GLOBAL UPDATE : MARKETING
The “ Tell Me Tree ” at a DoubleTree by Hilton Little Things Project event
With these examples in mind , HOTELS asked these cutting-edge brands ’ social media leaders which websites they are on , how they post content and interact , and what the return on investment has been for social media endeavors .
HOTELS : Which websites are the most crucial to your social media outreach and why ?
Kieran Donahue , DoubleTree : Facebook and Twitter have been our key focus . Facebook has the largest audience of all and is where we can leverage our relationship with Hilton Worldwide and Hilton HHonors .
Michael Leong , Shangri-La : We are currently most active on Facebook and Sina Weibo due to their popularity .
Diego Sartori , CitizenM : Apart from Facebook , our focus goes mainly to Twitter , through which we are gaining a good follower base and therefore a growth in tweets , and Instagram for those sharing pictures while staying with us . The main review sites are monitored daily as well as blogs mentioning the CitizenM brand .
H : How do you manage corporate versus property-level strategies and engagement rules ?
KD : We have extensive propertylevel training and have our select Socialite group , made up of our top team members from hotels around the world , that are leading social media activities at the property level .
ML : Our corporate digital marketing team manages the corporate brand pages centrally , while individual properties may create and manage their own pages based on their local needs . Property-level engagements are governed by a set of corporate guidelines and policies , and are managed by specific authorized positions at the properties .
DS : As a growing brand , we keep the entire social media strategizing , actions and communication centralized in the support office . As more hotels are opening in the coming years , each property will lead on the reactive side .
H : Have you integrated social media posts or reviews onto your main hotel website ? What do you see as being the advantages or disadvantages of this ?
KD : We still are considering all options ; there has been a lot of research into the pros and cons .
ML : We are exploring this now , as we believe that it will have a positive effect on our website booking conversion . DS : Not yet , but this is in works . H : How do you respond to negative feedback on social media ? KD : Just as we handle feedback via our call centers , our guest assistance team handles these posts .
ML : We use a reputation-monitoring tool , which tracks social media posts across multiple channels , to monitor social media feedback on a daily basis so that we can manage negative posts in a timely manner .
DS : Responses are shared in the same channel where the feedback was originally posted , publicly . We don ’ t try deviating from the public sphere to the private space between consumers and us , unless there is sensitive private information .
H : How much has your company invested in its social media outreach , and what has the ROI been ?
KD : Like any good marketing team , we study the results of each marketing channel we use and revise budgets up or down based on performance . We ’ ve seen strong results with our integrated marketing campaigns , of which social is a part .
ML : Our investment has been minimal . In the last two years , the majority of our investment into social media has been in terms of resources , time , hiring of local talent , training and development , policies and guidelines , systems and tools development , and content and engagement strategies development .
DS : On the monetary investment side , there is my salary , a reputation management and monitoring tool , the cost of keeping up a digital magazine and , during hotel openings , our marketing campaigns .
H : Which emerging social media platforms are you using , and how effective are they ?
KD : We saw positive feedback from our Instagram summer photo contest , in which we asked consumers to share their summer travel photos and tag on Instagram using the dedicated hashtag # DoubleTreeSummer . They were more
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