3 Social Media Facts Spa Managers Need To Know
NORM BOND (NB) is widely recognized as an international authority on marketing. A frequent media guest, Bond has appeared on CNN, Reuters, FOX News, National Public Radio (NPR), Business Week, and Black Enterprise Magazine.
Moontide Consulting (MC) caught up with Norm in Bangkok, Thailand and asked for his insights on the global spa industry and social media.(SM)
MC-Social media (SM) is all I read about now. It’s everywhere. But if I’m a spa manager do I need to be concerned? Isn’t this a senior management area?
NB-“SM is an integral part of an entire organization. From the senior manager to the entry level employee to the front desk person. Because the nature of social media today is that everybody can be touched by it. So senior management invests hundreds of thousands of dollars into an excellent marketing program involving social media. They meet with public relations and the CFO and get all these things in place. Then a campaign rolls out and the clients arrive at the individual spa locations. If their first interaction is with that receptionist who’s not plugged in to the social media plan which was set up at those senior levels, then everything will fall apart at that basic level.
Everyone, whether you’re middle management, an individual manager of a single location or district manager of multiple locations, must be integrated into the role of social media in order to be effective.
MC-Let’s say I manage a spa. I see our spa being tweeted by customers but I don’t want to tweet incorrectly or get it wrong. How do I handle this?
NB-People sending out tweets for your spa has been one of the greatest errors in social media whether it’s the spa industry, not for profit agency, corporation, whatever. The thing about SM is that it has to be strategic and not minimized. It should be part of a clearly defined campaign. As a manager, you’ll want to do it yourself.
You never want to delegate it or say “Ok, intern, here’s our e-mail, here’s our log in information, start tweeting for the spa.” Because if that one person jumps on and tweets out an improper link or thinks that they’re on their personal twitter page and blasts out a message that goes to 2000-3000 followers of your spa or they put an inappropriate status on Facebook, it can blow out your company’s whole public relations effort and campaign.
MC-I hear you. So ownership and response are very important.
NB-Response to the customer is extremely important. One of the ways success is measured in SM is by engagement. So if someone is tweeting a question because they’re either at your spa location or thinking about visiting your location or even at a competitor’s location, the whole point is that they’re now tweeting and engaging with your brand. If you don’t acknowledge them, they may tweet some other spa that’s more responsive and values their input.
The other thing that can happen is that there are a lot of savvy SM users who actually monitor twitter feed for certain keywords related to spa. So if someone is saying “I’m looking for a massage” or “What are your facial rates”, there are smart competitors who won’t hesitate to jump in, and say, “Hey Mary, I heard that you’re looking for a facial. We’ve got great deals this week”. They can virtually steal your customer away even though that person was not engaging directly with them.
MC-Are you kidding me? I had no idea. Thank you Norm.
NB-My pleasure.
Linda Harding-Bond
