Top 5 Social Media Trends 2010 – Hospitality

As part of the Web In Travel event – I was invited to Brand Karma by Circos Social Media workshop – held at the Singapore Arts Museum. No one would be surprised that I would be a positive and eager recipient of any content that is supportive of social media and how my agreement to the premise of how suddenly social media is making a huge impact on consumer decisions.

But, I am not alone – the attendees at this workshop filled every available seat and then some. My 1st impression was one of amazement – not at the number of people but at their Attire – i then kicked myself as hey this is hospitality – not only service is important – so is how you dress and look… the outfit of choice – smart suit – colour Black or Grey – your look, highly groomed – hmmm my jeans and polo shirt just slightly out of place. That aside – what this also tells me and you is that Hospitality is taking social media very seriously.

Morris Sim (co-founder & ceo) Brand Karma’s high level presentation was awesome and given Brand Karma is a monitoring company, he covered a wide overview of social media activties in 2009 – my biggest disapointment however is when the Top 10 Social Media events in 2009 were presented Tourism Queensland’s Best Job in the World did not make the list – given the global success of Best Job in the World, and that it is to made into a TV program. Best Job In the World centres around tourism & hospitality, with the desired results of creating MASSIVE tourism toAustralia’s Queensland, I would have liked to have seen it get Special mention – it was not SO – I will do it myself in this blog post. – Like the Susan Boyle media coverage – The Best Job in the World also gained significant traditional media coverage and social media drove the coverage – congrats Tourism Queensland.

The Top 5 Social Media Trends closed off the presentation – below is my interpretation.

1. My Story Trumps Brand Story (users talking about you gives more credibility)
2. A hollistic Experience is what i want
3. Design & empathy in hospitality developments will be key drivers as a response to social media
4. Social Media will demand a corporate policy (HR Operations meaning social media moves beyond just marketing & Public relations)
5. A new distribution star is BORN which will it be Facebook or twitter

I needed to rush to another meeting so I missed the full interactive workshops in store for the attendees – but i did take away that social media is still in its infancy – something reverberated today as Web in tavel – WIT took centre stage – more in my next post…