Social Media in the Workplace

There's always a lot of talk about social media in the workplace, and if it's a good thing, a bad thing or just a necessary evil. Can your coworkers tweet about you, especially during work hours? Can you tweet about something happening in your office? What if your boss finds out? These are questions more and more companies continue to struggle with. 

It's a slippery slope and companies in the US just can't threaten employees they'll be fired depending on what they tweet, or depending on if they hand over PASSWORDS, that just seems crazy to me. I wish I was more in tune with where social media policies and laws will go, because it seems like an ever-changing subject that more people need to be aware of. 

I think the best thing for now is to trust the employees you've hired that they will make their own decisions, because you never know when they'll be marketing for free for you because their friends turn out to be your perfect audience. People shouldn't feel like Big Brother is watching them, but they also shouldn't be posting inappropriate things in the first place that will damage their own personal brand. Common sense, people. 

What type of stance does your company take? 

The Necessity of the Social Media Strategist

It seems like in the past year or two, many various industries have decided they all NEED social media strategists, community managers and an actual social media strategy. Virtually no industry has gone untouched by the hands of social media and it has been very interesting to see how not only various industries are responding to the new challenge, but specific companies, both big and small are, as well. 

Every industry also has several shining stars, the incredible examples of a few companies who REALLY get it, and do more than just tweet or post on Facebook. They create campaigns that link throughout many different channels and encourages participation and loyalty to the brand, not just the initial likes. Then there are those who are either so late to the game they just hired the first person who was up for the job or they decided to take it on themselves without looking into it. 

For the industries that deal with consumers on a daily basis, the most successful small and large companies in the social spaces not only try new things, styles or new channels but they also CONNECT with their fans and people talking about them on a one-to-one basis. This is where the gold is for those social media strategists. This is why more than a college intern needs to handle your twitter account. 

No matter how large or small, I think it's been proven many times over the fact that simply responding to people talking about your brand, whether they're complaining or complimenting you can really solidify their bond with your company, create a lasting impression and even convert a hater into a lifetime customer. 

What do you think? Have you seen a rise in social media strategists now that many brands have realized it takes more than one hour a week to really make something happen? 

Down to the Wire for Facebook Timelines

It’s getting down to the wire and any brand who hasn’t switched over their Facebook pages to the new brand pages will be forced to at the end of this week. Facebook didn’t give brands an incredible amount of time to shift strategies and figure out their next moves, but some of the biggest and brightest brands have already taken first steps in the right direction.

It seems Facebook’s main reason for making this move is because they want brands to look at their Facebook fans as more than just someone to sell to – and I appreciate that. This move gives brands the opportunity to show the “softer” side of their companies with more stories, real photos that give a “behind the scenes look” and just helps to humanize the brand a bit more.

Anyone who’s a  community manager has probably hit a creative wall at one point with their Facebook posts and can sometimes forget that it’s not about SELLING when posting, it’s about story-telling and interacting with fans who already enjoy your brand.

Brand managers will also have to choose their tabs, photos and posts to highlight wisely. The initial fangate that fans click through to visit your page are now gone, so that cover page, highlighted content and tabs are more important than ever.

The milestone is a feature I really enjoy. It’s especially interesting to see Facebook pages such as Ben & Jerry’s who’ve added a variety of milestones featuring older ads, how they got started, etc – it’s an easy way to tell a great story and share the past everyone else may not know about. 

It'll be really interesting to see who's going to do well with these Facebook Timelines and how brands will get creative with all these new features. What brand is your favorite Facebook Timeline page right now? 

Your Customers Are Pinning, Are You?

Who knew Pinterest was going to blow up like this? I suppose you did... if you've been pinning since the beginning days and knew how easily you could be sucked into the website for hours upon hours.  I think Pinterest is a great idea, especially for us Type A's who love organizing our thoughts, ideas, recipes, etc in a manageable fashion. Pinterest is such a great idea for so many types of businesses, both large and small and it's going to be interesting to see who realizes that their target audience is waiting for them here, and how they're going to interact with them in a positive way instead of driving them away. 

Since I work in the hospitality industry, I've been keeping a close eye on Pinterest and what it can do for hotels and have realized there are so many options if you're willing to put the time into it. There's something here for everyone, whether your customers are foodies, adventure junkies, newlyweds or family focused! Yes, there are a TON more women than men pinning away, but that's not a bad thing, is it? You customers are pinning at least a few times a week, for an average of 15 MINUTES.... but honestly, you know it's much longer than that. It's easy to break up what customers are interested in and the specific audiences that can be found here, and there are a few that just pop out to me as the most relevant audiences for the hospitality industry. 

1. Foodies

Spend 10 minutes on Pinterest and you'll notice that all your foodie friends are pinning recipes, favorite foods, favorite restaurants along with some incredibly appetizing photos! So give them what they want, you have at least 5-10 chefs staffed at the hotel each day, ask them to share some showstopper recipes and take a few great photos and throw them up there. If you already have fans of your hotel's restaurant, it won't be hard to get customers to pass those photos around and click through to your hotel's website/blog/Facebook/anything related to you. 

2. The Travel Obsessed

Ask your Concierge Team to list their favorite recommendations and create a board listing top 10 or 20 destinations in your area, both well known and off the beaten path. It's not hard to find other pinner's recommendations to share as well (Millennium Park, Central Park, Top Art Museum links, etc) so that you can not only feed customers what they want, but interact by repinning and making them feel special. 

3. The Wedding Planners

Most women dream about their weddings from the time they're just a little girl, so Pinterest is perfect for searching for EVERY aspect of their wedding and organizing it into simple boards instead of having to save each photo or link, bookmark them for later, print them out and add into a bulky binder and research intensely. Participate in their conversation and recommend your own venues, cakes, catering and who knows what you'll end up with. 

4. Family Focused 

Many mothers also find time to browse Pinterest searching for family friendly brands, activities, recipes and tips. Show off your hotel's family friendly side to them and you could find yourself booking reservations for them in no time! 

Yes, Pinterest could be labor-intensive for an employee and take up tons of time, but it's still so young that you don't really know where it could go, and you don't know how much it may potentially help your big or small business. Give it a try, see what happens and if it's not worth it you can always walk away. 

2012 Tech Predictions.

With the start of the new year, everyone's been coming out with lists, resolutions, "Best ofs", and 2012 predictions... so why not jump on that band wagon! I think 2012 is going to be another great year for social media, e-commerce, tablets, smart devices and... hopefully... mobile! Technology keeps evolving and it's only helping consumers experiences become better and better all the time. I honestly cannot wait for the day that I ENJOY watching commercials, reading e-mails from businesses and clicking ads on various websites I visit because they all take into account things I am genuinely interested in.


Obviously, popular social media channels will continue to stay on the rise, and any companies who have yet to jump on this band wagon will probably realize it's all here to stay. Something that I think people need to begin sorting out are the rules and laws that individuals, clients and companies need to follow and are supposed to be aware of. It seems like many people are running into issues with who owns which fans and things of that nature, and it doesn't seem like it's going to be easy to sort that out.

I am also one of the biggest fans of mobile advertising because it just makes sense to me. People are always ON their phone or NEAR their phone, you can't tell me that's not the perfect place to try and advertise to your customers.  Many people also use them for multitude of things, and use them while watching TV, while driving, while walking, etc. so why not try and reach them there as well? 


I know that tablet advertising is also something that's relatively new, especially because the percentage of tablet owners is very small... but still. The demographic is perfect for many large companies, and not too many are fully embracing it so why not jump on it when it's cheap and you can? I'd be willing to bet the click through ratios are higher on ads here than many other venues.


The last techy trend I'm hoping for this year is personalization... Companies seem to be obtaining various types of information about consumers, especially somebody such as Facebook and Google so please, if you're going to take and sell my information I've given you anyways, let's make it enjoyable for me and others. Personalize my ads and I will be more willing to watch and even click on something. 


Hopefully next year I will remember to look back on my yearly rantings and see what, if anything, came true in any sort of way. Happy New Year! 

Hotels and Social Media: It's a Must

How many hotels have you seen on social media? Most hotels you stay at? I’ve seen a ton of hotels embracing twitter or Facebook, and a few on Foursquare and Youtube, but does that mean they’re doing it right?

I appreciate the fact that hotels are joining social media and some are joining in on their customer’s conversations, but it needs to be more than this. They need to work on incorporating it into their marketing plans, making their employees aware of their ongoing initiatives, and reward and respond to customers…. Customers expect this of hotels!

If hotels want to stay successful, they have to engage.  This may seem scary to various hotels, but social media presents a wider variety of opportunities for the hospitality industry.  Social media allows hotels to hear what customers want and whether they’re giving them what they need or not!  It’s also the best way to ensure customer service optimization by dealing with guest’s issues, complaints, and compliments both online and offline. It’s also another way to reach customers and better cater to their needs… and pick up on their personal needs and wants.

In other words, embrace social media because customers are already there spreading the good, bad and the ugly about EVERYTHING. 

Smart Phones Are Here To Stay

I don't know if you've noticed yet, but mobile phones are transforming the world. At first it was little by little with the ability to e-mail, browse the internet and talk on the phone at the same time, and download entertaining apps, but recently mobile phones and tablets of all sorts have begun to integrate into every aspect of our lives, from entertainment to healthcare.

Mobile has become global if you haven't yet noticed. Thanks to social networking and factors like the accessibility of smart phones people are connecting ALL THE TIME. Brands have begun creating apps they know consumers will love, price them affordably, reward customers for various (real-time) behaviors and have begun engaging WITH them thanks so various social media sites. If you haven't yet embraced different mobile marketing tactics, you will soon be left in the dust by your key customers.

The market is also going to move towards mCommerce, mobile gaming/entertainment and the purchasing of virtual goods, so if you haven't started thinking about what you're going to do to stay on top, you'd better add mobile into your business strategy.

The most exciting key mobile trend for me has to be tracking where mobile health is going. Mobile health makes it easier for monitoring, diagnosis, wellness and with the adoption of tablets,  electronic health records and medical information will only get easier to track. Mobile health is going to be the biggest global  trend there is, especially thanks to easy solutions such as sending text messages to new mothers, drug addicts or patients with certain diseases.

Moral of the story? Jump on the mobile band wagon before it takes off without you...