Groundswell - will POST-ing help my parents?

The first couple of chapters of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies explain the trend of social media, the different kinds that there are, why they are happening right now and the importance of understanding them. While the book also explains the negative side effects of social media (the “Streisand effect”), it has grouped the society of American internet users into creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators and inactives, while people can be in more than one group at the same time. I will focus on these groups, as well as the four step planning process called “POST” and try to relate them both to my parents’ hotel that I priorly posted about, in order to help my parents out to ameliorate their marketing as well as advertising strategies.

First of all, my parents’ hotel is located in Germany which probably changes up the internet usage demographics a little bit. However, since both countries are somewhat similar when it comes to GDP per capita, as well as percentage of people that use the internet, these differences should not be too significant, especially because - from my personal experience - it seems as though whatever social media trend is happening in the US does not take long to then come to Germany and vice versa.

Looking at the groups, 48% of the American society are spectators, who are the ones that follow blogs, watch videos, read forums, etc. Therefore, joining well-aimed forms of social media will definitely be of benefit to my parents. That is where the 4 step process POST comes into the picture. POST stands for: People, Objectives, Strategy and Technology. It is important to have a goal in mind when applying the POST strategy.

1. The People aspect of it is specifically important when it comes to my parents’ hotel: What kind of internet users are actually potential customers for a hotel located in a small town in Germany’s countryside? Due to the fact that many of the hotel’s potential customers do actually seek to conduct business with one of the local companies located close by, they are very familiar with the internet and constantly use it, especially because they have office jobs.
2. The Objectives of a hotel are very simple: To spread the word about its’ existence, its’ special offers and to have a better reputation than competing hotels in the same area. Advertising the landscape and other aspects that the town itself has to offer would also be objectives, yet they would focus on a completely different group of customers.
3. A Strategy would also have to be developed, but that would be something that my parents themselves would have to thoroughly think through. They need to go back to their older marketing strategies and evaluate whatever worked out and what did not - and make changes accordingly.
4. The final part of post would be to figure out which Technology to use. As I mentioned in my prior post, hotel booking websites are definitely a must, while Facebook seems to have also become a new medium of communication that almost seems necessary to have when owning a business. An RSS feed on the hotel’s website could be a next step to keep potential customers updated on special deals. This could however also happen through a Facebook page, as well as through pages on whatever Facebook equivalent websites there are in Germany. There is also another social medium that is rather unique to Germany, but could possibly be comparable to the US version: LinkedIn: Xing. It is a site for business professionals and advertising on it will be able to reach out to the exact group that it needs to, in order to reach all those professionals that would come to the hotel for business.

POST definitely seems like an important tool for my parents to utilize. It will help them achieve their goals much more efficiently than random usage of social media would.

All in all, Groundswell is a helpful read that is easy to relate to. I am hoping to find more strategies as well as stories in it that will make me aware of what social media can do.