Creating Original Content --- First and Foremost for Blogging

Do you know many websites are built on a WordPress (blog) theme?  Oh yes.  People are very likely reading blogs when they browse contents on the internet, and blogging can be very effective in marketing communications and making sales.  Yet, how does blogging different from Facebook or Twitter updates?  What can we expected from a good blog post?

Blog is definitely different from Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites.  Blogging is more than just an update.  There is no set limit on how many characters a blog post can have, allowing people to publish longer and more in-depth discussion.  Plus, bloggers can embed other social media contents in a post (e.g., pictures and videos).

I started blogging about four years ago.  When I first started, I did more “sharing” than “creating.”  I shared the news articles that I found interesting and relevant to my target audience.  My blog posts read more like summaries of relevant news articles with very little in-depth discussion.  Over time, I saw a steady increase of pageviews, but I wondered why would people want to read my “summaries.”  They can easily find summaries of news updates on the internet.  If they only want to read the news articles that are relevant to them (e.g., my blog is related to hospitality management and social media), they can sign up for those subscription services available on the internet and the news will “find” them instead.  Moreover, if I only want to share news articles, I can do that just as well on Twitter or Facebook.  Why do I bother to talk about those updates on my blog?

To me, a good blog discussion must reveal what is “inside” of the author, and good bloggers post original content.  They share their unique perspectives of an event or develop knowledge-based propositions.  If a blogger simply shares a summary of somebody else’s work, s/he is just “manipulating content.” Creating original content should be the first and foremost indication of a good blog post. 

In fact, creating original content has become extremely important in social media marketing and business communications. Taco Bell, for example, shared in the Big Data Idea Exchange Workshop @UCIrvine that the company had sent the social media team to The New York Times and The Huffington Post for training because Taco Bell also wants to be a content creator on social media.  Evidence from Taco Bell’s social media presence has shown the training had paid off.

Do you read blogs? Please share with us what blogs or websites you visit often and what draws you back to those blogs or websites. 

References:

The picture was downloaded from Profalbrecht.wordpress.com 

Integrating Mobile Technology into Customer Service

Today, 52% of the population have smartphones, of whom over 94% are expected to use smartphones in searching for local business, according to a recent newsletter I received from the California Lodging Industry Association.  Many OTAs (online travel agents such as Expedia.com and Priceline.com) and entrepreneurs are getting into the “app business,” and they are doing very well (as suggested in the Bloomberg video).  Hotels and restaurants for sure would also like to have a piece of the pie. 

Indeed, many hotels follow the SoLoMo (Social, Local, and Mobile) movement and have introduced many mobile apps.  The big hotel groups, for example, all have mobile apps, allowing customers to search and make reservations using mobile devices; but at the same time, there are also other apps for different hotel brands within the same hotel group and even apps for individual properties.  Moreover, there are concierge (service) apps for luxury and upper upscale brands.  Really?  Does a hotel group need that many apps?  Will customers get confused in front of “the sea of mobile apps?”  If people are not using those apps, how much can mobile technology help hotels improve customer satisfaction and business?

To provide customers exceptional “total guest experience,” hotels must ensure high service quality when customers search information prior to purchase (i.e., “search quality”), when they actually make a purchase and stay in the hotel (i.e., “experience quality”), and even after they leave the hotel (i.e., “credence quality”).  Most mobile apps that are available in the app store right now, however, only have one focus on either search quality or experience quality.  Personally, I have not seen a mobile app that truly integrates technology into all three stages of service quality.  As a traveler, I would prefer one powerful app that provides me the total guest experience.  With this powerful app, I can search and make reservations on my phone, check into a hotel with the same app, use the same app to request anything I need during my stay, such as wake-up calls, extra towels, and room service, and lastly use the same app to retrieve and track the information of my previous stays and/or complaints.  Am I asking for too much?

I am not sure if hotels have the mindset of competing with OTAs when they invest in mobile apps.  I hope they don’t.  Because without the big picture of providing exceptional total guest experience, they will never be able to develop a powerful mobile app that truly integrates mobile technology into customer service, and they will not be able to compete with those OTAs that are specialized in “search experience.”

Do you use any hotel (or restaurant) mobile apps?  How do you like or dislike those apps?  What can hotels (or restaurants) do to improve customers’ mobile app experience? 

 

Some relevant discussions within this blog: 

SoLoMo for Social Media Strategists 

 “SoLoMo”and Legislation

Is It a Good Business Strategy to Offer Phone-Free Discount?

Renaissance Hotels Replaced Concierge with “Navigator”

References:

The picture was downloaded from BlogOnline.co.uk.