Mediaboss Marketing

Yelena Belashova General Manager, Crowne Plaza World Trade Centre Moscow Hotel

Thepresent is getting more andmore influenced byvirtual reality. It could now be almost impossible tofind aperson who knows nothing about thevirtual world. Sharing all kinds ofinformation, starting frompersonal thoughts andending with present location, has become thetrend captivating people's minds andlifestyle with thehelp ofdifferent means ofInternet connection. Another boom is themobile devices that can be used anytime, anywhere. So probably there is no easier way toimmediately share information about thecompany, its products andservices, special offers, news, photos andother entertaining data than online. Andprecisely speaking: various social media.

Once ahotel decides toget involved invirtual social activity, there appears thequestion ofwhere tobe present. As thesocial media world is enormous, there is avital decision ofchoosing. Being everywhere leads tocomplete failure interms ofproviding proper information inproper amounts andkeeping all your audiences entertained, informed andactive. Thesimple anduniversal path forany company is tostart using blogs (e.g. Twitter) andsocial networks (e.g. Facebook, Google+). Choosing precisely these social media means "killing two birds with one stone" as they allow theposting ofall kinds ofinformation including photos, videos andaudio files. Andthey have tremendous possibilities tobuild your online audience.

When Crowne Plaza Moscow faced thequestion ofbeing present insocial media, thepositive answer appeared immediately. Otherwise we would have lost ahuge loyal audience ofour online friends andsubscribers without even gaining it. With this important step ofsharing information, news andspecial offers, communicating with users all over theworld has become theeasiest andmost pleasant thing we have ever done.

Would you ask whether there are benefits todeveloping your online presence? Theanswer is obvious as there are many. Theworld has gone online andmobile. People prefer toget information as quickly as astrike oflightning. Right now, right atthe place where he or she is standing. Andthe help comes fromsocial media. Why? First ofall, communicating with theaudience is easy. Once you get amessage, you answer. But themain point is that all other users will see your feedback andknow that you do take actions. Sharing is also easy. Once you post news, pictures andvideos, agreat number ofpeople take notice immediately. Forexample, Crowne Plaza Moscow always shares photos ofits new dishes created atour Real Food Restaurant.

Moreover we post recipes ofthese dishes with step-by-step instructions with photos starring either our chef or chef confectioner. These are themost popular themes we conduct. Andour online friends are fond ofthem. They share them with their friends, increasing our hotel's audience. This is so as people usually cannot resist peaking atwhat their friends are interested inand get interested as well. I could also hint atcreating contests andcompetitions: another tool toattract more audience. Would you like toget anattractive prize just foranswering aquestion? I bet no one would refuse that, so once again you increase your loyal online audience. Andwhat is thebest with thevirtual world is that there are no costs tobe online: just thetime you will spend oncreating your page, creating your audience andposting content afterward. Creating andraising theaudience fromzero is probably still themost complicated question inthe matter, but it is possible todeal within arather concise time.

If you conduct asmall survey andcheck who ofyour direct competitors already has anonline profile, onFacebook, onTwitter or onsome other popular social sites, you will surprisingly find out: all ofthem.

Thecompetition is tough so straight away go social andkeep up with themodern trends ofliving anddoing business. Create content andcreate interest inyour company. Tell people that you know how tobe up-to-date, meaning you know what your client needs. Andsurprisingly you will see that thevirtual audience has thedesire toturn intoreal buyers.

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Hotel Social Media Marketing. Unlocking Your Online Potential

25-05-2012 11:02

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Social Marketing Tape 3 Large - Video

It started with a Rawr and ended with a roo. But Samsung Canadas latest social media marketing effort has grown into something more than the tiny whimsical exchange that began on Facebook.

On Wednesday, Samsung customer Shane Bennett, who owns a Galaxy smartphone as well as a laptop and LCD TV made by the company, wrote a private message to Samsung Canada on Facebook. On a whim, he asked whether he could get a free upgrade of his phone to the latest model, the S III, not yet in stores.

To sweeten the request, he added, I have attached a picture of a dragon I just drew for you.

The crudely scribbled green monster, which sports a beaver-like tail and an amazing ability to breathe fire despite the fact that his mouth appears to be closed, appeared beneath the message. A helpful sound effect, Rawr was scrawled above the flames.

Samsung Canada has just one online community manager for its Facebook pages, Twitter feed and Google+ profile, so Drew Bomhof did not receive the message until Thursday. His response was to politely deny the request for a free phone, explaining that if they gave them to everyone who asked the company would go under. (Mr. Bromhof, an employee of agency Cheil Canada, noted in an interview that compoarable smarthpones retail in the $800 range.)

That being said, your drawing of the dragon is epic, he wrote in his reply, so were returning the favour. Please find attached a drawing of a kangaroo on a unicycle.

Mr. Bomhof clarified in an interview, redundantly, that he is not an artist.

Despite that, Mr. Bennett was so pleased with the reply that he took to Reddit, the self-proclaimed front page of the Internet and a widely respected forum where readers vote the best content to the top of the site. Mr. Bennett posted a picture of the message thread, with the dragon and kangaroo, on the site and watched as it was voted up to the front page on Thursday evening.

So that page just got liked, one commenter wrote on the Reddit feed.

As the post was viewed by more people, some were driven back to the companys Facebook wall.

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When social media marketing goes right

24-05-2012 08:55 Awesome Sauce Media social media marketing

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Awesome Sauce Sauce Media Social Marketing - Video

Oracle is acquiring Vitrue, a cloud-based social media marketing campaign creator that enables customers to create, manage and measure social media marketing campaigns on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Google+.

Oracle said that Vitrue, combined with Oracles existing sales, service, commerce, social data management and analytics capabilities, will create the most advanced and comprehensive social relationship platform, according to a news release.

Terms of the acquisition of Atlanta-based Vitrue, which is expected to close sometime this summer, were not disclosed.

The Vitrue acquisition news of May 23 follows by one day the announcement by Oracle enterprise software rival SAP of its $4.3 billion acquisition of Ariba, which is a provider of cloud-based collaborative commerce applications used primarily in business-to-business environments. While Ariba and Vitrue have different business models, both acquisitions represent efforts by the on-premise software giants to deliver software via the cloud. Vitrue is a software as a service (SaaS) provider.

The combination of Oracle and Vitrue is expected to help organizations develop more meaningful customer engagements with consistent brand experiences, improve their return on investment across multiple channels and social media, and enhance customer service through real-time responsiveness to their communication with companies, Oracle stated.

While social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, are popular with Internet users, marketing departments have also realized that they can be an effective way to engage with the millions of members of those social networks and perhaps influence their buying decisions. According to comScore, social media sites now reach 82 percent of the worlds online population. comScore also estimates that the average amount of time people spend on social media sites grew by 35 percent in 2011 and that there are 3.2 million business pages on Facebook.

Already, Vitrue provides social networking services for businesses and manages 1.3 billion social interactions for 500 different brands, including Dr. Pepper, McDonalds, Procter & Gamble, Southwest Airlines and Yahoo.

The worlds greatest brands have been built by creating meaningful relationships between organizations and their customers," said Reggie Bradford, founder and chief executive officer of Vitrue, in a prepared statement. He added that as part of Oracle, Vitrue can deliver its social media marketing platform to Oracles many enterprise customers.

The array of services Vitrue offers for customers social marketing campaigns include publishing of content to social media sites, managing communities of consumers engaging with the site, and building customizable applications on Facebook to further market to consumers. Other Vitrue services include delivering customized modules for Facebook features, such as Pinterest and Instagram, as well as creating Facebook games and providing deep analytics of the impact of social media engagement using technology from Vitrue and Facebook.

The proliferation of social media and an increased demand by consumers to engage with brands across multiple social channels is driving chief marketing officers to look for an integrated social marketing platform, said Thomas Kurian, executive vice president for product development at Oracle.

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Oracle Buys Vitrue to Add Cloud Social Marketing to App Portfolio