Digital Marketing Resolution - Case#1By Max Starkov & Mariana Mechoso Safer

1. I will bring social, local and mobile marketing initiatives to the forefront of my hotel digital marketing plans this year.

Situation:
In 2012 hoteliers will be hearing a lot of the buzzword SoLoMo (SOcial, LOcal, MObile). Meant to convey the convergence of these three major media, the term SoLoMo describes a "marriage made in heaven" between the three content and marketing platforms. Why does this mean for hoteliers? Hotel guests are avid SoLoMo services users. Most social network engagements by travel consumers are done via mobile device. Consumers perform more than 3 billion local searches every month, and one in three mobile searches have local intent vs. one in five desktop searches (Google).

Unlike the desktop Web world, SoLoMo allows hoteliers to combine real-time customer geo-location with their demographic and psychographic information and time- and location-relevant promotions. The success of location-based social media such as Foursquare has shown us that rewards and recommendations are only the beginning. Hoteliers need to consider how to best utilize SoLoMo to engage their customers and generate incremental revenues.

Action Steps:
By focusing efforts on social media, local marketing, and mobile marketing, hotel marketers have the ability to deliver more personalized, relevant content and engage existing guests and potential customers like never before.

To begin with, how well optimized are your property profiles in the main data providers, which feed many local directories and geo-social sites? How well optimized are your property local search listings on Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local? What about all the local online directories and yellow pages? Do you have a local citation listing program in place?

Once you take care of your local content and listing strategy, it is time to enhance your mobile marketing presence. How deep, relevant and engaging is the local content on your mobile site? Do you have automated push of specials, promotions and local events from the property "desktop" website to the mobile site to keep your mobile presence "fresh?" Do you use micro-formats and Schema codes to relay the time- and location-relevant nature of these promotions and events to the search engines? Does your property take advantage of coupon promotions through Google?

Other recommendations include engaging your local customers via time- and location-relevant check-in promotions and rewards, launching social media promotions, contests, and post series via Facebook and Twitter, and blogging. Geo-social marketing initiatives allow hoteliers to integrate into customers' lifestyles and connect (and stay connected) with them in ways that were not possible before. Industry experts already predict the end of the Foursquare-type check-in and envision a deeper and more experiential form of "social sharing" instead. Social, local and mobile marketing are great for time- and location-sensitive promotions. In 2012 focus on SoLoMo initiatives and you will remain ahead of the competition.