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The ABCs of Creating an Effective Social Media Policy

In most cases, companies create new social media policies to fix recent problems. All too often, the process looks like the following: An inappropriate employee action is discovered by management who immediately requests either HR or the Legal Department to craft a new policy dealing with the issue. A collection of “official experts” is quickly thrown together and sits down to write what they consider to be an appropriate response to the past infraction. This new policy is then hastily communicated to employees via email or the organizational intranet. And the entire process is repeated once the next new infraction occurs. As you can see, this procedure is far from effective causing employees to both ignore and in some cases, completely disregard critical safeguards you’re trying to put in place.

To develop a social media policy that is well-received by employees and capable of accomplishing the company’s goals, organizations should utilize a simple procedural framework. Just think “A-B-C.”

A – Assemble your team

The first step in creating a successful social media policy is to assemble a team of people who will be responsible for drafting the regulations. This team should be composed of professionals who hold positions of executive authority within the organizations, as well as non-executives who bring specialized knowledge or expertise to the table. For example, an entry-level employee with an advanced degree in data security would be an asset to this team even though he doesn’t work in management.

After you have assembled the team, you must evaluate your organization’s current position with regard to social media. One of the easiest ways to do this is by surveying your team members. Ask them about their knowledge of any state or federal laws that affect employees’ use of social media. You should also ask them what they know about employees’ current use of social media platforms. To obtain more in-depth knowledge, distribute confidential questionnaires to all employees.

B- Baseline the process and garner support

Analyze the data you obtained through your surveys and discussion to determine your organization’s baseline of policy awareness and social media use. Next, garner support from the people who will play key roles in the development of your new policy. Assign specific tasks to each member of your team, and reach out to anyone outside the team who will need to approve your new policy after it is complete.

C- Create and communicate

Use the information you have gained and the expertise of your team’s members to develop a social media policy that works for your company and communicate this policy to the rest of the organization. Not every social media policy will be the same. However, it’s generally wise to include a few basic principles. For example, when designating who should release social media posts on behalf of your company, be extremely specific. Employees should understand exactly who will speak on social media, when they will speak and what they will say.

Finally, you must communicate your new social media policies to employees. This requires more effort than simply distributing electronic copies of the policy. Take some time to discuss the policies with employees to be sure that they understand them completely. As time goes on, revisit your policies when you need to and update them as needed.

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The Impact of Social Media on Lodging Performance

Social media has an increasingly important role in hospitality, including guest satisfaction and process improvement. However, one of the more intriguing aspects of social media is their potential to move markets by driving consumers’ purchasing patterns and influencing lodging performance.

In the absence of a comprehensive attempt to quantify the impact of social media upon lodging performance as measured by bookings, occupancy, and revenue, this report uses the unique position of Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research Read More

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7 Simple Steps to Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile

A major part of representing your Human Resources department is having an accessible professional presence not only at your organization, but in cyberspace as well. One of the best ways to establish this presence is to have a respectable LinkedIn profile. If you haven’t spent much time on LinkedIn yet, the task of setting up and maintaining that profile may seem a bit daunting, especially if, like many professionals, your time is limited. Following the recommendations below will enable you to create a complete basic LinkedIn profile in addition to laying a solid foundation you can build on later. Depending on your starting point, you can tackle these to dos in as little as 1-2 hours.

Note: Before you get started, check to see if your employer has created guidelines for you to follow. Since they’re paying your salary and you’re representing their brand, they have a say in how you represent them and your role. 

#1: Set Your Profile to Public

Given the purpose of LinkedIn, it’s hard to understand why anyone would want their profile to be private or anonymous, but many people are still hesitant to let their presence be known. Here are three good reasons why you should opt for a public profile:

  1. If you have an externally-facing role and/or are a senior professional, people you may interact with will look for your profile to learn more about you.  As more and more people come to rely on LinkedIn as a resource, it will increasingly strike people as odd if they can’t find you. That’s not a good reflection on either your professional brand or your organization.
  2. With an anonymous profile, you are referred to in LinkedIn as “private private,” which can look really silly. It’s especially funny when someone with a private profile gets recommended by someone else. I’ve lost count of the number of notifications from my first-level connections that will say something like: Jane Doe has recommended private private: “I worked with Bob Smith at XYZ…” So much for anonymity!
  3. If people want to find your profile, they can. I can’t reveal the trick, but resourceful LinkedIn users know how to access profiles using people’s LinkedIn member numbers. It’s a very simple workaround.

#2: Add a Respectable Profile Picture

As in most social networks, there’s a normative expectation that people have a profile picture. If you don’t, people will either assume that you don’t know what you’re doing or that you have something to hide. Including a profile picture prevents the speculation and lets you control the initial impression people get when they view your profile.

Depending on their jobs, industries, and reputations, some people on LinkedIn can get away with more daring profile pictures. For most of us, however, a conservative approach is best. Here are some tips that will work for most people:

  • Use an image that reflects your professional identity, not your personal identity.
  • If you use a photo of yourself, make sure it’s current and of decent quality. Only include yourself in the photo and be sure the focus is on your face (i.e., a headshot).
  • If you don’t want to use a photo of yourself, find an image that reflects your values, capabilities or essence in some way. Be careful about using things that are too cutesy or may involve questionable humor.

#3: Include a Headline

To me, the LinkedIn headline is better in concept than in reality. Personally, I’ve always struggled with what to include, and I’ve never been completely satisfied with what I’ve come up with. But since it’s something of a “necessary evil,” you have to try to make the best of it. Here are a few suggestions based on my own experience and my review of hundreds (if not thousands) of profiles:

  • Short descriptors separated by bars are probably easier than trying to craft a sentence.
  • Focus on what you offer, not what you want (e.g., don’t say you’re looking for a job).
  • Avoid bland descriptions like “experienced accountant”.
  • Highlight your unique professional capabilities and/or character using key words that will catch people’s attention.
  • If you’re currently employed, it’s perfectly acceptable to include your current job title.

 #4: Provide a Robust Description for Your Current Job

Even if you don’t have time to fully flesh out your profile, you should at least provide a robust description of your current position. This is especially true for folks in externally-facing roles like recruiting, human resources, public relations, marketing, sales, and business development. You should also at least list all your previous employers/positions–certainly the most recent/relevant ones.

Generally speaking, the description you provide in your LinkedIn profile is the same as what you’d include on a resume. So if your resume is current, you should be able to just cut and paste titles and text from that document to the data entry boxes on LinkedIn. If your resume isn’t current, this is a great opportunity to update it!

Additional Job Description Tips:

  • Be sure to link the job to your employer’s Company Page. If they don’t have one, suggest they set one up – pronto!
  • Limit your description of the organization to 1-2 sentences. If people want to learn more, they can go to the Company Page.
  • Also limit your description of the job and your responsibilities as much as possible, focusing instead on unique contributions, value added, and accomplishments.
  • Remember that you’re writing for both search engines and human beings. That means your descriptions should be key word rich, but they also need to be attractive and readable by people.
  • When in doubt, leave it out. The profile should entice people to want to learn more rather than try to tell your whole life story. The less relevant a job is to your current professional activities, the less you should say about it.

If you have any professional certifications, be sure to list them in the Certifications section. Similarly, if they’re relevant to your current professional activities, you can also list honors and awards. Both sections can be completed in mere minutes.

#5: Include Your Education

As with some of your older work experiences, you can take a “name/rank/serial” number approach to providing information about your academic background. You should definitely list all the schools you attended and/or got degrees from, but you don’t need to provide more detail than your degree program and the years attended. And yes, I would include the years. If you don’t, people will naturally conclude that you’re trying to hide the fact that it was a long time ago, so not listing them doesn’t protect you from discrimination. Besides, if someone is going to discriminate against you based on your age, you probably don’t want to work with them anyway.

 #6: Don’t Include Personal Information

I don’t know why LinkedIn provides these fields, but I would recommend against including personal information such as your address, marital status, and date of birth. This information is generally not relevant to your professional identity or interactions.

#7: Enable People to Get in Touch with You

Related to the fear of having a public profile, many professionals seem to be afraid that if they don’t restrict access to themselves they will be inundated with and overwhelmed by a variety of requests. In my experience, the fear is greater than the reality. I recommend lowering the drawbridge and letting people contact you through every available LinkedIn channel. And if you’re in a job like business development or recruiting, you own your own business, or are on the job market, make it easy for people to get in touch with you outside of LinkedIn as well by adding a statement under your Contact Settings that shares your contact information. Here’s a sample statement:

I can be reached directly via email at name@organization.com, or via phone at 312-555-1212.

To make it easier to manage inappropriate requests, clearly specify the kinds of opportunities you’re open to hearing about.

 

Click here to view the original post on the Social Media in Organizations (SMinOrgs) website and access related resources.

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What you don’t know can hurt you: assessing your organisation’s social media use

With social media, what you don’t know can seriously hurt your organization. An offensive or inappropriate blog post, tweet or Facebook comment can damage your brand, lower employee morale, and even lead to workplace lawsuits. Yet, providing technology tools, such as social media, also is one way to empower and engage employees. Social media can speed innovation and collaboration, but only if your employees know how to use it within a well-defined framework.

For HR leaders, the critical first step in developing that framework is admitting they don’t know.

Simple questionnaires can surface extremely important information that, especially in larger organizations, you may not be aware of. Even smaller organizations have disconnects between departments. Big or small, these organisational “black holes” tend to happen around situations, like past litigation, where confidentiality is a big concern. In these cases, policy-relevant information often gets hidden from those who most need it. But by asking the right questions, you no longer have to fear “not knowing” and its potential risks.

For managers

To assess how managers handle social media in your organisation, you need to not only know how they’re managing its use, but also how its use by employees is affecting their management:

  • Are managers aware of all applicable laws, as well as legal issues, related to social media use and data privacy in the areas in which they do business or manage employees? — If managers don’t know what rules and regulations govern social media use at work, this leaves you, and them, open to litigation and fines.
  • Could they comply with either an internal or court-ordered “social media audit”? — Managers are already required to keep detailed records of hiring, disciplinary actions, purchases, or contractor selection for potential audits or investigations. Social media use at work is no exception, especially as electronic business records (EBR) are increasingly being entered as evidence in lawsuits.
  • Have their employees’ use of social media ever triggered a workplace lawsuit or regulatory investigation? — This is the type of information that tends to fall into those organisational “black holes.” Confidentiality concerns, especially for the plaintiff, often lead managers to hush up these situations; the truth, however, is essential in order for policies to prevent similar future problems.
  • Have their employees’ personal use of social media during work hours impacted productivity? — The answer to this question doesn’t necessarily signal that social media use at work is “good” or “bad;” it’s just another data point. For example, some top-performing employees may spend four hours each day updating Facebook and Twitter, while their less productive colleagues spend half that much time.

For employees

Getting honest responses from employees about their social media use at work is critical for accurately assessing your organisation’s baseline; don’t be afraid to ask because you may not like the answers. Conduct anonymous, unsigned, untracked surveys, and give employees multiple assurances that their responses won’t lead to disciplinary action or impact their job safety:

  • How familiar are employees with your company’s social media acceptable use policies, and have they ever received formal training on them? — If you already have a social media policy, answers to this question will tell you how good you’re doing communicating it throughout the organisation. If you have no policy, the answers give you hard numbers to bolster your case as to why social media policies and training are important, especially if social media is a significant part of your organisation’s revenue-generating practices.
  • Have they either intentionally or accidentally violated your organization’s social media policies? — If the answers you got to the first question reveal widespread lack of familiarity or knowledge of your social media policies, don’t be surprised by what employees tell you here. Conversely, if you communicate well and give all employees formal policy training, then answers here could surface serious cultural disconnects.
  • Do they know what an electronic business record is? — If not, employees also probably don’t know that EBRs are now used widely as evidence in legal and regulatory investigations. And again, what they don’t know can hurt you.
  • Do they use personal mobile devices for talking, texting, web surfing, social networking, blogging or emailing during work hours? — The answers are, most likely, ‘yes.’ But they give you a hard number to replace nebulous guesses. Once you know the current scope of employees’ social media use (by level, function and job type), you can start developing smarter guidelines for acceptable use.

Finally, make sure employees know that final survey results will be shared throughout the organisation, within a formal social media training program. This program is the culmination of your policy development efforts; let all stakeholders know the significant impact they’ve made just by answering a few simple questions.

Guest Post on HR Zone Blog

 

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4 Areas of Social Media Risk

With so many risks involved with social media and your organization, you may be tempted to say to yourself, “Let’s make it easy. Let’s have our social media policy be… No social media!”

There are two significant problems with this approach:

  1. Such policies are impossible to enforce. Most employees can access social media at work through their own mobile phones, which employers cannot control.
  2. Employees can easily use social media outside of work. Even in one of the most highly regulated industries, the financial industry, more than half of financial services professionals use Linked-In or Facebook for work or personal reasons.

To be clear, banishment is not a policy. It’s a fantasy.

When designed holistically and communicated correctly, policies help to influence all major actions and activities that take place within the boundaries set by them and can help eliminate or at least mitigate risk in one of the four major risk areas:

1. Regulatory Requirements

Restrictions, licenses, and /or laws applicable to a product or business, imposed by the government.

Examples:

  • Social media policies created by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA). Under GLBA, financial services firms are obligated to protect the privacy of consumers and their non-public personal financial information. Intentional or even accidental disclosure of such information, possibly via your your organization’s social media platforms, could put you at severe regulatory risk.
  • SEC Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD). Regulation FD is designed to prevent an issuer of stock from selectively disclosing material non-public information.

The ubiquity of social media and its “S2 Twins” Speed and Scope make for powerful downside risks if employees are not fully aware of the expectations on their behavior 24 x 7. So ask yourself, “Do our employees know what they can and can not share publicly? With whom? And when? If you said, “yes” how do you know this? Can you point to specific documentation that indicates your organization has both clearly written policies as well as has communicated these policies to all relevant employees?

2. Legal Requirements

Those areas associated with the communication of unlawful content – either intentionally or accidentally.

The first legal area we’ll discuss is that of Vicarious Liability. This is the legal term that is used when an organization is held legally (and financially) responsible for the unlawful, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate action of its employees. Vicarious Liability applies regardless of whether the offending employee’s violation was accidental or intentional.

As it relates to social media platforms, it also may apply regardless of whether the employee commits the offense at the office using company-issued computer resources OR at home using personal devices and private accounts, sites tool and technologies.

Put very plainly, thanks to Vicarious Liability, an employer might be held legally responsible for the obscene, harassing, discriminatory, or otherwise illegal or objectionable blog posts, tweets, Facebook comments or Youtube videos…Regardless of where, when, or how the offending content was created, posted or published. Not something to be taken lightly given the enormous potential for both financial and reputational loss.

3. Security

The presence of social media in the workplace greatly increases the risk of potentially devastating security breaches and/or data leaks.

While many organizations spend millions of dollars on sophisticated IT infrastructure and complicated access protocols, social media in the workplace can expose this confidential information.  It is therefore critical that employers clearly communicate their policy as it regards the safeguarding of confidential data.

They should also make it clear that in the United States, employees have “No reasonable expectation” of privacy when using the company’s computer systems, sites accounts or devices.

The Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) makes it clear that the company’s computer system is the property of the employer. Note that laws do differ from state to state on whether the employer must notify employees that their computer use is being monitored.

4. Culture

How you want your social media policies to impact your organizational culture: loose or tight?

The fourth area that impacts the development of your SM policies is probably the one that is the most flexible but also the one that can have significant organizational ramifications.

Examples:

  • Do you want “loose” policies that puts the behavioral responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the employee? “Don’t put anything on the internet or in an electronic communication that you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see.”
  • Do you want “tighter” policies which go into great detail around what is and is not acceptable behavior.

It’s very important to note that while there are no “right” or “wrong” cultures, organizations who are lax in promoting strict compliance with both regulatory, legal, and security requirements may find themselves inadvertently directing their cultural norms in ways that they had not intended.

And while no specific “right” or “wrong” policy approach exists, what does exist is the ability of poorly administered policies to either directly or indirectly cause employees to exhibit inappropriate and even illegal behaviors. Behaviors which could have been far different and caused far fewer headaches if only more time had been spent on both the thoughtful development and communication of well thought through policies.

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The Risk of Social Media on Any Given Day

Social Media is Everywhere

Social media has changed the way we behave in almost every aspect of our lives and even our philosophies on leading an organization. Do a search on any company and you will probably find they have at least one or more profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and maybe even Instagram. It’s a whole new way to engage with your customers. If you are not using social media in your organization, you should want to!

However, new tools bring benefits as well as risks. As leaders we need to balance those risks and benefits. As we consider the risks, consider the supporting policy to mitigate those risks…putting your head in sand and ignoring it is not a policy…no choice…it is here and not going away.

So maybe you are thinking: “I don’t need to worry about this, I can keep doing it my old way and not be affected by the social media hype.” But social media is being used everywhere and will continue to increase in use. Your employees are using it. Your future employees are using it. Your customers are using it. Your business partners are using it. And, your competition is using it. Heck, even my 85 year old grandmother is using it! But every day your organization is using social media without the associated risk mitigation that well thought through policies provide is a day rife with significant organizational risk: legal, regulatory, financial and reputational.

If that doesn’t convince you, think about operating with outdated or non-existent policies as a game of organizational Russian Roulette. While on any given day, the odds may be in your favor, over the long haul they are not. Let’s drive this point home with a little math.

Assume that on “any given day”, there’s only a 0.1% chance that nothing bad will happen.

However, the problem is not with “any given day” but rather what happens when a series of “any given days” are strung together. When we apply a little math and look at the odds are over a longer period of time, we should get very very worried. What the math shows is that over a 1-year period (365 days), even if the daily odds are only 1 in 1000, over the long run, there’s a better than 30% chance that we’ll experience a serious issue. Over a 2-year period, this number rises to almost 52%. 3-years? 67%. So, for those of you who don’t think you have an issue, you’re probably living on borrowed time.

So get comfortable with the uncomfortable and jump into the proverbial deep end of the social media pool! But start with a healthy social media policy. Is your company already involved in social media? If so, does your company have a social media policy in place?

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6 Steps to Creating the Right Social Media Policy

There are about a million different ways to develop your social media policy, but are they right for your company? Sticking to a process that is easy to remember will keep you focused and on track in developing your policy. We have found that the following 6 steps, happily listed in a mnemonic ABCDEF, keep things simple and yet cover all the bases.

A – Assemble the team

Bring together those folks best suited to help you. Ensure that it is composed of people who are both “officially” recognized by the organization as well as those who are influential and therefore “unofficial” experts. Do it early in the process to decrease the odds of downstream resistance.

B – Baseline your current state to assess your level of risk

What are the things you need to evaluate to determine if you have an issue? Is anyone aware of which SM platforms are being used by which functions? Are people aware of the Regulatory, Legal, Security and Cultural constraints under which they are to operate?

C – Create the Project Plan

Agree upon roles and responsibilities for both now and in the future. Determine who will write the policies. Determine who will review the policies. Determine what specific role each member of the SM Policy Team will play. Agree upon WHO will do WHAT by WHEN.

D – Develop the Policies

What makes for “good” vs. “bad” policies. Content rules – or Who gets to say What.

E – Educate

What are some of the things to consider when managing large-scale change efforts. How should you segment your education efforts. Should Managers and Individual Contributors receive differentiated training.

F – Forever

How do you decide when old policies need to be updated or are no longer relevant? How often should you refresh policies?

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Social Media Policy Today

Let’s take a look at the current landscape of social media policies. To start, let’s look at a Wikipedia (a popular social media site in its own right) to see how it  defines social media. In Wikipedia, social media is defined as interactive platforms via which individuals and communities create and share user-generated content social software which mediates human communication.

The key words to focus on in these two definitions are “sharing,” “user-generated,”  and “content.” The technology and gee-whiz software applications are just window dressing. At its heart, social media is the sharing of user-generated content.

While I find Wikipedia’s definition to be very good, it doesn’t really highlight the two reasons why social media policies sometimes become the central focus of an organization’s overall risk management framework. I refer to these two reasons as social media’s S² Twins: Speed & Scope.

Speed

Information can travel around the world almost instantaneously. What previously took hours or days to be known around the world is nowadays shared with potentially hundreds of millions of people in a matter of seconds. Without appropriate social media policies in-place, an organization runs the risk that it is not information but rather misinformation that explodes into cyberspace, resulting in a PR nightmare from which an organization may never recover.

Scope

Previously, communication missteps tended to be limited in distribution by the reach of the physical media through which they were transmitted. Newspapers, Magazines, even radio and TV stations tended to have defined geographies within which they operated. With the internet, this limitation on distribution or scope no longer exists. With the push of a button, information (or misinformation) is as easily accessible in Antarctica as it is in London or New York.

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How Staff Efforts at the Property Level Can Increase Your Website Performance

All hoteliers would like to see an increase in the amount of revenue contributed from their website.  After all, direct bookings are the most profitable. Here are some quick, easy and fun ways to get your hotel staff to positively influence your website performance.

Re-market On Property 

Remarketing is a favored strategy in Search Engine Optimization (SEM). If a customer visits your website without making a booking, effective remarketing will continue to serve up ads about your hotel as the customer continues to browse the internet.

While guest are at your hotel, you should continue these re-marketing efforts at the hotel level. There are guest touch points all over the property.  Remember not all guests at your hotel booked their stays through your website. They may have found your hotel in the yellow pages or was recommended by a friend. They may have booked their rooms by calling the property or used a travel agent. So, it’s important to share your website’s URL and inform your guests that they can find the best deal there. This effort does two things; (1) increases awareness to your website, and (2) incentivizes guests to think of your hotel again when they return to your city. Here are several ideas how you can implement this at your hotel:

  • Create posters, flyers, door hangers, tent cards , etc. and display these in guest rooms, elevators, breakfast rooms, and lobby.
  • If you’re taking advantage of digital marketing boards, feature a screen capture of your website
  • Have your website URL printed on guest receipts

You want to continually remarket your website to your guests in an effort to influence their future purchasing behavior by constantly reminding them to visit your website for future stays. For guests who did book on your website, the on-property marketing will reinforcing that behavior.

Local Relationships

Local businesses and attractions are a great place to get referral traffic to your website.  Building partnerships or relationships will help increase referral traffic to your site.  Ask local attractions and businesses to list your hotel on their website with a  link back to your hotel’s website. You can offer these businesses an incentive to list your hotel on their site by giving and exclusive discounted rate. For area attractions such as theme parks or golf resorts, an incentive could be helping them sell tickets through your hotel concierge or front desk.  Referral traffic can convert into a direct website booking just as easily as search traffic.

Socialize Your Staff

Social signals are playing an increasing role in SEO.  Effective search engine strategies require the use of Social Media.  Are you leveraging your hotel staff in social efforts?  Here are several ways you can encourage your hotel staff to promote your hotel on social media channels and increase your fan base:

  • Feature your staff members on your Facebook page
  • Ask your staff for provide “locals’ tips” they can share with current and potential guests to help them learn about the best places to eat, park, things to do in and around your city.
  • Share these tips on social channels and highlight the staff that provided the tip.

These tips may seem basic and possibly even old-school, but getting back to basics can improve performance. Educate your staff on how their efforts on property play into your online success.

By: Heidi Bitar, Director of Client Services, Milestone Internet Marketing. Anil Aggarwal, CEO, has appeared in eCornell’s Ask the Expert segments for our New Media Course for Hospitality Professionals.

*This is reposted from the Milestone Internet Blog.

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7 Ways You Can Use Vine to Market Your Hotel

It’s been nearly a month since Twitter launched its new video-sharing mobile application Vine, and it’s not just individuals taking advantage of these six second looping video clips, companies and hotels are joining in this new marketing opportunity too. This app, which is currently only available for the iPhone and iPod touch, allows users create videos which can be straight shots or stop-motion format (which is very popular) with no editing capabilities. Similar to Instagram, the videos can be tracked by hashtags and subject matter as well as Vine’s 12 organization categories such as food, travel, and even how-to.

In just a few weeks, one of the major groups to attach to the new app is not surprisingly travelers, many posting brag-like videos of how great their hotels are. Six seconds can capture an entire tour from the front of your building, through the lobby, into the bar, into the room, and even a view from the balcony. Of the 30 or so videos I watched, at least ⅔ of them showed the bathroom amenities.

So how can you use Vine to market your hotel?

1. Virtual Tours

Make them yourself or encourage your guests to make them and tag your hotel to show off your space. You can do this with your different guest rooms, ballrooms, dining facilities, and even fun things to do around the property.

2. Welcome Message

Record from the point of view of an arriving guest to show prospective customers what a warm welcome you give the second they arrive at the front of the building.

3. How-To

Serving a special drink at the bar or specialty dessert at dinner? Try filming a short “how-to” make it and post it for all your guests so they can take their experience home with them.

4. Daily Menu

Why just post your beautiful nightly specials in just the printed menu? Why not show them off in a short series of styled stop motion videos to give guests something to think about all day?

5. Weather Reports

First thing in the morning, hop outside and film a few views from your hotel to show what it’s going to be like outside that day.

6. Contests

Ask your potential guests to submit their own Vine videos under a certain theme like “what is love” or “fun in the sun” and award the best video with a weekend getaway.

7. You: Behind the Scenes

Take the opportunity to show off your employees doing what they do best. Show off a little personality and you will humanize your brand and give customers a reason to connect emotionally with you.

While it is just starting to find it’s legs in a crowded media market and it’s unknown whether it will stick around, Vine is quite an entertaining opportunity to engage with your customers. Have you already jumped on the bandwagon? How are you using Vine? Or, if you’re new to the game, how would you use it to market your hotel?