter, Followers indicate that they find a Tweet relevant by re-tweeting it to their own network. Such reactions also trigger a network effect, disseminating the content in question to the subscriber’s network, thus spreading the brand’s message to a wider audience. However such engagement only happens once the brand has managed to build trust among community members and become accepted as an equal partner. When this happens, community members in effect work as brand advocates, implicitly promoting it to their own sub-networks. Currently few chains are achieving such results. Most are failing to engage their audiences as the information, offers and other content that they are producing is provoking few reactions. In my Hotel Social Media Benchmark, the average number of Facebook Likes and Comments was 4.25 and 3.75 respectively, while only one in five Tweets from a hotel chain was subsequently retweeted. Perhaps this failure is caused by the fact that most hotel chains perceive Social Media channels as just another distribution channel. Instead of having a conversation, in most cases they are still trying to sell, and in effect end up getting ignored by community members.

Managing Social Media takes time, effort and expertise. However right now the playing field is wide open for hotel companies that get it right. Although most major hotel chains are present on Social Media channels, practically all suffer from low levels of visibility, activity and engagement. Understanding how Social Media works, and taking the steps detailed above to actively manage interactions with channel participants, will result in a better relationship with current and potential customers and ultimately lead to increased sales.

Peter O'Connor, Ph.D. is Professor of Information Systems at Essec Business School France, where he also serves as Academic Director of Essec’s MBA Hospitality Management programs. His research, teaching and consulting interests focus on technology, distribution, e-commerce and electronic marketing applied to hospitality and tourism. A prolific speaker, he is widely sought after to deliver presentations by both international hospitality companies and industry associations. Previously he held a visiting position at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration and worked in a variety of positions within hospitality, in sectors as diverse as luxury hotels and contract food services. Mr. O'Connor, PhD can be contacted at +33 1 3443 3177 or oconnor@essec.fr Extended Bio...

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