YouTube (video sharing sites)
What it offers: The ability to demonstrate what it’s really like to stay at your property.
How it might help you: You can show rather than tell. It’s easier for you, and it’s more believable for potential guests when it is done right.
Levels of time commitment: Video can be substantially less time-consuming than written text if you keep it simple. Some of the most effective YouTube promotions I’ve seen are when the PR manager simply carries a Flip Mino camera around and interviews staff about their jobs and how they do what they do. Plus, there’s always the option of reusing video created for your other promotions. You can upload advertisements, for example.
| Advertisement |
Good for: Hotels with the culture of openness. Another great YouTube promotion format I have observed is when hotels loaned out Flip video cameras to their guests, and then encourage them to upload it to the web with some hotel branding. Giving your guests the freedom to tell your hotel’s story is essential here.
Not so good for: Hotels where there’s not much to see, and not much story potential!
Photobucket (photo sharing sites)
What it offers: The ability to describe your hotel in detail visually, instead of with superlatives.
How it might help you: Giving people a real feel for what they can look forward to experiencing when they stay at your property.
Levels of time commitment: It depends on the level of involvement you want. It can be as simple as posting photos you have already on your website, and can be as complicated as managing user groups around concepts related to your hotel and concept. Moderating a community always takes much longer than simply posting content, but the potential rewards can be larger.
Good for: Stunning hotels and stunning settings. Design hotels and resorts seem to work especially well on the Photobucket website.
Not so good for: Posting slick promotional photos. The photos that work best on Photobucket are taken by users.
Foursquare (location-based services)
What it offers: Foursquare drives repeat business. People keep coming back to the same place to become “mayor.” People compete to stay mayor as well, and competitions can get ridiculous.
How it might help you: It’s a next-generation loyalty programme — if you have good rewards, you may be able to keep people from going to the competition. Foursquare is especially popular with restaurants and bars and can be a good tool for boosting F&B revenues.
Levels of time commitment: Low. Aside from making sure your contact details and business profile is correct, all you will have to do is come up with special promotions. This network is a largely user-driven platform.
Good for: Quirky properties which have particularly good bars and restaurants.
Not so good for: Remote destinations or properties that don’t have much of a social scene.
Meetup.com (events)
What it offers: The ability to connect your online community in an off-line, “real world” setting.
How it might help you: You can become known as a “hub” among social media and online influencers. Hotels like New York City’s Roger Smith Hotel achieve this by routinely hosting meetups to connect their online fans.
Levels of time commitment: Because meetups don’t usually take place constantly, arranging them doesn’t take much time each month. This is especially true if you have a core group of influencers that can spread the word for you.
Good for: Hip urban hotels that want to become part of the social scene. It helps if you have a strong online presence in social media.
Not so good for: Hotels in rural or remote destinations. Hotels that don’t have a “connector” on property that can coordinate the events.
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
