Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 SpecialEven as the industry acknowledges that travel companies must be very clear in their objectives before they proceed with features such as videos, blogs or other UGC, from consumers' perspective, what is their preference when they associate themselves with UGC?

Published: 28 Apr 2008

Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 Special

Even as the industry acknowledges that travel companies must be very clear in their objectives before they proceed with features such as videos, blogs or other UGC, from consumers' perspective, what is their preference when they associate themselves with UGC?

According to JupiterResearch, online travel researchers use UGC throughout the buying cycle. In its "Travel Consumer Survey, 2007", JupiterResearch found that 32% of online travel researchers who used UGC did so early in their research process while 56% used to verify their hotel choices prior to booking.

From hoteliers' perspective, Jeff Mirman, Director, Sheraton Interactive Marketing, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide says: "I believe that this is different for different types of purchases – Consumers will be seeking different types of UGC at different times (destination vs hotel vs flight) – in addition different types of consumers will look at different times based on (demographics, placement, etc…). I could easily see a lot of research focusing on different ethnographic groups and their research/UGC habits and purchase intent. So, I think that this is too big to answer at the moment."

Mirman, who was one of the speakers during Social Media Strategies Travel 2008 Conference in San Francisco last month, spoke about Starwood's initiatives in this arena and lot more. Excerpts from an interview with EyeforTravel.com's Ritesh Gupta.

Ritesh Gupta: Starwood Hotels & Resorts redesigned its website for members of Starwood Preferred Guest hotel loyalty programme, SPG.com . Considering such path-breaking initiatives from Starwood, how do you assess progress made by Travel 2.0 and how is it changing the face of the industry from suppliers' perspective?

Jeff Mirman: I believe that travel 2.0 has made tremendous strides in the past 12 months. We are very aware of the trends and new technologies/capabilities that are currently available and will continue to monitor them as we are always looking for ways to create a better guest experience or an improved means of communication.

Our strategy is to listen to our guests, users and hoteliers in order to make educated decisions on what technologies/travel 2.0 ideas/strategies to implement. If they are right for the brand/company and they support our research, then we would potential incorporate them moving forward.

As far as changing the suppliers perspective, I believe that most suppliers will continue to be cautious in taking advantage of many of the innovations.

Ritesh Gupta: The new SPG.com highlights the synergies between the award winning loyalty programme - Starwood Preferred Guest and Starwood's forward thinking and innovative web strategies. The focus is on using innovative web strategies to display and serve them based on each unique member. What role do you think are such "innovative web strategies" playing in building connect with consumers/ members?

Jeff Mirman: We believe very strongly in innovation, especially regarding connecting with our guests/consumers in a way that best works for them. A great example of this would be an area of the newly designed spg.com and some of her new features. Our team worked very hard on this in every area – from research to production – and we took into account new technologies and innovation.

The My SPG application for example enables consumers to customise their SPG.com homepage with the tools and features that best fits their needs from Account information to Stay history, offers and more. The new site focuses on functionality/ideas based on interests, ie hotels, destinations, etc…Having their own page enables us to talk to them in a manner that is not interruptive, but focused and targeted, meaning that we show them information that is pertinent to their preferences.

Ritesh Gupta: When shaping content on UGC sites, it's important to balance the needs of the person who will read the content with the needs of the person contributing the content. What's critical in balancing the same?

Jeff Mirman: I believe that transparency is vital on both ends. In addition, the ability to facilitate the conversation and enable that conversation to be heard is extremely important.

Ritesh Gupta: As in case of Sheraton.com, UGC such as stories and blog posting on the lobby.com, are well integrated into overall online marketing channels. How can UGC shape up the online marketing communication with the kind of insights it provides about consumers' profile and their choices?

Jeff Mirman: This is an area that is till in its infancy. This will continue to grow and more importantly become more refined. I believe that it will shape online sellers (not necessarily travel) greatly moving forward. In addition, I think it could shape the offline world – and bring offline and online even closer together…

Ritesh Gupta: With reference to how Travel 2.0 is headed in the next year or so, do you see opening of the major social networks to third party application developers which will enable Travel 2.0 companies to add travel planning applications with built-in relevancy within those social networking sites?

Jeff Mirman: I hope so and I am confident that it will happen in the future. In addition, I believe that there will be new breakthroughs which push us even more.

Ritesh Gupta: Some content works at the visceral level, some at the functional level, and some at the self-reflective level. What would you recommend when it comes to shaping content on UGC sites?

Jeff Mirman: We can not control – nor would I want to. That is the beauty of UGC. In a sense, they are built by the users – so providing them the ability to shape it themselves is the real value. The more open/free that you enable the user to be – then the better the community/network.

Ritesh Gupta: For user-generated content sites to be successful businesses, they need to facilitate a purchase decision making process. How do you think the industry focuses on this?

Jeff Mirman: I would not say that they need to facilitate a purchase decision – I would say they need to provide a value to the consumer – this can be done in many ways. Many sites are doing this – and doing it well – facebook, Tripadvisor, etc. I think that many sites have done much better than expected because of how valuable the consumers are rating them or using them. With that said, I think that companies will continue to look for new or refined ways at providing that value and continue to improve.

Ritesh Gupta: In your opinion, how are trip planning tools allowing consumers to plan and successfully execute their complete travel experience?

Jeff Mirman: I truly admire these tools. I think they are great. I am confident that they will be common practice in the long run – but I believe that we are still in an early adoption stage.

(New event on Social Media Strategies:

EyeforTravel is scheduled to conduct its inaugural Social Media Strategies in Travel Europe conference, as part of Sales & Marketing in Travel Europe 2008. The two-day conference will be held in Berlin on 14 and 15 October.

For more information, click here http://events.eyefortravel.com/smeurope/ or contact Gina Baillie at +44 (0) 207 375 7197 or gina@eyefortravel.com).