The Innkeeping Blog

The big question about all this social media hubbub in the innkeeping industry is – will getting on Facebook, Twitter and other similar “social media sites du jour” bring me reservations? I think we should look at the rise of social media sites in three ways with regard to effect on innkeeping – learning, reservations and novelty.

Reader Interruption…If you don’t know what Twitter is, click here for a neat video explanation. If you don’t know what Facebook is, click here for Facebook’s explanation.

My short and sweet explanation …Twitter is a program that allows people to share short statements, called “Tweets,” about what’s on their mind, anything from “Just made bananas foster pancakes for 8 happy guests” to “Just read this blog post about B&B cancellation policies.” Users are limited to 140 characters, and each person has followers and can follow others. It can be passive (you get others’ “Tweets” sent to your cell phone) or active (you could log in and check them out at your convenience). Facebook is a much more comprehensive site that allows users to post all kinds of content on their own “pages,” including photos, links to items of interest, personal information, business information, and so much more…so much so, that it’s hard to encapsulate in a few sentences. Your “friends” on Facebook get updates when you change your page and add any content, and you get the same updates from them. It’s a bit overwhelming, but it is just as interesting as it is overwhelming. There’s a reason Facebook has over 200,000,000 users.

So, why should innkeepers strongly and carefully consider jumping in with sites like Twitter and Facebook, when on the surface it might seem like just a bunch of noise, hype and Gen X stuff?

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