Karen Escalera – President and Chief Strategist for KWE Partners – shared with us how social media helped a food bloggers camp generate sales, introduce the public to Grand Velas Riviera Maya resort’s exceptional food and beverage offerings and set the resort apart from its competitors.

How did you decide a food blogger’s camp was right for The Grand Velas?

The Grand Velas properties stand out for the exceptional quality of their food and beverage offerings, so we wanted to highlight this competitive advantage. In December, we partnered with the Mexico and Riviera Maya Tourist Boards and spearheaded a lunch with our visiting chefs for top national and New York media, primarily offline. We wanted to build on that momentum and reach out to social media who would also drive the “buzz” for F&B and to further build relationships with these influencers.

What role did you play, and how did you work with Velas Resorts’ ecommerce department?

Team KWE, together with Kate Moeller of Prose & Co who handled the event for the past couple years at other resorts in the Caribbean, brought the concept to the resort, invited the bloggers, developed the agenda, did all the PR, and initiated and handled the post camp contest. Pre-event buzz was built via twitter and press releases to targeted audiences, as well as through blog posts from the seminar leaders to their followers. We led live coverage on Twitter with seminar leaders and shared videos and images during the camp on Facebook and Twitter to keep the buzz going throughout the event week.

The resort’s ecommerce department created a dedicated Food Blog Camp landing page, wrote the pre-event blog posts on the resorts’ destination blogs, coordinated the live streaming of FBC’s events to the online community, interacted with attendees on all social media channels and promoted the event on Velas Resorts’ Facebook and Twitter pages. It was a seamless integration.

Was the camp for promotional purposes only, or were you trying to generate revenue?

A key objective was to have the camp not only pay for itself (since we had to pay airfares for our seminar leaders and since we’re an all inclusive, we had food and beverage costs as well associated with their stay), but also, to make money. And we did. The camp was the second of two social media events we’ve had for Velas Resorts. The first was the first ever remote #TNI (Travelers’ Night In) Tweet Up which we had at the Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit. What we did was offer a girls getaway package that included the Tweet up. We followed that lead with the food bloggers camp.

Instead of just having a food bloggers press trip, we made this into a professional development event to attract other bloggers and aspiring bloggers and foodies. With this educational content and fun events such as cooking demonstrations and wine tastings, we had a compelling package. We sold the package at a slightly reduced rate for other bloggers and media and at the rack rate for all others. We sold close to $60,000 worth of packages for the 5 day/4 night event.

Were there any surprising benefits or setbacks?

The immediate response of participants was fantastic. The second the  camp started, more and more images, blog posts, and tweets were  published. We were able to brainstorm with the seminar leaders on  ideas for food and beverage offerings, events and packages to be  offered at other Velas resorts.  The challenge was in the bloggers’ (non-seminar leaders) booking  arrangement. Bookings go to through sales contract center but they  were not able to evaluate bloggers credentials. So what we had to do  was have the requesting participants send a link to their blog so we  could confirm and send to reservations for booking.

What were the results for The Grand Velas?

This was a success by several standards:

• Sold over 46 packages, generating nearly $60,000 in sales
• Generated more than 25 articles on the Camp to over 2.5 million unique visitors per month
• Event coverage received over 5.1 million impressions on Twitter to over 354,000 unique users
• Event coverage received 3.497 million views on Facebook
• Over 775 user generated photos of the event, resort and its food and beverage offerings were circulated

Exceptional reviews of the resorts restaurants were received from seminar leaders and industry authorities. The success generated new events for other Velas Resorts for the coming year (e.g. family cooking and crafting week, Chocolate Festival, TV appearances, recipe releases, etc.)

What would be your advice for hotels planning something similar?

Providing the opportunity for professional development is a powerful lure and definitely the way to go on events such as these. It’s also critical to get participation from the influencers and opinion makers in the category, and then the rest follows.

Thanks, Karen!

[Photos courtesy of Diana Johnson, publisher of Dianasaur Dishes and Eating Richly.]

How did Hotel Le Seven build their Facebook community so quickly? Today I got on the phone with Vice PresidentMartin Soler to learn about the strategy he used to attract nearly 12,000 fans through Facebook. Martin’s company, World Independent Hotel Promotion, works exclusively with independent hotels, with a focus on hotel openings. (Martin is also a talented HDR photographer.)

The Background Story (In Martin’s words)

Seven months before opening we started the campaign. It was an ambitious project – great to work on, because the hotel concept was very unusual. We built a strategy where we would be creating some mystery, and leaking ideas on what every suite would look like.

We were lucky because we had a test room to work with for imagery – the rest were just sketches. We started by talking about the owners, and the other projects they did – like Hotel Five. We talked about all the gadgets and special things there were.

We coordinated with our PR agency to make sure there was no communication with the press. We only wanted to talk directly with the consumer.

Josiah: What communications channels did you use?

Facebook Only

Facebook was our exclusive communications channel.

I haven’t found Twitter to be very reliable for promotions. I feel it’s a bit more of a flash in the pan.

And of course we made a website with very dramatic music and imagery of what guests could expect. Facebook pointed to the website, and the website was very high-production – lots of rich media.

No Press Releases

If people wanted to know anything about the hotel, they had to follow us through Facebook. No press releases went out, and we did not take any questions from the media.

What Caused Rapid Growth

We tried some contests through Facebook, but the results were not impressive as we thought. We tried sending offers to our fanbase from Hotel Five – since the design concepts were similar. If they liked the Five, they’ll love the Seven. So cross marketing was possible there.

So a lot was just telling people about it. Pushing traffic from the website. We also wrote some bloggers, telling them to check out the page since we were going to do something interesting.

It was a bit of a risk because not many hotels have filled their rooms through Facebook yet. But it worked for us!

After Opening

We’ve continued our strategy after opening, and made it clear to our colleagues that it was Facebook that attracted our fans initially. It helped us achieve 80% occupancy on the soft opening – and that was in low season.

The owner was amazed – he didn’t expect that at all.

So we had to remember that our Facebook fans helped us achieve this success. We give them an exclusive room rate – the fans-only rate is the best rate you’ll get – better than our own website or any distributor.

We also reward our Facebook community by notifying them of anything that’s going to happen before we tell anyone else. (Even before we post to our website).

Martin’s Top Five Facebook Tips

1. Treat your Facebook “Likers” like an artist treats their fans. That is, realize they make you important and therefore you need to make them important. Special treatments etc. when they arrive at the hotel is a minimum.

2. Keep your Facebook page as personal as you can. This is an information communication channel to friends. Try to involve them as much as you can.

3. Find out what people want to know about the hotel and give them more of that. It’s not about what you “think” is important; you may be totally off the mark. Listen to them and your page will be a success.

4. Use all the media of Facebook, write articles, post photo albums etc.

5. Treat every post like a “news story;” don’t give it all at once. Give it to them bit by bit and maximize the yield from your stories.

Thanks, Martin!

Some of you know about the Domino’s Pizza reputation fiasco – it’s become a bit of a cliche at conferences when presenters speak about the importance of online reputation management.

But you may not know about the campaign Domino’s built to fight back: Oh Yes We Did.

The way they acknowledged their critics, told the story of how they fixed the product, and used their employees as the spokespeople is a model we can learn from.

Radical transparency. Fighting fire with fire. This stuff is powerful.

The best marketing campaigns share personality – quirky humor and all. The Citizen Hotel’s 2nd annual “naughty or nice” list – promoted on their blog – is a great example of this.

Public Relations and Marketing Manager Ashlee Gadd elaborates:

It was an idea formed during one of our marketing brainstorming sessions. We’ve actually done other window displays following the original naughty and nice list, like a Valentine’s candy heart display, which featured imaginary conversations between celebrities, etc:

Here’s another media clip from that display.

We also did a spooky “trick-or-treat” Halloween window display to celebrate the latest election, which fits our politically themed hotel perfectly. We even got Meg Whitman to pose for a picture in front of her silhouette!

Thanks for the great ideas, Ashlee! What have you done to get guests talking?

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.

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

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.]

Mary emailed me a great question after reading my Hotel Marketing Ideas guide:

“Your information is very helpful. I have a question for you: You talk about Press Releases and Social Media Releases. What is a Social Media Release? Is it written differently then the Press Release and is it distributed differently?”

Yes, it differs in both ways.

A social media news release uses the proven concept of building awareness through sharing news. But it’s based on the premise that traditional media organizations do not control information anymore. Because of this, these releases are optimized for the way social media networks operate.

An important part of a Direct-to-Consumer news release is the style in which it is written. Some of the best releases I’ve seen read like a compelling story.

I was first introduced to the concept by David Meerman Scott, in his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR:

“The media have been disintermediated. The Web has changed the rules. Buyers read your news releases directly, and you need to be speaking their language. Today, savvy marketing and PR professionals use news releases to reach buyers directly.”

He goes on to provide specific recommendations:

• Don’t just send news releases when “big news” is happening — find good reasons to send them all the time.
• Instead of just targeting a handful of journalists, create news releases that appeal directly to your buyers.
• Place links in releases to direct potential customers to landing pages on your website.
• Drive people into the sales process with news releases

The other key factor of these news releases is that they are optimized for findability. Their purpose is to be found easily in search engines, so they include important keywords throughout.

A social media news release not replace the traditional press release, but supplements it – as Brian Solis says in his balanced guide.

I also like this Copyblogger article on How to Write a Social Media News Release

Josiah’s note: In the second part of my conversation with Tom McCallum, we discuss what’s changed in PR and media relations.

PR is now a major element of your toolkit. This is true at all levels – even for a small bed & breakfast. Hotels don’t need to hire a PR agency, they can create their own blog. It’s next to free.

Don’t be boring

Reactive PR doesn’t work. Boring PR doesn’t work.

There is so much noise out there. Journalists must spend half their day throwing out boring pitches.

When girlfriend getaways were a big thing a few years ago, we did a “Guys Getaway.” It was nothing special until we included something unique: a sparring session with a Caribbean heavyweight boxing champion.

That cut through the noise. It made a full page article in USA Today. And as we all know, unpaid mentions carry so much more weight.

The importance of brand consistency

Effective story-based PR means that whatever you are offering should be consistent with your brand. The resort that did the Guys Getaway package was known for being irreverent and relaxed – so suggesting their guests spar with a boxer fit their persona. If I were a traditional grand, 5-star hotel there’s no way I would offer that package.

So try to develop a cool story a journalists can pick up through the noise. It should reflect the persona of the hotel and the unique value of the property to the customer.

You can’t hire a PR Agency to create the story

You need somebody on the property to come up with the stories. The PR agency will just guide you on how to pitch it. If you are going to use outside PR professionals, have them give you the mechanics of how to get the story out. But they can’t create the story, because they’re not imbued in the brand.

Be 100% sure that you can deliver

How many times have you read about some cool package, and thought there’s no way they can deliver that?

You have to be equipped to do deliver on your promises. I’m all about delivery and execution – I used to be a hotel GM.

Get somebody creative

This could be anyone. At one of the hotels I worked with, it was the head bartender. She was the one talking to everyone, and she was the one that came up with the stories.

Through a person she knew, the hotel was able to put together the package that received a full-page story in USA Today.

Thanks, Tom!

Learn more about Tom McCallum on his blog, or follow him @TomCayman

[Photo credit: Evil Erin]

There has been some buzz on Twitter how Wynn Las Vegas (@WynnLasVegas) built a following of over 300,000 fans within six months. While they do a great job interacting with their fan base, the sheer number of people following them is remarkable — especially when most big hotels fail to pass 10,000 followers.

So how did they do it?

According to @HHotelConsult, Wynn Las Vegas appeared in the “suggested user” list that people see when signing up for Twitter.

This is a massive advantage. It’s better than publicity, because now the hotel has a way to communicate with all these people. As the New York Times explained in an article this summer, those on this list become Twitter “kings.”

So maybe the bigger question is…

How did they get on that list?