Friday, September 12, 2008
CRM Meets Hospitality
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Re-Launch of SoftBrands.com
These new sections will become the technical foundation for a more strategic focus on Social Media (aka, Social Networking or Web 2.0) for the hospitality division. What exactly does that mean? Whether we like it or not businesses, consumers, users and partners are increasingly using Social Media to learn, share experiences, offer suggestions, promote challenges and ideas, and voice opinions. If we are not actively engaged we allow others to dictate the information which ultimately can influence perception.
Our ultimate goal is to drive more leads by positioning SoftBrands Hospitality as thought leaders in our vertical.
A special thanks to John Manoah from the web development team, Jessie Qiao who worked on the Chinese website and to the India Marketing Center team including Sindhu Krishnan, Dattatreya Nadiger, Sayantika Chakraborty, for doing an exceptional job at getting this off the ground.
Over the next few weeks we will see continued improvements and revised content.
Let us know your thoughts.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Is it necessary to seperate Church from State?
I was just having an interesting conversation with Social Media Guru Albert Maruggi about the placement/hosting of a social media platform (environment) within a company website. SoftBrands is in the process of re-launching the www.softbrands.com/hospitality on a new platform (FarCry) for better content management. As I look to launch this site I am asking the question: Does my Social Media platform need to be independent from our website?
Those of you following me know this blog is my first step at educating myself and the business of Social Media and how it can benefit the business. With the re-launch of our new site, I am much closer to officially turning this strategy "On". So I need to decide if the Blog & platform for Social Media should be intergraded or stand alone?
I am very sensitive to keep the social media element "sales free" but the reality is there is always going to be an underlying tone of sales. As much as I do enjoy software technology, I would prefer to spend my time blogging about important things :-)
So I am looking for some feedback, suggestion or thoughts. Is it okay to imbed a social media platform inside a company (business) website? Is better to keep it separated from the business?
Is there a hindrance if the brand extends across both?
The bottom-line for this Social Media strategy is position SoftBrands as a thought leader (which I believe we truly are) in eyes of hoteliers, consultants and partners.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Building an Agenda
Planning has been underway now for a few months but we are at a point when the agenda is being developed, speakers established and partners invited.
We are in the midst of collecting feedback from our FY2008 customer satisfaction survey where we give customers an opportunity to request topics for the UC. We'll also look at our support calls to determine what issues/questions continue to be asked/requested.
What else can we do to take advantage of our nation’s capital without being "American centric"? How to incorporate politics without being political?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thank You UK/Ireland and South Africa Sales Team!
This post is a summary of a few key sites and individuals that regularly post within the Social Media arena:
Kevin Sturm (Blog)
Facebook
Twitter
Robert Rosenthal (Blog)
Erik Munoz (Twitter)
Social Media Optimization (Blog)
This should get you all started. I need to get back and pay attention to the presentations.
Cheers!