IN-DEPTH: Ann Nadeau, corporate director of marketing, Joie de Vivre on how factors such as leadership and culture of the company impact the way employees can get behind social media

Published: 21 Feb 2011

IN-DEPTH: Ann Nadeau, corporate director of marketing, Joie de Vivre on how factors such as leadership and culture of the company impact the way employees can get behind social media

By Ritesh Gupta

Hotel companies that have labeled their social media campaigns as successful ones believe that such results were achieved largely from fundamentals that have always been important to a hotel’s success: positive interactions between employees and guests, and word of mouth from customers sharing positive experiences with their personal networks.

The Internet has given the hotel industry tools to engage with customers more frequently and actively and their customers now have large networks online, which has allowed them to expand the reach of word of mouth about their business.

Content is very important in online marketing and whether it’s a big hotel company or a single property hotel, it is important to produce content that is interesting, relevant and sharable rather than focused purely on product advertisement. It is recommended that one can have a rough content plan to guide you but one needs to be topical. Encourage debate and let the community guide you where you want to go in terms of future planning.

Ann Nadeau, corporate director of marketing, Joie de Vivre, says the social space is dependent on building trusting relationship – listen, engage and communicate.

“We approach generating content or initiating conversations as a way of continuing the dialogue with our customers that typically begins given their connection to one or more of our hotels. We think about what your audience would be interested in hearing about, asking about personal interests such as a favourite thing to do at a specific travel destination or a special meal at a restaurant they experienced for their birthday,” explained Nadeau, who is scheduled to speak at the forthcoming Social Media Strategies for Travel USA 2011 conference, to be held in San Francisco this year (March 2-3, 2011).

Nadeau added, “We do plan in advance however considering timing and listening is essential for any of our efforts to make an impact on the path to building stronger relationships. While a simple concept, asking questions, responding and acting on suggestions can go a long in way in growing the relationship. We also listen to what is happening in the world and locally as we feel it is important for us to take part in the conversation as well.”

Nadeau spoke to EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta about how the travel industry can count on its best resources, creating new conversations and lot more. Excerpts:

How can a travel company count on its best resources – employees – when it comes to posting content and interacting with consumers on social media platforms?

Ann Nadeau:

The leadership and culture of the company tremendously influences how employees can get behind social media as an extension of the excellent service provided at a hotel. At Joie de Vivre our founder and senior leaders are committed to developing and engaging and servicing our guests needs whether it be in-person or online.

We have a Social Media Champion at each property. The Champion may be someone who works at the front desk or as a sales manager, for example, and excels at both customer service and is passionate about the social media arena. The Champion is empowered to create content, talk with guests and share relevant brand and hotel information that would resonate with their customer base. Since the Champions are typically folks on the front lines of service building the relationship is a natural extension to the social platforms.

We gather the Social Media Champions together on a regular basis for Social Media Summits and classes at Joie de Vivre University. The sharing, learning and empowerment of this group helps enable ongoing interaction with our guests. We also recognise and reward Champions at our Summits and once a year by leadership at our Revenue Retreat.

If consumer generated content on social media sites and networks vis-à-vis content produced on travel companies’ websites/ blogs is perceived to be more credible by the online travellers, then how can travel brands attract their market towards them and stay in front of them without intruding too much? Should travel companies guide consumers towards their blogs/ social media platforms rather than being part of conversations on independent blogs/ social media platforms?

Ann Nadeau:

We do both as we see the value in contributing to the conversations and helping to create new conversations. We also look for ways to help our customers more easily use the social input guide them while doing their travel research while still remaining engaged with our brand. For example, at hotelerwin.com (and soon on our other hotel sites) we have TripAdvisor ratings along with FB and Twitter feeding in so guests can view that without having to leave our site while they consider their travel plans.

How should companies go about nurturing brand personality through social media? What do you recommend when it comes to choosing the right tone/engagement strategy to suit a particular brand?

Ann Nadeau:

Be yourself! What has worked for us is to make our social media presence a natural extension of which we are when we engage with our guests. Our service and connection with our guests needs to happen in our lobby just as it would on our Facebook page. Social media allows us the opportunity to amplify our voice and refine our ability to listen to those that matter to us most and at the same time remain personally connected one-to-one. We can address customer service issues, share more about some unique property amenities, discuss local destination information and provide deals wish to exchange with our guests. Sure, the risks are higher if something goes wrong but if you are transparent, sincere and genuine in creating great experiences for your customers, forgiveness and recovery in those instances will come a little easier.

How do you think one should approach this as an ongoing initiative, be it for capitalising on positive comments, enlarged subscriber or fan base etc.?

Ann Nadeau:

Clear accountability and understanding this is about building an ongoing relationship is important to supporting a social media strategy and execution. For Joie de Vivre, in additon to Social Media Champions, Joie de Vivre General Managers are accountable for handling timely responses to guest feedback – good, bad or ugly! We’ve equipped the GMs with a tool and training to help them to monitor and dialogue effectively with a guest about his/her feedback. Given the volume of content across platforms the tool helps the GM to focus in and respond with efficiency on what matters. Our PR team also acts as a resource to guide the GMs or coaching on when it may make sense to escalate an issue.

How should travel companies go about evaluating a metric like engagement as part of social media RoI?

Ann Nadeau:

If we are only collecting fans but not engaging with them with them for the long-term– relationship, we will not see the benefits of the social customer. Pragmatically, Facebook provides interaction rates that can be helpful to measure how engaged or not your social media community is. For brands with fewer than 20K followers, 1% interaction level or higher is a benchmark I recently heard for FB. Test questions that speak to the passions of your customers and engage in the conversation when you get responses. Track your progress and continue with the mindset that you aim to build a trusting relationship in all your interactions.

What factors should one focus on while allocating resources/ budgets within the organisation and outsourcing work from external partners for social media planning and execution?

Ann Nadeau:

What is the strategy for the company? Maybe you need more fans? Or perhaps you need more engagement? Do you have the metrics in place to keep up the ongoing monitoring and relationship building? Effectively you will likely need to this together with a level of integration to get the performance your brand needs; external partners may be helpful if you aren’t sure how to take your program to the next level. For us, Joie de Vivre has executed entirely in-house. We believe we know our guests best and want our culture and brand attributes to come through naturally to our customers on social platforms. For other organisations it could be better to outsource if social media is not a natural extension of how you have typically operated with your customers as a brand.

Social Media Strategies for Travel USA 2011

Ann Nadeau, corporate director of marketing, Joie de Vivre is scheduled to speak at the forthcoming Social Media Strategies for Travel USA 2011 conference, to be held in San Francisco (March 2-3, 2011).

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EyeforTravel
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gina@eyefortravel.com