With the recession lingering, many marketers have been tasked with using “free” social media for business development. To that end, in SmartBrief on Social Media and here on this blog, we spend a lot of time on creative uses for Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. We shouldn’t forget, however, that LinkedIn can also be a tremendous tool for generating new business — if you know how to get the most out of the platform.
The Carlton Hotel, a historic luxury property in midtown Manhattan, provides marketers with a great LinkedIn case study, complete with a real return on investment.
This past summer, the hotel’s management company, Gemstone Hotels & Resorts, wanted to leverage LinkedIn to help promote The Carlton as a corporate destination for groups, conferences and executive events. The company turned to Freesource, a social-media consulting and training company run by ex-LinkedIn executives Nathan Egan and Patrick Baynes, to help develop and deploy a strategy. (Disclosure: Freesource is also SmartBrief’s go-to group for LinkedIn expertise.)
Freesource’s recommendations for The Carlton’s sales team included:
- Build a closely held network. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Freesource recommends only connecting to people you really know and trust. Managing tightly held, individual communities on LinkedIn will maximize the value of the platform and the quality of in-bound/out-bound business opportunities for your representatives.
- Teach sales representatives how to benefit from search engine optimization. Encourage sales reps and staff to identify with the hotel’s offerings on LinkedIn and align their profiles to meet their goals. Have them incorporate strategic keywords into their job titles, summaries, specialties and job descriptions to benefit from increased Web hits.
- Learn about your prospects. Use LinkedIn for “social CRM” throughout the entire sales process, Freesource recommends. Active, daily use of LinkedIn will give employees a better understanding of their current and future clients — turning cold calls into warm handshakes, shortening sales cycles and giving you greater share of wallet through stronger relationship management.
- Create prospecting efficiencies. In-depth knowledge of Boolean strings, LinkedIn’s basic and advanced search capabilities, as well as its newly revamped ”Company Pages” will help a sales team find new, qualified leads faster. Lastly, use tools such as LinkedIn’s SlideShare application to provide virtual property tours so that the profile can bring in leads around the clock.
The results of this four-pronged LinkedIn initiative speak for themselves: Less than 90 days after implementation, the Carlton’s five-person sales team sourced $186,550 in new corporate and group business.
How are you creatively using LinkedIn for business development?
Image Credit: Carlton Hotel
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Please note The Carlton is not in Midtown Manhattan. It is located on Madison Avenue at 61st Street north of the Midtown business district. As a past guest the hotel's location is desired by those who may wish to be removed from the congestion of Midtown and reside in a residential oriented area of Manhattan yet be within 5 minutes walk to the corner of 57th Street and 5th Avenue ad one block from Central Park. Thus, the Carlton's comp. set includes The Carlyle, The Surrey and a few other smaller hotels on the Upper East Side.
The Carlton Hotel is not at 61st it is on Madison and 28th st.
@Joseph – The Carlton Hotel is located at 88 Madison Avenue, just on the corner of 29th & Madison. http://www.carltonhotelny.com
@Karl – You're right, Thanks!
[...] SmartBlog on Social Media: How The Carlton Hotel leverages LinkedIn for business development [...]
[...] och smartare, förutsatt att de du vill nå finns på LinkedIn i det syfte du vill nå dem. Här kan du läsa om hur hotellet Carlton använde LinkedIn för att öka antalet företagsbokningar, evenemang och konferensbokningar på sitt hotell. [...]
[...] Here is an article from the SmartBlog on Social Media. [...]
I'm wondering if you can provide more specifics, e.g.:
Did the new business come from connecting and engaging with existing contacts and/or prior clients?
Did the sales team directly approach people in LinkedIn Groups who were talking about planning upcoming meetings?
Did they participate in ongoing conversations in LinkedIn Groups about meeting planning and business conferences?
Did they respond to questions posted in LinkedIn Answers?
Did they search user profiles to find new corporate meeting planners to connect with and then extend direct invitations to connect?
Did they notice other properties doing any of the above?
Thanks – really interesting case study!
HI Erika,
I noticed your comment on the Case Study for the Carlton Hotel in NYC, and I was wondering if you'd received an answer to your questions. I have the same questions?
LA
palamar@BuildingTourismExcellence.com or @lapalamar
Great case study here Erica, and thanks for sharing it.
LinkedIn provide a tremendous value for Hotels. Social Networking is what brings in the outcome here.
Great questions from Erica here.
What The Carlton Hotel has done is to establish a Company Page on LinkedIn and then key employees has created profiles that is Search Engine Optimized.
The Social CRM is the most important part of their success with LinkedIn – listen – connect – relationship and trust building – respond and care.
On their LinkedIn Company page they provide essential service presentation. This is a smart way to show case your product and service to consumers.
One thing though I think The Carlton Hotel could taken it even farther to keep the momentum. Add some LinkedIn connection button on their Hotel Website. On their profile they could utilized SlideShare and show cased a video of their Hotel services. And also added some more value related to product recommendations.
Most Hotels use LinkedIn primarily for what it is best know to provide – potential job candidates. So it is refreshing to see hotels that think outside the box. This is what also will add to the outcome.
Remember that Social Media is bouncing ball – you have to keep the momentum when it is up and follow up on the Social Networking part of this process. Else the ball will drop pretty fast again.
Cheers.. Are
My recent post Social Media and Customer Service Trends
When you say 'sourced', do you mean leads that requested a quote or is this actual sales closed? Thank you for sharing this information.