Consumer Generated Media is a much talked about area of Internet marketing for Hoteliers. The explosion of consumer generated media (CGM) marks a distinct shift in how people are interacting with the internet. Traditionally the web was a one sided medium with users exposed to whatever providers wanted them to see. Now users are actually creating their own content and deciding for themselves what they want to see and when.

The issue for hoteliers is how to best use CGM to their advantage - there are areas where they are clear opportunities for the hotel industry to benefit from this new medium but conversely there are potential threats as well.

There are three main approaches to utilising CGM strategies for your hotel:

• To protect and monitor conversations on the web about your hotel
• To promote the expert knowledge that you have within your Hotel staff
• To utilise CGM for SEO purposes: from additional pages of content being continually being added to your website, to the opportunity to use keyword rich text to assist search engine rankings for your website.

The potential threat to your hotel from CGM is the opportunity it presents for disgruntled guests to post negative reviews about their experience of your hotel. The thing to bear in mind here is that there are so many sites that will already be displaying these views; surely it is better for your business and your brand to be included in the conversation, rather than not responding to negative criticism.

It is a crucial element of both Customer Services plus Marketing/PR strategies that hoteliers monitor social networking sites to try and contain any negative reviews and minimise the damage they have. A promptly responded to negative review can be easily be turned into a positive as long as it is handled correctly. Plus of course positive reviews can reveal new stories that can be turned into excellent PR opportunities.

The opportunities to promote your hotel through CGM are to utilise the expert knowledge you have within your hotel staff eg:

• Your Head Chef/Executive Chefs blogging about the local produce that they buy, quality of produce, range of dishes, recipe ideas etc
• Your Head of Reception/Customer Services talking about new procedures they are using or technology they have installed eg mobile check in/check out to improve your service offerings

Using a combination of all methods available within CGM, if written correctly, will have a huge impact on your web footprint (size and reach of your website) plus a positive impact on your search engine ranking.

Find out more about integrating CGM into your hotel website strategy