Aug 10
23
One of the industries that is over all doing a good job with adopting social media is the hotel industry. Social media is a good fit with hotels: people interact with hotel websites a lot and social media lets hotels inform their potential customers about what makes them unique — beyond the hotel room photos and amenities page.
What’s also amazing is how many hotels … don’t do social media. I guess some hotels just don’t want to stand apart from the competition.
A pet peeve mention: I’m guessing that because so many hotel websites are corporate designed (they all follow the same template) and social media is new that so many of the social icons are at the bottom of the page. This is a huge mistake. Bug someone at the head office about this – please.
Here are just a few Boston properties that are doing a better-than-average job with social media - and how.
The Charles Hotel: The Charles is on top of its game. Their Facebook page promotes their Farmer’s Market, artists at their Regattabar, Henrietta’s Table (in-hotel restaurant), and even room discounts and a special Yelp promotion. They’re also posting about positive mentions (like on a travel blog). Their Twitter account has more than 4,000 followers (wow) and is chatty – a good mix of replies and posts.
Four Seasons Boston: Another busy Facebook page that does a great job with promotion. Right now on their page they have a link at the top to a video on their wedding planning services. The other posts act like concierge recommendations — and who doesn’t want a recommendation from a Four Seasons concierge? Their Twitter account has more than 1,600 followers. Here too is a mix of promotion and customer service.
The Colonnade: Hooray – social media links at the top of the page! Good use of video on their Facebook page (like video from a recent rooftop party) and pictures too, like images of “Collette” the Colonnade’s rubber duck mascot (good branding strategy). The Colonnade on Twitter is using a strategy I call “local flavor” – they really emphasize local news/events, including local celebrity sightings. About 1,200 followers.
I’ve already mentioned before the good job the Boston Seaport Hotel does, so I won’t rehash that (you can read my post about them here).
There are others that are doing a good job with Twitter but fall down on Facebook — or do well on Facebook but fall down on Twitter. These days, with customers’ eyeballs everywhere, it doesn’t look good to fail in execution on one or the other when so many others do both well.
Now, about not blogging … but that’s another story.
I'm Todd Hyten and I started my content career as a journalist and later jumped into web marketing with both feet. I like marketing that's direct, effective and efficient, like a good headline on a newspaper story. I also like marketing because it's about connecting interesting ideas to people. The point is, I love this stuff. Located in the Boston area and curious about working with me? Feel free to call: 617.208.8710 
