Mr. Aldridge

Social Media & PR

Today’s Savvy Social Media Consumers Don’t Want Your List of Amenities

By Gabe Aldridge, Founding Member, The SUPERGROUP

The overarching web and social media presence of many hotel brands often don’t educate potential guests on the amenities that differentiate one property from another. Many hotel websites and their social media initiatives seem content to simply post photos in the appropriate site subsections and list a selection of their hotel’s perks on a standard Amenities & Services page. Then, they blindly hope that online consumers will find what they’re looking for. That won’t happen very often – not with today’s social media savvy consumer.

This common approach is inherently flawed and requires the consumer to dig for important decision driving hotel information of their own volition. This cardinal mistake causes many online users to miss out on discovering unique and compelling property characteristics and offerings that could have led to a purchase and/or a long standing consumer relationship.

Far superior methods can be put to use in presenting key information sets to the online consumer that will actively influence their decision and transform them from a passive (and most likely frustrated) information seeker to an energized brand evangelist. Here are two examples that illustrate my point.

I. Anaheim: List Driven Amenities

My wife and I recently decided that it was time to take our four year old son across the country to a world-renowned theme park and resort. He could not have been more thrilled when we told him about the trip, and we were each looking forward to the planning phase of our first family adventure together. As always, my wife and I (being proud members of Generations X and Y in good standing) wanted to complete our research and booking tasks online.

As we began to dig into our options, we found the park’s website to be "up to par," but, much to our surprise, researching the entire property online proved to be -- uh -- less than magical. The site was full of (well done) photos from around the campus and each property had a neatly laid out feature list on its Amenities page. Because there are relatively few properties on the Anaheim campus, there was even a single page on the site that laid out a feature comparison of select hotels. Despite all of these “resources,” the user experience around selecting a property proved to be awkward and I had to literally force myself to complete the booking process.

In analyzing what went wrong on an otherwise wonderful trip, I am convinced that the problem was not the quality of the website itself, but rather the overall model the theme park and resort chose in presenting vacation options. The interaction was largely list driven, and it's a challenge for most people to visualize themselves enjoying a list (no matter how well presented it might have been). Even though the average person may not expect as much from a standard hotel booking experience, I can’t help but think that all hotel brands can benefit from making their online research and booking procedures more creative and enjoyable.

In the end, I did like the property that we chose. However, in strolling through some of the other hotels throughout our stay (and even in further exploring the one that I had chosen), I kept noticing things about each property that I wish I had known before I had completed my booking – things that would have enhanced our experience. Don’t get me wrong, our trip was fantastic and we are already planning for a return visit in a few months, but I find it hard to believe that in this day and age of almost clinical connectivity, I was not able to get a better idea of the hotel properties before arriving for our trip. If they would have been creative on their website, and better utilized social media, it wouldn’t have been that way. Here’s an example of how to do it right.

II. Orlando: A Love Story (or at least a good case study)

The Challenge

A globally-respected group of family theme parks and hotel properties on the East Coast of the U.S. came to the conclusion that they were losing potential hotel guests who do their booking online. Their research had shown that although they had added new properties that fit the more budget conscious vacationer and were offering perks such as a range of meal plans and park transportation options, many of which were available exclusively to guests staying on campus, consumers weren’t taking advantage of these offerings in the numbers that the company had expected.

In surveying park goers, the company found that the problem was not that these new options were unliked, but that they were unknown. As a case in point, The Supergroup has for eight years taken our members from Atlanta on a team building trip to these very parks and we did not know about many of these options. It is important to note that we do all our booking online.

The Solution

So, the Orlando-based theme park company decided to do something about this challenge. They wanted an online experience that would change the way that online consumers discovered what their parks and hotel properties have to offer. They wanted social media content that would “go viral,” and if there’s one thing I know it’s that for consumers to assist in an initiative planned to go viral, it helps tremendously if they can somehow insert themselves into it. This exchange can take many forms, but the quickest and easiest way to get someone talking about your brand is to appeal to their ego. In other words, your customers will talk about your brand if you allow them to somehow bring attention to themselves in the process.

In developing your online and social media initiatives, keep these consumer behavior nuggets in mind:

• Surveys are one of the most popular online activities and many people will jump at the opportunity to give their opinion. • People of all stripes love to see themselves in the spotlight and this is uniquely possible online. • The use of online videos is very effective, and should be shared via social networks.

This resort and theme park and created an interactive experience that initially attracted users through a quick survey. Users were asked cleverly worded questions that would give an indication of key travel decision factors such as budget, size of family, and desired excursion energy level. Upon survey completion, visitors were taken to a screen where they were given the opportunity to further personalize their experience by uploading pictures of themselves, family and friends.

With a few clicks of the mouse, site visitors could watch themselves starring in a shareable, custom themed movie about a magical (albeit fictional) vacation. Users could see themselves and their chosen "retinue" enjoying an awesome vacation that had been tailor made to fit their lifestyle. There was no need to search through lists or switch between web pages comparing potential property matches.

The park hotels that best fit the user’s search parameters were presented narratively within the script of the user's movie. These potential hotel guests were able to see themselves in a hotel property that would exceed their travel requirements, and would then voluntarily share their movie within their own social networks.

III. How Does All This Apply to Your Hotel?

Obviously, the specific tactics used in the above case study may not work as well for everybody, but it does illustrate some key principles that can be broadly applied to most any hotel's needs.

Create Word of Mouth Evangelists

The above execution empowered its users to do the company's job -- FOR FREE. You are assured a win any time your customers (real or potential) become brand evangelists.

It's not enough to simply place social media sharing links on targeted site pages and hope someone posts your amenities section to their Facebook news feed. You must actively encourage your users to share their brand experiences. And guess what, if you make those experiences fun, entertaining and/or self-indulgent, they’ll start sharing all on their own.

Like it or not, your customers are already talking about you. You can’t stop the conversation, but you can certainly help to guide it.

“Ye have not because ye ask not.”

Ask your customers via all of your social media networks what they want. The most successful marketing efforts will be the ones that find entertaining and unexpected ways to ask potential guests what they are looking for and then cleverly match those answers with what their brand has to offer. This can be as simple as including surveys on your home page, your Facebook page, or via your Twitter account. Never assume that you know what consumers are looking for. Ask.

In the social media age, online consumers have become accustomed to two-way conversations with the brands they buy. If you aren’t allowing them into the marketing conversation, you can be confident that someone else is and that consumers are talking to them.

Using Social Media Organically

A surprising number of hotels, and brands in general, just throw up a Facebook or Twitter page, and assign a young marketer or an intern to make weekly updates, and call it a day. These “updates” often consist of little more than recycled content from the brand’s main website. This is about as far as many companies delve into social media and should be avoided at all costs.

In contrast, both Facebook and Twitter were woven organically into the overall promotion in the case study from Orlando, and not mindlessly tacked on at the end. After a user created a personalized movie, they could post the finished product to THEIR Facebook page. The individual user’s friends and family, who already regularly visit their social media page, saw the company’s branding all over the personalized content the user had voluntarily posted.

Because Facebook and Twitter are platforms for self broadcasting, you will gain the best results when you craftily insert your brand into the broadcasts that are already occurring naturally. Using this kind of organic approach, companies can get the general public to do their PR work for them.

IV. In Closing

Hotels can only benefit from paying attention to online users’ search and purchase habits. Failing to account for this style of brand consumption in your sales strategy will cause you to miss out on an ever-increasing amount of potential business.

Gabe Aldridge is an interactive visionary, futurist, entertainer, and co-founder of The SUPERGROUP, an award winning agency that specializes in using technology to draw an audience and generate buzz - something they call interactive attractions. Clients include Disney, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, The Weather Channel, and the U.S. State Department. Mr. Aldridge’s career began in 1994 in the enhanced CD and high-end multi-media software spaces. A video and technology aficionado, Mr. Aldridge designed projects for musicians and bands such as Chris Cornell, Sonic Youth, No Doubt, Blues Traveler and Weezer. While his work early on in his career forced him to be behind the camera, in a studio, or at a computer, his responsibilities with The SUPERGROUP are much less isolating. Mr. Aldridge can be contacted at 404-835-6922 or gabe.aldridge@thesupergroup.com Extended Bio...

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