2009 Winner – Scrappy – Anvil Media

The travel industry has suffered during this recession, so in order to increase sales during a down economy we had to get creative with how we attracted businesses. It was time to get extremely proactive and start reaching out to customers, versus them seeking us out. We wanted to connect with people who just started thinking about travel, and get in early. Our goals were to utilize Twitter & Facebook to start conversations and engage potential customers, increase brand awareness and ultimately, to influence online bookings. We utilized Twitter to reach out to folks traveling to any of our markets in order to get on their radar. The ultimate prospect was someone searching for a hotel where we could give a 140 character pitch that didn’t sound desperate. Additional ways to engage folks have been to use trivia questions. We give away free room nights, gift certificates, t-shirts, etc to those that answer questions properly. This has helped show off the brand’s personality, gain more followers and garner attention on blogs/sites. Anvil used Facebook as more of an aggregator for blog posts, tweets, photos, video and hotel information. The combined Twitter/Facebook social media campaign has proven very successful as we’ve begun booking rooms directly from Twitter by reaching out. A success story: A follower contacted me and mentioned his parents were staying at a competitor hotel a few blocks down the street. This particular follower was impressed with our social media efforts on Twitter (and Facebook). He was able to get his parents to switch their reservations to stay at my client’s hotel. This is the power of Twitter in action. Establishing your brand, being respected for the work/effort you put into it and seeing the payoff at the end through a conversion/sale.

http://www.twitter.com/hotel_deluxe

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Portland-OR/Hotel-deLuxe/52472127121?ref=ts

http://www.twitter.com/hotel_lucia

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Portland-OR/Hotel-Lucia/11150774207?ref=ts

http://www.twitter.com/hotel_max

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seattle-WA/Hotel-Max/36187032046?ref=ts

http://www.twitter.com/hotel_murano

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tacoma-WA/Hotel-Murano/16709223235?ref=ts

http://www.twitter.com/hotel_preston

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nashville-TN/Hotel-Preston/36251942283?ref=ts

Tagged as: Facebook, Hotel Deluxe, Hotel Lucia, Hotel Max, Hotel Murano, Hotel Preston, Social Media Awards, SoMe Winner, Twitter