las vegas

How about a weekend in Vegas that you do not have to pay for? Usually I am a firm believer in ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is,’ but not this time, not at Palms Casino and Resort in Las Vegas. In opposition of those many ideas that were in fact, too good to be true, Palms has determined that tapping out a Tweet or sharing Palms offers with your friends may make this a very legit opportunity to reap huge rewards for very little effort.

Of course, if Facebook sharing or Twitter usage is too much work for you, this may not be the ideal opportunity either, but if it sounds doable, continue on.

Easy Registration

Users simply visit the Palms Social Rewards site and enter their email address, along with a chosen password. The next page offers quick click integration with the users Twitter account, and they are off and running. Once signing into the social rewards page, users will then be able to see their current Klout scores, along with available points, and account profile options. On the right-hand side, there will be many offers and opportunities that can be Tweeted, re-Tweeted, or even Facebook shared.

While users get points for each offer they Tweet or share, they also receive the added benefit of bonus points if their Tweet or Share leads to a purchase of one of the advertised opportunities.

Rewards Vs Effort

Aside from the primitive reward of getting something spectacular for very little effort, are the rewards that Palms generously doles out to those who help spread their word on social media networking sites.

Free Deluxe Room
Free Fantasy Tower Room
2 Tickets to a Playboy Comedy
Palms VIP Passes
Dinner for Two at Simon – Little Buddha
Free Drinks

These are fairly hefty rewards considering that they entail everything you require for a fun weekend in Vegas, all the way down to your room and drinks. Meanwhile, users are building their Klout score which in the future may help them reap even further rewards once reaching the check-in desk at the Palms.

Maloof just gets it…

The Palms is a Maloof Company, and clearly they get it…

AdrienneMaloof seems to be the one carrying the Klout in the social aspect of the business, but with Klout adding LinkedIn and soon Foursquare, the Klout social influence may have a new look.

The Maloof Companies owns and operates hotels and casinos. It also engages in banking, food and beverage, and transportation businesses in New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada. In addition, the company operates gaming properties; owns interests in NBA basketball team Sacramento Kings and the WNBA basketball team Sacramento Monarchs, as well as ARCO Arena; and distributes beer and liquor in New Mexico. The company is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Disclosure: I recently was a guest at Palms Casino & Resort in Las Vegas, however I was not paid or compensated for this publication in any form. The research for this article came about as a follow up to a previous set of articles.

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I will be leaving for Las Vegas on Friday morning July 8, 2011. As part of any trip you start to pack, and then check your details. This trip to Vegas for me is one that has me excited, joining college friends to celebrate a close friend soon to be wed.

As we got closer to the trip, I did a tweet or two about heading to Las Vegas for the first time. Clearly people are listening because I received responses from a few places and promoters about events, VIP options etc. The most notable was my Hotel, @PalmsLasVegas, not only did they respond but they engaged a little themselves.

I had happened to do an article unknowingly about Klout and its Klout Perks, they shared some info and thoughts as time went on.

Just before the trip to Las Vegas, I tossed out another tweet about looking forward to the trip, an epic win again for @PalmsLasVegas who responded again in short order… “travel safely! Look forward to having you here on property!”

Now critiques of Social Media and Twitter in particular would argue that this casual interaction doesn’t provide any real value, but it does and just when ultimately everything went wrong it undisputedly proved that it (social media) did (provide real value)!

Today (Thursday July 7, 2011) less then 24hrs before heading to Las Vegas one of the people in our group told us about a $15 Fee (per day) we would get on this trip, the first reaction in a chain of emails was heavily negative. The group quickly noticed that the Palms website was down, then others including myself could not reach anyone at the front desk. As I had had previous success with tweeting I turned to @PalmsLasVegas for answers.

As you can see in the screen snap shots @PalmsLasVegas quickly works through a few different things, they clarified the fee, apologized, then turned to the issue with the website.

Remember this all started with the casual interaction that made me comfortable with the Palms Casino because of the twitter account @PalmsLasVegas. The concern that had been raised could not be resolved by traditional means via the phone and dare I also call the website a traditional means as well. The engagement using social media, twitter in particular allowed me to get the info I needed, or wanted. This, with the apology quickly resolved the concerns and negative association I was having with the Palms.

If you remember this entire resolve came from the website being down and the phones busy. When I took the next step and told @PalmsLasVegas that the website was down, they did not even know that there was an issue… here lies the undisputable ROI.

The social media team at the Palms shared that they are having issues finding any problem because the website is working on location, then they ask about what browser I am using. I quickly run the gauntlet using Chrome, IE and Firefox to confirm it’s not a browser issue, then after contacting several others at different locations and confirmed to @PalmsLasVegas the issue is not isolated or browser related. Within a few minutes the Palms website is live again and confirmed that they did have an issue and they “appreciated” the info.

What @PalmsLasVegas did with Social Media

Created a welcome place for a casual conversation
Provided a source of communication when others failed
Provided information and eased the concern of clients or customers (15 of them)
Discovered a larger issue of brand visibility (palms.com)
Won a influential twitter fan for life in @BasilPuglisi

In this case the choice for the Palms Casino and Resort in Las Vegas to engage in social media using twitter to provide some casual conversation and great customer service created an epic win. I for one, can’t even remember why it was I was originally concerned, can you?

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*** NOTE *** On Sunday July 11, 2011 the Palms aquired @Palms and switched from @PalmsLasVegas to @Palms.