This document discusses using social media, specifically blogs, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, for inbound marketing by hotels. It provides examples of hotel chains that blog, reasons why blogging is important, and best practices for blog optimization. It also examines using LinkedIn for lead generation and branding through company pages, employee profiles, and targeted ads. Pinterest is presented as a potential opportunity for hotels to showcase their lifestyle branding, though results are still uncertain. An approach is suggested to develop an online marketing strategy by analyzing where conversations are happening and formulating plans for each channel.

1. Social Media for Hotels
An Inbound Marketing Perspective
Where Should
Market ?

2. TM
www.pragmaticlearning.in
presents

3. Objective of the Presentation
• Showcase Case Studies of Hotels on
– Blogs
– LinkedIn
– Pinterest (Pinboarding Platform)
• Suggest an Approach to Develop a Strategy for
Inbound Marketing

4. Note *
* This brief considers various
Online Marketing Options
from an Organic (Not Paid) Perspective, Only

5. Agenda
• What are the Options for Online Marketing ?
*– Website *
– Blogs : Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
– Social Media : LinkedIn| Pinterest
• Suggested Approach to Develop a Strategy for
Inbound Marketing
• Scope, Our Work & HubSpot Partnership

6. Website*
* We are excluding analysis around
the Website as part of this presentation.
But, the Online Marketing Plan would
Website merit a detailed deliberation around it
for purposes of Scale

7. Agenda
• What are the Options for Online Marketing ?
– Website *
*– Blogs : Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
– Social Media : LinkedIn| Pinterest
• Suggested Approach to Develop a Strategy for
Inbound Marketing
• Scope, Our Work & HubSpot Partnership

8. Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
Blog…
Are Hotel Chains Blogging ?
Hotel Chain Blog Freshness Notes Links
http://travel.intercontinental.com/
InterContinental Yes Dec 2009
Bill Marriott featured blogs.marriott.com
Marriott Yes Yes
$5 million in bookings from
people who clicked through to the
reservation page from its blog
Media Objective http://www.hiltonglobalmediacente
Hilton Yes r.com/
Brief Updates blog.hyatt.com
Hyatt Yes Yes
family.fourseasons.com
Four Seasons Yes Yes Family theme to the blog
http://www.welcomzestlounge.in/in
ITC Hotels Yes Yes Super Content. No direct dex.aspx
reservation link though
Blog called WelcomZest Lounge
Blogging is a non-traditional way that helps define the image of a company
and keeps in touch with consumers.

9. Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
Blog…
Will Hoteliers continue Blogging ? 5th Benchmark Survey…
What type of Web 2.0 & Social Media marketing initiatives are you
planning? 2008 2009 2010 2011
Blog on the hotel website 14.5% 14% 37.9% 37.5%
‘Share this site’ and RSS on the website N/A N/A 24.1% 33%
A photo sharing functionality on the hotel website 12.7% 4.7% 32.8% 29.5%
Sweepstakes and contests on the hotel website 9% 3.5% 36.2% 30.4%
Survey and comment card on the hotel website 18.4% 14% 31% 35.7%
Subscribe to a reputation monitoring service 8.4% 2.3% 19% 23.2%
Create profiles for my hotel(s) on the social networks (Facebook,
Twitter, Flickr, etc.) 13.3% 14% 50% 56.3%
Create and post videos on YouTube N/A N/A 46.6% 37.5%
Actively participate in blogs that concern my hotel 12.7% 5.8% 24.1% 39.3%
Advertise on social media sites (e.g. TripAdvisor, Facebook, etc.)
8.1% 15.1% 39.7% 50%
Not planning on Web 2.0 and Social Media initiatives for 2010
N/A 15.1% 6.9% 12.5%

10. Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
Blog… Why?
The Technical Reason…
Google “Freshness” Update
Hotel websites are content rich vs. news (fresh) rich, with descriptions and information featuring and
explaining in detail every facet of the hotel business and service, from the bed linens to the capacity
of a meeting room. The “static” content is there, but the “fresh” content is certainly lacking, and this
is the main issue with current hotel websites after the latest Google algorithm updates.
Blog Slog Blog Slog Blog

11. Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
Blog… A Study by Hubspot
The Traffic Reason…
Social
Media
SEO
Blog

12. Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
Blog…
Questions We need to Answer …
• Why should We Blog? – Traffic, Branding
• What Goals should We Target?
• What should be the Type of the Blog?
• Who would Blog?
• What best practices to adopt?
• How to Optimize and Promote?
• What Publishing Calendar can we Commit to ?

13. Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
Blog…
We can Target More
Growing Traffic over Website
Traffic
the next More
Indexed
6 Months Page &
Links. Better
SEO
Increase Conversion
More with Offers,
Systematic
Blogs CTA’s & Landing Pages

14. Agenda
• What are the Options for Online Marketing ?
– Website *
– Blogs : Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
*– Social Media : LinkedIn| Pinterest
• Suggested Approach to Develop a Strategy for
Inbound Marketing
• Scope, Our Work & HubSpot Partnership

15. The Social Media Landscape…
What would make Business Sense?
Social Networking Publishing Location
Facebook YouTube FourSquare
Google + Podcasts Google Check-Ins
Twitter Flickr Facebook Check-Ins
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Each platform has to be evaluated based on Customer
Profile & Business Objective. In this presentation, We
look at LinkedIn & Pinterest from a Market Perspective

16. LinkedIn| Pinterest
LinkedIn Case Study : Carlton
What did the Carlton Hotel do?
Build Closed Quality Network
Profile Optimization Advanced Search & Apps
Social CRM
Less than 90 days after implementation, the Carlton’s five-
person sales team sourced $186,550 in new business
http://smartblogs.com/social-media/2010/11/08/the-carlton-hotel-leverages-linkedin-for-business-development/

17. LinkedIn| Pinterest
LinkedIn is a great Opportunity to
Reach out to Business Professionals
not yet fully exploited by Marketers

18. LinkedIn| Pinterest
LinkedIn : Lead Generation
In a HubSpot study of 5,198 businesses
(B2B and B2C), it was found that LinkedIn
generated the highest visitor-to-lead
conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3 times
than Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%)
Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn at B2B Connect

19. LinkedIn| Pinterest
LinkedIn : B2B Lead Generation
Would We like to reach & engage Business Professionals?
2.3%
4.4%
4.8%
5.2%
5.5%
INDIA - 14,234,701

20. LinkedIn| Pinterest
LinkedIn Company Pages : Hotels
Most of them have a Presence through Company Pages
Taj Hotels Starwood Oberoi Hotels
Leela
Four Seasons Hyatt Fortune Hotels
But this presence is mostly to leverage other
LinkedIn Assets owned by these Hotels – Employee Profiles,
Media Mentions and Applications

21. LinkedIn| Pinterest
LinkedIn
How should We approach LinkedIn? - Integrated Approach
Optimized Employee
LinkedIn Answers
Profiles
Integrated
Approach
LinkedIn Today LinkedIn Groups

22. LinkedIn| Pinterest
LinkedIn
How should We approach LinkedIn? - Smartly
• Did You Know?
– Using Personas Our LinkedIn Page can be
customized to look different for Goa members,
Delhi members etc. , ditto for IT professionals,
banking professionals, Seniority ….
– Campaigns can be done using LinkedIn API
(Volkswagen Case Study)
– Targeted LinkedIn Ads can also be done : Display &
Graphic

23. LinkedIn| Pinterest
Pinterest : Give it a Shot..
Now No. 3 Social Network
behind Twitter & Facebook

24. LinkedIn| Pinterest
Pinterest : Hotel Examples
Four Seasons

25. LinkedIn| Pinterest
Pinterest : Hotel Examples
Roosevelt Hotel, NYC

26. LinkedIn| Pinterest
Pinterest
How should We approach Pinterest? – Showcase Lifestyle
• Early Mover Advantage
• Showcase Lifestyle
• Business Case – too early to call
• Branding, Communication & Engagement
• Foreign Customers – could click !!

27. Other Ideas…
• “Second Life” for Signature Properties
• Social Mashup on Website
• TripAdvisor Feed
• Twitter Campaigns

28. Agenda
• What are the Options for Online Marketing ?
– Website *
– Blogs : Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
– Social Media : LinkedIn| Pinterest
*
• Suggested Approach to Develop a Strategy for
Inbound Marketing
• Scope, Our Work & HubSpot Partnership

29. Suggested Approach …
How should We approach all of this?
External
Where (channel) is the Internal
Conversation happening
w.r.t. Hotels ?
Build “Market Segment –
Booking Engine” Matrix
Measure Activity &
Competition
Formulate Marketing Strategy for
Each Channel

30. “Market Segment – Booking” Matrix
Booking Medium
%
Revenue
Direct GDS Brand.co OTA Travel
Enquiry m Agent
% Revenue
Airline Crew
Business Traveler - Domestic
Business Traveler - Foreign
Domestic - Tourists/Leisure FIT
Foreign - Tourists/Leisure FIT
Meeting Participants
Tour Groups - Domestic
Tour Groups - Foreign
Market Segment

31. Agenda
• What are the Options for Online Marketing ?
– Website *
– Blogs : Examples | Reasons | Our Approach
– Social Media : LinkedIn| Pinterest
• Suggested Approach to Develop a Strategy for
Inbound Marketing
* Scope, Our Work & HubSpot Partnership
•

32. The Scope : We …
Following a proven
Methodology
Get
Website Found
Analyze Convert

33. POWERED BY HUBSPOT…
Founded by MIT Sloan Graduates
1 Text
goes
Funded Sequoia Capital,
Google Ventures &
here
Salesforce
5,600
customers
Average
worldwide
HubSpot
customer
lead growth:
32%
HubSpot Text
growth rate
of 6015% goes
Over three years
here

34. HubSpot – Inbound Marketing Leader

35. Our Work…
• An Online Aggregator – Blog & LinkedIn
Implementation for Lead Generation
• Global B-School – Inbound Marketing
Consulting
• Gamification Company – LinkedIn
Implementation
• Social Enterprise – Social Media Consulting
• LinkedIn Class Training at Corporates

36. LinkedIn Training Sessions

37. www.pragmaticlearning.in
raj@pragmaticlearning.in
(+91) – 971 724 0021
TM
© 2012 Pragmatic Learning Pvt. Ltd.