People, Objectives, Strategy, and Technology (POST)

For my blog, I decided to speak through my blog to the largest customer segment for our select service brand, Country Inns and Suites.

People (P)
As Groundswell states, a company must know what their customers are ready for online before starting any online campaigns. Companies need to access how customers will engage with thenm and their brand online.  I gathered the Social Tecnolographics Profile for the Country Inns & Suites brand's largest customer segment which is made up of women, ages 25-34 and live in the United States.  This step is very important to know how your customers will engage with you and your online communications.  Thirty one percent (31%) of our customer base are indexed as Creators; I  would engage them to help share their stories about most recent stays at our hotels.  Several years ago we created an offline campaign asking customers to share how they "Love This Country".  Customers submitted stories of family trips at Country Inns.  I would do this on my blog but have it online and ask customers that are creators to share their love of travel, their experiences and engage other customers who read the posted blogs. We have a good numbers of customers that are joiners and I can see them sharing responses to Creators post and adding destination favorties that would build interests for the blog.

 Objectives (O)
The objective of my post is to listen to my customers and to research what customers find most important when traveling for either business or leisure, as discussed in Groundswell. The information exchanged amongst our customers would be used to create more customer relevant content on our hotels and their destinations. This content could be improved on our brand web site,  http://www.countryinns.com/ to improve conversions.  Travel is a very personnal experience and my customers can help each other online by sharing their experiences and by helping our marketing group improve web content.  According to industry statistics, relevant content improves conversion substantially.

Strategies (S)
I want to communicate with my customers online to help understand what services, products and experiences they believe are most important when they are traveling for business and leisure.  I want to share their stories and listen to their stories for both research and to engage in positive customer conversations.  Customers that are willing to share their stories with others and hopefully recommend our hotels to other 'like' customers.  I would use the exchanges for research so I know how I can improve my products as well as experiences.  In addition, information in the stories will help improve destination content to improve site conversions.

Keep Traveling!