5 Minutes With Charlene Li: Winning With Social Technology

By Adam Kirby, Associate Editor -- Hotels, 7/1/2008

Charlene Li, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, teamed with colleague Josh Bernoff to write “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies” (Harvard Press, US$30). Li studies how companies can leverage social media technologies for marketing purposes, and “Groundswell” is an examination of best (and worst) practices of this emerging niche.

HOTELS: So what is the ‘groundswell,’ exactly?
Li: It’s a social trend where people are using these social technologies to get what they need from each other, rather than these companies. In the past, I may pick up a guidebook to find out what’s out there and talk to my friends. Now, I can go online to TripAdvisor to see what they’re saying. I can go on Yelp, I can go on Facebook.

HOTELS: What are your thoughts about social technologies it they pertain specifically to the hotel industry?
Li: Look at how much information can you get about your decision-making process. Once you’ve decided you’re going to go someplace, or even if you’re deciding where to go, a lot of these social technologies will help guide where you’re going to go. And it’s a little scary. If one person had a horrible experience at a hotel, they’re going to go online and write about it. That’s going to hurt the brand of the hotel, and people are going to think twice about staying there next time.

HOTELS: What is it about social technologies that a lot of companies fail to grasp?
Li: First of all, they understand the potential power behind it, and they’re very scared of it. They feel out of control, like ‘What can I do?’ They don’t understand that it’s here to stay, that it’s not going to go away, and so they need to understand how to deal with it.

HOTELS What is the danger in failing to grasp it’s potential?
Li: There are two specific dangers. One, if you don’t see what the specific dangers are, you will ignore it, and you can be hurt by it. The other thing is, your competitors may be able to figure it out, and if they figure it out faster than you, they’ll be able to profit from it. People are saying things about you, but you have no idea whether it’s good or bad things.

HOTELS: How can hotels leverage social technologies to their benefit?
Li: Think about the people, think about the objectives of what you want to do, think about the strategies and then think about the technologies. There are some very specific objectives: listening, energizing, supporting and embracing, where you’re asking for them to offer ways to improve, to do market research for you. There’s very, very positive business activities and very strong return on investment opportunity.

HOTELS: Say a hotel gets slammed on TripAdvisor: What is the best way to respond to that?
Li: They need to reach out to that community. You need to go on there and say, ‘This is what we’re trying to do.’ Have a very frank conversation about it. It’s a conversation you would want to have—just like if a guest talked to a general manager at the hotel, and how they would respond. The major difference is that people are listening over their shoulder to the conversation (online)—you have to keep that in mind.

Do not hide behind an official press release or to cite a corporate policy; you would never say that to a person. It’s about moving a way from that corporate voice and having a personal conversation with your guest. It’s important to say, ‘This is a person and not a company talking. This is Sheila Jones in customer service talking to you—I’m a person, I’m not a nameless, faceless hotel company trying to ram something down your throat.’

HOTELS: For small hotel groups that may not have a lot of time and resources to devote to social technologies, what can they do?
Li: It doesn’t take a lot to monitor, to listen to what people are saying. Set up a Google alert, do some basic blog searches. It’s free. You can go look at your listings and see what people are saying—there aren’t that many places. Ask your happy guests to go onto these sites and write about their stay. There are lots of things a small hotel can do, and they’re in a better position to do it because it’s the actual owner in many cases—they’re personally vested. They’re used to having these personal conversations. If you’re in a small hotel, they’re staying there for a reason versus a chain. They like the personal attention, so all the more ability to connect with them.

HOTELS: Are there any hotel-specific social media sites that you particularly like?
Li: Two of them. I like what Carnival has done with their cruise planning, Carnival Connection. You can create a social network with your group that you’re going on a cruise with, you can plan itineraries around the whole time on the trip. I look at TheLobby from Starwood—they had a rough start, but now they have all these experts that come on and write. It doesn’t have a whole lot of interaction, but it’s a nice site, and it shows up a lot in Web searches.