Special RepoRt : Social Media
ParticiPants ( continued )
Response policy : “ Hilton employs a dedicated full-time team that works 24 hours a day , seven days a week within our customer-service organization to monitor , reply and resolve all customer-service inquiries on Facebook and Twitter .”
B . HariHaran vice president sales & marketing , itc Hotels , Gurgaon , india Social media team : Two at corporate level with contributions from on-property staff Social network participation : Facebook , Twitter , Foursquare , YouTube , Instagram , Pinterest Most important social network :“ We mainly rely on Twitter as a
“ FaceBook , twitter and
Pinterest are drivinG a Good aMount oF qualiFied traFFic to our weBsites , and tHe revenue Per visit is increasinG .”
– MaRco Fanton , Meliá HotelS inteRnational medium for spontaneous customer engagement and Facebook to drive and execute awareness .” Response policy : “ ITC responds to all posts , and the nature of the comment determines the response time .”
Marco Fanton social media director , Meliá Hotels international , Palma de Mallorca , spain Social media personnel : Meliá has on-property staff — particularly the concierge — trained to post and interact with guests on social media . Social network participation : Five social networks Most important social network : “ Twitter because it allows for real-time guest engagement and is the most mobile-friendly .” Response policy : “ We aim for our on-property staff to provide real-time engagement with guests .”
Björn radde head of e-commerce , steigenberger Hotels and resorts , Frankfurt , Germany Social media personnel : One at the corporate level Social network participation : Seven social networks Most important social network : “ Facebook .” Response policy : “ Steigenberger responds to all posts , whether positive or negative , as promptly as possible .” social Media ’ s roi
Hotels : How do you prioritize your investment in social media ? Felicia YukicH : Four Seasons ’ greatest investment is in content creation , customer engagement and organic growth , followed by social advertising . Four Seasons currently advertises on Facebook to support campaign efforts , and the budget is dependent on the specific campaign . Pinterest , Twitter and YouTube advertising are also considerations . Marco Fanton : We primarily advertise on Facebook and Twitter , and occasionally on YouTube . Björn radde : Our investment in staff has been at a minimal level , but we plan to increase it .
Hotels : Do social media and online reputation management have a solid return on investment , or is it impossible to accurately quantify ? josHua sloser : There is a positive correlation with online reputation and results , and while it is difficult to measure the value of any individual post or tweet , we know that our investment in social media and engagement with our guests leads to higher customer satisfaction , and ultimately a better bottom line . Paul sistare : We can say that social media campaigns have an
“ i anticiPate tHat custoMers are GoinG to BecoMe More
transactional witH Hotels on social Media .”
– BjöRn Radde , SteigenBeRgeR HotelS and ReSoRtS
indirect ROI , but at this time we cannot effectively track results . HariHaran : We tend to believe that effective engagement on social media and online reputation management efforts definitely influence the purchasing decisions of today ’ s traveler . However , in our part of the world the majority of travelers look online and book offline , so determining a direct correlation is difficult . Fanton : Facebook , Twitter and Pinterest are driving a good amount of qualified traffic to our websites and the revenue per visit is increasing .
Hotels : How many bookings are coming directly through your social media efforts ? HariHaran : The social media networks that we are present on have become a major lead-generation channel for us . Over the years , the queries leading to booking and reservations have been on the rise .
22 HOTELS March 2014 www . hotelsmag . com