ARDA Northeast Brass Tactics Social Media Session: All About Collaboration

ARDA Northeast Brass Tactics Social Media Session: All About Collaboration

Guest post by Brooke Doucha, who manages corporate communications and media relations for Orange Lake Resorts, home to Holiday Inn Club Vacations.

The “Social Media Brass Tactics” session at ARDA’s Northeast Conference in Providence, RI last week was fun, energetic and full of ideas. Though I’d planned to share our Q&A in this post, instead I’m going to share an important concept that came out of that session. In one word, collaboration.

As I mentioned in my previous post here on The Timeshare Authority, our social media session on June 7 offered three breakout workshop from which participants could choose. One focused on customer service and listening / reaching out to owners through social media channels. Another was about using monitoring tools to manage social media monitoring and report back with metrics. Last, my session focused on how to use social media as a PR pitching tool and the idea of creating a “Guest Blogger” program.

As panel presenters, we utilized the space of the room to do something different: converse openly with groups about tactics that have worked for us, and may also work for others in the industry. Each session, whether focused on customer service or marketing and communications, emphasized the importance of the central concept of collaboration when it comes to social media.

When adopting a social media program for your company, it’s important to remember that it’s not just one person’s responsibility, but rather a company-wide decision to welcome communication through new channels and to treat it with just as much respect and dedication as all other channels (phone, e-mail, print and electronic communications).

Here’s how collaboration works, as it applies to the three topics we discussed:

When it comes to customer service, social media can provide opportunities for real-time resolution. Follow me here: Your brand has a Twitter or Facebook account. You receive an inquiry about points usage via tweet or post. Luckily, the “collaborative model” you’ve adopted as an organization has one person in customer service or communications monitoring the mentions of your handle(s) on these two social channels. That person decides to either directly respond to the inquiry, or, because it’s more involved, the workflow dictates they assign the response to the club communications team member who will follow-up with more detail. Voila! Real-time customer service.

Social media “brass tactics” panelist Sara Bader Little, Director of Corporate Communications for Festiva Hospitality Group, advises: “Spend time on social media, but don’t let it overtake any one person’s time. Be sure it can be closely and constantly monitored for immediately responding to customers. It should enhance your existing customer service, not replace it.”

The monitoring of your social mentions may be a task that one person initially handles, but as you grow to expand your brand’s presence to more social media channels, let that number of “official monitors” grow, too. There are great social media monitoring dashboards out there, like Radian6 and Hootsuite that make it easy to assign specific mentions and inquiries to other team members. As panelist Philip Brojan of RCI discussed, it’s important to monitor your mentions daily so that you can be responsive—and it’s equally important to establish workflows that spread that responsibility among team members who can be various subject matter experts on behalf of the organization.

When it comes to public relations outreach via social media channels, it’s about getting teams involved in the execution of special moments and events that create great stories. For a Guest Blogger program, for example, you may want to establish a lead who will create new connections with bloggers, work with the operations to set them up with special activities or experiences available on-site, then have your social media champions create excitement around the blogger’s visit to the property, pre-, during- and post-stay. You can always get more traction when you have more hands on deck.

Say it with me: collaboration. If you find yourself having to do more with less and the idea of adding a social media program is overwhelming, look around you. You have talented experts that can contribute great content and ideas, and social media is the perfect place for that.

If you couldn’t make the ARDA Northeast Conference but want to participate in the post-event discussion in 140 characters or less, tweet your questions to @ARDAOrg and use the hashtag #SMbrasstactics.

ARDA Northeast Social Media Session: Getting Down to Brass Tactics

ARDA Northeast Social Media Session: Getting Down to Brass Tactics

Orange Lake Resort Timeshare’s Brooke DouchaBrooke Doucha
Guest Post for TheTimeshareAuthority.com
Submitted 6/02/11

The next social media session, webinar, workshop – I bet there’s one coming to a conference near you. But how many of them will discuss not only how to get started, but also tactics to make your program more engaging? And how many will really hit home for professionals in the vacation ownership industry?

At next week’s ARDA Northeast Conference in Providence, RI, your industry friends will get down to social media “brass tactics.” Breakout sessions on June 7 will cover the following topics:

Putting social media to work to boost customer satisfaction and communicate with members

Sara B. Little, Director, Corporate Communications for Festiva Hospitality Group and David Meier, Vice President Products and Partnership for Interval International will discuss:

  • Contest ideas for encouraging member feedback; identifying your most “vocal” fans
  • How to provide valuable, rich content
  • How to turn a “foe” into a “fan”

Using Monitoring Tools

Philip Brojan, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Group RCI will help you develop tactics for using social media monitoring tools, including:

  • Internal workflows for social media monitoring and response
  • Putting social media metrics to work
  • Gaining a competitive edge

Creating New Connections

I’ll be sharing how to build a social network and make it work for your brand’s public relations outreach via:

  • Using Twitter to create story pitches and source leads for PR outreach
  • Using LinkedIn to create dynamic connections
  • Creating a “Guest Blogger” program

If you can’t make the ARDA Northeast Conference but want to participate in the discussion in 140 characters or less, tweet your questions to @ARDAOrg and use the hashtag #SMbrasstactics. We’ll answer these questions at the session on June 7 and will share the answers—and other resources—back here on The Timeshare Authority on June 15.

ARDA Northeast Conference

June 6-7, 2011
Marriott Providence Downtown

Providence, RI

Brooke Doucha manages corporate communications and media relations for Orange Lake Resorts, home to Holiday Inn Club Vacations.

Timeshare Condos More Spacious … and You Get a Bathtub!

Timeshare Condos More Spacious … and You Get a Bathtub!

Marriott's BeachPlace Towers timeshare resalesLast week, USA Today reported on an interesting trend … bathtubs are disappearing from hotels. No it’s not that hotel guests have found a way to take home the hotel’s bath tub along with its towels; this is a matter of planning and design.

Hotel developers have noticed that most of their guests prefer showers, citing that many are busy business travelers and don’t have time for a luxurious soak and that others simply choose showers over baths, even when tubs are available.

In the past ten years, Holiday Inn has shifted from 95 percent of its hotels having tubs to only 55 percent having tubs today. At Marriott, the plan is for only 25 percent of their hotels to have bathtubs, and the rest will be showers only.

But the campaign to eliminate bathtubs is not expected to show up in Holiday Inn Vacation Club timeshares, Marriott timeshares or most other timeshare condos. Vacations are an opportunity to allow yourself the extra time to indulge in a long, relaxing bath. Just as importantly, bathtubs are typically preferred for bathing children. A 2008 survey by Embassy Suites found that a tub or bath/shower combination is the first choice for vacationers, especially when traveling with young children.

A Timeshare Condo Mean More Room, More of the Comforts of Home

Let’s face it, most households today have more than one television, they have video games for the children, and DVD players or DVR’s for enjoying favorite movies. When these conveniences are part of our homes, why shouldn’t they also be part of our vacations?

A timeshare condo means a family doesn’t have to squeeze into one or two hotel rooms, eat takeout on the bed, and all agree to watch one television and share a single bathroom.

Timeshare condos are about vacationing in spacious accommodations that include the amenities of home and room to be together as well as space to spread out.

Growth Ahead is the Message from ARDA Timeshare Conference

Growth Ahead is the Message from ARDA Timeshare Conference

The Orlando Sentinel’s Sara Clarke has been at this week’s ARDA timeshare convention, and she came away with a very upbeat take on the future of the timeshare industry.

Yes, the credit freeze has hurt the industry. But financing is flowing again. (Not to mention the new, industry-revolutionary option to finance timeshare resales. See: Sell My Timeshare NOW and Prosper.com Partner, Bringing Timeshare Financing to the Resale Market).

As Jim Lewis, president of Disney Vacation Club timeshares and ARDA’s outgoing chairman says, “We survived, we’re beginning to thrive. We might not be there yet — we’re clearly not all the way there — but there are some encouraging signs.”

In 2007, timeshare sales from developers (not including the resale market) hit $10 billion. In 2009, that number dropped to $6.3 billion.

Full 2010 numbers aren’t in but they are expected to have either stabilized or show an upturn.

The market is returning domestically and internationally, with international looking to play a stronger than ever role in future business.

“As an industry, we’re back in a growth mode,” says Don Harrill, ARDA’s incoming chairperson and the president and chief executive officer of Holiday Inn Club Vacations.

And the Timeshare Authority blog adds to that sentiment, because growth mode in the industry means lives are stabilizing, families are regaining financial confidence, and good things are ahead for all!

Be sure you check out the full Sentinel article here: Time-share industry sees growth ahead