Advantages (and disadvantages) of hotel blogging

To help you determine if blogging is for you, I’d like to share some of the advantages and disadvantages of using a blog in your social media marketing mix.

Advantages of blogging for your hotel include:

• The opportunity for you to develop a personal bond with potential guests
• Perceived authority on the subject you’re covering (whether it’s your local area as a destination, or a niche in the hospitality industry)
• Increased rankings and visitors to your site (Search engines love blogs)
• Increased influence and reach (Your entries can be published as RSS newsfeeds to other websites)

Disadvantages are slightly smaller, but still worth considering:

• The time factor is perhaps the biggest drawback to creating a blog.  Blogs are easy to start but difficult to maintain.  Publishing a good blog takes a significant amount of time.  Of course, writing takes the most time, but you must also allow time for interacting with your readers.
• Related to the time factor is the risk of publishing a blog that damages your brand’s reputation.  Fortunately, you can hedge against this by creating publishing guidelines for yourself and whoever is involved with the blog.

In my upcoming blogging best practices series, you’ll learn more about how to capitalize on the advantages and reduce the disadvantages of using this media.  Stay tuned….