Luck favors the prepared.
Last week I conducted a workshop on creating engagement and excitement around your social media efforts at the Social Media Optimization Summit in Dallas. You can read my review of the event here. But the day before the event started, there was a tweetup scheduled in the sports bar at the Sheraton, where #OptSum was going to take place. Myself and a few others were promoting the event on Twitter in the days leading up to the event, but on the Monday OF the tweetup, activity spiked. Several tweets told the exact location of where the tweetup would be.
As the time for the tweetup drew near, I realized something. Here were a buncha people on Twitter, that all have decent ‘followings’, all telling people in Dallas to come to the Sheraton for a tweetup. If I were handling social media for The Sheraton in Dallas (and yes, the Sheraton in Dallas is on Twitter), then I would probably want to know that several people with anywhere from 5,000-25,000 followers each were promoting my business on Twitter, right?
Additionally, most of the speakers at #OptSum, were staying at the Sheraton. So The Sheraton in Dallas had several speakers with large social media networks staying there, and had many people with large networks attending the tweetup in the hotel’s sports bar, and apparently did nothing to reach out to these people? That seems like a pretty big missed opportunity, if you ask me. BTW, we aren’t talking anything elaborate either, a simple hand-written note waiting in our rooms, or simply attending the tweetup and thanking everyone for coming (and promoting on Twitter), would have been nice. These would have been very simple ways for The Sheraton to show that they appreciate us promoting their business, and by showing that appreciation, they would have given us the encouragement to CONTINUE to promote The Sheraton.
Jason Falls spoke at the Dallas Social Media Club chapter last Tuesday, and he mentioned a conversation he had with Klout’s CEO during SXSW. Klout is a service that attempts to ‘measure’ the ‘influence’ of Twitter users, similarly to Twitter-Grader and the like. Jason said he asked the CEO basically why he should care about Klout. The CEO told him that they were working on ways to let companies leverage a customer’s Klout score. For example, if an airline sees that a particular customer in coach has a high Klout score, they could upgrade their flight to first or business class if a seat was available.
I think it’s important to consider such issues as we get into the ‘conference season’. Over the next couple of months there will be a lot of ‘power’ social media users traveling across the country. This represents a big opportunity for hotels and tourist attractions in cities where these events will be held to reach out to these people. A couple of years ago, Cirque Du Soleil’s social media manager Jessica Berlin invited a few hundred bloggers from Blog World Expo to attend one of Cirque’s shows in Las Vegas. Great example of reaching out to influencers to help promote your product.
What do you think? If you’re helping to organize an event, even a local one, are you paying attention to the chatter on social sites such as Twitter? How could the feedback change the way you treat the event’s speakers and attendees? Should it?
Mack, you make a good point here. I know that if I saw a group promoting my place of business for an event, I would definitely want to do something to be a part of it in some way. It’s free advertising and the best kind at that – word of mouth.
If the Sheraton in Dallas had discounted the cost of renting the conference rooms or had some kind of giveaway and/or just acknowledged the tweetup in some way, those attendees would have told other people how great the Dallas Sheraton was and that would have brought more business to the Sheraton as well.
It makes me wonder though – why do these places take part in social media? If is was to connect with people, then I think they would be looking for these opportunities.
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Hey Heather. I think the point is that the Sheraton didn’t do anything necessarily ‘wrong’, it’s just a missed opportunity. But really, when you think about how many people are using Twitter and FourSquare now, there will be a TON of opportunities for the hospitality industry alone to capitalize on attendees coming to events like #optsum. Factor in that this happens year-round, and a simple shift in strategy creates enormous potential.
I did notice some tweets from the Sheraton about our conference, but not many. Conference hashtags should provide great tools for venues to engage their customers head on. Hopefully this will improve. I was happy somewhat with the few tweets they did post about #optsum. One restaurant in Atlanta saw huge success from a tweetup that was organized by some local folks. They were involved from the beginning to the end and it brought them huge recognition and showed that they value their customer base who use that platform. Thanks for the post Mack. It was great meeting you at #optsum.
Thanks Jonathan, and thanks for the #blogchat mention during my workshop 😉 I agree that this idea is a bit ‘cutting edge’, but hopefully the Sheraton will be monitoring and find this post, cause you guys are sharing some great ideas for them on how they can improve their engagement efforts, moving forward.
Great story of a missed opportunity by the hotel. I almost find it worse to be ignored by a company than mistreated; they’ll usually try to right a wrong, but don’t see lack of attention as wrong. (Shrug and move on.)
I also see this as a heads up for those planning events to get in touch with the venue and vendors ahead of time and poke them to get involved. Have it be part of the planning and ask the Account Exec what they are willing to do and even bring some ideas to the table. It’s a good thought for all those planning any event in this post-SM-takes-over-the-world world. (wink) But then, that’s your point, isn’t it?
.-= ArtseyC´s last blog ..ArtseyC: Hello, #blogchat Tweeps. Sorry I missed tonight. Just stopping by to say Hi. I heard it was interesting! Have a great week! =D =-.
Isn’t this how the Roger Smith hotel got its start on Twitter by monitoring what people were saying and reaching out to people like Brogan? Were they also the hotel that offered Scott Monty a room in NYC on short notice cause they saw his tweeting? Or was that another hotel?
You know I just had to check out what you were talking about. (I’m a newb in this game, don’tcha know?) Loved the hotel story, and the video on their page! The Mr. is a NYC native, so it’s “back home” to him.
I’ve also heard so much about Ford’s SM; can’t wait to read Scott’s blog. U R a resource wellspring, Mr. Collier, Thanks!
If you’re ever heading west on I-10, stop by for a cup o’ joe.
Thank you Amy, is i-10 the highway that runs through Louisiana to Houston?
That’s the one. Beaumont, Baton Rouge, Biloxi & Mobile Bay… Atlantic to Pacific; Jacksonville, FL to Santa Monica, CA. (Yes, I checked the map for that). =D
I believe there will be a benefit walk from Houston to New Orleans on it by the Red Cross some time this Spring.
(I thought I read that you’re from S. ‘Bama; plz excuse if I’m mistaken.)
.-= ArtseyC´s last blog ..ArtseyC: @SheilaWalsh Goodnight, Sheila. May you have angels in your dreams! =-.
My two cents. It’s called being human. I think if someone, anyone with a little following or not were promoting my company — I’d thank them. Love is circular transaction.
If there were a “Like” button here, I’d have clicked it. …
“Love is a circular transaction”. AWESOME!
Hi Mack!
Great post. I do have something to point out though. Bear with me.
We hosted a little shindig during SXSWi (TechKaraoke) and experienced a great deal of what could only be termed “douchebaggery”. I am talking about some of the very same folks that you are referring to with high “Klout scores” tons of followers, etc.
It was disturbing to us to see so many former unknowns suddenly throwing their virtual weight around.
To your point: I certainly believe that an establishment should take advantage of any avenue through which their customers are talking about them. That just makes sense. It is my point, however, that an establishment should “engage” with ALL of their customers, not just the influential ones.
I know personally, there are people that influence me who would not necessarily be considered “powerful” in the social sphere. In fact, there are many that are just noise to me. This then begs the question: Why would you alienate a large portion of your audience by only paying attention to the “influencers”?
Beyond encouraging disproportionate entitlement behaviors, you can potentially create negative sentiment among those that are up-and-coming influencers.
Just thought I’d throw my 2 cents in. Thanks for the post! 🙂
Jen Wojcik
Pinqued.com
.-= Jen Wojcik´s last blog ..Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-28 =-.
Jen i hear you, but SXSW is a bit of a different animal, where the attendees ‘feel empowered’, which many mistake as ‘we can draw attention to ourselves by acting like jackasses’. Sorry you ran into that, but I think it’s one of the reasons why SXSW is perilously close to jumping the shark.
Mack – agreed. If SXSW hasn’t ALREADY jumped the shark, I would be surprised.
.-= Jen Wojcik´s last blog ..Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-28 =-.