HSMAI Foundation And TIG Global Release Social Media White Paper Designed for Brands and Management Companies
Fourth Paper Released in Series from HSMAI’s Travel Internet Marketing Special Interest Group and TIG Global
“Marketers are still gaining an understanding of social media and how to use this medium to listen to and engage with the consumer,” said Robert A. Gilbert, CHME, CAE, president and CEO of HSMAI. “This white paper provides a unique perspective for hospitality marketers and offers guidance for creating a comprehensive social media plan.”
“Hotel brands and management companies face a different set of challenges when creating a social media strategy,” said Fred Malek, CEO at TIG Global. “Their social media plans need to promote a range of hotels with different strengths and amenities and monitor a large amount of traveler reviews and content. Determining who can best execute and manage the plan, at the property level or at the corporate office, is also a difficult decision. This paper addresses all of the common social media concerns management companies and hotel brands face and provides direction on how to grow a successful strategy.”
Key highlights from the white paper suggest that social media engagement creates powerful relationships that will more likely generate sales in the long term, especially as more consumers rely on their peers for endorsements and word of mouth referrals to make online decisions. While marketing communication in the traditional sense focuses on brand and product awareness, social media works to engage with the consumer. From a marketing and brand building perspective, social media is a way to generate awareness and credibility, maximize conversion and traffic, and increase SEO and organic search engine rankings.
The white paper is a compilation of ideas and feedback from the Travel Internet Marketing SIG Advisory Board, led by advisory board members Isaac Gerstenzang, corporate director of e-commerce at Destination Hotels & Resorts, and Tiffany Tchida, Senior Manager, Ecommerce at Best Western International.
The social media white paper is the fourth white paper in a series sponsored by TIG Global, a subsidiary of MICROS Systems, Inc., and published by the HSMAI Foundation. Copies of the white paper are available at http://www.travelinternetmarketing.org
About HSMAI and HSMAI Foundation
HSMAI is the hospitality industry source for knowledge, community, and recognition for leaders committed to professional development, sales growth, revenue optimization, marketing, and branding. With a strong focus on education, HSMAI has become the industry champion in identifying and communicating trends in the hospitality industry, and bringing together customers and members at annual events, including HSMAI's Affordable Meetings®. Founded in 1927, HSMAI is an individual membership organization comprising more than 7,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. Established in 1983 to serve as the research and educational arm of HSMAI, the HSMAI Foundation's mission is to expand and enhance the educational opportunities available to hospitality sales and marketing executives and to increase the amount of in-depth research conducted on behalf of the profession. For more information on HSMAI or the Foundation, contact the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, 1760 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500, McLean, Va. 22102; (703) 506-3280; fax (703) 506-3266, or visit http://www.hsmai.org or http://www.hsmaifoundation.org
About TIG Global
TIG Global http://www.tigglobal.com, a subsidiary of MICROS Systems, Inc., is dedicated to assisting the travel industry with exceeding their online marketing goals and specializes in hotel Internet marketingand destination Internet marketing. Serving an extensive portfolio of clients worldwide, TIG Global combines its industry knowledge and e-business expertise to help clients maximize the online channel. TIG Global offers multi-language websites, a vast network of internationally based strategic linking partners, email and pay-per-click marketing campaigns tailored to all international markets, custom social media solutions, and websites optimized for major search engines around the world.
