Social Marketing for Associations

It is going to be alright.

Social Marketing for Associations.

Well I did one for hotels so why not one for Associations too.

I had the pleasure of sitting next to an Association Meetings Director at a PCMA event last week and of course as everything does these days the meeting turned to social marketing/ networking and Twitter.
So, I leaned over and asked what their plan was for social media and was told they were just now looking into that very thing and did I know anything about it.

We ended up talking for over an hour but here are the 5 take aways that the Executiver Director said she came away with.

1/ Just do it.
Go into your office and ask the under 25’s in your org if you can see their Facebook page and twitter feed. If they have over 300 friends on facebook , 1,000 followers on Twitter they are a very good place to start. They already work for you so know your org inside and out, they “get it” and they are cheap.

2/ If you do not have a social media presence your members will be very forgiving as you start out. In fact your social media frenzied members will appreciate it more if they have a platform they are very comfortable with to talk to you about your association and will give you great insights,,, and more free help.

3/ By following #2 you are making your members feel as if they are an integral part of growing their association. There are a lot of articles out there on how to make the younger generation loyal employees/members. The main one is ask them to help improve a system by doing something they love to do and are good at and you will be a massive hit. You won’t believe how good they are at this kind of stuff and how fast they will get you up and running.

4/ Follow your gut. You know your association better than anyone else out there and know what your end goal is. Be wary of so called Social Media experts or companies that tout their Social Media Mastery. Everyone out there is calling themselves experts and very few are. Your members are very sharp and will spot a phony from a mile away and you will end up worse off than when you started.

5/ Go to your Twitter page and type in the following “I need advice on developing my associations social marketing strategy #eventprofs” If you don’t have a Twitter account go to the under 25 crowd again and have them set you up. It will take them 5 minutes and you will make their day.

Eventprofs are meeting professionals and have been following social media since it started. They will give you some phenomenal pointers.

Good luck and have fun with it.

Calum.

Tough Road Ahead? Ask the smartest person you know for help.

Tough Road Ahead?

A friend sent me this picture of Scotland Monday morning and to be honest my week looked exactly like this picture.

At first glance it looked to be completely devoid of life. Just a barren landscape. Not a sight or sign of anything. No clients, no new e-mails in my inbox, no business, the silence was deafening. There was no way I was going to get where I need to go.

But by the end of business Thursday I was up to my ears in it. Clients coming out of the walls, the phone ringing off the hook and a plan and way forward that is going to generate a good return from me, yes even in this market.

How? Well I sat down and just stopped. I focused on the picture and let the enormity of the barren landscape wash over me and through me. There is an austere beauty in its simplicity and so I sat completely still and took this moment to clear my mind of all the clutter and noise that makes up the daily routine of a sales manager and it came to me.

I might not know what to do but I do know who does. Who would I want on that road with me to help me back to civilization! I had been so consumed with the chase and fighting for business that I had forgotten that I know one of the smartest most successful people in my business. Why was I not reaching out to ask him for help? So I did.

I called and met him for him lunch. We sat down (of course I bought), I told him my position and what I though I should do. He listened and then as we ate he stripped it down and we built up a new plan. I put it into action the minute I got back to the office and it roared into life.

Everyone is running so hard and fast right now you are going to hit the wall. You are going to come to a point where you find yourself standing on an empty road in the middle of nowhere not quite knowing how you got there or how to get out of there.

You could do what I did and reach out to the smartest person you know and ask for help. You know who they are and they will be delighted to help.

Send me your stories or thoughts. I would love your feedback.

Calum

Social Marketing for Hotels

Hotels are usually a little behind on the Social Marketing trends. I would love to see them do something like this.

5/ On your Hotel Blog page every day have 1 main posting. Business, social marketing or the hotel giveaway for the day. The articles need to be current and have a clear message. If you don’t have a hotel blog or corp guidelines say you can’t have one ask your DOSM to use theirs. I would just do it, corp will not complain when they see your STR report in 2 months.

4/ Articles need to be actual information the guest can use and put into practice that day. (5 closing techniques of top sales people, 5 key techniques that will get you the appointment, best blogs that will help you improve your online personal brand, 5 ways to get your boss to endorse you for the job over the other applicants.

3/ People that ReTweet hotel deal for the day between 4pm – 6pm (high twitter traffic time) get entered for weekly drawing for comp hotel stay/ comp airline ticket/ xxxx reward points/ bath robe).

2/ Front desk staff are to hand out printed copies of the article posted for that day on the Blog with the guest bill at check out. Printed article and the bill have URL for Twitter, Blog & Facebook on it.

1/ All hotel staff have business cards with the hotels URL for Twitter, Blog & Facebook. On back of the business card is a brief 3 lines telling them why they need to follow/ friend the hotel. (see #4 for examples)

Send me links if you find hotels doing this already.

My first hotel job. I wanted to go here but ended up in Anaheim, CA. Go figure.

16 years in hotels, you may as well see how it all started.

I worked front desk at the Pan Pacific hotel in Anaheim CA. It is now Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel. I loved every minute of it. OK, maybe not every minute but it was where I fell in love with hotels.

I was not long over from Scotland the the GM was a man called Jan Segers. He had crazy energy and walked the hotel from top to bottom every day. Front and back of house. He always stopped at the Front Desk and asked us how his hotel was doing.
Now, I always pulled the same shift as this latino Jimmy Vega. We had a routine down for the guests after about a month. We laughed all day and the guests laughed along with us no matter if their room was not ready, had lost luggage or declined credit cards. We had a ball.

So when Jan Segers came up we just kept on going.
We threw everything we could think of that was wrong with the hotel at him and he laughed right along with us. No matter what was wrong he never got upset.
There was always something to bust him over but it was never the same thing twice.

I ended up leaving the front desk for a job in a hotel sales department. I wanted to be the guy in the suit having lunch with clients in the hotel restaurant for a change. I swore to Jimmy I would never oversell the Kings so when the guests checked into my new place they would not shout at the front desk staff.
HAH!! I was sooo green.

I still love the hospitality business after 16 years. I am never getting out. Even now when things are really tough I make sure I laugh every day and get coworkers to join in. I remember Jan and I talk to the staff on the front line and make sure they tell me exactley what they see, what they feel and what they want me to do about it. Then I do everything I can to make it happen.

Yes, I still talk to Jimmy Vega and we still crack each other up 16 years later.