A couple of years ago I was invited to deliver a talk about social
media and generation Y for hotel, restaurant and event entrepreneurs.
Back then even the idea of Google plus seemed to confuse colleagues in
events and hospitality.There were still many hospitality professionals that simply could not understand the power of a well-designed (and implemented) social media marketing strategy. I had published segments of this talk here: http://youtu.be/VpVw0g5doAo. But it was not until recently when I received an email from a colleague who watched the video and said that she felt that we haven’t moved much and that a lot of the content of that video, was still relevant today. As I reflected on her remarks my defensive initial reaction gave away to the understanding of how right she was. As an industry we still adopt change at a snail pace. We are still making the same mistakes over and over again.
So I decided to slightly update what in that video I called the “ten commandments of what not to do” (I was introduced as an evangelist to the audience earlier so I had decided to humour the organisers – hence that title).
Here I present to you, the slightly updated but at the heart of the matter very much unaltered, ten mistakes that I see over and over in small and medium enterprises in the majority of hospitality sectors:
1. Not having a clear digital marketing strategy!The amount of entrepreneurs that treat social media marketing as an “add on” tactic to their marketing strategy never seizes to surprise me. There are far too many of us out there that have not considered incorporating social media marketing into the very heart of their marketing strategy. You must remember that Social Media strategy is only a small part of a digital marketing strategy (that includes emails, mobile texts and apps, gaming console marketing etc.). A great digital marketing strategy considers the non-digital marketing effort and ensures that there is no brand conflict or lazy approach to communication. Digital is not simply the same message in a different medium. It is much more than that and deserves your full attention and an alignment to the bigger communication strategy with your clients.
2. Not pacing your self (its a strategic plan – not tactics).“God give me patience, BUT I WANT IT NOW” remember that saying? Well, a social media marketing strategy needs time to yield measurable results. Sure a few clever tactics may yield some interesting results but do not expect that if you post 50 times a day on Facebook or twitter that this will yield any meaningful results. In fact more often than not you reach communication saturation within 2-3 messages a day in each medium. You need time to build a loyal audience that actually likes your message and helps spread it along. Ignore all the offers to buy likes and views and audience, it is a waste of money and pointless. You want audience that wishes to engage; this is not a “highest number of likes” competition.
3. Spreading too thin, (less is more) & using the same “language” at each medium.This one almost always comes hand in hand with mistake No 2. Late adopters of social media marketing strategies seem to feel that they have to do it all, today. So they divide their time and resources amongst numerous applications doing a very bad job at every single one of them. Do your research, find the best medium for your target audience and focus your energy in ensuring that your approach yields the best results in one or two platforms at most.
4. Outsourcing your whole PR and social media management.This can be a serious error of judgement. It may sound quick and easy but the fact of the matter is that digital marketing audiences are looking for authenticity. One-way communication approach in social media is a big mistake. There is simply no substitute from the “voice” of someone that is submerged deep in the company culture. Trusting your social media brand COMPLETELY to a third party is a step too far down the steep slope of customer alienation.
5. Having an intern do it all for you.Although as an educator I love it when a company gives a good project to my students, no matter how great the student may be, as a placement she is not going to stay with your company for longer than a year. The fact that you chose a student placement do it for you, means that you haven’t thought about continuity and that in it self tells me you have not considered a proper strategy (see mistake no 1). And don’t count on the next placement student to pick up from where the previous one left of.
6. Allowing untrained staff to respond online.An unbelievable number of colleagues respond to customer complaints on social media, with either defensive messages (at best) or outright rude messages (at worst). Keep emotions at bay. If you are a sole entrepreneur that does everything your self, get your self-trained. If you do not have time or money to do even that, seek out great responses to difficult customers from others in a similar sector and learn from the best.
7. Throwing money to a “guru” (…just don’t).I am hoping that this one is not going on that much any more. A few years back there were plenty of colleagues who were eager to jump on the social media scene bandwagon and threw money at so called social media gurus. DON’T just DON’T there is no guarantee of ROI, and even if your Guru is worth her money in gold what will you do when she is gone?
8. Not monitoring impressions and conversion rates.If you do not know by now how to devise and monitor key performance indicators that allow you to monitor success or failure then you need to go back to number one on this list and reconsider the tactics that will enable the correct implementation of your strategy. Understanding analytics is a much-needed skill in the same way that understanding key financial statements is a must.
9. Not protecting your digital brand and underestimating the power of co-creation (digital word of mouth).This
is simply for the ones that still do not believe that if you do nothing
about your online brand, others will do it for you (and chances are you
will not be happy with what they do). Trip advisor was a great wake up
call for many restaurateurs who thought that they could get away with
doing nothing on the digital arena. Do not underestimate the power of a
great review or a
great video of your property, and do not underestimate
what a great online service recovery can do to the trust of your
prospective clients.10. Failing to realise that content is key.You simply cannot expect people to buy into your brand if all you are doing is telling them how great your brand is. Your audience will not engage if all you do is repeating how great your hotel rooms are or how great food you serve or how great your events are. You have to add value in order to keep your audience engaged. And by value I do not simply mean discounts or competitions (although those tactics also have their place and time). I mean a well balanced and imaginative approach to content that helps your audience remain connected and engaged. An approach that converts each follower to a loyal ambassador of your brand.
(First published in LinkedIn Pulse)
Comments
Post a Comment