Lodging Interactive Blog

Social Media Influencers are not Traditional Influencers | Brian Solis - PR 2.0

As more and more brands are moving all of their ad spend online, defining how influence affects their return on investment is necessary and must be done as soon as possible. While some are making inroads to define these calculations many are overlooking the fact that influence affects everything. Without factoring in the real issue of different types of influence you run into a number of problems, for instance focusing on one group of influencers over another or getting broad sweeping numbers instead of knowing exactly how effective your time and money has been spent on the proper target. One thing that usually doesn’t sync up here is that these online influencers with large followings are not the offline influencers.

via www.briansolis.com

"Time Spent Online" Report Puts Microsoft Way Ahead | WebProNews

Despite all the gains other companies (Google, Facebook) have made, it's still Microsoft's world, according to new statistics from comScore.  comScore found that, in terms of time spent on sites, the Redmond-based corporation continues to maintain a huge lead over its competitors. People spent about 3.920 billion hours on Microsoft's sites in September, which equates to about 14.5 percent of the total time spent online.  Meanwhile, people only spent about 2.512 hours on Google-owned sites, which works out to 9.3 percent of the total.  And Google barely logged more growth than Microsoft (48 percent versus 44 percent). Things looked even more depressing for Yahoo, as the chart below shows.  The real surprise, though, relates to Facebook, the social network that doesn't "do" much of anything compared to three companies that offer search engines, email, maps, and all other sorts of stuff.

via www.webpronews.com

Facebook User Count Now 325 Million (Or More) | WebProNews

On September 15th, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook "now serves 300 million people across the world."  It seems the site's growth hadn't exactly come to a stop, either, as about a month and a half later, stats indicate the number of users has risen to at least 325 million.This isn't a case of comScore versus Hitwise or Compete versus Nielsen discrepancies.  Nick O'Neill reported today, "According to Facebook's own advertising statistics . . . the company is now beyond 325 million users and continuing to grow."  So everyone should be on the same page. What we appear to have here is a social network simply gaining 25 million users in the space of seven weeks. That's an impressive fact all by itself.  Another way of looking at it is that, if Facebook users created their own country, the Land of Zuckerberg would have a larger population than the good old U.S. of A. (even if the users somehow didn't leave America at the same time). What's next, then?   Well, that's hard to say.  Facebook's almost sure to need additional hardware and employees.  Marketers are liable to worship it more, improving the results of monetization efforts.  Otherwise, this is pretty much uncharted territory.

via www.webpronews.com

Chatter Guard October 2009 Social Media Benchmark Report is Out!

Lodging Interactive, a leading interactive marketing agency servicing the hospitality industry and the publisher of the free Chatter Guard Monthly Benchmark Monitor Report has released its October 2009 report.

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October was overall very good for travellers, if their hotel rankings are any indication. While the negative trends of the summer can be seen in some segments of customer reviews, overall the trend was much more encouraging. On a scale of 1-5, 5 being “fantastic” and 1 being “poor,” the average lodger reported a 2.24% rise in Resultant Quality Score (3.57 to 3.65), a 7.5% rise in Housekeeping (3.20 to 3.44), an 9.12% improvement in Staff reviews (3.51 to 3.83, the biggest change in the overall rankings), and a 2.55% rise in Value (4.32 to 4.43). The areas of overall decline this month were an imperceptible 0.28% fall in Dining (3.57 to 3.56), a very small 0.51% slip in Facilities ranking (3.92 to 3.90),

 

 

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LinkedIn and Twitter link up | Technology | Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - LinkedIn and Twitter have linked up. Starting immediately, users of LinkedIn and Twitter can cross-file to each other's services, by checking a box on either Twitter or LinkedIn.

via www.reuters.com

Social Media Basics: Ignore Digg like you would Google — Social Media Optimization

Digg was a hot topic in the social marketing field a couple of years ago, but has since disappeared from many marketers playbooks as they instead prefer the “interactivity” of Twitter and Facebook. Yes Digg is a different channel than Twitter and Facebook and some will argue that Digg is not “conversational” like the other two.

via social-media-optimization.com

Mobile Websites for Hotels

Lodging Interactive, a leading interactive marketing agency servicing the hospitality industry, today announced the roll out of its mobile website design and hosting services for hotels. Lodging Interactive's new mobile services provide turn-key, cost-effective mobile solutions enabling hotels to provide easy acess to their website and to capture bookings from smart phones, iPhones and Blackberry users worldwide.

"According to PhocusWright, 67% of travelers and 77% of frequent business travelers with Web-enabled mobile devices have already used their devices to find local services, (e.g. lodging) and attractions," stated DJ Vallauri, Lodging Interactive's Founder and President. "And with US mobile penetration expected to be 95%, or 219 Million users in 2010, it only makes sense that hotels embrace the emerging mobile technologies to maximize their mobile booking opportunities."

      


Click to read more about Mobile Websites for Hotels

Tapping the Network Business Implications of Social Media | ehotelier.com News Archives

Respondents to a recent survey published by Beresford Research ranked social networking as more important than reading books or watching TV. It is no secret that social networking is a popular use of our time. Respondents spend an average of 22 hours per week on social networking sites. Yet, some still remain skeptical of social networking's value to commerce.

via ehotelier.com

Mobile Plus Social Equals Opportunity - eMarketer

Social networking is one of the fastest-growing activities among mobile users around the world. And as one of the primary ways mobile users communicate with one another, it is proving a significant driver of Internet usage on mobile devices.

via www.emarketer.com

As Facebook Ages, Gen Y Turns to Twitter

Facebook is getting old. No, people aren't getting tired of it, it's actually getting old, as in its population is aging. In May of 2008, the median age for Facebook was 26. Today, it's 33, a good seven years older. That's an interesting turn of events for a site once built for the exclusive use of college students. So where are today's college students hanging out now? Well, to some extent, they're still on Facebook, despite having to share the space with moms, dads, grandparents, and bosses. Surprisingly though, they're also headed to another network you may have heard of: Twitter.

via www.readwriteweb.com