By Julie Keyser-Squires, APR, June
2007
Social Media arrived in force to the hospitality
industry this year. Understanding what it is and how you and your
organization can participate and benefit is critical to your future success.
What is it?
.
Social
Media is online peer-to-peer communication like forums, blogs and wikis.
These are significant to your business because anyone can use these online
conversation areas to make comments about you and your company. Sherry
Heyl, CEO of Social Media agency What
a Concept!, says that Amazon.com and its feature of �If you like
this book you�ll like these others,� was the bridge from Web 1.0 (broadcast
oriented) to Web 2.0, which houses Social Media and allows any person with
a computer to talk about you or your company.
For an in-depth understanding of what is
happening in Web 2.0 at a conceptual 50,000 foot level, read New
Rules for the New Economy by Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired Magazine.
A colleague read it 17 times and then started his own company.
On a more practical level, examples of
Social Media networks in the hospitality industry are tripadvisor
travel reviews. Bill Marriott�s
blog, Hilton�s be hospitable
show, Sheraton�s
Share a Story; flyspy and wegolo
airfare searches and sites like Placeblogger.
Top Social Media sites outside of our industry include Facebook, YouTube,
the del.icio.us social bookmarking site
and flickr photo sharing. |
Read Julie's blog, First
Light:
thoughts on the networked
economy
|
.
Tools and Vocabulary You Will Need.
When you travel to a foreign country, you
need to know the language. Social Media may seem like a distant land,
so here is some basic vocabulary to help you adjust.
1. Blogs: Also called
weblogs, blogs are the on ramp to Social Media. Blogs are also the
on ramp to the mainstream business media, says Richard Edelman, president
and CEO of Edelman, the world�s largest independent public relations firm.
A reported 79% of editors get news stories from blogs. If you are
ready to start participating in Social Media � and the sooner the better
� begin to read and post on blogs that interest you. Remember, though:
a blog is a permanent business record, and you want to get a general sense
of the tone of the community before you start posting. My business
blog is First Light.
2. RSS feeds: Sherry Heyl, again,
says that RSS feeds are the math equation you must understand before you
can participate in Social Media. RSS, or Really Simple Syndication,
is a way to publish frequently updated online content. RSS feeds
can save you two to three hours a day by delivering to you just the information
you want to be aware of. Subscribe to feeds on websites or blogs
via free RSS readers like Bloglines
or Google�s blog search.
You can also use Technorati, an
engine for searching blogs on the Web, to find content in which you are
interested. If your corporate website has a press room, consider
making it RSS friendly.
3. Tags and Tag Clouds. Tags
� or relevant key words - are how discovery works in Social Media.
You find information and people important to you by finding their tags,
which reflect what their content is about. Tag
clouds are a way to track trends. Please visit http://del.icio.us/tag/
for a visual example. You will see that each word is visually weighted
where the size of the font reflects the number of people tagging the word.
Now that you know what they look like, you will see tag clouds on many
websites, which will give you insight at a glance into the communities
that surround those sites. Have fun clicking on any word in a tag
cloud that interests you and drilling down into the comments. This
is another great way to find blogs and people relevant to you.
Sweaty Palms: Jump In Anyway
To get started in Social Media:
1. Build some learning time into
your schedule. Take four hours one day a week to learn how to set
up an RSS feed, use Technorati, and start monitoring blog communities of
interest. TIP: Pick a hobby or fun topic at first to make the
learning curve enjoyable.
2. Type in your company website at
http://www.socialmeter.com/ for
a before and after snapshot of your Social Media standing. This is
one way to measure progress.
3. Start monitoring blogs with a goal of
starting your own personal or corporate blog. Type keywords into
Technorati
or start a Bloglines account to help you bookmark blogs relevant to you.
After you have a feel for the community surrounding the blog, make a post.
You are now participating in Social Media. TIP: You may already
be involved in the trend. Are you in a driving club, a bowling league,
or a mom�s program that communicates online? If so, you are already
in Social Media.
4. Spend time with someone you care about.
Amber Rhea, a founder of the Georgia
Podcast Network, says that Social Media is fifty percent online and
fifty percent face-to-face meetings. I agree; that�s why they call
is social. And after clicking your way through the above road
map for the first time, you may be ready to have dinner with someone you
care about.
A
colleague counsels that if you are �pushing the envelope and trying the
next hard thing - something that makes your palms sweaty - you are expanding
your business.� Good advice. With that in mind, if starting
to play in the Social Media environment, perhaps with a business or personal
blog, makes your palms sweaty, that could be your signal to jump in.
If you need help or have questions, feel free to contact me at [email protected].
Good luck and have fun.
Julie Keyser-Squires, APR and vice president
of Softscribe Inc., is passionate
about connecting people and ideas. Please contact her at [email protected],
or make a post on her new business blog, �First
Light: thoughts on the
networked economy.� |