The Hotel CEO's Guide To Twitter
Since I’m on a Twitter kick lately, I figured I would answer a public request for Twitter advice from Best Western International CEO David Kong.
In his guest blog on Hotel Check-In, Kong writes:
"I’m still trying to get my head around Twitter. I’m told it can be all-consuming and people find themselves tweeting all the time. But why would anyone care if I’m having pizza for lunch or running late for work?
For hotel brands, social media is a legitimate way to connect with guests – to hear how we can best serve you and communicate our special offerings discreetly.
But as a CEO, I’m still trying to forge my own path.
What do you think? As a traveler, how can CEOs like me use social media to improve your experience?"
First of all, kudos to David for embracing social media, even as he concedes he doesn’t fully understand it. Experimenting with social media, as he has no doubt found, is the easiest way to comprehend it.
So David wonders, and rightfully so, why anyone cares about his lunch. This is the most common misconception about Twitter from non-Twitter users: that the microblogging service is nothing more than a place for vain people to tell others about the minutae of their lives. But it’s not that; or, at least, it doesn’t have to be.
Though I’m not hardly a CEO myself, allow me to speak as both a consumer and a hotel professional who would love to follow more hotel CEOs on Twitter. David, here is how you should be using Twitter…
1. Be yourself. Write colloquially, about topics that you care about and find interesting. That should certainly include Best Western and the hotel industry, but it doesn’t have to start and end there.
2. Engage with others. Follow people you find interesting, be they industry colleagues and competitors, media folks (like @askirby, for instance!) or just people who share your passions and hobbies. But don’t just listen—interact with them.
3. Take us behind the scenes. Many of your followers will be hotel junkies and Best Western brand loyalists. Paint them a picture of the unseen, the day-to-day operations behind one of the world’s iconic hotel companies. Give little hints about the direction of the company, or leak some news a day or two before the formal press release. Make people feel they are "in the know" and they will feel a more intimate connection with the brand.
4. Ask for input. Think of Twitter as an enormous, free, engaged market research panel. If there is an idea the marketing department is kicking around, but you aren’t sold on it, ask your followers for their take. They may even surprise you with ideas on improving it.
If you want yet more ideas on how hotels are using Twitter, give this article a read.
Any other suggestions for David or other tweeting hotel CEOs?
Adam Kirby commented:
But to more specifically answer your question: What makes Twitter better than LinkedIn and Facebook is its ability to simultaneously interact with both consumers AND industry colleagues. Additionally, because Twitter's interface is so elemental--there are no "groups" as on LinkedIn, no "applications" as on Facebook--Twitter is by its very nature more immediate and real-time.
In short, Twitter distills the best of LinkedIn and Facebook and combines them. I'm not going to sit here and tell you Twitter won't prove to be a passing fad, because I'm not a psychic. But I can tell you, if you're not giving Twitter a real chance, you're missing out on both a great marketing opportunity AND an outstanding networking platform.
Bob W CHA commented:
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