There is much (and growing) research that tells us about the critical role Social + Mobile, a.k.a. SoMo, plays in the daily lives of consumers.

  • Social networking has passed gaming to become the #1 mobile app activity
    [Flurry]
  • 60% of time spent on the mobile internet is devoted to social networking [Ground Truth]
  • More than 189 million of Facebook users are “mobile only” [May 2012, Comscore]

Let’s look at how these two relatively late 20th century innovations are stronger marketing tools when leveraged together to tell great stories by studying CitizenM, an Amsterdam based hotel development company with locations in Europe and most recently Times Square.

Mobile Citizen of the World

CitizenM’s name actually means “mobile citizen of the world,” meant to describe this genre of International traveler who “crosses continents the way others cross streets.”  Many of their guests are the Millennials and the “young at heart,” and when you look at their online marketing approach, it’s no wonder why their hotel stands out from the crowd appealing to this tech and socially savvy crowd.

Top 10 Best Practices for Social and Mobile

Taking a cue from CitizenM, here are some additional best practice highlights to take advantage of SoMo and get your online storytelling presence moving forward (continue reading below to find out exactly why CitizenM is making the most of SoMo).

The Millennial Traveler

CitizenM appeals to many travelers, but especially to Millennials. Millennials (or Gen Y) have grown up in a digital technology world. Their biggest pet peeve is trying to navigate non-optimized mobile sites. They love, love, love video, particularly short snippets of food experiences, bar scenes and communal areas. Social opportunities at every turn are expected. But here’s the money ball:  Millennials are predicted to surpass the spending power of Boomers by 2018!  And remember, this group transcends all travel types:  Business, Leisure, and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) – paying attention to what engages them socially and on mobile devices is a smart play.Millennials Love Digital Technology

Blend Social and Mobile

Here’s a wonderful example of blending social with mobile as a powerful driver of engagement. CitizenM knows that their guests are mobilized all day, every day. And, like much of the rest of the world, CitizenM New York Times Square and its Facebook friends are passionate about the World Cup. CitizenM is a Dutch company, and anyone who is familiar with New York’s history knows that it was settled by the Dutch in the early 1600s. Cleverly, CitizenM Times Square posted World Cup cheers to drive engagement.  They also had a call out to Ketel One for helping them “booze” their way throughthe nail-biting competition while featuring their bartender making cocktails and showing off their lounge atmosphere. Talk about taking a relevant, local, and socially energizing topic and using it to their benefit. Leverage your local partnerships, particularly if you can mimic a fun thing like this. What’s bravo! in Dutch?

The other sharp thing CitizenM does in their visual marketing is show their guests in a variety of situations with their mobile devices; lying on the bed checking texts, sitting in the lounge updating presentations on their laptops, and watching movies on their tablets.

CitizenM

Though today’s story is focused on Millennials, consumers across all Generations are both social and mobile – nearly eight in 10 Boomers are regular Internet users and account for more than one in five social network users. SoMo knows no age boundaries.

Sometimes, opportunities come along that are no-brainers. The convergence of the social craze on mobile devices is one of them and savvy hotel marketers understand the implications.

But we cannot forget that the ultimate objective of a travel site is to sell and the number of steps involved in today’s average travel purchase, online booking sites are faced with serious challenges when it comes to understanding customers. A new survey sponsored by Webtrends and conducted by PhoCusWright identifies the number of touch points that led to the purchase.

The Survey findings include:

– Travelers search multiple web sources when preparing to book trips, and the preference is overwhelmingly in favor of using desktops — 79 percent of travelers use online travel agencies/apps for research compared to 14 percent who use smartphones and 11 percent who use tablets.

– Frequent travelers (6+ trips/year), big spenders (spend $6000/annually on travel), early tech adopters and mobile travel shoppers use more touch points than the mean, indicating that these travelers do more research than average before booking.

– Consumers aged 25-34 represent the most mobile-heavy shoppers, making up 38 percent of the total users who book through mobile. As consumers age, the number of touch points used to book travel decreases, identifying a key opportunity for sites to capture market share within that age demographic.

– Top reasons travelers give for not booking via mobile devices are that they prefer to book via desktop/laptop (55 percent), the mobile screen is too small (31 percent), not ready to book when shopping on a mobile device (30 percent), and they are not comfortable booking via a mobile device (26 percent).

Travel booking sites have an opportunity to increase conversions and customer loyalty by providing a personalized, easy-to-use experience for customers who are using multiple devices. The following are five digital best practices suggested by Webtrends to help travel booking sites better understand their consumers and better focus their marketing spend:

1. Discover what matters to each individual traveler. In order to deliver relevant and personalized experiences to visitors, travel sites must take a sophisticated approach to the digital booking process by knowing each visitor on an individual basis. This allows brands to create the most relevant user experiences. By leveraging visitor-level measurement and optimization tools, brands can personally assist each traveler with his or her search and avoid the risk of that visitor booking elsewhere.

2. Understand travelers across their entire journey and on all devices. While you can’t control how consumers interact with your site, you can learn from that interaction — and learn to read between the channels. It’s not just about what a consumer did on a website or a mobile device, it’s about the journey and interaction between devices. For example, research may be done on a smartphone, but the user may ultimately book using a tablet. By painting a cumulative picture of consumers that includes both action and intent, brands can understand cross-channel flows and make informed decisions on where to invest both effort and spend.

3. Test everything across all channels. Whether it is flight/hotel booked or Average Order Value, metrics are essential to the travel industry. Constantly testing and measuring results allows brands to improve the booking experience and drive up KPIs — ensuring brands get the most yield for every dollar spent on marketing optimization programs. Evaluate your campaigns constantly and make adjustments regularly to see which messages result in the greatest return. Brands should continue to evolve the booking process because there isn’t a one-time fix. Channels should evolve depending on season, visitor demographics, travel pricing and other criteria.

4. Take immediate action. Every traveler has a purpose when visiting a site and historical data only tells part of that story. Real-time data is the clearest indicator of current intent, and using those in-the-moment insights to see what travelers are searching for and clicking on is the best way for brands to provide a relevant experience while the traveler is still engaged, regardless of channel or device. By reaching out to a visitor while that person is still thinking about the purchase, whether it’s through a pop up ad, an email immediately after he’s left the site or an offer for a lower fare, conversion becomes increasingly more likely.

5. Leverage technology that plays well with others. Booking sites must have the flexibility to change and adapt in order to improve experiences for travelers across digital channels. When selecting tools, make sure you are leveraging technologies that are compatible and open. Otherwise, you may be forced to make compromises in your strategy in order to conform to a closed system.

«Booking sites are challenged to meet customer needs on every step of the journey — from the first interaction all the way to the final booking of the trip. Since travelers often do research on many sites while using multiple devices, it is imperative for travel sites to get the experience right the first time by connecting the dots between channels. This includes understanding how consumers use both mobile and desktop. By understanding consumers on a real time, visitor level, booking sites can determine immediate intent and offer the most personalized, relevant experience. That experience adds up to increased bookings, higher order values and, best of all, site loyalty.»

Thus, clearly it is key to look for the right balance between conversion and socialness in the site, using social and mobile also as elements to foster conversion improving the user experience.