TripAdvisor’s Social Strategy: What does it mean for you? [Part 2]

This is the second part of our interview with Jamie Conroy, TripAdvisor’s Sr. Director of Social Product. Click here to view the first article.

In what ways do you think social media impacts the hospitality industry?

People come to TripAdvisor because they’re planning a trip. They want to see feedback from other people in the community and incorporate that into their booking decisions. In the end, social media helps properties that provide great service and exposes properties that don’t. It also helps businesses reach a larger audience than ever before.

Do you have any advice for properties that are setting up or enhancing a social media strategy?

Jamie Conroy, TripAdvisor’s Sr. Director of Social Product

The social conversation about your brand is happening right now – with or without you. The days of broadcasting messages to a passive audience are over. You have a terrific opportunity to take part in that conversation … to hear what’s being said about your property on social platforms, like TripAdvisor, Facebook, and others, and participate in the discussion.

If you’re just getting started, it’s better to focus on a just a couple of social platforms and have a very visible, active presence on them. Figure out your target audience and the social sites that appeal to that audience. Then work on developing a very active presence on those platforms – don’t spread yourself too thin. Remember, it’s an investment and you have to continually put effort into it and be actively engaged. Sustainability is key – the internet is littered with examples of businesses that started on various social platforms and then abandoned them.

How can businesses benefit from TripAdvisor’s relationship with Facebook?

We were one of the very early Facebook developers back in 2007. It was a bet that really paid off. We’ve been a launch partner for a number of Facebook initiatives since then, such as the Like button and the Open Graph. As a result, we’re always focused on what is coming up next, and how those new opportunities can help our users.

Today, Facebook has over 1 billion users and 1 in every 3 TripAdvisor reviews comes from a user logged in with Facebook. The Facebook relationship amplifies every review a business receives. It also helps makes the content more relevant to travelers, because friends’ reviews grab more attention than those of strangers.

What are your top three social media tips for businesses?

Sustain – Once you’ve started to engage your customers and potential customers on social media, keep it up. Don’t create a Facebook page or claim your TripAdvisor listing only to stop paying attention soon after.  Your customers will be providing you with valuable direct feedback 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Listen to that feedback and respond to it in a constructive way.  It will pay dividends.

Test and measure – Define what you’re after with your social media efforts—what metrics do you care about most? Is it one more Facebook Like or is it really introducing a new potential customer to your brand and engaging them in conversation? Once you know what your goals are, test. TripAdvisor, Facebook, and other social media sites provide you with valuable data and insights into user behavior—use that to your advantage and continuously try new approaches to engaging your potential customers. A smart mix of paid and organic channels will also pay dividends – social media is very effective at amplifying your message, but sometimes a paid campaign or ad channel can help to give that message a boost.

Be yourself – Let your personality or that of your property shine through in your messaging. Tell your story, figure out what your audience wants to hear, and engage them in a genuine conversation.

What’s on your wish list for destinations to visit soon?

Next up, I think, are the national parks in the western United States.  It’s a beautiful part of the country that I’ve only scratched the surface of.  There’s a lot still left to explore.

TripAdvisor’s Social Strategy: What does it mean for you? [Part 1]

Jamie Conroy is TripAdvisor’s Sr. Director of Social Product. We recently asked him some questions on how TripAdvisor’s social strategy has evolved over time. 

Can you tell us a bit about your background?

I’ve been with TripAdvisor for four and half years and oversee our Social Product team. We’re focused on making trip planning a richer, more social experience, and are responsible for the on-site TripAdvisor Facebook integration, the TripAdvisor and Local Picks Facebook apps, as well as helping to expand our social features to every other part of TripAdvisor. Before TripAdvisor, I held various roles in the technology industry both in the US and overseas. Most recently, I ran the public web presence for ZoomInfo.

What’s the relationship between TripAdvisor and social media?

Jamie Conroy, TripAdvisor’s Sr. Director of Social Product

Travel is an inherently social activity. From pre-trip planning, to the trip itself, to sharing your experiences upon returning, travel is something you experience with other people. At its core, TripAdvisor is a social media site, and we focus on enabling and enhancing those types of social interactions. It’s a public forum where people write hotel reviews and property owners respond for everyone to see.

When did TripAdvisor first incorporate advice from a user’s friends? How has it evolved?

The first incarnation of highlighting friend travel advice was the TripAdvisor Traveler Network, which you’ve probably never heard of. The idea was to create a social network where travelers could connect with each other. Your connections’ content was surfaced to the top when you were browsing the site. It never caught on — people didn’t want to join yet another social network —they were quite happy at the time with MySpace and others! However, the underlying idea of combining opinions of friends with the deep base of TripAdvisor content of the “wisdom of the crowds” was very powerful. When Facebook came along, it offered a rapidly-growing network that we could use. So, we took a calculated risk and developed a new strategy around it.

Today, social media has really grown to be a mass-market channel. The depth and breadth of the wisdom of the crowds is no less important, but it’s now complimented by the wisdom of your friends. For example, if you’re planning a trip to Florence, we can tell you which of your friends have already been there, where they stayed, restaurants they loved, and can’t-miss attractions – powered by TripAdvisor content and the Facebook social graph. This functionality is really powerful to both travelers and property owners alike because it helps provide relevant content that may have been missed if a traveler didn’t know that one of her friends had been to Florence.

What is the TripAdvisor Facebook app? What’s the value for businesses?

Our Facebook app is based on the idea that travel helps to define who we are – where you’ve been, what you liked about the trip, where you’d like to go. These are all things that people want to share, want to tell their friends about.  And our Facebook app helps people tell their travel stories and share them with their personal social networks.

For businesses, the app, which is the most popular travel app on Facebook, broadens the reach of TripAdvisor content to the more than a billion monthly active users on Facebook. It makes it easier for users to develop and share with a wide range of friends, even when they’re not actively planning their next trip. It also may help to inspire that user’s friends who are ready to find their next getaway—a friend’s opinion is heavily weighted in travel planning.

What’s coming up for your team in the next six months?

Mobile continues to be a very strong focus for TripAdvisor and for my team as well. We’ll be looking to facilitate more social interaction on the mobile side. We’ll also continue to work on driving engagement with Facebook.

On a lighter note, what was your favorite vacation?

My favorite vacation was a three-week trip to New Zealand. It sounds like a lot of time, but my wife and I visited both the North and South Islands, and would have loved another three weeks to explore. It’s gorgeous – like walking through a movie set. The interesting thing was all of the extreme activities they offer: bungee jumping, jet boating, off-roading in canyons, adventure sports … All crazy ways to risk your life while being surrounded by the country’s beautiful scenery.

Check back soon for more from our interview with Jamie. He’ll share his insights on social media and its impact on the hospitality industry as well as tips for businesses. 

Congratulations to The Lenox Hotel – top green hotel in Boston!

The Lenox Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts has been a trailblazer of eco-tourism for over 30 years. It was one of the first family-owned hotels to implement a linen reuse program in the 80’s and the first venue in Boston to offer a private electric car charging station. Today, the property offers everything from in-room recycling to energy and water efficient appliances to green sourcing of food and beverages and more.

“Everything from the fabric we choose to ventilation systems in the room — we always opt for the more ecological version,” says Scott Grigelevich, Director of Sales & Marketing for The Lenox. “More often than not it’s the more expensive choice, but certainly a lot of these decisions pay for themselves over a period of time.”

We’re happy to say that The Lenox’s commitment to eco-friendly tourism is paying off. The property has been ranked the top Green Hotel in TripAdvisor’s Boston Popularity Index and received the coveted TripAdvisor GreenLeaders Gold award! Now it will be easier than ever for eco-conscious travelers to recognize The Lenox for all of its green work.

For a complete list of all of the property’s green practices, visit its listing page and click on the GreenLeaders Gold Level badge.

Are you green with envy of The Lenox Hotel’s success? Apply for the TripAdvisor GreenLeaders program at green.tripadvisor.com.

Hotelier Profile: Adele Gutman, Library Hotel Collection, New York City

Adele Gutman is the Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Revenue for the Library Hotel Collection. The Library Collection’s properties are consistently ranked among the top ten of the 434 hotels on TripAdvisor’s Popularity Index for New York City. We caught up with Adele at the New York City Master Class to get her perspective on what’s changed since she spoke at our first Master Class back in 2010, and what the future holds.  

You were part of the Master Class in New York in 2010. What’s changed in your business since then?

In New York City, a lot of fabulous new hotels have opened since 2010. As a result, we’ve been laser-focused on cultivating a great culture that centers on continuous improvement. We’re always asking ‘How can we be better tomorrow … and the next day?’ The highly vocal TripAdvisor community allows us to bring the voice of the traveler into the board room so that we can make sure our decisions and investments are in harmony with our priority of making guests happy.

How do you think your business will change in the next three years?

We really want to focus on getting direct business through our own website – something every hotel group is thinking about. TripAdvisor is a great way to bring people directly to your website, especially with Business Listings. The site also drives travel demand for New York City and helps it grow. When people share their experiences in our city, it inspires others to travel here. TripAdvisor helps us shift from getting a larger slice of the same size pie to making the pie bigger for everyone.

I am confident that times will change, technology will change, but the trend of customers sharing their experiences with others will not. You cannot put the genie back in the bottle when it comes to user-generated content. It’s a good thing because it makes people braver and more confident when trying independent hotels like ours. We have no marketing budget, but TripAdvisor helps us be seen by people across the world. Travelers can see everything from our photos to our special offers and hear from thousands of previous guests.

Are you using TripAdvisor differently now, three years later? Has it changed?

We first started focusing on TripAdvisor and our reviews in 2004 and we’ve never wavered from that. Now TripAdvisor offers more tools like Special Offers and Announcements. We’re using Special Offers, in particular, to post our best deals to TripAdvisor and encourage guests to book directly. We’re also testing the Mobile Upgrade at some of our properties and we love the Property Dashboard. It shows us how many people have visited our page and searched for our city, how far in advance they’re researching, and more. It really informs our messaging.

Overall, TripAdvisor is far more powerful than it was in the past, giving us some phenomenal traffic and tools. And working with TripAdvisor is much easier now as well. We get responses to inquiries and have any problems rectified very quickly.

How does TripAdvisor help you run your hotels?

We have always listened to our customers. In the past, we asked them about their experiences. TripAdvisor takes this to a new level and enables guests to share details that – as hard as we tried – they would not share with us directly. We believe that we can learn something from each review, even 4 and 5 star reviews show how we can continue to improve in the future.

We take action on each of these suggestions and consider, ‘Can we really do that?’ or ‘We already do that – how could we communicate it better?’ It’s not the guests’ job to communicate with us, it’s our job to let them know that we’re here for them if they want to share with us. TripAdvisor gives us insights into the guest perspective by providing us with constant feedback so we can strengthen our skills and grow our business every day.

Adele Gutman and team with Ollie at the New York City Master Class

England’s base2stay pairs luxury with community ties

According to CEO Robert Nadler, his base2stay properties – one in Liverpool, one in London – combine the style and luxury of a 4- or 5-star hotel with great value by focusing on the most essential parts of a good guest experience.  Base2stay provides travelers with what they really want within the hotel while partnering with other local businesses to create a comprehensive community experience.  Along the way, they rely heavily on reviews to judge how they’re doing and to spread the word to other travelers.  Hear more about base2stay from Nadler himself:

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TripAdvisor Master Classes coming to the West Coast

Did you know that of all the TripAdvisor reviews received for Seattle and San Francisco hotels in the last 90 days, 78% have a rating of 3.5 or higher out of 5.00? Congratulations to all these properties that are satisfying guests and collecting such positive feedback!

As travelers rely increasingly on reviews to help them make decisions — 53% say they will not book a hotel that doesn’t have any — maintaining a positive online reputation has become even more important for all businesses.  If you’re part of the Seattle or San Francisco hospitality communities, come to one of our upcoming Master Classes to learn more about essential online marketing strategies and tools that will help strengthen your TripAdvisor presence. During our half-day sessions, you’ll hear from TripAdvisor experts on best practices for reaching the site’s 60 million unique monthly visitors. The event will also feature industry expert Daniel Edward Craig. With a unique background as hotel manager, marketing director, and author, Craig has developed extensive knowledge that will prove useful for any hotelier.

Join us by registering now!

The details: 

San Francisco: Tuesday, February 26^th

Morning Session: 9:00am – 12:00pm, Afternoon Session: 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Venue: The Fairmont San Francisco, Atop Nob Hill, 950 Mason Street

Click here to register

 

 

 

 

Seattle: Thursday, February 28^th

Morning Session: 9:00am – 12:00pm, Afternoon Session: 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Venue: The Westin Seattle, 1900 Fifth Avenue

Click here to register

 

 

 

 

 

Hope to see you there!

The 5 properties with the most Management Responses

Management Responses are a great way to show past and future guests that you value customer service and feedback. As you saw in a recent post, the number of Management Responses on TripAdvisor is growing exponentially each year. We would like to congratulate the all-time top five contributing properties, highlight what they do right, and look at what other properties might glean from their best practices

5) Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London
London, UK
1235 Management Responses

What they do right: Clarify or reiterate what their property has to offer.  With this approach, you can effectively use each response as both a reply to a previous guest and a marketing touch to prospective ones.

4) Ocean Blue & Sand
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
1374 Management Responses

What they do right: Thank reviewers for taking the time to share feedback. Travelers don’t have to write a review. Expressing appreciation within your response is an important way of acknowledging that they’re helping make your business a better place.

3) Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
1465 Management Responses

What they do right: Personalize each response. We discourage properties from posting responses that are clearly based on templates – management comments won’t feel as meaningful if they come across as generic and canned. Referencing something specific that the reviewer has mentioned is a great way to connect with guests.

2) Marina Bay Sands
Singapore
1608 Management Responses

What they do right: Respond in a timely manner.  When a property replies quickly, it sends the message that customer feedback is of the utmost importance and deserves prompt attention.

1) Venetian Resort Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
1713 Management Responses

What they do right: Share feedback with their staff. Let travelers know that your whole team will benefit from both the positive and negative comments reviewers have passed along.

To see more best practices on how to write Management Responses, see this tip sheet.

Management Response contributions more than double from 2011 to 2012

Since the launch of TripAdvisor’s Management Response feature back in 2003, properties have exponentially increased their communication with past and future guests each year.

From 2011-2012 alone, the number of Management Responses more than doubled, and almost one of four reviews written in 2012 received a Management Response. These stats further point to the growing importance businesses are placing on the value of online reputation management.

What property was the first to ever respond to a review on TripAdvisor? The pioneering hotel that wrote the first Management Response was Boulder Twin Lakes Inn in Boulder, Colorado and they still respond to reviews today. Check back tomorrow to see which properties have written the most Management Responses.

Want to learn more about Management Responses? Check out our guide, which includes step-by-step directions on how to respond to positive and negative reviews.

Down Under with TripAdvisor for Business

Want to learn more about online marketing strategies and how you can reach TripAdvisor’s 60 million unique monthly visitors?  If you are in Australia, join us on Thursday, Feburary 21^st at the Emporium Hotel for our first-ever Master Class in Brisbane!

In addition to industry experts from TripAdvisor, including Brian Payea (Head of Industry Relations) and Avril Carter (Territory Manager for Australia, Business Listings), the Master Class will feature guest speaker Liz Ward, CEO of Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ADTW).  ADTW is Australia’s national database and digital distribution platform, and is renowned as the world leader in digital tourism information solutions.

Liz has led the ATDW for ten years and was influential in its formation 12 years ago.  Previously Liz enjoyed many years with Tourism Queensland, leading their International Marketing operations and e-Marketing departments.  She was also recently nominated as a Tourism Queensland Board Member in 2012.

With 20 years of experience working with IT and tourism, Liz has been carving out strategies and leading teams to support the Australian tourism industry through a very dynamic period.  Liz has a passion for assisting Australia’s small businesses to engage in this fast-moving environment and to understand and embrace technologies that enhance their businesses.

Space and time is running out – register here for the Master Class today!

The details:

Where: Emporium Hotel, 100 Ann Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

When: Thursday, February 21

Sessions: 9:00am – 12:00pm or 1:00pm – 4:00pm

Dorsett Hospitality International Puts Guest Feedback First

According to Dorsett Hospitality International, fostering active communication between a hotel and its guests is as important, if not more so, than ranking highly on TripAdvisor.  By focusing on management responses, Dorsett has lived by this mantra and shown its guests how much the hotel group values feedback.  Watch the video below to hear how Dorsett’s success is not only a reflection of the service it offers, but also a reflection of how hard the property works to manage its online reputation on TripAdvisor.

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