Sabine de Witte and Patrick Mulder are curators of cool. Splitting time between Amsterdam, Barcelona, and other hip cities around the world, they represent the quickly growing number of young, creative “mobile citizens” made famous by citizenM. Although our schedules caused us to miss previously scheduled meetings in Barcelona, Amsterdam, and New York’s JFK airport, the fourth try was a success, and I finally caught up with them at New York’s Ace Hotel to discuss trends in digital content creation and curation.

We began talking about the citizenM digital magazine, one of the projects Sabine is involved in…..

Curating lifestyle content with a digital magazine

“Instead of having a blog, we created a digital magazine to share brand information and curate lifestyle content for everyone,” citizenM’s digital strategist Diego Sartori told me. CitizenMag uses themed issues to connect with the brand’s core audience.

“It had to be something different – something that could be read on your mobile phone while waiting,” Sabine said. In just a few issues, the publication has covered topics such “Beautiful” “Tasty” and “Social”. Content ranges from short-form interviews to video clips, and is very visual.

Engaging top talent

When the magazine first launched, it was easy to gather content from writers and media producers. Everyone wanted to contribute.

But the dynamics of encouraging participation always changes with time: “When it’s not brand new, you need to get creative.” With a rapidly growing subscription base, magazine contributors now receive significant visibility for their businesses and projects.

Once the theme of the issue is established, Sabine approaches writers she feels would be a good fit for the issue. Tapping into her network is important for finding the best talent, and she also encourages citizenM ambassadors to reach out to their own networks to find top talent.

Content that connects

Deep articles that go beyond “where to go, what to buy” seem to resonate best with the readers of CitizenMag. An example was an in-depth interview with the CTO of Amazon, where he shared his experience in developing the internet.

There’s a strong interest in hearing about trends – and the people who are shaping those trends. “Our readers loved our ‘day in the life’ profile story of a very famous 23-year-old fashion blogger in the Netherlands. People want to hear about more than the superficial: they want to know about other people’s lives.”

Detailed articles work well for the magazine, but for other digital publishing projects, spontaneous content seems to work really well. Patrick shot a quick video of the 5th Avenue Apple store re-opening with his iPhone, uploaded it to YouTube – and it’s received over 115,000 views to date via Huffington Post and other sites. “Sometimes something you’ve worked on for weeks will get less attention than a quick photo or video. It seems people often don’t like the over-planned content as much as the spontaneous.”

“You must live the lifestyle”

How do you identify the best topics to work on, pieces of content to use, and people to engage for your publication?

“If you’re living the lifestyle, you’ll know what type of content will connect with your audience, because it connects with you.”

Sabine began working with citizenM because she was “living the lifestyle.” This is critical if you want to create truly amazing and engaging content. Hire people living the lifestyle.

Format preferences are changing

Preferences for content consumption have changed dramatically over the past few years. With multiple screens and an exploding diversity of distribution formats, selecting the right way to display content has become crucial for maximizing the visibility of that content.

“This era of ‘there’s an app for that’ will become history,” said Patrick. “Content inside apps is not searchable and visible elsewhere on the web.” Apple and others are developing one ‘umbrella’ app to include all types of magazines and digital content, instead of every publication having an app on its own.

Zite and Flipboard are other services that provide great user experience. Distribution and coverage here will become increasingly important.

“You must promote your content”

The biggest mistake people make when publishing online? Failing to promote it.

“You can have very good content, but you still need to sell it. You must promote your content to attract readers.”

Thanks, Sabine and Patrick!

First, what is a 2D bar code?

One-dimensional (1D) barcodes, the codes that we are all familiar with and see on most every retail product, stores information horizontally. Two-dimensional (2D) barcodes also store information, but they do so horizontally as well as vertically.

Because 2D barcodes store information in this manner, they can hold that much more data than a 1D barcocde and can be used for applications above and beyond price scanning and inventory management.

How are QR codes and 2D bar codes related?

2D barcode is a generic term used to describe a wide variety of barcodes that store information in both the horizontal and vertical plane.

The QR (Quick Response) Code, one of the most popular 2D barcodes used by companies and individuals around the world, was developed in 1994 by Denso-Wave, a division of Toyota. Originally, the QR Code was used to track car parts and supplies, but now it has found its way into a variety of mobile-based applications.

What are some practical applications you see of this technology?

In a hotel setting, there are a number of applications that make sense and can help to enhance a guest’s on-site experience.

For example, a 2D barcode can be scanned at the concierge desk, which links to an interactive map that the guest can load onto their mobile device. The map can provide information for local restaurants, theaters, sports arenas, historic sites, etc.

A 2D barcode can be placed on a sign that sits on the front desk and when the code is scanned it can enable the guest to either write a review about their stay or post a comment to a Facebook or Twitter page.

In the hotel’s restaurant, there can be a code placed on a table card which, when scanned, links to a video that describes items on the menu or interviews the head chef.

What about using bar codes in advertising?

In advertising, 2D barcodes offer a great way to bring potential guests from the printed page to the digital page, where so much more information and a richer interactive experience can be delivered. The trick, however, is the execution of the advertising campaign and use of the barcode.

Using 2D barcodes in advertising also lends itself to being able to track and analyze campaign results, more so than traditional advertising.

What’s the best way to deliver content to the user?

Because 2D barcode technology is mobile phone based, it stands to reason that the content that the barcode scans or links to should be optimized for mobile phone viewing and access.

This is where a lot of companies and their creative agencies drop the ball and, as a result, the whole 2D barcode experience is less than ideal. Companies need to invest the time, effort and resources in developing a mobile site, because this is one of the keys to success.

Thank you, Roger!

1. Understand that not all content performs equally.

Content that conveys a unique sense of brand/place and makes a personal connection with followers performs the best.

Photos are the clear winner. Facebook users like the quick-hit satisfaction of a witty post or a beautiful or clever picture. Some of the highest performing photo content was not necessarily professional level quality but at a minimum connected on a personal level. A quick snapshot of the first snow of the season and a giant pumpkin are examples of connective content that required little effort.

Unfortunately, what we see occuring is that the second lowest performing content – links – are also the most commonly posted. The most common links by far have tenuous relationships to a brand or property and do little to create a connection, incent sharing or extend a brand experience. In short, most of it is filler.

2. Understand your guests and goals.

Facebook requires upfront planning, programming, and goals. The goals hotels set for the page will define their content, processes and the people who choose to follow them. If hotels want a specific type of customer ‘liking’ their page, they need to program to that customer’s specific needs.

If you don’t plan out your growth strategy for the long-term you might find you’ve built a community of the wrong target market.

3. Facebook pages are best for amplification – not engagement.

Building engagement is not Facebook’s strong suit. Creating amplification (impressions) is easier and returns a brand’s bottom-line benefits much more quickly.

The push to get 100K followers in a short amount of time and then figure out what to do with them is a losing strategy. It’s better to have one thousand advocates who love your brand and interact with your content than twenty-five thousand discount-seekers. Focus on quality followers who value the brand beyond discounts.

4. Get your content right.

A simple question to ask about any content is, “Why would any of my guests share this?” If the author cannot answer without hesitation, the content should not be posted.

You may find that the best content often already exists. Most of the top performing content in terms of engagement and amplification was not manufactured or contrived. Instead, it was generally a highlight of existing activity or content brought forward on Facebook.

While video is a booming engagement tool for other sectors, hospitality is lagging due to poor quality content, subject matter and execution. This is a huge missed opportunity.

Don’t expect your fan page to increase or to sustain amplification rates as it grows, without maintaining a steady flow of the right type of content.

5. Measure ROI on amplification and direct response.

Facebook has some handy tools for measuring impressions, and these should be leveraged in developing an assessment of the channel’s contribution to cost saving vs. comparable CPM rates of more standard online advertising.

Content should be set up to track views beyond the channel and generated click-throughs. Back-end systems (such as Google Analytics) should be structured to capture the contribution of the channel to referrals and conversions.

Most hotel brands show little discipline in reviewing the performance of their pages by repeatedly posting the same under-performing content types.

6. Look to other channels for one-to-one engagement.

Hotels should not look at Facebook as their primary point of engagement but as a channel to amplify engagements that happen elsewhere. Facebook is a powerful but also specific tool that does not elegantly transition to the gentler aspects of one-to-one customer service required in a hospitality setting.

Read the full report here:

Seventh Art Media – Hospitality Brands and Facebook – Identifying the Opportunities

Thank you – Doug and Oliver – for sharing your excellent work with us!

Iain Pringle – Head of Customer Insight and Loyalty for The Mileage Company – believes that identifying, engaging and acknowledging the preferences of frequent guests through a loyalty program can improve experiences and increase loyalty.

EyeforTravel’s Marco Saio (@Msaio) spoke with Pringle about what this means for hotels.

How do you assess the role being played by loyalty programs as a tool in today’s business environment?

Iain Pringle: Customers are more value conscious; there is no doubt about this. In this environment, loyalty programs give a means to reward customers while retaining margin, but also gives brand owners an opportunity to have a dialogue with customers via social media and other channels.

Do you think rewarding customers for their affiliations with social networks and location-based services enhances loyalty?

Iain Pringle: Presence within a customer’s own social media space is a great opportunity for businesses to build loyalty with their most influential customers.

The measure of getting this right is primarily finding the optimum mix of location, channel and timing. When done well, this can create the perfect mix of right product, at the right time, in the right place.

In July this year, one major hotel chain chose to offer bonus loyalty points to customers who “check-in” at its hotels on location-based social media networks. And this month, Virgin America has chosen to offer its guests real-world travel rewards when they virtually check-in using applications like Facebook Places and Foursquare. How do you see this form of rewarding consumers shaping up?

lain Pringle: Persistence of your brand in a customer’s daily life is growing at a fast rate as companies work out how to create commercial opportunity from the growing social platforms. We believe that this will be a continuing trend as it is cost effective, relevant, and customers are choosing this as their channel of choice.

What – according to you – works best to earn trust, love and advocacy for your products and services amongst a new breed of savvy and fickle travel customer?

Iain Pringle: The key advantage of any travel and leisure loyalty program is the lure of free or discounted travel; it always has been and always will be.

The key challenge, especially in today’s market, is to acquire collectors/members that are prepared to take the time to collect rewards for a longer period to get a more valuable overall reward.

What works best is to focus on four key messages: sell the dream, illustrate the proposition, show members how it is attainable, and give them an easy first step. Keeping to these simple rules ensures that the customers you acquire are more likely stay with you and build their advocacy as they approach their goal.

Iain  is scheduled to speak at this month’s EyeforTravel’s Customer Centric Strategies in Travel conference in Atlanta. For more info, click here or contact Global Events Director Marco Saio.

Thanks Marco and Iain!

To help initiate your social media program, take a look at how one
hospitality company took the plunge over the past 12 months.

Orange Lake Resorts, home to Holiday Inn Club Vacations, is in the midst of a multi-tiered adoption and roll-out of a social media program for their brand. Their due diligence is a strategic primer in the careful consideration it takes to successfully enter the social media arena. From the early discussions of “Do we?” to the “Yes we do, and this is how,” the company is engaged in a phase by phase program integrating social media into their marketing and
operations mix.

“Making the decision as a company to enter into social media is not an easy one. But when considering the number of conversations that are taking place and the opportunity to be a part of them, then the value of engaging with social media becomes clear. Once a company decides to participate in these conversations, it’s important that the organization as a whole is ready to embrace it, and that the company’s voice will be both genuine and consistent.”
- Don Harrill, President & CEO, Orange Lake Resorts

Since the social media program extends beyond the corporate communications nucleus, it was important to establish a social media policy for the company. The policy details specific guidelines for employees defining what social media is to the company, the official use of social media, employee use of social media, and a company liability statement. This is a must-have document for any company engaging in social media.

The cornerstone of the policy is what the company calls its “Five Guiding
Principles”:

Authenticity
Being real and sincere in our actions and intentions. The company does not condone the creation of “fake” destinations and posts designed to mislead followers and control a conversation.

Respect
Respect the expressed views and opinions of others and demonstrate respect for the dignity of the company, its owners, its customers, its vendors and its employees. This also applies to the respect of copyrights, trademarks, rights of publicity, intellectual property and proprietary information.

Credibility
This is what drives the trustworthiness, believability and integrity of our Company and its messages. All social media solicitations, postings, replies and third-party endorsements are to be accurately cited, and any Company affiliations are to be fully disclosed.

Transparency
Helps others feel connected to the Company and is essential in expressing our culture of openness and accountability. We aim to remain visible to all of our audiences to ensure that these Online Social Media Principles remain current and reflect the most up-to-date and appropriate standards of behavior.

Responsibility
To protect our consumers’ privacy as well as our Company, its brands and
business practices. We also have a responsibility to conduct ourselves
appropriately, listen to the online community and engage according to best
practices.

“When you adopt social media, you adopt transparency. You say ‘I am willing to be responsible.’”
- Brooke Doucha, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications

Listen and Learn

The initial roll-out phases of the Holiday Inn Vacation Club’s social media plan came down to these three themes:

Phase One – Listen, learn, educate
Phase Two – Engage, involve, incentivize
Phase Three – Introduce, influence, like

“One of the most important aspects of social media is being able to listen. That’s what we do. Listen to our business units, listen to our customers.”
- Keith Strickland, Social Media Specialist

What they recommend for hoteliers still sitting on the fence:

Sutherland: The process right sizes itself. One negative comment is balanced by a positive comment, so it is not just a platform for complaint, it is about discovery and sharing.

Strickland: With the real time nature of social media we are improving our response times. Some guests use our WiFi while here to comment. We are seeing upticks on Trip Advisor. We have responded to every comment and have learned a lot. People are full of surprises!

DeJesus: Define a baseline for your metrics. Have all the proper tools in place, your ‘toolbox.’ Having these in place and learning from them not only makes you more social savvy they provide the detail about your ROI.

Doucha: Be strategic. Get informed about these platforms. Set goals and objectives. We are more about strategic and methodical. We got HR, rental, and other business units involved early so they understand it. To grow it, I suggest growing it in-house, in the organization.

Sutherland: We have the complete support of our business units and our executives. When we send issues to them that arise in the social media channels, they react immediately. The business managers bring their ideas to us on how social media might help with their challenges. It’s not just about the four of us, it’s what we can all do with it.

[Click here to download The Orange Lake Resort Case Study PDF]

Thank you, Cathy!

Today we have a guest post from Marco Saio from EyeForTravel and Angela Schwartz from TravelPort – who will be presenting at next month’s event in Atlanta.

Customer centricity slices across a number of key functional areas: marketing, sales, IT, distribution, operations, all the touch-points, etc.

Because of the complexity involved with all the functional areas, it is critical for the CEOs to endorse the concept and drive adoption across their leadership team.

“The best way to ensure accountability is to tie it to metrics and bonuses. This infers that you need a way to measure results and measure how senior leadership drives evangelism, execution and (most importantly) results through their individual organisations,” says Angela Schwartz, VP & Head of Product Management & Strategy, Travelport.

Implementing shared KPIs (key performance indicators) that are consistent and mutually supporting across the enterprise are one step towards breaking down organisational silos, says Schwartz, who is scheduled to speak at the EyeforTravel’s Customer Centric Strategies in Travel conference, to be held in Atlanta next year (Jan 26-27, 2011). KPIs that measure how the organisation is delivering on its brand promise is another step that must be taken.

“Lastly, I think that developing strategic, value-based customer segmentation and understanding who your core engaged customers are, is another important step in breaking down organisational silos. When the entire enterprise is aligned to a customer strategy, knows who the valuable customers are and how to engage them appropriately, and the enterprise is measured on how they perform against that customer strategy, then they will experience enterprise-wide strategic change,” Schwartz said.

“I spent a fair amount of my career driving transformational change through F500 organisations and want to caution that the journey takes awhile and will experience set-backs along the way. But, this shouldn’t discourage the commitment. Understanding failures are part of the process, evangelizing small successes, and developing a strategic communication plan that spans every stakeholder category from top to bottom are all elements to mitigate risk,” Schwartz told EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta in an interview. Excerpts:

Which, according to you, are critical factors when it comes to working on a multi-dimensional CRM strategy to maximise long term customer engagement?

I see the following as critical factors designing, developing and sustaining a successful CRM strategy:

The first is a customer-centric data warehouse – the existence of a 360o view of a customer with the ability to hone in on what information is relevant from all that you cultivate

Second, value-based customer segmentation – developing an understanding of who are your engaged, core customers and developing an enterprise strategy to engage them and cultivate other customers like them. Let’s look at a couple of examples:

o Airline: Number of miles flown may not be your top customer segment! An airline’s top mileage customer segment could be government employees. However, government workers typically get deeply discounted tickets. So, there could be another segment which actually drives higher profitability.

o Hotel: Can you recognise and react when a high-value, premium member from a competitor is at your hotel? Do you respond differently because this customer could be a highly valuable convert for you if they have a better experience?

Third, two-way customer dialogue – (a) the ability to apply customer treatments consistently across channels that are aligned with the company’s brand promise, customer value, and customer needs; and (b) measure the performance of those customer treatments

o In this industry, the easiest way to think about this is around how you proactively treat customers during an irregular operations (IROP) event. I think IROPs are the lowest hanging fruit for improving the customer experience when customer dissatisfaction is at its highest. Further, do you track “cumulative” collateral damage to your highest value customer segments and proactively “make it right” for them? To do that, you have to understand who your highest value segments are (and it may have nothing to do with number of miles flown or nights stayed!), understand what they’ve experienced across any touch-point, proactively operationalise through business rules how you treat them, and then ask them how the experience was – did they like it or not? Lastly, continuously improve your approach by incorporating the intelligence back into the operation execution. This is how you begin to differentiate amongst competitors.

A company like IBM says the inability to identify the customer at the point of sale and service leads to an inability to provide better service to the most-valuable customers. How do you assess the situation when it comes to making most of the customer-centric strategies in the travel industry?

I think IBM is absolutely correct. At some level, there is a standard of service that is aligned to the company’s brand promise. But, there is a lot of competition for the customer’s attention and a company’s ability to differentiate itself in the market will be determined by its ability to maximise the value of every customer interaction. This means you need to know who that customer is and understand their value to your business. The travel industry is getting better at this, but there is still a mass-market approach to interacting with customers.

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I think the Pareto rule (80/20 rule) applies here. A lot of investment is made in systems and software and processes that support customer interactions. The value from the CRM investment comes primarily through the customer insight generated. When you are engaged, you are involved, and being involved means that you need to understand something meaningful about the customer. This, I think, is customer insight.

The travel industry has certainly made some positive strides making my travel experience easier, but it can be spotty as to whether it translates into better service. In the last couple of years, I’ve seen some good improvements such as being compensated with extra miles for having to sit in the middle airline seat and free room upgrades. But, these are still mass market approaches for the most part. I would really like the airline to know that I only like lie-flat seats on International flights and bias my searches in that manner. Alternately, I’d like to see hoteliers recognise that I prefer corner rooms which are quiet. They are getting better at letting me tell them this, but I’m looking for insight at a level where they know this intuitively about me through predictive analytics and pattern recognition. The bottom line is that industry suppliers need to know when to take action, what the action should be, and the value the action creates for them. Conversely, they should know the cost of not taking action as well.

I think one thing we can’t ignore in this industry is the lack of integrated systems which is creating many of the challenges. You can have the best customer data warehouse, the best analytics and segmentation strategy and the finest tailored experiences but it all falls down when antiquated or fragmented systems cannot make best use of these things.

How do you think travel companies are today developing their CRM and loyalty programme from the ground up based on integrating customer interactions— including social media—and delivering timely and relevant offers and communications that are appreciated by the customer?

Travel companies are making incremental improvements but they are making those improvements discretely in each channel of interaction. I think they are just learning how to tap into social media to drive results. I continue to believe that “timely and relevant” offers primarily come from a travel supplier’s point of view rather than the customer’s point of view. The exciting thing is that travel suppliers have a rich amount of data about their customers. They know when and where they are going, how long they are staying, how much they are spending, etc. Harnessing this data to develop knowledge and insight about a customer’s value and needs means that travel suppliers have a unique opportunity to deliver truly differentiated experiences and make travel not just more convenient, but more enjoyable. For those struggling with the perception that they are competing in a commodity industry, customer centricity provides the secret weapon to break out from the pack and differentiate themselves.

Angela Schwartz, VP & Head of Product Management & Strategy, Travelport is scheduled to speak at the EyeforTravel’s Customer Centric Strategies in Travel conference to be held in Atlanta next year (Jan 26-27, 2011).

Today we’re joined again by Lissa Gruman, a partner at Gruman & Nicoll Public Relations specializing in getting media coverage for hotels.

This final installment of our three part-conversation explains how hotels can merge traditional and new media to reach journalists and guests. In case you missed them, here are the first and second parts.

Josiah: In the context of public relations, is social media messaging intended for the end consumer or the guest, or are we trying to reach journalists through social media?

Lissa: I think it’s a mix. I spend a lot of the time reaching out to both. The trick with the social media is getting the journalists that you want to have your information – and obviously those are at the largest organizations – to want to follow you or like you and want to know what you have to say. And that’s challenging. There’s a lot of content out there in the world and a lot of people vying for space in reaching that content and distributing it.

The other part of it is establishing – and this kind of goes back to age old PR practices – credibility and relationships with the media, such that there are people that know that they can come to you and ask you for an idea, or they’re putting a query out, and know that you give them a credible, timely, relevant response. And those practices won’t go away.

I hate to think that the only way they’ll ever know something about me or my client is with X number of characters, and we wouldn’t communicate beyond that.

Josiah: Exactly. Do you feel that traditional press releases still work in your experience? Have they diminished in effectiveness? Do you feel that relationships or personal connections that you’ve established are better ways to reach journalists, or do you still see that press releases are getting picked up by some important media outlets?

Lissa: I think it’s a combination. You need to try a lot of things. I still believe, first and foremost, that personal relationships really make a huge difference. I know that when I’ve met somebody or I’ve spoken with a journalist, and now we know each other, that at that point in time, I can obviously establish a social media relationship with them, with some sort of vehicle that way, but I also know that I could send them a press release and they’ll get it and read it.

It varies, but I don’t believe, for the time being anyway, that the traditional press release has completely gone away or vanished or is irrelevant. There’s still a place for it. What percentage of the place, I don’t know that I could speak to. But anybody who is only using traditional media and not using social media and vice versa is not smart. I think a well bridge between the two is the way to go.

Josiah: Do you have any favorite websites for distributing press releases, or do you just send them directly to journalists that you know?

Lissa: We use a variety. My Emma is a great one, and we also use that for guest communications. It works really well. You can manage your lists. We of course use Cision, and we can work through that. There’re new competitors coming out that will compete against them as well, but they will allow you to build your search and your queries and to then distribute directly from there. That’s a really exciting opportunity as well in distribution.

The distribution piece is always hard. There’re always mixed messages, and it’s a very individual process. Many journalists say, “I don’t want bulk press releases. I want you to come to me with a specific pitch.” And in many cases, I may want that to be an exclusive.

There are others that want – in this age of fast moving online, where you’ve got a blog to fill or you’ve got online content in some way you’re trying to fill – these short, fast bursts of information, because people are putting out information at this rapid fire rate that they want to fill it.

Traditionally, newspapers are still good for press releases. Long lead magazines can still be good for press releases. And I think there’s a way to intersect with their online divisions to be able to provide them with short bursts of electronic information that they can fill in the short-term on their websites.

Josiah: So in your experience, what are some of the similar characteristics of businesses that get a lot of press coverage? We’ve talked a little bit about amenities and story hooks that seem to work well, but I’m wondering if the management at these companies that get a lot of media attention just have a different philosophy of operating?

Lissa: They do have a philosophy of operating. They’re fluid. I think you have to be fluid. You have to allow your staff to share information. And I don’t mean proprietary, anything that is extremely proprietary. But you have to allow your staff to be somewhat spontaneous, to say, “Oh my gosh, you’re not going to believe what happened today. Our concierge did X, Y, and Z for a guest, and that guest was so excited.” That’s a great service story.

So, allowing the management to share what’s going on at the property level is really important. And to stay fluid and flexible, to say, “Well, that’s a little bit of a wacky idea, but we’re willing to try it to see what happens with it.’”

So number one is flexibility of management to allow – in a controlled environment – spontaneity of communication.

Josiah: Very, very good. So if someone is listening to this and they’re considering hiring a PR professional, what are some questions that you would recommend they use in the selection process?

Lissa: Be really clear on expectations and goals. What will success look like for you, and what will success look like for me? And I am very clear when meeting with new clients to make sure that we’re in alignment on those two. Because if I feel that the expectations are unreasonable, chances are pretty good that I would decline taking the project on. I would at the very least be very clear in saying, I’m not sure that those are realistic deliverables. But again, it goes back to a perception out there of what PR is.

PR is difficult because it’s a little nebulous. And if you don’t have experience working with PR professionals, sometimes I’ve found that companies are not clear; they don’t really understand on a daily basis what they’re getting for their money. They want results, and the social marketing piece hasn’t helped that very much, because we’re living in this instant world of instant gratification.

But many times it takes months and months to place a story. And because they don’t see their PR professional on a daily basis, or they’re not getting clips in the mail on a daily basis, the perception may be that there’s no activity. But that’s not entirely fair. It takes a while to place these stories and to find the appropriate channels and to build relationships. So patience is a part of that. PR – unless it’s got a start and a finish – is not a quick fix.

Josiah: Excellent. Well, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us today, Lissa.

Lissa: Thank you so very much for thinking of me. I really appreciate it.

This second installment of our three part-conversation explains the promotional value of stories and unique amenities, and next week’s post features her thoughts on merging traditional and new media to reach more guests. In case you missed it, here’s the first part.

Josiah: Going back to the notion of a hook or a story angle, some of the hotels that I’ve seen have received the best media coverage have some sort of unique amenity, whether it’s unique transportation or something within the hotel. And sometimes it’s really quirky. I believe there’s a hotel in Chicago that offers pet goldfish for people who are feeling lonely. They can carry a little goldfish bowl up to the room.

Do you think it’s good to design unique amenities specifically with the intention of getting media coverage, or do you feel that’s sort of gimmicky?

Lissa: I would say both. I am not above strategizing the hook or a good media story, and I have done it on any number of occasions. If that is the case, then I think that one needs to be able to fulfill the promise. I don’t think it’s fair to put something out to media, telling them that there is an amenity that you’ve created or a hotel has created, and then let them write about it and then not fulfill that promise when the guest comes to the hotel. I think it’s very fair to use those amenities to create enthusiasm for hotels, and I think as a hotel ages, it’s more important than ever.

One of my clients that I opened in 1999 is the W Hotel, specifically W Seattle, and they are now 10 years, going into their 11th year. They were originally a new build in Seattle. But we’re at that crossroads now where we’re looking at all the possible ways of crafting new and exciting stories that we can come up with and looking for partnerships, community alliances that we can tag on with that can give us a fresh new story or a fresh new angle. They happen to be very involved, much like what you’re talking about, which is Kimpton Properties with the goldfish.

At W Seattle, they’re very pet friendly. We craft pet cocktail hours where the community can bring their dog in, and we have a DJ that plays. We craft special food for the dogs and special food for the human guests. We’ve garnered a tremendous amount of press about it. You would think that the world has seen enough of pet friendly media stories, but they continue to garner interest.

In the case of someplace like the Kenwood Inn and Spa in Sonoma that has wonderfully garnered so much great media attention and just named to Condé Nast Traveler’s top small resorts in the US for the last three years, that property, in and of itself, is so beautiful and so spectacular looking that, in many ways, it’s an easy sell because it’s so beautiful.

But they also have vinotherapy, which is this grape-derived facial and body treatment. Even though that’s been around for a while, it still is of interest to journalists looking to find out more about what all this enthusiasm is for wine, whether it’s whether you drink it or whether you’re using it in topical applications.

Josiah:  Are there other major categories of story opportunities that you see hotels being able to leverage and use?

Lissa: I think trend stories. I remember for a while when the hotels were first doing wireless kinds of connections in their hotels, and the hotels that had the greatest array of technology in their hotels were newsworthy. I think finding those key points, like technology, is a good way for hotels to differentiate themselves.

The in-room amenities certainly have been… for a long time, we’ve talked about thread count on beds. We’ve talked about televisions, availabilities in the room. It could be anything from any sort of magazines or publications in the room. It could be what’s in the honor bar that’s distinguishing. Finding those things that transcend the average hotel experience into more of a lifestyle experience is what people want to write about. “Tell me something I don’t know,” is really what they’re looking for.

Josiah: Exactly. Let’s talk a little bit about how new media and the social web has affected public relations. What do you see as changes? What new opportunities or best practices would you recommend for using new media?

Lissa: It’s a whole new world out there, and everybody is still trying to wrap their arms and brains around it. The conversations come up daily. I had a long conversation last night. My perception about social media is that it is and should be one part of a comprehensive communications or marketing strategy.

I don’t think that anybody should rely on it wholly or 100%, but I do think that it is very effective to be able to communicate some short-term events, anything that has a short duration. It could be for a specific package or a rate… it’s a terrific way to reveal recognitions, whether they be awards, any sort of high profile media coverage. They’re terrific for giveaways. Use it to highlight targeted conversations within the hotel. If there’s a trend or something that’s happening, that’s good.

The part with social media that people are trying to figure out, and specifically business, is how do you become relevant with social media so that you’re not always talking about yourself and that you’re engaging. Because if you continually talk about yourself, you’ll turn people off.

Best practices should dictate that one or two people only are the people that are covering social media for a particular hotel or a business, and they are very clear about the parameters of what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate to portray or to discuss or to reveal. And if nothing else, there should be a gatekeeper of information, one person that really rubber stamps what goes out there and what doesn’t go out there.

In my case, for many of my clients, we write the social media piece for them. We allow them to supplement it if they want to. Certainly, we ask for them to provide us with content, but they, in some cases, want to hand that off to somebody. They have other areas of their business that they want to manage.

In other cases, the hotels want to do it on property, and that’s very effective as well, because they’re seeing of the moment activities and of the moment interests that they are in the best position to coordinate and to communicate.

Social marketing is great. I don’t believe it’s the only method or mode that should be used. It works really well with traditional press releases and traditional communications, and everything, for me anyway, is integrated. So in the case of Kenwood Inn and Spa, for example, with this new award with Condé Nast Traveler, we put a press release out there that this had happened, but we also supplemented that with tweeting and with Facebook, and that is very effective.

You had also asked me about how to create direct to consumer news releases, and that’s a really great way to utilize blogs. Blogs are terrific consumer news pieces that a hotel can communicate to their constituency base in a way that is lively and engaging and entertaining. Blogs are terrific for that.

That said, blogs need to have rich content. They need to be stimulating. They need to be provocative in the most professional way, but not just boring, boring, boring, because you’ll turn off your consumer at that point in time.

Thank you, Lissa!

[Check back next week to learn how to reach more guests by integrating new and traditional media.]

Today we’re joined by Lissa Gruman, a partner at Gruman & Nicoll Public Relations specializing in getting media coverage for hotels.

Our conversation – shared in three parts – explains how to design a PR campaign for your hotel, the promotional value of stories and unique amenities, and how merging traditional and new media can help you reach more guests.

Josiah: How would you define your job as a public relations specialist?

Lissa: I see myself in three parts: One, advocate for the client; two, representative of their business; and three, as a creative director in communicating with the media.

Josiah: How do you really understand a client’s business?

Lissa: In my experience, the long-term relationships that are extremely integrated tend to be the most successful, unless of course you’re doing a short-term project that has a very clear start and you know exactly what the end goal is.

I can’t stress enough the sharing of information, how important that is. I represent hotels and lifestyle industries, and those industries – as it relates to garnering press – are often related to trends, to activities, obviously any sort of economic climate – recessions – would fall in there as well. But I need information from the client to be a good communicator on their behalf.

Josiah: What are some of the common misconceptions that you feel are out there about public relations?

Lissa: One, that public relations is a fix-all for a problem or a concern in an organization that may have deeper roots. I think that often businesses arrive at the public relations doorstep as a last gasp in trying to figure out what’s wrong with their company, either why they’re not selling more or gaining more traction.

And I think the belief is there that if they had more public awareness, that their business would be driven accordingly. And in some cases, that can impact it. But if there are other issues at play, public relations really is not a fix-all.

The second piece of that is to really realize that the public relations professional in a lot of organizations – if it’s a contract position – is one of those positions that kind of comes and goes. In good times, it’s added. In bad times, it’s taken away. I think it’s often perceived as the fluff part of a communications and marketing strategy. And in fact, it’s really one arm or one spoke in the wheel of a comprehensive program.

Josiah: It sounds like you need to be working on these relationships from the start. Thinking, how can we communicate with the press, with our customers, with our target audience in a very sustainable manner.

Lissa: I think that’s exactly it. In designing a campaign, everybody has to be in mutual and very clear agreement about what the end goal is. And with that end goal, what success looks like and doesn’t look like for everybody.

I have a series of questions that I will either send to a client or go over with the client — typically, it’s one of those that I like to leave with them or send to them in advance — that identifies what the clear goals and expectations are for both parties.

I’m very clear, always, to not make promises that I don’t feel I can achieve. I think if you go into it saying that you can deliver one thing and you’re unable to do that, it creates a lot of animosity and is not really good for the working relationship. As a PR practitioner, your job is to help guide and frame the company persona to the public via the media.

Josiah: I’d like for you to walk us through the steps that you go through when designing a PR campaign. And perhaps we could begin with, how do we identify or formulate this big goal at the start?

Lissa: Good question. I think it requires a lot of discussion. Everybody’s favorite project, mine included, is a new product launch. Those are the best, because everybody is very excited, and it has been unseen, probably unwritten about for the most part. So at that point in time, it’s really about sitting down and getting a full understanding of what is your product or service, what differentiates it amongst other like products and services, and who are the constituent groups that we want to know about your product or service.

With that in mind, with everybody being very clear at the table on who those groups are and where we’re trying to get to, I would typically – and specifically with hotels – look at the different media groups that I want to reach.

For example, what is the business story? Is it the amount of money that has been put into the build of a new hotel? Is it a renovation? And with that, I would probably go to business media accordingly saying, “here’s your business story regarding the financial piece of this.”

If it’s lifestyle, I would try to pull out the exciting features of the property. Perhaps you’ve got a specific designer that you’ve worked with. Perhaps there’s been a commitment to artwork within a hotel property. There may be a spa or a special feature that makes it unique.

Certainly with hotels – with food and beverage being a big part – I would look at the culinary program. Independently of hotels, I represent a lot of restaurants and chefs, so I’m always looking for that hook as we like to call it in the PR world. What is the hook? What differentiates your product and service from your competitors?

In structuring [your PR campaign], look at the different outreach possibilities for media and the key themes or stories that you can put together to pitch to them. And then, drilling down further from that, who within those specific publications – whether they be online or print – do you really want to reach? Where do you get the biggest bang for the buck?

If it’s an existing business, those strategies become more complicated, and at that point you really, really have to be very clear and very honest about what you have to offer that is distinguishing from your competition and your comp set. Specifically with hotels, that’s really important.

Thank you, Lissa!

[Check back next week to learn how storytelling and unique amenities can boost your hotel's PR campaign.]

Josiah: Why do the people in the hotel and travel industry need to be embracing change?

Geraldine: I think the first point about change is that it’s constantly happening around us, so if we don’t embrace it, we’re just going to get lost in the crowd. It’s in the interest of any individual hotel or hotel group out there to embrace change as fast as we can so that we can maintain competitive advantage, so that we can survive, and so that the product and services can evolve with client demands, which are ever-changing.

Josiah: If some hoteliers out there are afraid of some of this change, what would you say to them?

Geraldine: I would say it’s very important to listen to the right people, because there’s an awful lot of messaging coming at us at the moment, and there’s a lot of disagreement between experts in certain areas on change, technology, potential growth markets, etc. I think it’s very important to select the right mentors.

One of the most important articles – I believe – to read is the Amadeus Gold Travel Rush document. It’s a really good document that’s been put together about the travel industry in general, and it talks about the changes that are coming at us. It tells us things like that the travel industry is making an uneven recovery, that Asia will represent 30% of the travel business and spend by 2020, so we need to be focusing some attention towards Asia and how we’re going to develop that business.

These are things that we’re being told we now need to change, so if we’re not listening to what we’re being recommended to do and actually implementing change, we’re just not going to survive… because other people will do it.

Becoming Better Informed

Josiah: What is your criteria for selecting information, selecting mentors?

Geraldine: I think it really is time to look to people who have done the right things up until now, because it’s people who have been doing the wrong things up until now who are telling us what to do in the future. I have a great hesitation about listening to these people. So, look at the people who are making the predictions up until now and getting it right.

I’m a great believer in looking to Cornell School of Hotel Administration; I think they’re constantly evolving their model there and looking at different ways to enhance management in a global way. I think we need to look at general trends in consumers; I think that’s very important, because I think we need to look inside and outside of our industry, and I also think it’s very important to keep an eye on what the airlines are doing because – let’s face it – the airlines are the leaders in the hospitality sector, as far as I’m concerned.

Using Analytics for Forward Planning

Josiah: Can you tell us a little bit about your thoughts on benchmarking our present status and using a little bit of analytics for forward future planning?

Geraldine: I think we’re never going to get to a particular point in the future if we don’t understand our starting point. It’s really important to sit down and analyze where our business is currently at.

It’s extremely easy to do now, with all the information that comes at us from our front office systems. We have incredible reporting opportunities that are only being utilized – I would say, maybe – up to ten percent within the hotel sector.

There is a great opportunity there to properly research the statistical information that we have in hand, to review it on a weekly, monthly basis. It’ll help us with our forecasting, and it really is important to know the “Why?” and the “Where?” your clients are coming from, and “Why are they actually staying with you? How do they choose you instead of another hotel?”

Josiah: Are there any other sources of information or other analytics programs that you would recommend?

Geraldine: I find that Google Analytics – if used properly – is one of the best, and my recommendations to any of the hotels is to focus on specific things and to do those properly. What’s happening at the moment is there’s so much information out there. There’s statistical information coming from all kinds of reports from associations, hotel federations etc, etc. And at the end of the day, people are getting very confused.

So I would say, use Google Analytics and become really familiar with that. There are statistics that come in – for example, the Amadeus Travel Gold Rush document – that has quite a lot of information in there, and I also follow HVS; they do quite a lot of statistical reporting. A lot of the tourism organizations give specific information for specific countries, but if you look at certain information coming through – for example, USA statistics – RevPAR will only reach 2006 levels in 2014.

So we have these years to kill now, and we’re working with a lower RevPAR, and what are we going to do with all of this? It depends on the market you’re in. Different statistics are coming through from different organizations. You’ve got to make a judgement call and decide what is going to work for you.

Productivity is Crucial to Survival

Josiah: If I’m the owner of a smaller hotel, how can I use some of this information? Is this only applicable to larger hotel groups or travel organizations, or if I’m a single property, can I use some of these trends?

Geraldine: I believe that one can use trends, whether you’re an independent hotel, a bed and breakfast, or whether you’re part of a chain. Basically, global trends will have an effect on a drill-down basis. I’ve dealt with the Asian market for many years, and there is a trend where – when buying from China, for example – your operator prefers to deal with a tour operator who can then book 8-10 hotels within the same group, or at least of the same level, so there is a certain buying trend for group travel.

When it comes to smaller hotels, these may see some of the individual travel, but I believe that what happens is that some business gets displaced out of the chain hotels, and you have that drill-down effect where your independent hotel may get more of the experience-seeking clients.

Josiah: What are some of the practical things that we can do to embrace change?

Geraldine: I believe that – because of the way the industry is going to become extremely competitive, and while clients now or guests will actually travel on airlines and do budget airline travel – they still wanna stay in 4-5 star hotels a lot of the time. Location is important. But I think what’s really important is that your business works for you 24 hours, 7 days a week.

You’ve got to look at optimizing every aspect of your business. You’ve got to look at working at your OTAs, working with median Meeting-bookers, Restaurant Diary, anything that can make your business work 24/7. You’ve got to revisit the last “loss-leaders” and find alternative solutions. Gone are the days where you can decide, “Well, we lose money in the spa, but we have it just because 2 out of the 40 guests that stay with us like to know that it’s there.”

We have to remove ongoing time-wasters and issues in the actual operations and in our hotels, because very often it’s the same things that keep popping up and we’re just not solving them. I believe we have to work on the 80/20 principle. We’ve really got to look at where we’re getting most of our business and revenue from, and do as much of that as we can possibly do.

I think pre-planning for 12 months in advance is really important now. We know where we’re going; we have a plan and we can get everybody on board, working towards it. You’re always going to be tweaking and making changes, but really, you’ve got to have some direction and gotta be going forward instead of zigzagging every time somebody makes a statement.

We’ve really got to review the traditional hotel roles; I think most of these are out-of-date now and not very productive, and I think customers like one-stop shopping as offered by the airlines, where you can book multiple facilities, and I think that is going to be really important. But I think any space that we have, we need to be filling. If we’re not filling them, we need to be finding out why we’re not filling them. It’s all those kinds of things. I think you’ve got to revisit every aspect of your business and make sure that it’s a profit center.

Develop a Culture that Reflects Your Brand in Line with Your Personal Philosophy

Josiah: How can we develop a culture within our organization that embraces change quickly, and where we have our entire team on-board with this mentality of embracing change and having a strong business focus on all of our activities?

Geraldine: I think firstly, it’s got to be leadership driven and not management driven. There was a survey done several years ago, and they took the 10 best hotels in the world and identified what these ten hotels had in common, and it was actually great leaders as general managers. They didn’t all come from a hotel background; some were accountants, some were marketing people, but it was leadership quality that made a great hotel.

You’ve got to practice what you preach, because neither staff nor guests are stupid. You’ve got to develop a brand and culture. We have to have a can-do attitude. We have to be the best that we can. We may not be a 5 star hotel, but if you’re a 3 star hotel, be the best that you can as a 3 star hotel.

We’ve got to remember that hotels are not stand-alone properties. It’s about community and adding value to the guest’s experience. We’ve got to develop a win-win culture, because we’re all in this together. We’ve got to develop it for ourselves, for our staff, for our guests and for our clients, whoever those clients are.

All of these things are very important, but I would just stress here that it comes from the top down: your culture, your brand, your brand’s statement. That all comes from the top down, and you’ve got to lead by example.

Josiah: Geraldine, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us today.