Hospitality and Social Media

To be honest, as grateful as I was for the presentations by Micros' Dan Jacobs, I was still left with the confusion on how there company was utilizing social media. It felt like more of an explanation of how a POS system worked. As he said he was working with more of a hospitality aspect (in which I have experience in, and while at the same time, try to forget about....), I thought of maybe some more research would be helpful.

Of course we are aware that practically any business needs to embrace social media to help survive. Twitter serves as a platform to announce special promotions and rates. (And therefore, creating brand loyalty.) But, the channel works both ways. As the businesses speak, they also have the position of listening directly to their consumers, and hospitality is all about customer service.

Various ways social media is being utilized in this industry consists of more than responding to complaints and thanking them for the visit, but bettering the experience to the destination. Foursquare works with telling various background history depending on where the user is. The small, neighborhood coffee shop, CoffeGroundz, is the first to take to go orders and reservations via Twitter. Disney and Royal Caribbean Cruises have attracted the 42 million women online looking for advice and recommendations through the mom bloggers. They invite them to participate in their attractions as a way for the household's decision maker to spread the word. How much more reliable is a review when it comes from a mom? Some companies are also encouraging their employees to tweet during their shift to expand that network.