It's no secret that the hotel industry is in its infancy when it comes to social media. Hotel and restaurant owners are happy to share their recent experiences and give recommendations on what to do and what not to do.
by Glenn Withiam*
The wide penetration of social media and other electronic media makes brand management more important and more demanding than ever. Because consumers are very aware of the persuasive power of social media, they are particularly sensitive to the inappropriate use of messages on social media. Similarly, a company practically does not exist if it is not on social media websites.
In this column, I set out to analyze how brand management and social media come together. While I can provide you with the most important principles and outline the general strategies, it is up to you to provide the specific tactics.
It is impossible for me to recommend mounting a certain number of videos on YouTube or giving you an ideal number of trills on Twitter. Your customers will set the tone as you interact with them. Sometimes, you will find out about this information only indirectly and other times it will be the same customers who will tell you if you have gone too far or if, on the contrary, you have been too shy.
What is the appropriate way to communicate with customers and which messages are right will depend on your brand.
Properly managed, social media and internet presence can become an important component of your brand, as they allow you to engage more with customers. This means both participating in dialogues and analyzing the large number of comments that are made in cyberspace.
Interaction is one of the four fundamental aspects of brand management. But let's step back a bit and describe these four aspects, as they are the foundation of your brand's growth.
As explained in the first "Brand Management Roundtable," organized at Cornell, a study by Procter & Gamble found that there are four fundamental elements in the world's most effective brands, with increasing growth. These elements are: having an ideal, focusing on principles to remain true to the tradition of the brand, recognizing the importance of leadership and seeking interaction with customers.
First of all, your brand needs a principle related to human values and that points to a larger purpose than the brand itself. You must be true to the meaning and tradition of the brand, even when implementing innovations. Throughout the process it is helpful to have a single person who maintains the vision of the brand (a committee cannot fulfill this function). Finally, the study concludes that a brand must interact with consumers by maintaining consistency in all the activities it carries out and inviting customers to share the values and vision of the world that the brand promotes.
Taking these elements into consideration will help you manage your social media strategy.
If your brand promotes the use of local components and materials, then you'll need to find a way to explain what your relationship with local suppliers is like. If your brand supports people with forward thinking, then you'll need to keep up with the latest trends. Today, we hear about brands that are "lifestyles", however, it is evident that virtually all current brands are also lifestyles. Regardless of the message your message conveys, it is necessary for your company to show how you are putting that message into practice and not be content to tell people that your company is very good.
All this does not mean that direct communication is inadequate. Depending on the principles of your brand, there will surely be times when you should contact your customers directly, especially when they have expressed some dissatisfaction. For example, a good way to keep in touch with customers is to probe their reactions immediately after having an interaction with them.
As one speaker explained recently, at Cornell, the Lego company, for example, attaches to its invoices a link to a survey to allow customers to record their rating after each transaction. During a recent roundtable discussion on hospital and hotel services, we learned that the Canadian home services company Nurse Next Door Home Care Services frequently calls its customers and employees to ask them to evaluate the service provided. In both cases, if the rating is not close to the top cap, this company looks for the reason and implements a solution. The key here is for the information to be collected in near real-time, rather than waiting for a formal survey to be conducted later.
It seems like a good deal... And it is! The presence of social media offers companies more channels to interact with customers, but having this resource does not change the most elementary rules of the game.
If the use of social media makes your management system more complex, in the market you will find companies willing to help you analyze and manage your interactions on social media.
Like many other administrative activities, this is a never-ending process. Staying true to your brand principles will help you manage the complexities that come with using social media and your brand will benefit from it.
* Director of publications for the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research.
