Hotel Blogging Best Practices, Part 4: Publishing Topics (And Style)

This is part 4 of my hotel blogging best practices series.  You can read part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here.

Once you’ve set up a blog, and added the nessessary design elements, it’s time to focus on the core function of blogging: writing new entries.  Every blogger faces writer’s block now and then, so understanding the different types of blog posts you can publish is useful.

First, let’s review the 4 broad categories of blogs hotel marketers can use:

1. Hotel blogs – often used by one-location independent hotels, these blogs can contain all the functions of the blogs below, including information on the hotel and surrounding area for potential guests
2. Brand blogs – narrower in focus than a one-site hotel blog, the purpose of these is to promote the hotel brand by sharing news about what’s happening within the company
3. CEO/Manager blogs – a more personal supplement – or even replacement – to the hotel corporate blog
4. Destination blogs – rather than promoting a hotel directly, these blogs provide information on the surrounding area and upcoming events (tries to attract new visitors to the area)

Within these blog types, there are a variety of topics to write about.  Often hotel blogs in one category will borrow article topics from another category.

• Strategic – a CEO or brand blog is a perfect platform to announce strategic hotel information, and serve as another PR tool.  These types of posts are usually planned in advance, and not spontaneous.
• Experiential – uses personal experience to share relevant information.  These could be observations made, guest problems resolved, or the addition of a new feature or staff member.  When well written, these posts are interesting and engaging.
• Analytical – an in depth discussion on industry trends or business strategies.  This could be similar in topic to an experiential post, but often includes more careful research and facts.
• Crisis – addressing an important corporate or customer service issue that could affect your hotel’s reputation.  If you’ve built a strong reader base, this can be more effective than other crisis management options.
• Trivial – an off-topic post about personal experiences or observations.  Usually these are not related to the hotel, and are most suited to a CEO/manager blog.  They can help form a bond between the author and the readers, but too many off-topic entries can become tiresome.
• Interview – take advantage of the opportunity to showcase your hotel’s talented staff by conducting and posting short interviews on their area of specialty.  Sharing the interview by video is a great way to add to your blog’s media mix.
• Announcement – sharing events can be done in any type of blog, but events outside the hotel are more likely to be covered in destination blogs.

The type of blog post you write will depend on your intended audience and marketing goals.  While you may primarily focus on one style, try adding variety by occasionally writing in a different style.

What blog post style do you find most useful?

Related posts:

• Hotel Blogging Best Practices, Part 1: Publishing Options (Onsite or Off?)
• Hotel Blogging Best Practices, Part 2: Essential Design Elements
• Hotel Blogging Best Practices, Part 5: Building Popularity
• Hotel Blogging Best Practices, Part 3: Engaging Your Readers
• Bill Marriott: An example of effective hotel blogging

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