It’s interesting to see how the buzz around social media and related developments has gradually grown over the past two years in the hotel industry. In 2008 social media was still considered a fad and made the odd appearance here and there in hospitality news media…now in 2010 you hardly find any hotel news publication, hotel blog or newsletter worth their salt without the token social media piece.
Looking at the wide variety of hotel social media articles, however, it appears very clear that the technology adoption curve (or diffusion of innovation) is alive and well. Every hospitality blogger and hotel news company is talking about social media…but the articles (and authors) clearly follow the curve. I thought it’d be fun to list some of the types of social media articles and blogs currently making the rounds atop the diffusion of innovation curve…here goes:
As you can see, we’ve got the technology Laggards, who still claim social media and hotels just don’t mix…the late majority have at least woken up to the benefits of hotel reputation management using social media.
The Early majority tend to blog / write about how hoteliers can move beyond pure hotel reputation management and tackle the big scary world of social media by aligning with business and hotel marketing strategy.
Early social media adopters have moved on to publishing detailed hotel social media case studies and recommendations to hoteliers (and other tourism sectors) on how to go about squeezing the best Return on their Social Media “Involvement” (ROI redefined)…particularly refreshing are the pieces about integration, in relation to both hotel operations/processes and hotel technology.
The Innovators, meanwhile, are busy preparing for the next big thing in social media…but these articles are the rarer finds, because they’re either doing great work behind the scenes to gain an edge…or actually driving the change.
Where do YOU fall on the social media adoption curve?
Hotel AI, Marketing, Tech and Loyalty 
Hi JJ,
Interesting perspective… have you come across any articles recently which fall into the “Innovator” category? I bet one of those would be an interesting read…
Enjoyed reading the post!
Drew
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Hi Drew – thanks! The innovator category IS the rarest find…some good stuff from the big hospitality / travel research firms now and then. I see you’re team is doing some blogging about tech change too – great stuff!
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Interesting look at the problem. And you’re totally right. I was first into Social Media and then into hospitality so came the other way, my first reaction was how can they work together. Currently as a consultant for hotels on social media strategies I still do encounter some of the latter part. In fact much too much of that.
http://hospitalitymarketingonline.wordpress.com
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nice one…
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Very interesting post and I feel social media should play a fairly important role in any hotel’s marketing plan. However, there’s one little point you make that I’m not sure about, in terms of online reputation management, there’s still a great deal of resistance in the hospitality industry.
Two quick examples.
The KwikChek lawsuit against TripAdvisor. It’s like watching the music industry trying to shut down illegal downloads and I suspect it will be about as effective.
The fact that only 7% of hotels respond to customer comments on TripAdvisor which is obviously only one of many such sites.
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