We hear you: there is a lot of news out there and not a lot of time to get through it.  Every Monday we bring you some of the previous week’s interesting articles on marketing, social media, hotel distribution and other hospitality topics that we found to be worth sharing. This article links to a few highlights from last week in the news.

SMS Marketing

The mobile channel is being discussed as one of the main trends for 2012 so we thought it would be useful for hoteliers to think about their SMS marketing strategy. A list of 20 best practices are presented in the article below, and we would like to highlight a few: make sure that the SMS message you send out leads to a mobile landing page; engage the customer before approaching them via mobile; and provide real value in the message that you are sending:
Top 20 Secrets to Success in Hotel SMS Marketing

Twitter

Last week Twitter launched its new-new interface. Brands can now customize larger header images and can choose a particular tweet to appear on top of their time line. Additionally Twitter changed their “look and feel” and divided their navigation into three new buttons: “Home”, “@Connect”, and “#Discover”:
Twitter Makes to Major Announcements

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is a unique practice that is often underestimated. Why is it so hard to find the right person to manage the SEO for your property? It’s hard to determine which online information about SEO is reliable and one should make sure that the statements are backed up with plenty of evidence. The right SEO program should also be creative and able to find the best way to target certain keywords via different kinds of content:
SEO is Both Science and Art

Customer Loyalty Trends

Organizations mention that engaging customers is still one of their greatest challenges. However, in order to achieve customer loyalty they will need to make sure there is a deeper engagement. This article gives you some help in determining an effective loyalty strategy for 2012. It is important to realize the value of social media channels and how quickly today’s consumers turn to other people for their opinions.  Hoteliers should consider that the highest quality of customer experience will, in the end, lead to long-term loyalty; collecting rich information on customer buying patterns will contribute to this experience, as well as integrating the call center in the overall customer experience:
Top 12 Customer Loyalty Trends for 2012

 * Image source: jeffbullas.com