Why Social Media in the Hospitality Industry Needs More Sensitivity
Archive HTimes | Apr 18, 2011 | Comments 3
Social Media is more than a buzz word! It has become a major part in our modern global society! It has changed our communication culture and it plays a rather huge role in our everyday communication around the world.
Social Media forms thus a major part of hotel business communication as well. There are plenty of ways to communicate and interact with existing and potential clients, stakeholders, partners and various other segmented publicly.
Hotel brands worldwide make use of this new way of communication. You can buy branded virtual gifts on facebook, share links on twitter and post pictures in various networks. Brands use these platforms for lottery drawings, contests and promotions as well as for surveys. It has never been this easy to engage people. Hotel chains in particular may extend their local hotel page via a page on facebook and thus bridging the gap between the corporate global brand image and the regional adjustments!
Then why are things this tricky in the hospitality industry?
Well let us start with the idea of a perfect vacation. People, when on vacation, wish to escape their everyday life and long to enjoy their privacy. And that´s a major keyword. Privacy.
How can hotels and resorts guarantee their guests´privacy within the variety of social networks and platforms?
Picture this: A hotel guest takes a picture of his family at the beach. He incidentally includes another hotel guest in the background. Upon returning to his room, the photographer uploads his new images to facebook and possibly even to the hotels´facebook page. His intention might simply be to share his positive experience. The outcome however could turn out less positive. The other hotel guest might feel deprived of their privacy and might even threaten to take legal action.
So, the first conclusion would be: If you have a facebook hotel page, do not allow fans to upload their pictures to it without prior permission!
Yet there are further traps within the social sphere. Let´s talk Twitter! How to make sure people do not upload pictures displaying other guests via Twitter? Technically this is not a problem limited to hotels but rather it concerns all public areas. But then, how public is a hotel lobby, restaurant or a hotels private beach section? Is it a hotel´s right to forbid taking pictures displaying hotel guests? While people have to be aware that they have inevitably become easier to spy on ever since the social web started off, hotels still have to find their own philosophy and position in this.
Guaranteeing privacy to guests could turn out as a valuable USP in the future! Hotels could provide professional photography workshops for free. During these workshops people are allowed to take their pictures with advice from professional photographers, which might add value to their vacation pictures!
Another positive idea could be the integration of an internal guest forum, that allows guests to engage with other guests online, if they wish to! People thus can share and exchange their online IDs with one another.
Social Media, like any other part of life, has pros and cons. It is up to a social media manager to define a policy that goes well with the brand.
Source: ehotelier.com
Crystal Li
Filed Under: Marketing
Nowadays, Social Media plays an important role in our daily life. Hospitality industry is also changed a lot thanks to Socia media. Everything has both sides: good and bad, so we just need to minimize the negative things and develope the possitive things. We also have to be carefull when post something in the Internet.
Consumer privacy issues are a “red herring.” “You have zero privacy anyway,” Scott McNealy told a group of reporters and analysts Monday night at an event to launch his company’s new Jini technology.
“Get over it.” (http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1999/01/17538)
That was in 1999.
These privacy conversations kill me.
If one wishes for privacy, one shouldn’t leave the house, nor ever go online. It is completely within the best interests of a hotel to protect a guest’s privacy… we go to significant lengths to do so. The issue isn’t about a hotel’s sensitivity to privacy, it’s this current preoccupation with the concept of privacy. No one has any idea what “privacy” means. We have relative freedom, and our lives are relatively unobstructed and we are able to do as we please. But leaving the house – you are subjected to the largest shift in communication history, coupled with modern technological achievements that have, together, completely negated the concept of privacy. It doesn’t exist anymore. In fact… younger generations shed it as a by-product of the lifestyle they seek… a reminder that it simply isn’t going to be an issue for people that will be controlling the world soon. How can we really expect any privacy? It’s a fun conversation about a word few people really understand…. but whether or not we need to be sensitive (we are) is moot. The point is that privacy is ending, and to some extent we are willfully giving it up as a biproduct of being able to access these amazing tools. Think about apps…. how much did you think about all the permissions you granted those people to access it for free? That isn’t free… you are releasing your privacy as payment. It’s happening at an increasing rate, and it’s soon going to be an arcane conversation. It really makes me laugh that these people are on Facebook, posting constant information, and worried about privacy. They worry some professional acquaintance will see something off color, when they have completely given their entire lives worth of information to facebook….
Facebook isn’t free. Privacy doesn’t exist there… there’s equity in your information. Why else would it be valued at 50B? So we give up privacy constantly. In exchange for ESP like connection to friends and supercomputer like access to facts and answers…. I give up much, happily.
But if I can go to a website and spend $30 and know someone’s address, info, etc… I just can’t imagine anyone really taking privacy seriously. Mcnealy was right in 1999. It’s the nature of our culture cannibalizing itself. It’s not a hotel that people have to worry about.
It’s not big brother. It’s us. We are what we fear. Big Brother is ever single one of us with a camera and being in the right place at the right time. What reasonable expectation of privacy would one have when everyone is connected to a camera that immediately uploads online? Our police cameras can’t compete with the aggregate real world social net that is taking down people, and corporations, and governments and nations.
Hotels, arguably, are among the most sensitive organizations in the world when it comes to respecting all levels of it’s guest’s / patron’s privacy. It’s not our responsibility, however, to be blamed for the growing pains involved with the greatest shift in human communication’s history.
Exactly! Social media has become a major part in our modern global society. Privacy is actually one of the biggest problems excising for the industry.Hotels need to find the balance point when they are using social media tools.Use them to gain more profits but not too over.