“It is increasingly important for hoteliers to build their hotel brands and to increase their level of interaction with consumers who frequent the major social media sites,” stated DJ Vallauri, Founder & President of Lodging Interactive, the parent company of CoMMingle. “Hotels must be positioned to be ‘seen’ and engaging on all major social websites and blogs at the time when consumers are making their travel plans. ”

While the demographic profiles of the hundreds of millions of social media website users are a clear match for most hotels and resorts, the challenges faced by most properties are the lack of qualified staff to interact online, the increasing time commitments needed and the multitude of skill sets required to effectively participate in social media marketing. These challenges continue to hamper the hospitality industry's ability to implement effective social marketing strategies that are required to manage guest reviews, measure results, build and communicate effectively with prospective guests through blogging and the growing number of social media sites.

"Research indicates that many hotels have already established entry level marketing profiles on popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  However, nearly all hotels don't have the internal resources or intellectual capital to take their social marketing efforts to the next level," stated Mr. Vallauri.  "CoMMingle addresses these industry needs with a cost-effective and efficient solution."

The CoMMingle Social Media Marketing Agency is founded on four key principles: Planning, Socializing, Engagement and Measurement. 

Planning -
The CoMMingle planning stage includes a complete audit of a hotel's current social media marketing position, identification of target goals & objectives, and cross promotion with traditional online and offline marketing efforts.  The result is the development of a detailed social media marketing plan which serves as a social media marketing road map for the hotel.

Socializing - 
During the socializing stage, the CoMMingle team will "watch & listen" to user generated chatter and determine a hotel's satisfaction sentiment.  CoMMingle proprietary tools and methodologies are deployed throughout the Socializing phase to build effective and profitable consumer engagement.  CoMMingle then establishes client profiles on hundreds of social media sites based on the identified goals and objectives.

Engagement - 
Ongoing tactical engagement ensures each client's social media marketing plan is deployed in the most effective manner.  CoMMingle will create custom blogs, hotel profiles and pages on the top social media network websites Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, to name a few. Dedicated CoMMingle Social Media Managers provide ongoing responses to reviews, social postings and management of proven social promotions and campaigns on behalf of the hotel to ensure the consumer experience is always fresh, relevant and motivating.

Measurement - 
Paramount to any successful social media marketing plan is the effective measurement of the plan’s Critical Success Factors (CSFs). This is the most important phase of any engagement tactic and it is how the CoMMingle team measures the effectiveness of the overall plan's success.

With ongoing measurement of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) the CoMMingle team is able to make the smartest business decisions about the direction of a hotel’s social media marketing plan. CoMMingle Social Media Managers perform monthly management reporting and status updates related to clients KPIs.

"Social media is all about building relationships, building trust, building an online reputation and this will build your online business. The online social media building process is all about networking and building effective word of mouse advertising," said Richard Walsh, CoMMingle's Vice President of Business Development. 'Word of Mouse' refers to how your social presence and relations will proliferate from one consumer to another creating a network of prospective guests who refer to and rely on your online information and exchange this information with others online."

As the provider of Chatter Guard, the hospitality industry's first social media monitoring service, Lodging Interactive has leveraged this experience and success to bring its new CoMMingle Social Media Marketing Agency operating division forward. CoMMingle provides a strong operational infrastructure, experienced personnel, along with operational intelligence and methodologies it has gained over the past years in providing hospitality social marketing services.

About Lodging Interactive & CoMMingle Social Media Marketing Agency

Lodging Interactive, headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, is an award winning leading provider of Internet Marketing Services to the hospitality, spa and restaurant industries. The company provides a portfolio of effective hotel internet marketing services to hundreds of hotels, resorts, timeshares, spas and restaurants. Clients include branded hotels from nearly every major brand as well as prestigious, landmark independent hotels.

Through its CoMMingle Social Media Marketing Agency operating division, the Company offers hospitality focused and fully managed outsourced hotel social media marketing.

Lodging Interactive is a member of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and is a proud supporter of the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI). For more information contact Richard Walsh, Vice President of Business Development at [email protected] or at 877-291-4411. The company’s website is located at www.LodgingInteractive.com.

Richard Walsh
Vice President of Business Development [email protected]
877-291-4411
www.lodginginteractive.com