We’re back! In this week’s episode of This Week in Hotels, Guillaume and I discuss the role of influence scoring in social media for hotels, plus the trade-offs between flash vs. direct sales.

Be sure to leave any questions you have in the comments, and we’ll try to answer them in next week’s episode….

Daniel Edward Craig is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on the topic of online reputation management. A while back I brought him in for some training for my Insider’s Circle partner hotels, but just wanted to share a little video excerpt on his approach to asking for guest reviews:

Also, in case you haven’t seen it yet, my recent post on how to write a guest thank you letter has generated a lot of intelligent discussion with practical tips from industry leaders. You really should read their thoughts on this now…

As I posted last week, I like to see examples of businesses using customer reviews at the heart of their marketing. Today, I have another example for you: Cheeko B Pet Boutique in San Francisco:

They’ve posted dozens of reviews on the outside of their store windows. Watch this quick video I recorded of Kattya explaining why she does this:

Guillaume shared this video with us in This Week in Hotels. Spending 21 minutes to watch it could turn you into a much more successful web marketer:

Barbara Pezzi, Director Web Marketing for Swisshotel & Fairmont, explains to an audience how she used segmentation to change different things on the Swisshotel website and also launched a successful PPC campaign for a specific property. Barbara also discovers that Facebook visitors are more entitled to be customers of her hotels than Twitter based on what she saw on Google Analytics.

Google Instant was released Wednesday, September 8th -with the intention of delivering “search results faster than the speed of type.”

What is Google Instant?

In short, it’s predictive search combined with real-time results.

Watch Google explain:

How does it affect my search marketing campaigns?

Not a whole lot. This is an evolutionary change, not a revolutionary one.

However, there are some things you need to be aware of….

Search optimization in Google Instant

Google execs have said “rankings remain the same.” This is not the same as personalized search suggestions that Google introduced a while back.

Yet while the rankings remain the same, the way people use Google will change – and that affects our marketing campaigns.

The stakes have been raised. Less visible screen real estate makes top rankings even more important than in the past. Some estimate than only 20% of searchers will see the #4 result.

Additionally, predictive search could lead to more people using long-tail – 3-8+ word phrases – to find what they’re looking for. Not having to type all those words is easier for the searcher, and could train people to use very specific queries in their search. It helps them find what they’re looking for much faster.

Many of us have understood the value of optimizing for these very specific keyword phrases in the past, but the introduction of Google Instant confirms the importance of this.

(Read this article on Search Engine Watch: 7 reasons why Google Instant makes SEO dead-on relevant)

Paid search advertising (PPC) in Google Instant

Since I actively manage Google advertising campaigns, I’ve seen some interesting things happen over the past few days.

Compared to before Google Instant, the number of ad impressions for your keywords can vary widely. If a user pauses their search for more than 3 seconds, that counts as an impression. So it’s not uncommon for your clickthrough rates (CTR) to fluctuate as a result.

Also, per-click prices are significantly higher in many of the campaigns I’m involved with. Because top placement becomes more valuable, companies will pay a premium to be on top. I recommend you make an effort to add even more long-tail keywords to your campaign than you have in the past.

My advice with Google Instant

Play the search marketing game smarter. You have to be on your toes now.

But that’s what I’ve been saying all along.

Unsuccessful search marketers think this is just something you set up once and then leave. Not true.

Successful search marketing requires constant evaluation of the market. Continually adjust your strategy to stay on top.

Last evening I sent out emails to each of my Insider’s Circle partners, recommending they consider purchasing .TV domain names for their hotels.

Why .TV domains could be important

We’ve all seen how video is playing an increasingly important role in digital communications – it’s what inspired the launch of This Week in Hotels. Reading Marketing in the Moment by Michael Tasner, watching uStream broadcasts, and doing some research has opened my eyes to how powerful this channel could become.

How hotels might use their own internet TV channel

Our hotels will probably start out with creating a 4-6 hour mix of content, and then continually looping that – with occasional intervals of live programming. The topics might include:

• Professionally-produced videos of your property
• A video tour of your neighborhood (like the New York Barclay)
• Guestsourced content (with permission)
• Specials & promotions
• Live social media integration
• Live events
• etc, etc

This is really just an extension of the content marketing I’ve tried to advocate all along. The “concierge approach to marketing” doesn’t go away – it’s just evolving along with technology.

How we might integrate the TV channel

Right now, the plan is to host this on the “.TV” domain name, and then our sales & marketing staff can send people do this….and we can integrate it with our various web properties.

Seamless integration will be important for boosting popularity and views, but the separate domain name will help differentiate it as a separate communications channel.

Become a case study!

I hope to have a public case study or two ready for you by the end of the year, but if you want to be one of the early adopters on this project, now would be a good time to join the Insider’s Circle…

This makes sense – but do your communications reflect the fact that nobody cares about you?

[Watch on YouTube]

Fabrice Burtin asked this question in a comment here on the blog:

The Internet in the hotel industry has been a revolution. No doubt about that. It has completely changed the way we find, discover and book hotels within 10 years.

However, how much the Internet has actually improved the bottom line in the industry? Have we seen an increase of occupancies? Average room rates? REV PAR? Gross Operating Profits? While the Internet and social media have revolutionized the way we promote hotels and sell rooms, are we spending less on sales road shows? Have we seen a decrease in sales departments payroll? Or have the savings simply been re-allocated to the newly created large e-commerce departments?
In other word, if technology has increased the efficiency and rationalize expenses, has it been only balanced by a dramatic increase of all sorts of new expenses?

Or have the buyers (guests) been the only big winners in a revolution that was initiated by the sellers (hotels)? Have the hotels lost out at their own game?

Guillaume and I discussed this in the most recent episode of This Week in Hotels:

For those of you that don’t have time to watch the video excerpt, our big points were:

The internet doesn’t improve overall occupancy

More people probably are not traveling now because the internet exists.

The web is just a platform for communications

Savvy hotels have more opportunities to listen to their guests, and provide better service.

The web probably does improve efficiency

You can share information easier than ever. You have instant access to nearly anything. Of course, you have to avoid distraction from this.

If you’re not in, you’re left behind

Other hotels will use new tech to gain market share and attract the guests you want to host.

As with any quickly changing field, if you’re not taking any action, you’re moving backwards.

It gives smaller, independent hotels an advantage

As a web publisher, you are on an equal playing field with the big guys. If you’re using all 3 components in the one-line social media success formula, you have a distinct advantage.

…

Fabrice is working on a white paper on this topic, and you can share your feedback with him on his blog.

I found one comment on his site especially interesting:

[The internet] has turned us into paranoid computer slaves! Both as hoteliers and as potential hotel guests. As hoteliers, we are constantly fussing about our reviews and worrying about overbookings by overlapping online booking systems… As potential hotel guests we are never sure if the website pictures are real and which review to trust… In short the opportunities are fantastic, but the psychological cost unbearable!

What are your thoughts? Does it even matter what we think – must we adapt or die? Or is there a better route?

In this week’s episode of This Week in Hotels, Guillaume and I discuss:

• The branding problem around the phrase “social media”
• What hotels should do with their mobile presence
• What defines a good mobile website
• Mobile booking behavior

This is our last episode on YouTube: next week we’re moving to ustream. Details to come on Twitter…

In this week’s episode of This Week in Hotels, I talk with Guillaume about how to choose the right blog topics – and how to think about social media’s ROI for your hotel:

We fixed Guillaume’s audio from last week…now I just need to get the lighting right on my side!

We’re wondering about expanding this show’s format beyond 10 minutes to include longer discussions, and perhaps new types of material.

As always, we’d love to hear your feedback.