The amazing insights and advice of a billionaire are rare to come by at a personal level, one of many strengths this Marriott blog pertains. The high quality of content provided at a personal level is how they have won the hearts of millions of followers. Sharing his insights on running business internationally, the hotel industry, personal life milestones and open discussions about business ideas etc. The brutal and refreshing honesty of the posts following his sons death and his own heart attacks open readers eyes and have lead to the solidification of the blogs popularity.
It can be seen on the Marriott blog various web 2.0 strategies employed, such as the hashtag searches and keywords used in content provided allowing readers to easily find various posts based on keyword search.
"Social Technology levers" identified in McKinsey Global Institute in 2012 are as follows:
Family business blog
The Marriott blog fits into the Family business category of 'customer service' by providing years upon years of experience in the business industry.
The Marriott has embraced the plethora of social media platforms available to them. The latest enterprise 2.0 strategy to be combined with marketing is creating an incentive for members to share their 'stories' made whilst staying at the Marriott. Creating a loyalty program to go viral, incentivising members to connect their friends, colleagues, friends and family to the Marriott's Tweets, Instagram posts, Foursquare check-ins can earn them potentially 2,000 points per month. Members can see their points accumulate instantly. The Marriott news center report on Share, like, tweet, repeat...Get Marriott rewards 'Plus Points' can read here.
Bill has greatly increased the Marriotts marketing and sales online by becoming an authority online. Marriott has reported to generate millions of direct sales a result of Bills authenticity shared on the Marriott blog. During times of crisis or emergency Bill tries to provide unbiased reports and advice for members of the community. Marriott has clearly utilised the blog medium very well to build their brand online.
Lessons learned from Marriott blog highlight the appreciation and need for experts to share their knowledge with the world. The sharing of your expertise on your personal domain can bring traffic to your website, build your reputation and brand online.
Interesting post, I had no idea Marriott had this much social media engagement. Incorporating Foursquare, Instagram etc into their loyalty program is a clever move.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Tim, I was really surprised myself I'm excited to see where they go from here. I really want to see a company infuse gamification with the their social technologies to improve the users experience.
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