March 2013 I HotelManagement.

net

Reputation Management
SOCIAL MEDIA GETS VISUAL
By Adam Leposa micro- -fewer words—and
ASSOCIATE WEB MANAGING EDITOR visual, and Pinterest is a reaUy

A
S visual-dominated strong proof point."
social media platforms Hoteliers looking to take
such as Instagram and advantage of this opportu-
Pinterest grow, hoteliers have nity should be aware that
an opportunity to develop marketing on Instagram
their online reputations by and Pinterest poses very dii^
showing off their product in ferent challenges than more
pictures. traditional channels. "The
"A lot of consumers are very Best Honeymoon Hotels main thing is that it's really to
visually driven," said Kristen 45 likes 459 repins tell a visual story, and not do
Poillon, director of marketing blatant promotion," Squires
Jane Doe via Tropical Weddings
at HotelMe, an online review said. "It should be about your
onto Wedding Hotels
business affiliated with USA guests, not so much what
Today. "It's becoming more "^'T^^^TTT^^^^^: you want to tell your guests.
prevalent; even on sites like It should be about what the
Facebook, you ve started to see a whole shift in the guests want to hear. That's a second shift in marketing
types ofcontent that people are sharing—less text and that we have seen over the past year, and that is this
more photos is the direction that a lot of these sites are whole buyer persona idea. Marketing used to be fi'om
Photo sharing builds cross-
headed toward."
Because a hotels look is such an important part of
me to you, and now it's more understanding what you
really want to hear, and what's interesting to you."
platform communities
the guest experience, the shift toward visual market- Fortunately, the pressure isn't all on hoteliers to As with many social media platforms, hotels can build a strong
ing is a big opportunity for hotel operators. "Visual push out the best content. One of the best ways to reputation on visual-dominated social media by involving their
content, for our industry, is just golden," said Julie buüd a visual reputation is to make sure guests can guests in a sense of community.
Squires, CEO of Softscribe. "Ritz-Carlton has done join in as well. "Whether people are posting a picture "People use Pinterest almost like a wish book," said Tim
a wonderful job; they have consistently beautiful on any ofthese sites, when a hotel finds one they really Peter, managing director of Tim Peter and Associates, a
luxury travel photography. They ask guests in the like, the best practice is to reach out and bring it to a web-marketing consultancy. "They might never come to your
community to post their favorite pictures, so that's local site, a location-specific booking site," said Susan property but they'll share that and share [this], and that helps
more destination marketing. Whatever the hotelier's Ganeshan, chief marketing and product officer at from a reputation-management perspective, but not in a
profile, they can exploit that visually on Pinterest. In newBrandAnalytics. du] monitoring way, by creating a positive experience."
general, the trend in marketing is moving toward aleposa@questex.com Building a sense of community can help hoteliers move
away from reputation management as damage control and
head toward more positive aspects of marketing. "It's not so

How to track your visual reputation
On many smaller social media channels, much
of the data is visual. Tracking this component
of a hotel's online reputation can prove
challenging.
"When we talk about reputation
management on Pinterest, Instagram and any
ofthe image-related [platforms], it's going
to be smaller from a reputation-monitoring
standpoint," said Tim Peter, managing director
of Tim Peter and Associates, a web-marketing
consultancy. He said monitoring tools for these
image-heavy sites
aren't widely available
or useful yet. Some
services are available
that can monitor image
quality and others
I that monitor text and
add hashtags, but the
processes aren't very
sophisticated yet.
While automated
much reputation management in terms of looking for bad things,
but taking that opportunity to really engage consumers," said
tracking can be difficult, there still are ways Kristen Poillon, director of marketing, HotelMe, an online review
hoteliers can monitor their reputation on image- business affiliated with USAToday. "Hoteliers have really fun
heavy share sites. ideas for how to incorporate not just online but take it to the next
"You have to rely more on the links going level where you can draw people to your property."
out than the text," said Kristen Poillon, director As an example of how this idea can work, Poillon cited
of marketing at HotelMe, an online review an art event hosted by the W New York-Times Square. "They
business affiliated with USA Today. created basically an art exhibition through Instagram," Poillon
One technique marketers advise when it said. "They asked that people take pictures and hashtag them
comes to online reputation management works #wdesign. Then they tapped into all these artistic communities
on photo-sharing sites as well as on more and created an actual physical art exhibit in their hotel and
traditional networks: Let the good overpower invited people from artistic communities in to view it."
the not-so-good. Even hotels that aren't interested in complex events can
"A common still take advantage of some basic techniques. "I would do the
technique is to same things with Pinterest that you would do with any other
suppress negative reputation-management campaign," said Peter. "Look for people
Jane Dodge •..' content by who are talking about you, your competitors, what they have
Worst honeymoon hotel ever
overwhelming it with to say, monitor what they're pinning. Then, start to think about
instagr.am/p/VpUs_46CDo
positive content," engaging with those folks either by repinning their materials or
Peter said. CE] sharing your materials with them." dû]
Tobi
Not a pet friendly hotel. aleposa@ aleposa@questex.com
¡nstagr.am/pA'pUz_12DFs questex.com
The Pinterest account of Charming Inns of Charleston, pictured above.
Brian Johnson «BrianJ
Bed bug hotel in Houston.
instagr.ani/pA/pUZ_99CFRz
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