A huge thanks to Guido vanden Elshout for this enlightening interview with our publisher, Josiah Mackenzie. I’ve worked closely with Josiah for over a year, and – as our regular readers know – he isn’t one to grandstand, preferring instead to praise and expound on the achievements of others. So, in the rare occasion that someone’s able to coax out his personal stories, goals and favorite destinations, I can’t help but share them with you all… (Forgive me, J!)

1. Who are you?

I’m a bon vivant passionate about travel, tea, writing, running, technology, hospitality, design, stories, startups, my hometown of San Francisco, my current city of Barcelona, and anything related to innovation and making the world a better place.

My background is in technology and software startups, but I’m working towards eventually opening a hospitality company in the near future. Now I’m taking my technology experience and using it to help forward-thinking people in the hospitality industry deliver better service and experiences to their guests. What I have done, am doing, and will do is the only way I know to blend all my interests.

2. What do you like about what you do?

I love talking with people who are on the front lines of innovation, and hearing about the projects they’re working on. For example, I’ve had some good conversations recently with Diego Sartori and Michael Levie of citizenM Hotels – and they just might be creating the coolest hospitality concept in the world right now. Watching them reinvent every component of a traditional hotel is fascinating: from the modular construction to how they publish a digital lifestyle magazine.

I like ideas, but I love action. I’ve been fortunate to work on interesting projects in very creative organizations, allowing me to continuously test theories and see what actually works.

Now I’m spending most of my time working with a very talented, dedicated, driven team at ReviewPro, lead by CEO RJ Friedlander. I’ve always enjoyed watching entrepreneurs in action, and RJ is one of the most dynamic executives I’ve met. I work as an industry analyst with them – watching and reporting on how social technologies are changing the way the travel industry operates. As frequent participant in both the consumer and supplier side of travel, this is an ideal position for me right now.

3. What don’t you like about what you do?

My philosophy is that if you’re doing work you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. That’s definitely true for me. I love what I do, and that makes everything easier.

4. Please tell us all about your blog and your aims with it.

I have a very simple goal: to become the most influential travel technology personality in the world. To this end, I’m focused on writing stories and case studies of technology in action. Whenever possible, I prefer to highlight what’s working – instead of pontificating on theory.

I started Hotel Marketing Strategies in the summer of 2008 as just a way to share insights from the projects I was working on. Now, it’s grown to become the leading hotel marketing blog in the world. My rockstar editor Katie Clapp and I talk with people shaking up the travel industry, and then profile their work in blog posts and articles.

An example of this is my recent conversation with James Kinney, who has found live entertainment events to be the single best way for hotels to generate attention on the social web. If you hang out too long in typical social media marketing sites, you are more likely to see another article on “why you should use Twitter” – instead of a compelling case study that involves Cedric the Entertainer, Manhattan hotels, and 300% growth in social media activity.

5. What are your top three destination experiences?

Berlin – I used to live in Berlin, and it remains one of my favorite cities in Europe, if not the world. There’s an energy there that is hard to find elsewhere. I enjoy shopping and dining in the Prenzlauer Berg and Hackescher Markt areas.

Colonia, Uruguay – This can be done as a day trip from Buenos Aires, but it’s much better to stay overnight. On my first visit here, I rented a bike, got lost, and then found a beautiful, nearly deserted beach that was so unexpected that it felt like paradise. (Getting lost typically leads to the best travel experiences for me.)

Dubai - Some find Dubai to be artificial, but its hard not to be impressed by how audacious the developers are in this city. I find the architecture inspirational.

If I can add a fourth, it would be Paris. I’ve visited a handful of times, and lived here briefly in the past, but frankly wasn’t a big fan. But on a trip back there this Spring, I fell in love with the city for some reason for the first time. Paris is the new Paris.

6. What are your top three favorite accommodations?

Witt Istanbul Suites in Istanbul remains my #1 hotel experience to date: Luxurious, modern, and exotic. Guests enjoy a privileged view over the city from rooms designed by Autoban. Founder and owner Tuncel Toprak is a genius, and doing exactly what I want to be doing very soon.

Tailor Made Hotel in Buenos Aires exudes a low-key vibe in a high-energy city. I enjoyed the minimalist design and very friendly service. Original founder Mariquel Waingarten understood what many modern travelers are looking for, and executed a simple concept very well.

I recently stayed at La Maison Champs Elysees in Paris, and was fascinated to see how the owners partnered with Maison Martin Margelia to re-launch the hotel. High fashion entering the hotel industry is an interesting trend I’m observing right now. Hugues Godard, Martin Soler and their teams are doing a great job with this property.

7. What are your top three most memorable food/wine experiences?

Someone once told me that dining experiences are 50% about the restaurant, and 50% about who you’re dining with. I think that’s true, and fortunately I’m usually blessed with great dining partners. While I’ve had some extraordinary dining experiences around the world, I’m going to highlight some favorites in my hometown of San Francisco. San Franciscans get spoiled with some excellent New American cuisine with very fresh ingredients – places like Radius and Outerlands.

One of my favorite wine spots in San Francisco is Moussy’s – an underground wine bar and tapas place. When I’m in the SoMa district, District is another fun place.

As someone who could eat breakfast food for every meal, I recommend a true American breakfast at Dottie’s True Blue Cafe. Had some very inspiration breakfasts at this San Francisco institution, talking travel innovation with @Michael Hraba, @Lisa Demoney, @Henry Harteveldt and @Jacob Morgan.

And for a solid all-around lunch restaurant that never disappoints, I have to give a shoutout to Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco. Owner Jesse Jacobs is one of the restaurateurs I admire most in the industry, running his business in a very socially responsible way. The Yerba Buena gardens location is a hotspot for SF tech entrepreneurs, so when dining here you’ll be surrounded by people building the next Twitter or Facebook.

8. What are your three worst destinations/accommodations/food experiences to date?

I try to forget about those!

Actually, I very rarely have terrible travel experiences. With the right travel research, it’s possible to avoid the worst places. I practice what I preach and use guest and customer reviews – like the ReviewPro City Rankings – extensively when planning travel, and they typically lead me to the best places in a new city. I’ve never had a bad experience staying at a hotel that was rated among the top 10 in a city.

9. Can you offer the readers three destinations/foods/accommodations/things to do for the city you are currently living in?

I’m writing this from Barcelona, and the landmark W Hotel Barcelona is a hub for what’s cool in this city. The rooftop bar is one of my favorite places to bring visitors for a spectacular view over the Mediterranean Sea.

The El Born neighborhood is packed with interesting boutiques, cafes and restaurants. Definitely worth walking around at night or during the weekend.

Finally, I’m a huge fan of simple and stylish modern cafes. Anyone visiting Barcelona should check out Crusto, Cornelia & Co, Habuluc, Federal, Alsur Cafe, La Luna, and Princesa 23.

10. Any questions you’d expected me to ask that you would like to answer?

You covered it all, but I love sharing tools I find helpful. To make this as useful as possible for your readers, here are some iPhone/Blackberry apps and that make my life as a writer and traveler easier, more efficient, or just more fun. (Note: I am not affiliated in any way with these companies)

● Evernote – makes it much easier to organize all the ideas floating through my head
● Instapaper – good for reading articles offline
● Tungle – makes scheduling appointments so much easier
● Instagram – easily share artistic photos
● TripIt – great for organizing your travel
● Path – sharing your life through photos with close friends
● Gowalla – making my phone a passport
● UrbanSpoon – my favorite way to find great restaurants

Finally, I love to meet people, so if anyone reading this wants to connect, you can find me on Twitter professionally @HmarketingHelp or personally @JosiahMackenzie. ¡Buen viaje!

Guido’s Take:

In editing this interview, I once more concluded that I myself didn’t follow you and your blog enough throughout the last two years and can only advise my readers to closely follow you, because you are very generous in sharing your experiences both in hotel marketing and living the good life!

I suggest that you come over and stay at Haagsche Suites once before you truly plunge into your hospitality adventure yourself to discuss those plans while enjoying a good glass of wine:-)

As has become my tradition at the end of each year and beginning of a new one, here’s my summary of 111 marketing ideas to consider as we enter 2011.

Planning & strategy

• The #1 purpose of marketing is retaining your customers. Focus on that before pursuing new markets.
• Read The Concierge Approach to Content Marketing
• Why you? Why now?
• Personalization is a growing trend - use it wherever you can
  
• Make a stop-doing list
• Make sure you’re signed up for fresh new ideas from me each week (if you haven’t already)
• Talent is everything. Spend all you can (and then some) recruiting, retaining, rewarding the best people.
• Do you have a list of allstars you want to hire? Always be casting. (Good Seth Godin post)
• Recruit from clubs
• Offer new hires $2,000 to quit before they begin
• Are you prepared to let 75% of your new initiatives fail?
• “The most important trait for innovation today isn’t creativity, but curiosity.” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Consistency is everything
• We’re all stock traders now
• Post a list of customer suggestions in action
• Read Peak by Chip Conley

Social Media

• Appoint a social media ambassador to “own” your efforts in this area
• When building your social media team, include person from every department: management, marketing, PR, product development, customer service, etc. ““Employees can take brand message, localize it, and put their personality behind it.” – Claire Elias/STA Travel
• Read my free report – Beyond Account Setup: 29 Ways to Optimize Your Social Media Profiles
• Don’t try to buy social media fans. Avoid the “campaign” mindset, and understand that forming the relationships for a great online community will take years.
• The one-line recipe for success in social media: An inside story from a real person that loves what they do
• Turn guests into content producers
• Turn your loyal fans into celebrities
• Put a Flip camera on every property
• Make sure to have a human identity behind your corporate social media profile
• Don’t outsource Twitter
• Retweet your own important content (people could miss it otherwise)
• Try using Twitter to collect testimonials. Save positive tweet mentions as favorites you can refer back to.
• Use TwitterSheep to find what your followers care about
• Create a Twitter background with contact/sales information
• You don’t always have to make sales offers in social media to make a lot of money – go 0ff-topic every once in a while
• Try some of these Facebook plugins from Involver
• Think twice about advertising your Facebook page URL – it only builds their brand, makes you even more reliant on them. Instead, send traffic to a landing page hosted on your site.
• Get creative in the way you share photos on Facebook
• Used LinkedIn to generate sales leads
• If you’re opening a new hotel, consider using a Flickr group to build pre-opening buzz
• Social media is the richest focus group that ever existed
• Learn from Fairmont and have social media followers create your next promotional package
• Social ROI is from insights, not necessarily sales
• Google and Bing have confirmed that Twitter/Facebook postings do help with search engine placements
• Understand the basics of social CRM
• Start observing the best hotels on Facebook, like Joie de Vivre
• Start following the best hotels on Twitter, like @FairmontHotels @Kimpton @ApexHotels
• Learn from Fierro Hotel on how to use Tumblr: InsideBuenosAires.com and WeLoveFierro.com

Website

• Don’t celebrate the launch
• Be compatible with Google’s Instant Previews
• Build content through partnerships
• Buy a .TV domain name and create a video channel there
• Look at these 15 well-designed websites – and see why they work so well
• Try optimizing landing pages around ‘who’ you know, not ‘what’ you know. (Including connections from networks like Facebook gives a personal connection to the company.)
• Drive traffic by reaching out to past guests
• Make sure you do 3 things in 3 seconds: 1) load the page quickly 2) Visually WOW them 3) Get them involved
• Use this checklist of 43 questions if you’re going through a re-design
• Take advantage of “white hot” online touch points when asking for action
• Use video creatively throughout the revenue cycle
• Think about using travel webcams like Starwood is doing with RoomWithAView.com
• Search optimization is more important than ever, but the rules have changed. Learn and adapt.
• Know how Google instant affects your marketing
• Use live chat on your website to close more sales
• Maintain consistency (in everything) across all booking channels
• Encourage direct bookings by verifying website security, offering multiple language and currency support
• Read Speak Human by Eric Karjaluoto

Mobile

• Create a mobile-friendly website to avoid platform issues
• Know that 81% (to 19%) prefer mobile websites to mobile apps for researching products and prices (eMarketer 2010 survey)
• Make sure you don’t run a mobile ad, and then send traffic to a page on your site that’s not mobile-friendly
• Use QR codes to bridge the online/offline gap (Example from Tailor Made Hotel)
• 4 important things to do with mobile for customers: learn, recognize, reward and personalize
• You’re not going to succeed in mobile on your first try. Experiment now – learn by doing.
• A big opportunity for mobile is rewarding loyalty.
• Look at TopGuest
• Creating great mobile experiences requires you to get out in the world and interact with your environment. Don’t design in a cubicle.

Reputation Management

• Tracking online reputation should not just be aggregating reviews. Use a tool that gives you insight into trends and patterns.
• I recommend you start using ReviewPro (Why I am)
• Begin tying online reputation to your staff bonuses
• Know that 86% of consumers are using reviews as a deciding factor in their purchasing decision
• An unhappy customer used to tell 3 people, now they tell 3 million. This highlights the importance of quickly catching and resolving issues.
• On the brighter side, the majority – two-thirds, actually – of online reviews are positive [research from Keller Fay Group]
• Increase customer confidence by monitoring, collecting, and re-publishing positive reviews
• Monitoring for online mentions sometimes provides you with some great promotional material
• Write better post-stay “thank you” emails to encourage online reviews
• Get creative in how you ask for reviews. Like a banner on your WiFi network login page.
• “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you will do things differently.” – Warren Buffett

Advertising

• Run a brand ambassador campaign in social media (Mashable examples)
• Let a customer write your next ad
• Experiment with strong risk-reversal messages in your copy
• Embrace behavioral ad targeting in PPC and elsewhere
• Banner ads are quickly evolving
• Partner with websites that attract people already decided to visit your destination
• Barter unsold rooms for advertising

Email

• Social media use has not replaced email for sales (Just look at Groupon)
• Make sure to use good landing pages
• Add some security indicators (like a sample email screenshot) to increase email subscription rates
• Segment your email list by personas (not just purchase history)
• Build a preferences center to help subscribers receive more relevant emails
• Permission isn’t forever

Service

• Customer service is the new marketing
• Understand the “Brand Butler” trend
• Ask your guests if they would recommend you to a friend
• Create a buying experience centered around the customer
• Re-think your guest check-in process
• Real-time responses are crucial on the social web. Have systems and processes to deliver timely information and support to your guests.
• Try a service like CoTweet to share support responsibilities among staff
• Read Experience Economy by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore

Amenities & Technology

• A poor hotel Wi-Fi experience influences 36 percent of business travelers on whether they re-book that specific hotel in the future [more research on hotel WiFi]
• iPads are the #1 most-wanted tech amenity guests want from a hotel [USA Today poll]
• Consider virtual meeting technology as a way to profit from lower business travel volume

Press & Media

• Send out social media news releases
• Try PitchEngine – a social media PR builder
• Start offering more unique hotel amenities that get people talking
• Listen to the PR 2.0 chat

Measurement & Analytics

• Understand travel booking isn’t usually a linear process
• Learn how Barbara Pezzi improves her marketing with analytics segmentation
• Run these 10 reports in Google Analytics
• Social media should shorten your sales cycle. Watch your number of sales leads, cost per lead, sales closing ratio, channel conversion rate, and time to closing to measure improvement.

For over 1,000 hotel marketing ideas and strategies for implementing these concepts, I encourage you to get the Savvy Hotelier’s Guide to Hotel Marketing Ideas

If you found this list helpful, please share it with your colleagues via email or through Twitter. Thanks!

If success leaves clues, you should spend a lot of time analyzing thriving companies. That’s my mission here: trying to identify common elements of success that you can apply in your situation. There seem to be a number of recurring themes, and I’d like to try to put these into a simple framework for us to consider.

Part 1: Remarkable design

Your product is the marketing.

Take a big chunk of your marketing, advertising, and PR budget, then use it to hire a world-class designer.

Create a purple cow.

Consider “design” in the broadest sense of the word: from your building design (inside and out) to engineering your guest experience to planning unusual amenities.

Remarkable design gets people talking. And people saying nice things about you is a recipe for success online.

Browse some great hotel design photos for inspiration. How could you stay at The Daddy Long Legs or Propeller City Lodge or Hotel Fox and not tell your friends? Who doesn’t wish they could stay in the Treehotel or Ice Hotel….or visits Dubai without snapping a photo of the Burj Al Arab?

Part 2: Service obsession

Your service is your marketing.

Great service is uncommon, so getting fanatical about your customer interactions generates a lot of positive word of mouth and goodwill.

That’s why we’re developing ServiceIsMarketing.com and I’m working on a book of the same name. But that was supposed to be a secret, so don’t tell anyone.

This illustration from Penn Olsen is sad:

What if you took more marketing dollars and put them toward recruiting, training, and keeping excellent service professionals?

Part 3: Love what they do

Everything your staff does is marketing. (Whether they know that or not)

As I’ve said before, the secret to success in social media can really be summarized in one line:

The inside story from a real person who loves what they do

Obviously, a prerequisite for this is hiring people that love what they do. Enthusiasm for the product (see part 1) is infectious, and naturally leads into them providing better service for your guests and customers.

Like Antonio’s famous martinis at Egerton House Hotel:

Part 4: Everyone involved

Marketing is everyone’s job.

We even made you an infographic to illustrate how to build a social media team:

Part 5: Always publishing

Content is marketing.

Adopt the mantra we have here at Hotel Marketing Strategies:

Think like a publisher. Create remarkable content. Distribute it as far as possible.

Warning: This is a never ending pursuit.

The benefits you’ll receive make it worth the effort. Higher web visibility, top-of-mind awareness, and ultimately more profits.

Part 6: Pursuing cool

Cool companies don’t need traditional marketing. Their reputation precedes them.

“Cool” is really the sum of the five elements above. It’s the experience, the feeling people have interacting with you.

The harsh reality is that 98% of real people will only connect with brands they think are cool. I’m no different: I ‘like’ Virgin America’s Facebook page, not American Airlines. Maybe it’s a status thing, maybe we want to be seen as having good taste. It’s why pages for brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton do so well.

What do you think?

I’d like to create some more specific material on this concept, but wanted to float the general idea first and get your feedback. Do my observations align with what you’ve seen in successful brands?

(We’re also working on an infographic to illustrate this, and would appreciate any suggestions you have as we put this together….)

Savvy organizations are building a powerful presence for themselves on the web by publishing useful information. This content can take many forms – from articles, to Twitter updates, to videos on YouTube. But it’s all created for one purpose: to help their customers and guests.

This is what I call the concierge approach to content marketing: the practice of publishing material to answer questions before they even come up. And I’ve created a special report PDF to introduce you to the process:

[Click here to download The Concierge Approach to Content Marketing PDF]

In the guide, you’ll find:

• Definition of The Concierge Approach to Content Marketing
• Who should create all the material
• How to get help with this if you don’t have any time
• How to get your guests and customers involved in the content production process
• The best types of content to publish
• The best formats for sharing this information
• Making sure your content gets read and used
• A real-world case study on content marketing
• Summary list of content marketing tips

[Click here to download The Concierge Approach to Content Marketing PDF]

What’s the best way to budget for digital communications? That wording is important, because this topic covers more than just marketing. It includes technology that touches other areas of your operation: customer service, branding, public relations, and most importantly, management efficiency.

Why should you listen to my thoughts in this article? When it comes to finances, it’s natural for us to write off advice we see as biased – so I’ll clarify my position at the outset. (Especially if you’re a new reader here.) I work with a number of hotels in North America, South America and Europe in various advisory roles. Whether sitting on their board or as a more informal member of the executive team, my job is helping managers such as yourself understand new technology and how to make the best use of the resources they have.

If I was limited to just one piece of advice, it would be:

Invest in people, not technology

The rapid rate of new technology evolution necessitates you invest in people who can understand the changes and apply them to your situation. I’d rather have a team of all-stars to select and use free technology than the best tools in the world and just a mediocre team to operate them. It’s important to remember that good employees are always free: they earn your company more money than you pay them in salary.

I’d begin with hiring an impartial, outside advisor. Because this is the primary way I work, I don’t expect you to take my word for it. Instead, you should listen to this industry analyst talk about how agencies rip their clients off….and why it’s so important to have someone on your team who understands the technology, but has no financial interest in the outcome:

Listen to Patrick Bruce

(In other words, having someone like me on your team can help you get a better deal when it comes to negotiating contracts.)

Next, I’d be sure to have an internal champion that can work with this advisor on implementation. (My experience has taught me this external/internal relationship works better than having everything done by an agency or everything done in-house.) When selecting a marketing ambassador, I look for someone with integrity that I can trust with making decisions without constantly checking in. Someone with strong project management skills to work with various members of your team to turn ideas into actions.

Once you get the right people on the bus, it’s important to select the right mix of marketing technologies that fit your situation and will help you reach your goals. Just because a new tactic or social network is getting a lot of attention doesn’t mean it will be a good fit for you.

Below is a quick overview of some major digital communications channels, and what you can expect from each. To keep things very practical, I’ve included major benefits and also the estimated costs for a mid-sized hotel property (in the US dollars).

Website optimization. This is the art and science of turning more browsers into bookings. The vast majority of hotels have at least a halfway decent website up. The big challenge is making sure it sells well and is easy to find in search engines. It’s an ongoing process, but your biggest investment will be at the start — having a professional analyze and make the changes.
Best for: Nearly all hotels, because it helps you improve overall profitability – regardless of the other marketing channels you choose.
Investment: Varies widely, depending on testing sophistication. Typically $200-700+ per page.

Search visibility improvement. Attaining top rankings in search engine results is important for bringing new visitors to your website. It needs to be an ongoing part of your Internet marketing campaign: both to improve position and to keep up with competitors that are doing the same thing.
Best for: Anyone who wants to increase website visitors for more direct sales.
Investment: Usually a one-time fee of $1,000-5,000 for planning, then content development (mentioned below)

Pay-per-click advertising. This is one of the only advertising methods I recommend, because it’s easy to track effectiveness. The flexibility and return on investment can be impressive. You’ll need to budget for campaign management, and the actual clicks that you purchase from search engines.
Best for: Encouraging direct bookings, especially in a non-competitive market
Investment: Usually between $1,000-3,000 monthly per property depending on your bidding aggressiveness; plus account management fees (usually 10-20% of ad spend, with $500 minimum)
[Note: If you can't afford this, you may want to look into the commission-only PPC program I run]

Online reputation management. I tend to talk a lot about this on this blog, and you are probably aware, this falls into two major categories: monitoring your Web presence, and proactively encouraging positive content.
Best for: Hotels where managers care about their reputation in the market
Investment: Mostly a staff function, but you can save them time with good reputation monitoring software

E-mail communications. E-mail software is usually a relatively small expense, so your investment in e-mail marketing will be in people. Specifically, two types of people: the content writers and the marketing specialists. E-mail is a writing-intensive medium, so you need to have someone spend the time to develop this content. The marketing expertise is important to make sure your communications are effective — reaching the right people and generating the right response.
Best for: Hotels willing and able to create sophisticated databases, and unique content for each segment of their guests and prospects
Investment: Most email software is priced on list size, expect to pay a few hundred dollars each month. Writing costs can be included in the category below.

Content development. This includes all of the information you publish on and off the web. It includes blogs, websites, articles, and more. Many hospitality companies hire outside freelance journalists to help them with this. The good news is that much of it can be re-purposed for other formats.
Best for: Lifestyle hotels and destination resorts
Investment: $500-1,500 part-time, $3,000-6,000+ monthly for more intensive projects

Media production. Producing high-quality photos and videos of your hotel is more or less a one-time expense, but very important for future marketing efforts. You can reuse great photography and videos in many ways, online and off.
Best for: Properties with unique design (but the reality is all guests want to look before booking)
Investment: $2,500-15,000 for the initial shoot, several thousand more for production

Press relations & media outreach. This category includes outbound communications such as press releases and media kits, the development of content that interests the media, and relationship building with journalists and media outlets. Along with customers service, this is one of the best applications for social media. Even for mid-sized properties this can be a full-time job — but the return can be excellent. When your hotel gets positive coverage in the media, you get credibility and increased awareness that you cannot buy.
Best for: Organizations that can generate unique stories
Investment: I spend about 25% of my marketing budget on media relations and outreach (even more if I’m new)

Analytics analysis. To keep track of the whole program, you need some type of measurement system in place. The good news is that this doesn’t have to cost you anything extra. Any good marketing advisor will be able to look beyond the superficial numbers and give you solid strategy insights.
Best for: Everyone who cares about measuring their digital efforts.
Investment: Free with Google Analytics

Let me help you with this

Deciding on the right marketing mix can be overwhelming, and I’d like to help you. If you give me some background information below, I’ll do a quick situation analysis, and then provide you with a complimentary 15-minute telephone consultation to identify opportunities and share a few ways you could implement them.

** Owners and General Managers only, please **

Josiah’s note: This article is just a small excerpt of a report containing simple, powerful changes you should make to maximize your presence on Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, YouTube, Flickr, and Email: Beyond Social Media Account Setup: 29 Hacks and Optimizations for Better Results.

—

Are you tired of reading articles on how to use social media? This one is going to be different: I’ll start with two assumptions: 1) You’re smart, and 2) You already have basic profiles on sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

If this describes you, what’s next in social media? I’d like to share some of the “hacks” I’ve seen used to optimize social media activity.

Facebook: Add a fan page widget on your homepage

Placing a Facebook Like Box on your website allows visitors to become a fan of your Facebook Page without leaving your main website. Additionally, you can share the most recent updates on your page, and show some of the people who are already part of your community. (The subtle difference between this and the Like Button above is the the Like Button is just for sharing content; the Like Box is for fan page signups.)

Facebook: Post on Saturday for more interaction

According to research from Dan Zarrella, your hotel will get a lot more interaction on Facebook updates made on the weekend (especially on Saturday):
Not working during the weekend? Just use a tool like HootSuite that allows scheduled future posting on Facebook.

Twitter: Using lists to save time

Anyone starting out on Twitter quickly notices the volume of updates from people they follow can become overwhelming. How can you keep up with the updates that really matter? The answer is through Twitter lists. You can create lists for any number of people you follow.

Read: How to Use Twitter Lists (Twitter.com) and Mashable’s Twitter Lists Guide

Twitter: Create a background design that sells

Not enough people pay attention to their Twitter background design, but it can be a powerful marketing tool. It’s nice to have a layout that matches the rest of your visual identity, but I like to go a step further and include sales information. Provide contact details. Highlight a special offer or promotion.

Twitter: Ask guests to follow you right after a booking

After someone makes a reservation or checks in to your hotel, you might recommend they follow you on Twitter for service. You can do this in person or over the phone, but I’ve received great results by putting this request on the “thank you for your reservation” page that people see immediately after making a booking. Once someone has made a commitment like this, they are obviously interested in what you offer, and the chances they’ll follow you on Twitter or elsewhere go up dramatically.

Blog: Use Flickr to find “insider” secrets in your city

Flickr can also be a useful way to identify what visitors may find interesting in your city or destination. It helps to have a fresh set of eyes when creating a visitor’s guide for your destination. Searching Flickr enables you to:

• See what visitors are taking photos of
• See what type of photos got the most attention
• Identify the best photographers in your city (and work with them?)
• Locate out-of-the-way points of interest in your neighborhood
• Participate in discussions with photographers to determine the best places to take photos

Here’s the video demonstration

Flickr: Publish under a Creative Commons license to increase your visibility

As mentioned earlier, the Flickr Creative Commons license gives bloggers and web publishers permission to use images in their own work. From the perspective of the photographer – you in this case – it can be a great way to raise visibility. I recommend releasing every photo you upload to Flickr under this license. Photos of your property are great, but photos of your city or destination are even better.

YouTube: Optimize your videos for search

Many people are surprised to learn that YouTube is the web’s second-largest search engine (after Google). Videos uploaded to YouTube should be optimized to increase the chances of people finding it. There are whole articles on this topic, but some starting actions you can take include:

• Try to identify which niche search phrases are most relevant to your audience and the video, and then target these
• Use the word “video” in the title
• Write a keyword-rich description – it’s the next-best indicator to search engines of the video’s content, after the title
• Provide transcriptions where possible (search engines cannot index video content, so this helps them get a feel for what the video contains)
• Tag your video with keywords when uploading (which should go without saying)
• Select an attractive thumbnail image

Email: Add your latest Twitter updates to your email signature

A service called WiseStamp allows you to instantly embed your latest tweet or other social media update in every email you send. Even if you don’t want to use it for your personal account, it might be a nice touch for customer service or sales emails.

—

Again, this article is just a small excerpt of a report containing 20 additional simple, yet powerful changes you should make to maximize your presence on Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, YouTube, Flickr, and Email. Enter your email address below, and I’ll send you a free copy of Beyond Social Media Account Setup: 29 Hacks and Optimizations for Better Results:

Redesigning your website? It’s the perfect time to optimize for effectiveness. Here are 43 design questions that will help you create a powerful web presence:

Big questions

• What’s the #1 action we want people to take after viewing this page?
• How can we avoid clutter and focus on this #1 priority?
• Have we developed guest personas to help us decide what types of content to publish?
• Do we understand site visitors don’t care that much about us, but just want their questions answered?

Sales optimization

• Is our telephone number prominently featured at the top of each page?
• Is the booking form on also top of each page?
• Is our offer front and center – extremely clear?
• Do we have a strong call to action on each page?
• Do we have a best rate guarantee button in place?
• Can we create and display some other type of risk-reversal guarantee?
• Is our booking engine completely integrated with the site?
• How can we cross-sell and upsell to maximize revenue?
• Should we setup multiple domains for mini-sites our sales team can use?
• Do we have multiple landing pages planned for our various marketing initiatives?
• Are we creating multiple versions of important webpages so we can run split-tests for optimization?

Page content

• Do we know the most common guest questions, and are we proactively answering them?
• Could we “let them say it for us” by using guest quotes in page headlines and elsewhere?
• Are our pages formatted with the understanding that people won’t read, but scan, the contents?
• How can we feature press coverage or awards?
• How do we plan to keep this site frequently updated with fresh, new content?
• Can we build on a platform such as WordPress that allows us to publish updates ourselves?

Visuals

• Where should we use video or compelling visuals to convey emotion that is hard to show through written words?
• Could we crowdsource photos and other media from our guests?
• Do the people in photos look towards your page copy?
• Do we really need to use flash?

Social integration

• Which social networks do we want to emphasize?
• Can we include a Facebook page widget on the homepage?
• Can we include Facebook Like buttons on each page?
• Could we include live Twitter updates?
• Should we put a “retweet this” button on select pages?
• Could we make guest feedback and testimonials more credible by posting hand-written notes?
• Could we include YouTube videos or Flickr photos taken by guests?

Search optimization

• Have we created a list of keywords important for our hotel?
• Have we mapped one keyword phrase to each page on the site?
• Is this keyword phrase prominently placed throughout  each page?

Service

• Is it very easy to contact us? Do we provide multiple communications channels?
• Are our email contact forms short and simple?
• Could we provide contact info for each manager at the hotel?
• Should we offer live chat support?
• How will we use Google maps to provide custom directions (and even activity recommendations)?
• Should we provide support for multiple languages?
• Should we go beyond translation to offer localized (unique) content for each market we serve?
• Are we providing a mobile-friendly version of the website?

This checklist is from the Insider’s Circle library. If you want Josiah on your team as an unbiased advisor to help you through a website re-design – or to work on any other part of your digital marketing program – contact us today.

Here’s an article I published in this month’s issue of Hotelier Middle East…you may find it helpful in choosing the right social media platforms for you:

[Download as a PDF]

Many hotels are working on their marketing budgets right now. I have received multiple requests for advice on budgeting this week, and wanted to put together this practical, straightforward guide. We will examine the biggest factors to consider when planning your Internet marketing budget, 11 major categories hotels should budget for, and finally 3 basic hotel budgeting approaches.

This advice comes from my own real-world experience as the marketing manager or consultant for dozens of leading organizations around the world — and also as the owner of three companies. When your own company’s money is on the line, you tend to take a very pragmatic approach to marketing, and that’s what I intend to do in this article.

Factors to consider while planning your hotel marketing budget

Many industry professionals recommend you start with the industry average marketing budget. I disagree. Every business success I’ve been involved with has been contrarian. If you spend your resources like everyone else, you’ll get average results. Breakthrough campaigns often require unusual approaches. You decide what works for you.

Be aware of industry standards, but don’t feel bound by them. It can be helpful to know the average prices hotels are paying for individual marketing tactics — if only for a point of reference.

Start with an internet marketing plan for the year. Sounds simple, but true. If you don’t know how you want to spend your money, calculating the amount will be extremely difficult! Some tactics to include are explained below.

A good budget will take into mind past results your company experienced — but will also realize that things change. What worked five years ago may not work over the next five years.

Remember your primary business objective. Do you want more overall sales, to build your brand, or consolidate your profits? Each requires a different approach, which we’ll cover later.

Know your marketing priorities. Separate the “musts” from the “wants.” So many things can happen along the way that cause you to deviate from a plan made months ago. Having priorities ensures the essential gets done.

Identify which marketing strategies you don’t need to implement. There are a seemingly unlimited number of marketing tactics you could try, so identifying the non-essential helps you focus and cut costs. Every hotel doesn’t need to do every tactic out there.

Be aware of trends, and budget appropriately. Some organizations on annual budget cycles approve money for trends way too late — and missed the boat. Make sure the resources that you’re dedicating to a tactic or strategy will be valid 1, 2, 5 years from now. You don’t want to outdate yourself.

I personally recommend most hotels abandon all traditional marketing and advertising in favor of any Internet focused strategy: 75% of budget for web-based communications, 25% for PR. You can discount this advice as someone who has worked in web marketing his entire career, but the numbers don’t lie. In the campaigns that I’ve been involved in, we have achieved phenomenal return on investment… and received media coverage an organization our size shouldn’t normally be entitled to.

Separate your marketing costs into two categories. Initial development costs include research and strategy development, website design, content creation, marketing systems set up. Ongoing expenses and maintenance include e-mail marketing, pay per click advertising, search visibility improvement, website maintenance and development, consulting fees, and analytics and tracking analysis.

Ensure that you are sufficiently capitalized. Many marketing tactics will take several months to show results, and often the best results are obtained by sticking with your marketing plan month after month — for the next 12 months. You may have to adjust your marketing plan to enable this, but make sure your budget is sufficient to accommodate consistent execution.

Be aware that your most important marketing investments may not even be under the traditional ‘marketing’ budget category. For example, introducing a fabulous collection of guest amenities can cause your guests to promote your hotel for you. At the end of the day, your guest experience is the marketing. Money you spend to create an amazing guest experience at your hotel has some of best ROI.

Finally, think of your marketing program as an investment. If you are promoting properly, every dollar that you spend on marketing will come back to you many times over. Good hotel marketing budgets are never an expense, and it’s important we remember this.

11 most important hotel marketing budget categories

Read more…

From time to time when I get reflective, I ask myself why I do what I do. What am I trying to accomplish?

At the risk of sounding grandiose, my vision is to bring every hotel to the place where:

* They understand how the guest’s buying process has fundamentally changed, and how that necessitates a completely new approach to marketing

* They strive to create a truly unique experience that becomes the focal point of all marketing efforts

* They use new media formats to share a realistic picture of what it’s like to be a guest at their hotel

* They use the latest technology to distribute this media

* They publish a lot of incredibly useful, educational content – making guests feel like an insider before they even arrive

* They monitor a wide range of networks on the web to communicate with guests and potential guests – providing a new level of customer service.

* They quickly act on feedback they receive: both in replying to the guest and in implementing the change

That’s what I’m working each day to achieve. It’s what I’m trying to accomplish for my clients. It’s what I hope every hotel will be able to do.