RS: We’ve got something in store quite similar to that.
YL: We do the auctions; on our website you can name your price for luxury. You collect a huge database.
DS: We don’t really see it as a revenue tool, in the end we sell a room but if the room goes for AED 120 (US $120), then fine. It goes to the highest bidder. It’s more to engage people and give them a reason to come to your Facebook page.
Then we are going to turn all of our Facebook fans into real friends. We are going to give everyone a membership card that gives them 20% discount to the F&B outlets.
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That’s the second application — they click one button and a little card is made out of their Facebook photo and name. When they come to the hotel, we give them the cards.
It’s a custom application. We are doing it from now until the end of May; we need to have the option to be able to stop it but the idea is to let it go forever. We’re going to do a professional version of it on LinkedIn too.
What are your Twitter tactics?
Gabriele Feile: If you have somebody who can Tweet in Arabic I think that would be great because there is a lot of Arabic speaking people on Twitter and this is just a short message — 140 characters — so this would be a great advantage for everybody to have someone Tweeting in Arabic.
It’s much cheaper — it doesn’t cost you anything to go on Twitter except the time of course. It’s authentic.
DA: I couldn’t agree more.
RS: We have a lot of Arabic followers on Twitter and Facebook. Social networking is starting to spread through the Arab world, probably from the bottom up, from the youth groups.
DS: For me, the problem with Twitter is that you are going to have to go against 10 million people at the same time, but no one is really listening. Exceptions are big competitions which definitely work.
DA: It is a challenge to work on Twitter. It is an investment of time — you need to do it for a year and then see the return because that is the only way you are able to see that level of engagement.
SG: You can link your Facebook to Twitter and this can help you out.
DS: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a really good reason to be on these things as well because if I go to Google and want to dominate the first page, Twitter can really help me to do that.
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