Social media usage by brands can help engage consumers, whilst social media usage by consumers can both help and hinder a brand. Rui Barros explores the issue in this TV show.

Social media usage by brands and consumers

It's tremendous, it's tremendous. In fact, I was just talking about it on the panel. I mean, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago it was a very different world. You know our consumers' buying behaviours have changed significantly in that, you know, back then, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of social media, there wasn't a whole lot of, you know, our buying decisions were being driven by other influences that are different than they are today. Today, they're influenced by what other people are saying about your product, about your service. And so, you know, that's playing a huge role in our overall business whereas before you kind of relied on word of mouth. But word of mouth is simply a phone call and maybe it was a small circle of friends, family, whatever it might be. And now you're talking about millions and millions of people. I mean, you post a review on Trip Advisor or whatever it may be and you've got millions of people reading all about your hotel. And so, you know, that piece of the equation has been critical. I mean, it really has evolved our business in a way that it's become critical to be able to manage our online reputation. It starts with delivering service and providing a clean room and the technology that they're, you know, all of that stuff. But it goes beyond that because if you do have a bad experience and it's posted online, it can have a really damaging effect on your overall business. And so we put a lot of emphasis on that. Wyndham, in particular, over the last few years has been investing quite a bit in e-commerce in general. One component is reviews and managing that online reputation and we struck a partnership with Trip Advisor to actually incorporate those reviews into our own brand websites so we're giving the consumers what they're looking for. They don't necessarily have to leave our brand website to go shop on Trip Advisor where they can book a variety of different types of hotels and different channels. We try to keep them with us and importantly as we rolled that out, we said to our franchisees, our operators, “You have to manage your online reputation.” So we provided them some tools to be able to do that. So it aggregates all of that information, they're able to respond and deal with any issues they may have. So technology, I mean, that's what's changed for us. It will continue to change so we need to keep our eye on it but, you know, generally, you know most of the business that we're seeing in terms of growth is coming from the online channels so we need to be ahead of that. The Hospitality Channel will continue to follow discussions around social media usage.  

A good deal happens when the two parties share the same goals and develop a great relationship, as Rui Barros of Wyndham Hotel Group discusses in this TV show.

The first step in a good deal

Great partner, right out of the gate. You know, it starts there, I mean, and our CEO actually is known to say, a like-hearted relationship. I mean, the first step is to make sure that our interests are aligned. You know, obviously we're both in the business to be profitable, there's no question about that and I mean, that's just a given, that's cost of entry. But then beyond that it's that relationship that we have. I mean you know, I'd like to say that we're not necessarily in the hotel business or even the franchising business, we're in the people business and, you know, if we don't have that connection with people, it makes that partnership and that relationship that much harder. So it really starts with that. Great partnership, it starts there like-hearted, like-minded, like-hearted. And then from there it really is, and it's built from there, from there then it's collaboration, working very well together with not only the ownership group but the operators as well, whether we're operating or they're operating through a franchise. I think it's important that there's a lot of engagement and collaboration between the two entities because, you know, one of the things I notice quite a bit is sometimes folks buy a franchise or developers buy a franchise and they're not capitalising on all the tools and resources that are at their disposal. And that's truly what a franchise is. If you buy a franchise you need to make sure that you're engaging in all the programs and all the initiatives that are out there, whether it be training or, you know, engaging in online travel agency participation or whatever it might be and marketing. We need to make sure that they're utilising all those tools and resources. So it starts with partnership, that great relationship and then everything else sort of, you know, carries on from there. If you found this video, about making a good deal, interesting why not watch more TV shows on The Hospitality Channel?