E-Marketing Associates

Introducing TripAdvisor, Gogobot and Foodspotting for Facebook Timeline

Golda Criddle by
on January 27th, 2012

Very soon Facebook users (which, let’s face it, is just about everyone) will no longer be able to ignore Facebook Timeline. The new format will be rolling out by February 1 to all users. And with it, comes around 60 new lifestyle applications, with three familiar names in the travel world: TripAdvisor, Gogobot and Foodspotting. It has never been easier to share your travels plans—past, present or future—with friends and share the foods you love.


TripAdvisor’s app is called Cities I’ve Visited. The app allows you to pin cities you’ve traveled to on your travel map, display it on your timeline and many other personal travel stats on Facebook Timeline. You can share with your family your trip to Morroco, and what monuments you visited and restaurants you dined at. It’s a great way to take advantage of the new storytelling aspect of Facebook Timeline through travel.

Gogobot’s app is similar, but turns users into travel experts rather than just telling stories. When you use the Gogobot app with Facebook Timeline, your records of where you’ve been, what restaurants you’ve ate at and what attractions you saw are compiled into a “Destination Guide.” You can not only share this guide with your friends and family, but also act as a travel guide to show them the best places to eat and play.  You can share upcoming trips and ask questions from friends, and display customized postcards made from Gogobot’s iPhone application. You can also express your dreams by listing the places you want to visit. The more interaction you post to Facebook Timeline, the more Gogobot Travel Expertise points you receive to make you a trustworthy source on travel.

Foodspotting’s app also focuses on sharing. What’s better than a tasty dish? Sharing your pleasure with all your friends, of course? Now it is very easy to share your Foodspotting activity on your Facebook Timeline. You can control who sees your Foodspotting activity, fortunately, and it is all contained in one little box so it won’t clutter your Timeline. Your friends can also view your Foodspotting page to see which dishes you’ve become an expert in.

The new Facebook Timeline is all about encourage users to share more, through check-ins, posts, and other activity. There’s not much word yet on how Facebook Timeline will affect business brand pages but Facebook is known for its cohesiveness, so they will likely experience similar changes in the future. Do you have ideas on how to use Facebook Timeline to promote your business? Please share your ideas in the comments below!

Categories: B2B & B2C,Blog,Facebook,Internet Marketing,Lifestyle,Social Media,Social Media Marketing,Travel — Tags: , , , , , , ;

Hotels Find Success with Social Media Contests

Renee Radia by
on January 25th, 2012

Now, more than ever before, hotels are taking things to the next level thanks to social media. Hotels are realizing that they can make their guest interactions fun and mix things up with unique contests that make their fans more passionate about their properties. The following are some examples of creative contests hotels have done using social media that will hopefully stir up some ideas of your own!

  • Hotel Palomar in San Diego recently completed a unique contest that took participants out into the city to explore. Instead of a simple “’Like’ us to win…” contest that we’ve all seen overdone, the Kimpton brand hotel utilized the mobile app “Scavenger Hunt with Friends” where participants submitted photos online as a way of checking off their scavenger hunt finds. Items on the list were designed to get users out and about in San Diego, taking creative photos and performing fun and local activities in order to do so.
  • W Hotels encouraged the use of location-based mobile apps by running a campaign that gave users incentive for checking-in to their hotels on Foursquare during the Summer DJ Series. The first person to check into a given event received a free 2-night weekend stay as well as free bottle service. Foursquare Mayors drank free on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The East coast properties also ran a timely video contest where participants had to commemorate the legendary Times Square kiss by reenacting and filming it.
  • Casa del Mar in Santa Monica ran a contest called “What’s Under the Sheets?” late 2009 where it posted a photo of 2 giant wrapped items in the hotel’s lobby. Throughout the contest, the hotel released clues about the identity of the items. People submitted their guesses through Twitter and the winner received a fun spa package stay at the property.
  • Jet Luxury ran a Twitter contest last year that was designed to encourage conversation on the microblogging site. Participants were entered into a drawing to win a package if they tweeted about their favorite of the brand’s hotels and why they liked it. Instead of a massive retweet or spam message, organic conversations about the hotels took place.
  • Le Parc Suites in West Hollywood has recently reached out to the dog-lovers to have them vote on the next “Director of Pet Relations.” Various pooches are on display on a Facebook landing page each with a short bio and cute photo. The winning pooch will be featured throughout the hotel and will receive many perks!

 

Categories: Blog,Facebook,Hotel Internet Marketing,Hotels & Resorts,Hotels & Resorts,Photo & Video,Social Media,Social Media Marketing,Twitter — Tags: , , , , ;

Is Google’s AdWords Express Right for Your Hotel?

David Sotelo by
on January 23rd, 2012

Online advertising is growing at fast pace and is actually projected to surpass print in spending for the first time in 2012. AdWords specifically has been successfully helping companies generate more business for many years but many are unaware of Google’s AdWords Express. Google AdWords Express is online advertising that aims to make advertising as easy as possible for local businesses by doing most of the work for them. Google automatically manages many of the components that you will find in traditional AdWords such as keywords, bid setting and managing those bids. It’s ideal for businesses that would like to get involved with paid advertising but may not have the time or resources to analyze and manage advertising campaigns.

So what exactly does AdWords Express do for you to make the process simpler for the advertiser? Well there is quite a few including managing your keywords, bids and targeting your ads. There is no need to deal with analyzing keywords or figure out the best areas or demographics. Since Google is doing most of the work you can have some relief that they will attempt to optimize your ads based off their ever changing algorithms.  What you will have to do is give some basic information about your company, determine your budget and Google will take care of the rest. You don’t even need a website to participate; Google can direct potential customers to a Google Places page or Google+ page.

This may sound great and it could be for the right individuals but there are some concerns you should be aware to determine if AdWords Express is right for you. Paid advertising is not rocket science but there is a fair amount optimizing to do and it can be somewhat complex which can really be a big difference for your business’s bottom line. Optimizing your online advertising requires that you test different ads and see which ones are performing well and which ones are not. You want to know which ad’s have lower click through rates (ctr) and conversions so you can decide whether you should improve the ads or scrap it all together. There are negative keywords that may need to be included to eliminate people who may not want what you’re selling.  You want to know which exact keywords, or phrases are generating the most clicks and determine if a bid should be raised or lowered.

AdWords can be a very efficient and effective way to generate business online but it can be quite consuming and so if you don’t have the time or resources to dedicate to paid advertising then AdWords Express may be just what you are looking for. AdWords Express takes the guess work and know how out of paid advertising and that is not always a good thing. If you don’t have the time then AdWords Express is probably better than nothing and a good start but taking control of your ad campaigns is what you should eventually aim for.

Categories: Blog,Google,Internet Marketing,PPC — Tags: , , , , , , ;

7 Subjects to Spruce Up Your Hotel’s Blog

Golda Criddle by
on January 20th, 2012

In the age of micro-blogging social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, is blogging still an effective way for hotels to reach out to guests? Absolutely.  Although tweets and posts are a great way to instantly connect, blogging is an essential tool for story-telling.

People love stories. It is the reason why movies, books, and television are so popular today – we are always looking for the next great story. In a way, marketing is all about advertising a great story. The best way to tell a good story is with new, fresh content, and blogging is one of the best ways to generate interesting content. Further, you can convey much more information and spur more conversation with a blog post than a 140-word tweet.

Some may think that it’s difficult to think of a topic to write about every few days or even just weekly.  Luckily, hotels are part of the broad lifestyle category that covers many different avenues. Here are some ideas if your hotel blog is looking a little stale:

  • Local events:  Guests are always looking for cool things to do in the area, so why not help them out?
  • Hotel renovations: Perhaps your hotel is building an underground bar, or finally updating the pool. Post about them so that they are inclined to come see the new area!
  • Recipes: Perhaps your restaurant chef is a whiz at coming up with delicious food? Why not share a few of his recipes?
  • Local News: Guests are not only interested in the weather in the area. You can post about venue updates, renovations, or oddball news.
  • Spotlight loyal and frequent guests:  Tell their story on your blog – it’s an incentive to keep coming back!
  • Spotlight employee/Day in the life:  You can tell the story of a day in the life of a chef, hotelier, host, and much more. It’s also a great way to reward your employees!
  • Local venues:  Is there a happening bar, delicious taco spot or great theatre nearby? Tell your guests! You can even make a “best of” list! Once again, it’s yet another reason for them to come back.

Whatever you choose to blog about, make sure to add a personal touch to show that your hotel has a personality. Feel free to share your ideas below!

Categories: B2B & B2C,Blog,Hotel Internet Marketing,Hotels & Resorts,Hotels & Resorts,Internet Marketing,Social Media,Social Media Marketing — Tags: , , , , , ;

Stop SOPA: EMA “Goes Dark”

Renee Radia by
on January 18th, 2012

In case you haven’t noticed yet, big things are happening on the Internet today. Wikipedia, Reddit, Craigslist, Wired, and many other websites (both high and low traffic) have “gone dark” in protest of the House bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Even Google is protesting, albeit in a less infringing way. The bill is designed to crack down on Internet piracy, and if passed, would put a huge damper on Internet sharing. The Department of Justice would be able to order an Internet service provider to cut off access to a website if it thought the site was promoting copyright infringement (i.e. if any individual user on the website posted copyrighted material). The DOJ could also require search engines such as Google to remove all links and search results to an infringing website.

Here at EMA, we are coming out against the SOPA bill. Our main page has “gone dark” today to oppose the bill as well. We support open-source, innovation, and free speech, and this bill would censor all of these. If passed, this bill could potentially allow the government to shut down, for example, Twitter, simply because somebody posted content that was copyrighted. And that just isn’t right. Websites that we all use everyday such as Youtube, Tumblr, Facebook, and Wikipedia would be drastically affected and risk being shut down at any moment. Yes, online piracy may be a problem, but there has got to be a better way to deal with it than censoring the Internet.

Join us in stopping SOPA by contacting your Senators and Representatives. You can black out your website today to come out against the bill. Together, we can end piracy, not liberty.

Categories: Facebook,Google,Internet Marketing,Social Media,Twitter,Websites — Tags: , , , , , , , ;

Hotels Are Looking To Get More Involved in the Search Engine Game with Roomkey

David Sotelo by
on January 16th, 2012

Ask any hotel manger or owner and they will tell you the importance of search engines and how they impact their bottom line. Online bookings are what are most important to a hotel and there are 6 hotels are looking to break away from the mold. Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotel Group have formed a new hotel search engine called Roomkey. There are few reasons they have partnered together to form this but one of the primary ones is to lessen their dependency upon the online travel agencies (OTA’s) and reduce their commission paid to them.

Roomkey.com will allow users to search through all 23,000 hotels in the company’s brand and will give them access to the hotel company website. Roomkey is striving to make the hotel search experience as easy as possible for the user by giving them an organized and clean site as well as offering them the lowest hotel rates that are available from the hotel websites. In addition to discounted and advance purchase rates the potential guest will also have an opportunity to receive program credits that they cannot get though an OTA when they book though roomkey.

The big issue here is the commissions that are paid to online travel agencies. Hotels can often times pay OTA’s such as Expedia and Travelocity anywhere from 5 to 30 percent and sometimes as high as 60 percent. There doesn’t seem to be any slowing down for the OTA’s with 45% off all online hotel bookings in the United States going to them in 2011. The site is in beta and will officially launch the non beta version sometime in March. This should be interesting how well this turns out and could be a great tool especially if these hotels are the type of hotels you stay at when traveling.

Categories: Blog,Hotel Internet Marketing,Hotels & Resorts,Internet Marketing,SEO — Tags: , , , , , , , ;

What Social Search Means For Hotels

Golda Criddle by
on January 13th, 2012

The tech community is abuzz because of a change in Google Search this week. Google started rolling out personalized results into its search results this week, calling it “Search Plus Your Web.” Now, when users are signed into Google, Google+ Profiles, Pages and other content will show up in their searches. The move is not a complete delve into social search, as there are still “global search results,” which will toggle on when clicking the button on the upper right hand corner of results or by signing off.

The idea behind Google’s new social search is not new; content shared by friends is more relevant than that shared by strangers. People have been conducting their own social searches using social networks like Facebook and Twitter for years by asking for recommendations directly. “Search Plus Your Web” automates this process and allows for instant results rather than waiting for someone to actively respond.

Many social networks and travel sites not associated with Google such as Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and TripAdvisor are displeased with the changes because they “favor” Google+ Pages, Profiles and pictures over their own by placing them on top of search results. Google also displays Google Maps , Google+ Profiles, and Places pages on the right-hand side of searches for places.

What does all of this change mean for hotels? They can no longer afford to ignore Google+ and Google Places as a growing social network. Google is the largest search engine, and it is commonly known that many people do not look past the first page of their search results. A Google search for “hotels in Beverly Hills” will bring up the page below, with personalized results at the very top of the page. When a traveler sees that someone in his or her network has posted about a hotel in the area they are researching, as long as it is a positive review/post, it is likely that they will consider that hotel over random results further down on the page.


Further, a search for information on a specific hotel (such as Four Seasons, pictured below) will bring up not only personalized results at the top, but also its Google Places on the right-hand side with maps, pictures and information such as prices, bus lines and ratings. Having all this displayed is valuable because customers instantly have potentially enough information to decide whether or not to stay at this hotel right without even leaving the search results.


Since Google Places pages are now such a big part of Google search results, hotels should take care to create, moderate and liven up their pages by answering questions like these:

  • Does your hotel’s Google Places page contain pictures? If not, it certainly should. If so, do they highlight the positive aspects of your hotel? It may be time to update those older pictures, especially if the hotel has recently gone through renovations.
  • Where do you stand in terms of reviews on Google Places?  If many of your reviews are negative, perhaps you need to work harder to encourage happy guests to review on Google Places.

How do you think Google’s “Search Plus Your World” will affect your hotel? Feel free to share your thoughts below!

Categories: B2B & B2C,Blog,Hotel Internet Marketing,Hotels & Resorts,Internet Marketing,Photo & Video,Social Media,Social Media Marketing — Tags: , , , , , ;

How Hotels Can Embrace the Tablet Trend

Renee Radia by
on January 11th, 2012

With over 11% of U.S. adults owning a tablet computer, it’s time for more hotels to get savvy with the trend. Utilizing an iPad or other tablet device in everyday practices at a hotel can be a rewarding, impressive, and fun way to interact with guests. Not to mention it can cut down on printing costs! There are many ways to incorporate tablets into your property, whether it is loaning them to your guests during their stays (or perhaps just your elite guests), or simply giving them to your staff for customer service/concierge use. Here are some ideas of how your hotel can use a tablet:

  • Spice up the check-in process. Instead of the same old tedious check-in process, keep things interesting by showing your guests how tech-savvy you are. They will likely be impressed by the ease of the process, and isn’t there still a little bit of a wow-factor when it comes to iPads? If they ask any questions about nearby activities or events, flip through a brochure on the tablet that will show them their options in a visually stimulating way.
  • Show enticing photos on your menu. What better way to increase your room service sales than by putting the menu on an app or online and showing decadent photos of your food? Guests can even order directly from the kitchen through the tablet! A 2011 USA Today article on the topic quotes Joe Adkisson of Ascension Software acknowledging that “…room service orders at his hotels have increased 15% to 20%” since they started allowing guests to order and view menus on tablets. You can even take it a step further and use your iPad as a wine list at your in-house restaurant. Keep it updated whenever there are new additions and allow users to read wine reviews and pairings directly on the device.

  • Provide many in-room amenities. Software like that supplied by Intelity and used by such hotels as the Plaza in New York allows for iPads to become essentially in-room remote controls. With just a swipe of a finger, guests can adjust the room temperature or turn on a light. They can browse area guides or place dinner reservations. For guests traveling in groups, there are even customized apps that allow for sharing common itineraries.
  • Enhance your customer service. Instead of guests walking down to the concierge desk or waiting on the phone, guests can use their tablets to message the concierge with their questions about the city or requests for wake-up calls. If a room needs more towels, the message can be sent directly to housekeeping. Guests will love the simplicity of the process and will enjoy being able to use iPads or other tablets to do something so straightforward.

How has your hotel adopted tablets? Feel free to share any ideas in the comments below.

Categories: Blog,Hotel Internet Marketing,Hotels & Resorts,Photo & Video,Social Media — Tags: , , , , , , ;

Be Cautious With Your Smartphone in 2012

David Sotelo by
on January 9th, 2012

As we all know smartphones have exploded in popularity and are becoming as common and important as carrying around our wallet. In fact they may soon replace our wallet. They have and continue to evolve into not only just a mobile device but a do it all companion that we rely on for just about everything. Google reported that there were 3.7 million android devices activated over this past Christmas weekend. There are several players in the game but the two heavy weights are apple with their iOS and Google with their Android system. It’s reminiscent of Apple vs. Microsoft during the personal computer era.

 

 

The good will be the continued evolution of mobile hardware and software to make our lives more convenient, fun and productive. The bad is that with the rapid growth there will be a whole new wave of hackers looking to pounce on unsuspecting and vulnerable users. Smartphone users for the most part did not have to worry about installing antivirus or security apps on their phone but now it’s becoming more of an issue. Hackers are going after the money so that means you’re shopping and mobile banking are going to be more enticing for them. Your personal and business contacts as well as emails are also valued by hackers.

The more up to date your operating system is the better prepared you will be to fend off attacks but the rise of hackers still make almost all smartphone’s subject to security breaches and mobile malware. Android is more vulnerable to attacks because it is an open source operating system and a new report by Lookout Mobile Security Systems estimated that Android users lost more than a million dollars to cyber thieves last year. So what is so bad about being attacked? Hackers and thieves cans steal your financial passwords and take money out of your account. They can run up your cell phone bill, send text messages to companies so you can be charged, slow down your phones to a crawl and many other malicious activity.

There are several things you can do to minimize your chances of getting attacked such as installing a mobile security application on your phone. There are several good applications that protect your phone from cyber attacks. Using official applications are more secure than using your browser, so if you are banking make sure your use the banks official app if it is available. Using secure Wi-Fi is important as public Wi-Fi is an open invitation to be searched. Use different passwords for your accounts and try to use websites that have secure sockets layer encryption (SSL). Nobody knows what’s in store for 2012 but it looks like this is the year you may want to secure your smartphone.

Categories: App Reviews,Blog — Tags: , , , , , , , , ;

Blog Content Management Systems 101

Golda Criddle by
on January 6th, 2012

Blog comments suffer from a bad reputation nowadays, with many popular blogs disabling them all together.Comments are often a space for spam, trolls and cyber-bulling, all of which are a pain for bloggers to moderate.  However, comments themselves are visible evidence that people are actually reading what you’re writing. Further, they are great for attracting traffic to your blog, and not just through spam. If you comment on other sites or blogs, your will be more visible simply through inbound links on the web.

Most blogs come with their own comment system, but often it is just a stream of comments. Using a custom comment system allows you to filter out some of the negative aspects mentioned earlier. Custom comment systems force users assign a picture Gravatar, or “Globally Recognized Avatar.” When you see a Gravatar, you can be assured that the commenter is an actual person instead of a spam bot. These systems also often allow for commenting on other readers’ comments, otherwise known as threaded commenting.

Here are a few of the more popular blog comment system option and how they differ from each other:

  • Disqus: We use this commenting system on our blog. It has a great spam blocker included in the system that allows for most spam to never see the light of day on your blog. It also allows users to create an identity that transcends a single blog. Your comments will link to a profile, and your profile will link to other blogs you’ve commented on, giving bloggers an idea of who their commenter’s are through their online presence.  This can drive traffic to your blog, and also help you find other blogs that may interest you. You can also link your profile to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
  • Engag.io: This web application is an inbox with analytics for all of your conversations on blogs and social networks. It watches for comments posted to and from you and dumps everything into one inbox for you to track. You can also search for certain comments in order to stay engaged with people who comment on your blog posts the most.
  • Livefyre: This tool offers a more social approach to blog commenting. Your profile is tied to your Facebook and Twitter accounts so that you can draw your friends and followers into the conversation. Further, you can @reference people in the conversation, and they will receive notifications that you’ve mentioned them.  You can also share links directly in your comment with a Twitter-friendly shortened URL.

Which do you prefer? Feel free to use our comment system to let us know!

Categories: Blog,Internet Marketing,Social Media,Social Media Marketing — Tags: , , , , , , ;
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