Before you do the social media strategy, you need to put yourself in the heads of your customers and understand how they use all social media in their buying process. In fact, “… a person preparing to make a travel reservation is typically exposed to some or all of … (12) touch points as they traverse their complex purchase path.” (HotelMarketing.com, HSMAI / Vizergy whitepaper, 6/28/11)

The same article goes on to say “Cornell Hospitality Research notes more than 80% of travelers perform a travel-related search before booking and Google has seen that the average online travel shopper visits 22 sites across 9 or more sessions prior to making a reservation.” If you thought it was all about Facebook and Trip Advisor, think again!

It’s about an integrated approach to be where your customers are looking. In this webinar we will take an in depth look at how customers buy and expand the social concept to include all of those platforms that a customer typically consults when making a buying decision.

We will have a special guest, Bob Kippola, from Milestone Marketing, who will speak to the issues of instant responses across all social media and consistent content across all channels your customers are searching. He will also your questions during the webinar and during Q&A at the end of the program.

Search. In an integrated approach it usually begins with Search. If you haven’t thought of ‘search’ as part of your plan, take a look at the search results page with its links to social platforms and review sites. We will explore how ‘search’ has become social and why it needs to be part of your SM plan.

Review Sites. While Trip Advisor is the ‘big dog’ and interfaces with Facebook, it’s not the only game in town. “The World Travel Market’s 2010 Industry Report reported that 35% of travelers change their choice of hotel after browsing social media and review sites like TripAdvisor.” (HotelMarketing.com, Paolo Torchio is Vice President, at Sabre Hospitality Solutions, 7/1/11) Can you afford to ignore the dozens of other review sites some of which you may have never heard of?

OTAs. Don’t think of OTAs as social? They all carry traveler ratings and reviews. Don’t forget the billboard effect’ and their role as one of the customer buying ‘touch points’. If you are only thinking Expedia and Travelocity, there are more OTAs and pseudo OTAs than ever!

Social Media. The role of Facebook in travel planning cannot be ignored. “…it's becoming apparent that a significant portion of the user web experience starts and ends with Facebook.” (Hotel Marketing.com, iMedia connection, 7/6/11) We will explore how hotel customers use Facebook in the buying process -- but it’s not just Facebook and Twitter any more – have you integrated content across all of them so that customers get consistent content experiences?

Hotel Websites – the Mobile Imperative.. Designing web sites that are optimized for mobile. Can a customer make a reservation on your mobile site? Is your content loaded with testimonials? How do you use analytics to evaluate where you ‘lose’ a customer and adjust content accordingly?

This is going to be a dynamic info packed webinar. At the end of this program participants will have tools you will be able to use to design and implement a comprehensive social media plan based on how their customers buy!

This webinar should be attended by GMs, Revenue Managers and Directors of Sales and Marketing as well as Social Media Managers. The webinar will take place on July 21 1 at 1:00pm EST, noon CDT, 11:00am MDT and 10:00am PDT. The fee is $99 for a single connection and $89 for two or more connections from the same company. To register click here.

All participants will receive the recording of this program. Click here to Register.

Bob Kippola is from Milestone Internet Marketing, who will speak about ‘online reputation management’ for the hotel industry. Milestone’s eBuzz Connect™ provides an integrated single interface for hotels to monitor reviews and social media buzz and to interact with the consumers.