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Find A Lifetime of Success in 2012 by understanding “Time” & “Why?”

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Ready to understand why some people are far more successful than others?

Brace yourself! I am going to share my perspective on why 2011 was such a success for me and give you something to think about in 2012. Here’s the funny part, I made more money in 2011 than I have ever and that little fact actually has little to do with why I was so successful in 2011.

I have had some great mentors and it’s all due to listening! You see those that know me might think that I am more of a talker, but I do a lot of listening. The fact that I actually hear what I am listening too makes it all the more effective. A lesson that’s valuable for life and Social Media.

TIME

In the movie “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” the Character Gordon Geckko turns to a young man and tells him that “time is the most precious commodity that I know of” a statement of absolute truth! While Einstein argued that time could be something of perception, in the case of the “theory of relativity” scientists make assumptions and simulations that space-time and other aspects of physics and astronomy  do not change the current state of time, in relation to the phenomenon of life.

During my masters program, we studied a concept that fascinated me on its own, supply and demand. The wildcard here was that demand was driven by perception. The concept became even more exciting when later we talked about the monetary value of leisure! The economic evaluation for leisure comes when there is not enough value to make the individual work more, or in the tipping point where the individual is willing to work during a time period traditionally reserved for leisure.

Time is clearly something that holds financial value, and in the case of supply and demand, we have a market where supply is consistent. There is only so many hours in a day, so many days in a week, so many weeks in a month and so many months in a year and so many years that we live. However, what if life is not as long as we believe it to be? The supply may be shorter or  longer then perceived. Demand seems to be the one thing in America that we do not have in this equation.

Whatever you choose for your profession, do not let it dictate your life. Travel, Family, Exploration and the Art of Doing Nothing are just as important and I believe a healthy part of a successful life.

WHY?

I will tell you right now, if you work for or with someone who answers “Why?” with “because I said so” or “that’s how we do it” RUN!

That person is likely, lazy, selfish and/or just plain ignorant! Yes, ignorant! I have had these people just like everyone else and it made for a negative professional career experience in the fields of education, banking and sales. There is probably nothing more dangerous to the health of an organization, its culture, and our economy then these people. “Why?” is crucial to success!

Why is how we learn, grow and develop. It is crucial to success both for individuals and organizations. A supervisor, manager or superior has an fiduciary responsibility to both the organization and the client to teach their subordinate everything they know. I pride my work in student affairs with the notion that I had started teaching my staff from day one what I do and why so. In my absence, everything, for at least a while could run as consistently as if I was still there. If you don’t believe that you should prepare for your absence, then what will you do if you should be promoted? Do you not believe that your people are  more effective contributors to a culture where you have empowered them?

A small business owner should have the same relationship with their consultant and media professionals, if you do not invest the time to teach them about your business how will they be able to understand its culture? If you do not understand “Why?” the consultant or media professional is doing something then how will you know what to do in their absence or to communicate the evolution of the business. You may not be able to do what others due, either because of talent, skills or time, but you still better understand why they are doing it.  

Both “Time” and “Why?” are a crucial part of life, not just business or professional development. Adapt a plan that encompasses learning and educating the “Why?” to those around you, and you will find “Time” which will bring you prosperity in 2012.

It was a great 2011, I am looking forward to an even better 2012! Hope you’ll Join me!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WahafF8Y_E0]

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Ways to Build Up Your Email List Using Facebook

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Internet marketing is not what it used to be, experts like Guy Kawasaki say. If you were dealing with internet marketing before Facebook, you know it was all about emails. Obtaining prospects, finding the leads and hoping for conversions.

Email marketing, when done right, is personal and not stuffed with ads and commercial. It does help build followers and stay in touch with them. The White House, Barack Obama and Michele Obama, separately are using this method. It works not only in commerce.

But Internet Marketing is changing fast, as do our habits and ways we connect with friends, family and business associates. Today we are building groups – extended families, tribes if you will. And we are doing it on social media.

And it goes without saying that the most popular place to do so is Facebook. As of the end of 2011, Facebook has over 800 million active users with more than 50% of them logging on to Facebook every given day. The question is how to use this resource to build a great marketing campaign?

It can take a lot of time and money to build a big following (100,000+). It is not as easy as it sounds and even when you do manage to build a huge base, it will not necessarily increase your profits.

A savvy social media marketer knows how to transform his following into a very responsive email list.

Here are a few tricks of the trade:

Facebook Connect – Using it on a Squeeze Page is worth a test against traditional Squeeze Page. It’ll show you if Facebook is a faster and cheaper way to build your community. Most of the traffic you’ll get will be from social media sources or paid ad on Facebook. It might be easier to get personal information through Facebook and have more people you can email and your articles, blog posts, podcasts, videos or webinars.

Like Button – Put a “Like” button on your Facebook ads, and the ‘call for action’ would be to press that button. This way, when they click on the picture in your new ad, you already have the Like.

One Time Offer – Drive people to your website page by posting a link to it instead of posting the video directly on Facebook. Give them a one-time offer that is really worth their while. Why? Because this way you have the “Like” and you have their name and email address. The deal you gave will pay for itself with the new customers you just got. Apply it to any special report or newsletter. After they opt in, explain they will be receiving an email very shortly and subsequent email with links to new videos or special reports.

Ads for followers – Making an ad to your Facebook ‘friends’ is very cheap. You should do it often. You’ll get more info very inexpensively compared with other systems.

The Blurred Method – Create something entertaining for your fans, a special – just for them for joining your Facebook page. Create a fan page for this purpose only. Blur out parts of the video, unless they input their information. Put a Like button with the content and a direct responder. When they press the Like button it will reveal a way to get access to the content, with an opt-in. That is how you get their contact info. After that, show them your content. Use Facebook to post information about what you have created. You can also create a Facebook ad for this purpose.

Autoresponder – You have to have a built-in auto responder for at least 30 days. Find out what you are most interested in; videos, blog posts, other Facebook groups or other created content. Be consistent. Write emails every day for 30 days and drop that into the autoresponder sequence. Add p.s. to your emails with your site’s address for services or products.

Direct Response Blog – Create a loop between social media, email, and Facebook. Your social activity will grow your email, the emails will drive revenue. But if you have a blog to tie it all in, you give them a whole new aspect of the business – it’s all about you. If you prove to be a source they like, a leader in your field, they will bring others into the group. More email addresses, more leads to turn into buyers.

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Radian6 – Cloud Based Command and Control of Social Media

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Radian6 provides marketing, communications and customer support professionals with a platform which enables them to see, in real time, what is said about them and their products in all aspects of social media; in tweets, Facebook, blogs, multimedia, forums, conversations and boards. By doing so, it gives the business the ability to manage, track, respond, report and analyze their reach and sentiments toward their products.

Marketing is no longer what it used to be, says Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com.   In his keynote speech at the Cloudforce Winter 2011 conference, in New York, he showed how it has become, in big part, Social Marketing. The ability to listen to customers, to reach out to them at the moment they are ready to buy or make a change, is what differentiates great and not so good marketing.

Introducing the New Radian6.

It used to be data-based marketing, when you have the database on premises and you segment it and turn it into your e mail list. But in today’s segmentation, your database can be the entire internet.

There are thousands of conversations going on social media channels every hour of the day. How do we make sense of all those conversations on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks? How do we reach the people that are already taking about our product and use them to spread the word? How do we put out a flame before it becomes a fire-storm?

Here is what Radian6 has to offer: A complete social marketing app that is cloud based. A social hub that includes monitoring, insights and reaction. Command and control everything that you do in social marketing from one place. Based on some criteria keywords that you put into the system, Radian6 will pull out every conversation that is going on, which includes your keywords. This cloud application will do it in real time.

You’ll know what they are saying, where they are saying it, and what is the sentiment.  You can drill into the conversations as they are happening and take action. You can set up automated rules that define how you want to handle criteria and route it to the appropriate people in the organization for immediate action.

For marketing campaign managers it means no more 30 day old focus groups, where you are reacting to information that happened 30 days ago. And you don’t need hundreds of people to gather that information and analyzing it. All you need is technology that allows you to scale the social media walls.

With drilling even further, you can find out all the available information about that customer that is asking a question about a service you provide. Where is that person present on social media, where he is located geographically and previous contacts you had.

And you can grab that information, route it to the correct decider and communicate an offers right back to that person through social media channels. Offer that might answer a need the market has at the moment. You can do it across all the channels. Even though the customer used Twitter for example, you can answer in any other form and even present the offer on their mobile device. 

Radian6 was acquired by SaleForce in March 2011

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bMim-uGOWY]

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Facebook Marketing Solutions – Staying Ahead of the Social Media Game

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There are so many Facebook Fan pages dedicated to marketing and social media topics that it can seem nearly impossible to zero in on those that actually offer true education and not just covert advertisements of their own products. When searching for an educational Facebook Fan Page, you may have already found that having one source for everything you need is nearly impossible.

Facebook Marketing Solutions may have found the perfect combination in Facebook Fan Page Marketing Education. It supplies more than one needed element when planning a full-bodied marketing campaign. It is proving a useful tool for helping internet marketers reach their targeted consumers.

Run by employees of Facebook, you can find an abundant wealth of information here that can directly benefit your business.

APIs

Through efficiency and innovation, Facebook’s marketing APIs can help marketers achieve success. The companies listed on the Facebook Marketing Solutions page have developed proprietary tools with various functions for reporting, monitoring, campaign management, and ad creation.

They also provide a list of managed services. Managed services generally support both business models but may, in some instances, use different brand names.

Some of the available API tools include:

Tools

Some of the managed services listed include:

Managed Services

Success Stories

With a long list of small and large business success stories available on Facebook Marketing Solutions fan page, users in any industry should be able to find a story similar to their own goals for business growth.

Here are a few stories we previous covred on dbmei, Facebook Success Stories

Endless List of Resources

Facebook Marketing Solutions fan page seems to have an endless list of resources.

  • Facebook Marketing Bootcamp U.S.
  • Facebook Marketing Bootcamp U.K.
  • Videos from Business Leaders like CEO, Chris McCann at 1-800-Flowers.com & Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.
  • Past and Future Events Listings
  • Business Boost for Beginner Small Business Owners

You can find resources and case studies available on their wall at any given time on such things as scaling, product development, and even a good buy or two along the way.

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#SMWF: NASA’s ‘Out-Of-This-World’ Social Media Engagement Success

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NASA has quite an impressive social media plan in place that has already created quite a social buzz. There innovative and interactive ideas has gained them a solid reputation for achieving success with social engagement. At the Social Media World Forum in New York, I had a chance to hear Stephanie L. Schierholz, Social Media Manager talk about what NASA has been doing with Social Media, and specfically location based services recently.

NASA Partners with Gowalla

Gowella, a mobile and web service, partnered with NASA in 2010 to provide them with an interactive contest where users check in via Gowalla to help locate four NASA-related virtual items. Those items were a NASA patch, a spacesuit, space shuttle, and a moon rock. NASA displays moon rocks from past moon missions at expositions, planetariums, and museums throughout the world. Moon rocks were easily located when users checked in to any location where an actual moon rock was on display.

Gowlla in collaboration with JESS3 created a special edition of a visual map to help users locate the moon rocks and the other required treasure hunt items could be found by checking in through Gowalla at any one of the over 400 science centers, observatories, nature centers, aquariums, museums, and planetariums that are part of NASA’s large Museum Alliance. Gowalla users that collected at least three of the four required items received a special pin in their digital Gowalla passport.

Plus, the first one hundred people who collected three of the four items also received a hardcopy version of the map in the mail.

Tweets from Above and Beyond

During this impressive social media campaign, NASA also had Astronaut Douglas Wheelock, or @Astro_Wheels, check in from Space Station announcing. “Houston, I’ve just unlocked FourSquares’ NASA Explorers badge.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rztX3xZR9go]

Check out the NASA Explorers Badge at FourSquare.

Campaign Statistics

This NASA social media campaign turned up some pretty impressive stats for Gowalla and Twitter. Gowalla had never had a past completed by so many, so quickly. Over thirty-thousand of each of the four required items were located through check-ins, and followers were increased by 4,278 during this campaign.

Since this campaign began more than 10,000 people have unlocked the NASA Explorer badge, and over 130,000 people now follow NASA on Foursquare.

Aside from the statistics, NASA’s campaign on Twitter has had other benefits as well. Some of the photos posted by any given @Astro to Twitpic can be what Douglas Wheelock referred to as ‘life-changing’ such as this photo of the earth’s aurora from space.

Incredible!

You Don’t Have to Be an Astronaut to Learn from NASA

Check out what the social media manager for NASA has to say about their relationship with Twitter and how they engage with their followers, as well as how you can engage yours!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-u_hKhtxAI]

Some lessons that NASA social media staff has taken away from their campaigns may help you as well.

  1. Use Twitter yourself first. Know the format and how it works. Get familiar.
  2. Identify the specific business case for your use.
  3. Locate new resources for growth.
  4. Keep the account active.

“You may not have a spaceship, but your company has a fan base. They won’t think of themselves as fans until they’re in a room with like-minded people. They won’t think of themselves as members of a community until YOU bring them together.”

-David Rosen, @davidhrosen (group VP, Makovsky + Company)

 

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Google Music Goes Live in the Cloud

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Google has dipped into musical endeavors with the launch of Google Music in mid-November. Originally, the service launched back in May in a beta version. Launched as a suite of music services, it is quite obvious that this is Google’s attempt to take on Amazon and iTunes in cloud and other music storage space.

Introducing Google Music

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=NI8rQEHoE24]

Although it is rumored that Google has been attempting to secure partnerships with four major record labels, currently, Google Music simply allows users to store their purchases and upload other files to their music cloud.

Advantages and Issues

Google Music has seems to have its own pros and cons.

  • There are two different sites. The Google Music site is the library and player. However, you must purchase the music on the Android Market.
  • Google Music will automatically back up most music files including iTunes. As you do the intitial set up, Google Music will prompt you to upload any previous music files you have. iTunes, Windows Media Player libraries, or any other folder you designate.
  • Many Android devices now have full support for Google Music, some have not even mentioned creating it yet. Since one of Google Music’s main selling point is its ability to replace iTunes services, this could pose quite a problem for many Android users.
  • Although there is no official app for the iPhone, users can enjoy Google Music services on iOS devices. A pleasing surprise is that even their site is formatted properly to be easily viewable and easy to navigate on iPhone view screens.
  • Without a doubt, there is loads of free music. However, you will need to share your credit card info with Google just to get the free tunes.
  • You can share only the songs you have purchased to Google Plus.

Regardless of your choice in digital music stores, now may be a good time to get in on what Google Music and their shop has to offer you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSnr0VLbUJ8&feature=relmfu]

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Giving Thanks to Social Media

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In the spirit of the holiday I want to give thanks to social media and in honor of brevity I will keep this short.

Social Media has given a voice to anyone with the courage to use it.

Now those with disabilities or handicaps like the deaf have a tool in social media and technology to listen and be heard. Those that have been oppressed have found the road to freedom, even if it is still plagued by trials and struggles.  Those that have passion, compassion and dreams now have hope.

The spirit of America’s founders has been captured by this amazing technology, even if their dream seems to have been derailed recently.  The vision they shared, lives on with new hope thanks to social media and those with the courage to use it.

I recently heard someone describe optimism as something that does not exist in those that think good things will happen all the time, but exists in people who choose to find the opportunity for good in everything.

Social Media and Mobile Technology has given humanity the ability to be at both at its worst and its best.  Surely it empowered those who would do evil (i.e. terrorist), but has also given hope to those that choose to do good.

Social Media is the ultimate system of checks and balances, transparency is not a political tool, but the future of the human condition. We are who we are.  The time for misrepresentation is coming to an end, big brother is not the government, it is the people around you. What you do and how you do it will be decided by those that choose to take a picture, a video and then share it with the world. If you choose to do evil, others will find it and share it. If you choose to do good, perhaps even great, others will find you too. Governments and Media no longer control the flow of information, we as a people do.

However, history shows that the roads to atrocity have been paved by good intentions.  While I am optimistic and thankful for the way Social Media has changed humanity, I share the caution of Eli Pariser.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ofWFx525s]

Let me close with this thought.

 I am thankful for the powerful voice social media has given me. I am also thankful for the powerful voice it has given to those that disagree with me.

Social Media is not my voice but a tool that helps make it stronger, the first step is having the courage to raise your voice, the second is in having the courage to accept those that would have a dissenting voice. Together you will keep each other in balance, and make the world a better place.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Google+ Pages Open the Doors for Brands and Businesses

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This past June, immediately after Google launched it’s highly anticipated Google+ social network, internet savvy businesses like Ford, Dell and Mashable.com rushed to create pages for their brands. Only to have them removed a few days later. Google’s announcement soon followed: “In the meantime, we ask you not to create a business profile using regular profiles on Google+. The platform at the moment is not built for the business use case, and we want to help you build long-term relationships with your customers. Doing it right is worth the wait. We will continue to disable business profiles using regular profiles. (Christian Oestlien Ads project manager on Google+)

One hundred days later Google delivered on its promise. On November 7, 2011 Google+ announced the grand opening of Google+ Pages worldwide.

Google+ Pages allows businesses, brands, and organizations create their own page and establish a circle of like-minded people who enjoy the brand and want to talk about it. Not only does the page allow having a conversation with brand representatives in a way of personalized customer service, it also allows the group of followers to have a conversation with each other.

As Google+ puts it, when it talks about the customers: “…we want to make sure you can build relationships with all the things you care about—from local businesses to global brands… this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.” (Google’s blog)

Not only brands and businesses are involved. Google+ wants to enlarge the circle of users to local business, products, corporations, institutions, organizations, arts and entertainment, sports teams and more. They have been working with businesses since the launch in June to understand the needs and requirements of brand names. You can see the pages of these businesses already active:

  • Dallas Cowboys
  • Macy’s
  • Pepsi
  • Toyota
  • Anderson Copper 360
  • X games
  • Zen Bikes
  • The Muppets

Having pages for brands and businesses is nothing new, but Google+ has a few advantages over the competition:

  • People can recommend the brand easily by pressing the +1 button, and start sharing immediately.
  • A brand can have more than one page. A car manufacturer, for example, can have a page for each of its models.
  • Although Facebook has over 500 million users, and Google+ has, so far, about 50 million, the biggest advantage of Google+ has to do with the billions of queries made every day on the search engine, most of them looking for businesses or services. Google will include Google+ pages in its search results.
  • Direct connect – The easiest way to find a band you like to follow or a product has been amended as well. Typing the sign + before the query will take the searcher straight to the brand page. (Try it with + Angry Birds)

The official announcement on Google’s blog ends with these words: “With Google+, we strive to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. Today’s initial launch of Google+ Pages brings us a little bit closer, but we’ve still got lots of improvements planned, and miles to go before we sleep. So stay tuned.

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Facebook Ad Campaigns – Are They Working?

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A World Obsessed with Facebook

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJXOavGwAW8]

With so many potential customers on Facebook, Facebook ads should be a profitable and beneficial to your business. With over 850 million users, and 225 million of those in the United States, there is quite an audience to target through the use of Facebook ads.

How Facebook Ads Work

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhn0-MrDR18]

The Facebook Ad Marketplace

Like other online advertising options, Facebook ads are a type of marketplace where the user bids on how much they are willing to pay to reach their prospective consumers and how much they will pay if those consumers take action.

Facebook has become a common place for businesses who are using customized Facebook Fan pages to increase the amount of fans on their page, thereby increasing their consumer base. Fans are simply customers waiting to happen. So how do you make sure you are getting a good ROI from the investment on the ads?

Basic Marketing 101 – ROI

To determine your ROI you should take your gross profit, subtract the capital spent on your Facebook ad campaign, then divide by the expense. This should give you a good comparative measure in which to determine which of your marketing expenditures are most effective for your business.

Has Anyone Had Real Results from Facebook Ads?

If you watched the video above, you heard from Bob Ford, a representative for Papa John’s Pizza. He describes how an ad placed on Facebook increased their Facebook fans by 130,000 fans overnight with a one day engagement ad.

Starbucks ran their own event on Facebook ads for World Aids Day and had an overwhelming 950,000 people who agreed to attend the event. Alex Wheeler, a Starbucks PR rep shares, “I think it (Facebook) is really effective because its part as the content experience that people have on Facebook. They can interact with it. They can actually participate. We can have these shared ideals with our customers.”

The Value in a Facebook Ad as Part of Your Marketing Campaign

The ultimate benefit, just as the Facebook developer in the video states, is that Facebook itself provides not only the venue to advertise to direct demographics, but that its very nature encourages other Facebook users to share the content with their network. This means that with an effective Facebook ad campaign, many of your connections could be made for ‘free’ in the form of users who willingly share your content with others. This digital version of ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising has proven to be highly effective for some.

“The conversations are happening, with, or without the brands participation.”

Do you want to be a part of the conversation?

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#SMWF: How Hilton Does Social Media

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Hilton has one message from their industry that rings true into their social media campaigns. Hospitality is social. If it isn’t, the execs at Hilton think it should be. Their studies into how social media integrates with travel accommodations has shown:

  1. Those who travel often are commonly also active on social media networks.
  2. Those who use these channels do expect their favored businesses and locations to be listening, available, and willing to respond via these networks.
  3. Those using these venues are not only interested in deals, but often also travel advice, and to deal with customer service issues.

Hiltons Wide-Reaching Social Network

Hilton has made finding information on an incredible variety of things on social networks of all types, quite easy. They regularly post interesting videos on YouTube that show a myriad of benefits for choosing Hilton accommodations when you head out for your next vacation.

Check out this video about a spectacular special drink created by one of Hilton’s own bartenders at the Hilton Hawaiian Village® Waikiki Beach Resort.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4xZJbW5uBY]

Not only does this create an interest in this location and its amenities, it also builds upon true customer engagement by giving them a real taste of what to expect on their next trip, but also a familiarity that many can appreciate.

None of the above even takes into account that not only does Hilton engage their customers with this type of open information but they have also effectively engaged the employee. It looks like Hilton has taken the proactive stance that many other businesses have by utilizing their current staff to share the big picture through social media networking.

@HiltonSuggest

Social Media Guru for Hilton, Vanessa Sain-Dieguez, helps implement training for their employees on how to use social media to help take care of their customers. In a comprehensive study on using social media with their guest, they noted one very important issue, customers do not just expect their favored businesses to be ‘listening’ to them, but they also expect them to act.

A highly active Twitter account known as @HiltonSuggest stays on the lookout for those who Tweet messages like:

Although none of these Tweets specifically mentions Hilton, @HiltonSuggest still doesn’t mind offering immensely helpful suggestions based on exactly what folks are looking for in the Twitterverse. Also noticable is the fact that not all of the blurbs thrown into the Twitterverse have hashtags, which shows that Hilton is really listening, the replies show that they are also willing to act, even when it doesn’t mean a direct consumer experience for their industry.

It turns out that dbmei author had written an article that had personally touched him and his family, and yes Hilton was behind it! Check it out here.

Defining Social Media in the Hotel Industry

A panel co-hosted by HVS Executive Search and ESSEC Business School Paris was held on February 7th, 2011 to discuss what the rise in social media means for the hotel industry. Attendees were students, hoteliers and other staff, all of whom declared they are active on at least one social media network.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhg4vug1yZM]

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