Roger Smith Hotel Creating a Culture of Content

Hospitality marketer Josiah Mackenzie recently posted a ReviewPro article about how New York's Roger Smith Hotel has created a "culture of content and reached social media celebrity status."

He notes that the hotel has created a culture where "everyone becomes a content generator." They've done this by hosting events, participating in other local events involving various people and brands, creating hyper-local stories, and making face-to-face connections.

The review is great. It outlines the hotel's specific goal and how it actively and continuously reaches it and engages other people. Their strategies and aggressive inclusion of the community are awesome.

The article, though, seems to focus on in-person happenings. So I decided to peruse their online persona because, while they've set an excellent example, many hotels may not yet have the resources to go as "big" as  Roger Smith has, and starting online would be a great first step for those venues.

One of the first things I noticed about Roger Smith's Twitter account was their description. Rather than highlight any specifics of the property, they list: "The Roger Smith Hotel is a hub for social media in NYC. People. Art. Food. Wine."

By identifying themselves as a hub for NY social media rather than an overnight stop for potential visitors, they've made themselves much more broadly appealing since there are inevitably going to be more people seeking out general NYC news and happenings than people specifically looking for hotel information.

They also throw in the other topics they'll discuss: people, art, food, and wine. "People," specifically, throws in a human element. Plus, the other three are the kinds of widely adored interests that will appeal to everybody. Then, they created a special Twitter rate to appeal to potential travelers, blatantly offering an incentive for potential visitors to follow the account. This is a great strategy!

They've also integrated their Twitter feed directly onto their homepage, illustrating to any site visitor how they're actively engaging people online.

When I went over to Facebook, I noticed many of their posts linked to a special Roger Smith hotel blog, the subsection of which is "The Life of a New York Life Hotel." Again, this straightforward personification allows people to interact with the hotel in a very different and authentic way they would normally. There's also a banner near the top outlining a special 10% off blog rate, again incentivizing those who partake.

They also offer a Facebook deal for those who check-in. Their Facebook page is also replete with a "reservations" page where guests can make dining reservations right there. There is also a Foursquare page allowing people to view a list of "tips" from peers who've visited the hotel and checked in on Foursquare.

There's probably much more other hotels could take away from Roger Smith, but, from the previous article as well as just their Twitter, Facebook and Blog presence, they're definitely setting a stellar example when it comes to authentically engaging consumers.