Building Community and Driving Local Business with Social Media

Christine BeuchertMarcus Hotels & Resorts

April 8, 2010

SOCIAL MEDIA: HYPE OR A REAL MARKETING CHANNEL?

Love it or Hate it, social media is impacting your business

Facebook Surpasses Google

Forrester Predicts Huge Growth for Social Media Marketing

ARE YOU THERE, RETAIL OWNER? IT’S ME, YOUR CUSTOMER

Start with the basics; listen to your customer

SHOW YOU CARE, TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

Customer service doesn’t end at your doorway.

SM MARKETING EVOLUTION

2009 SM Plan: Get on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

2010 SM Plan: Develop a Strategy

“If you follow me on Twitter, I do not own your heart.

I may own your pocketbook momentarily. And I may own your

attention for five seconds, but that’s it”

-Malcolm Gladwell,writer and pop sociologist

Campaign:Grand Geneva Resort, Lake Geneva WI

Objective: Grow customer base and revenue for the Mountain Top Ski Hill

Promotion: Free ski hill access on opening weekend. Only FaceBookvisitors that became fans could download a printable voucher.

Social Media Plan Mapped

Pre-Event

During Event

Post Event

Holistic plan included traditional PR and online marketing

On-site tweets, pics, video posts

Post Event Analysis

Successful campaign by all measurements:

• 1,800 vouchers redeemed

• January ski hill revenue up 9% year-over-year

• Grand Geneva SM community grew 30x

• Online engagement and evangelism have skyrocketed

Anatomy of a Marketing Campaign

Your success requires attention to all three.

Determine Need/Desired

Outcome

Compelling value

message

Distribute effectively

GETTING DOWN TO TACTICS

Marketing Distribution on Social Media

Visibility

Customer Acquisition

Incent Desired Outcomes

Facebook Tactics

• Promote Events

• Promote FB page from your website, email, other media

• Couponing and contests that encourage participation and grow community

• To engage, share relevant links and stories from outside your brand

• Target your audience with Facebook Ads

Twitter Tactics

• Monitor and respond to customers

• Locate nearby or frequent customers, tie in with Foursquare and other location-based applications

• Supplement Facebook tactics

• Promote and link to other information

• Build a following based on your expertise or a specific topic

LOCATION-BASED SOCIAL MEDIA

Do you know the Mayor ? You should…

Foursquare tactics

•Offer a FourSquare deal

•Recognize your Mayor

•Promote FourSquarepresence

•Educate staff

•Tie in with Twitter

Parting thoughts

• Have a plan

• Discuss Social Media with your staff

• Make it fun and share the job

• Stay current with changes

Building Community and Driving Local Business with Social Media

Christine BeuchertDirector of Ecommerce and Performance Marketing at Marcus Hotels

linkedin.com/in/christinebeuchert

twitter.com/cbeuchert

christinebeuchert@marcushotels.com