Last week was jam-packed with unveilings from social media giants. From Twitter to Facebook, many new tools and features were shared with users this week.

After much anticipation, Twitter finally revealed their analytics product on September 13. This feature allows publishers to track how many links and tweets are shared, information which was previously only available to advertisers. Also abuzz in the Twitter world is a new advertising feature, which allows brands to inject advertisements into the timelines of “non-followers”. This will be of great value to advertisers, especially since Twitter just announced that it has more than 100 million monthly active users around the world.

Over at Facebook, some changes are in order as well. This week, in an attempt to compete with Google +, Facebook revealed a new look for its “Friend List”. The new design allows users to have greater control over what they share and with whom they share it. Another feature that Facebook promoted this week was subscribing to profiles as opposed to “friending” people. By subscribing to a user’s profile, your newsfeed will show their public status updates and you can decide how much of these updates you would like to receive. This is yet another change in response to Google+.

Do you think changes made to Facebook will keep them more popular than Google+?

Last week was all about the crazy weather and with hurricane Irene still causing damage along the East Coast over the weekend it was still being talked about Monday. Twitter was all a buzz about the storm and someone even created a hurricane Irene Twitter account.

In my opinion the storm that caused the most disasters was this years MTV Video  Music Awards that aired Sunday night. The invitation to attend has to say “Attire: Customes Only” because the outfits were out of control. Lady Gaga came as a man, Beyonce announced her pregnancy and Niki Minaj wore a mask while carry stuffed animals on a chain all night!

It took me a few days to recover from the stupidity that the music industry has turned into and turn my attention to something way more important, football. Thursday was the start of the college football season and I’m patiently (ok not so patiently) waiting for my teams first game tomorrow! The NFL is making a techy move by replacing their playbooks with iPads. I’m sure this will move into college football sooner than later.

Football might be my big plans for the long Labor Day (end of summer) weekend but All Facebook can tell you what everyone else is doing this holiday! We want to hear what your big plans are!

There were two topics this week that you could not escape: crazy weather on the East Coast and Steve Jobs.

Monday afternoon it became apparent that Hurricane Irene would pick up speed and hit the East Coast by today

and tomorrow. My Tweetdeck was flooded with talk of the hurricane hitting Charleston and the damage it could cause. The amazing part of this was that I received more up to date information via Twitter than on the news.

Tuesday brought on more insane weather with the Virginia earthquake that people said they felt in South Carolina AND Indiana. Twitter went insane with talk about the earthquake! Social media for disaster and weather preparedness is really growing and it’s obvious why (blog to come on this next week).

The entire technology world felt an earthquake on Wednesday when Steve Jobs resigned as Apple CEO due to his health. I personally can’t watch a movie, listen to music, check my email or read a book without thinking about his impact my life and I wish him the best!

Busy week!

I have read one too many articles lately that claim you just cannot measure success on social media, at least not yet, but rather it’s more about awareness, engaging loyal fans and customers, creating goodwill, etc.

While, yes, social media is about that, it’s also about RESULTS and yes you can measure that. I’ll tell you how in my weekly SocialMoms.com post. Read on!

Think back a decade ago, how did you find the right hotel for your vacation? Probably either using a travel agent, seeing an advertisement in a magazine or word of mouth. Well, flash forward to 2011 and that’s all been turned on its head.

Yes, those previous forms of communication still affect the hotel/resort industry, but word of mouth no longer means the same thing as it did 10 years ago. Now, people talk about the resorts they enjoy using social media, making word of mouth so much more powerful and effective, and one of the most powerful ways for guests to get their messages out is with Twitter.

Twitter lets users reach a very large audience very quickly! Not only can users reach their followers, but each tweet is searchable on search.twitter.com, indexed by Google (so anyone can come across it even if they are not on Twitter) and has the potential to be “retweeted” (shared with another Twitter user’s followers), which is how a single tweet can reach thousands of eyeballs in a flash.

So if you haven’t checked out what folks are saying about your hotel or resort on Twitter, make that a top priority TODAY and consider how you can  use that tool to capture new guests, solve customer service issues and influence what people think about your property.

Here are some tips to get you started:

Follow Your Competitors:

In any sound marketing strategy, you always look to see what the competition is doing. Follow your main competitors on Twitter and monitor search terms for them as well. We find using a program like Tweetdeck makes monitoring accounts and search terms in real time much more efficient. Monitoring your competitors will allow you to see what they are doing on Twitter and let you tweak your social media strategy accordingly. By monitoring your competitors, you’ll also be able to find users who are unhappy with your competitors, and then you can reach out to those users with open arms!

Keywords are Key:

To get the maximum benefit from Twitter, set up keyword searches. These searches will allow you to monitor all that is said about a certain topic or phrase. One or your keywords should be the name of your property, as well as phrases that indicate a user may be interested in your service. Try terms that include the name of your area or city and then the phrase “stay,” “visit” and “hotel”.

Using these searches will allow you to reach out to users currently staying at your property, those who are reviewing your property and potential customers who are planning to come to your area. This one-on-one interaction can help sway a potential customer. Just make sure you’re timely in your response, as many on Twitter expect responses, especially to customer service issues, within six hours or less. That means you need to be on Twitter not just Mon-Fri 9-5 but nights, weekends and holidays, too. After all, those are the times when most people are planning their vacations.

Interact and Offer Strategic Content:

Another key component for running a successful Twitter account is what you tweet out into the world. You want to make your account the go-to account for whatever geographic area you’re servicing. Research local events, post photos, inform users about the weather and just be an overall fountain of information for your city and property.

Now you can’t just tweet out content and not interact, that will make your account look too “salesy” and one-sided. It demonstrates that you don’t care about your followers. Ideally, you should be sending out three to four “planned” tweets a day in addition to interacting many times a day with your followers and potential followers. This mix of tweets will make your account look more personal and allow the account to take on its own personality.

Another mistake we see often among hotels is setting up Twitter and not following anyone. We’ll see accounts with a thousand followers who are following 26 people. Again, this demonstrates you’re not interested in what your followers have to say and that’s not appreciated in the world of Twitter.

Don’t Forget to Link:

Another common mistake is pumping out a lot of content without ever linking back to your website. Give your followers the chance to go to your site for more information – and to book a room! They can’t do it if you don’t provide them with a way to do so.

Now, set up your Twitter account, follow us and keep us updated on how you’re filling your rooms on Twitter.

How can a news anchor connect with his or her audience in a more personal way? Well, Brad Franko of WCBD-TV has shown that by using social media, you can connect with and update viewers in real time. Brad recognizes the importance of instant communication and that those connections formed on social media lead to more loyal viewers.

In just a few short years, the newsroom has changed from just monitoring a police scanner to monitoring local Facebook and Twitter feeds, searching for breaking news.

Read more from Brad to find out how he monitors multiple social media tools daily and keeps his viewers up-to-date in real time.

What is your job/company/profession/title?

News Anchor/WCBD-TV/News 2 Today

What was the first social media technology you used?

Facebook was the first tool I used…and I was resistant to it for a long time. It wasn’t until probably two years ago that I jumped on the wagon.

What is your favorite social media tool?

TweetDeck (Twitter in general) is my favorite right now. The ability to post news information on the various platforms through Twitter seems easier to me. Since I’m sending information to personal/TV station accounts I need to minimize the repetitive posts.

How have you used social media for your business/company and how has it benefited?

I use it daily to send out breaking news stories and updates to those throughout the day. I also use them to solicit information from followers/friends/fans. The best part is the instant communication you can have with viewers. I think making that connection on a semi-personal level leads to loyalty. It really helps us respond to breaking news faster than ever before. In the “old days” (three years ago) we would hear about a story over the scanner. Then you call a public information officer to confirm and then send a crew. Now, someone sees news, it hits Twitter or Facebook with a picture…and that’s confirmation enough to get a crew rolling to a scene. The interaction also galvanizes the trust you build over the years on the air with a more personal connection.

How much time would you say you spend a day engaging social media?

I am constantly engaged in social media…during the work day, Facebook and Twitter are open on my desk. I have a laptop with the dual-monitor setup so I can always see what’s happening. When I’m at home, I’m obviously not glued to my phone, but it’s not far away.

How do you incorporate it into your day so it’s not a time waster?

I find that leaving it open, almost like background music keeps me from drowning in updates.

Is there a social media tool/technique that you think is underutilized that you would like people to know about?

I think hashtags are overused, but underutilized if that makes sense. I’m guilty of it too though. I run searches for #CHS, #CHSTRFC, #CHSWX…if someone has something important to say about either topic, and I don’t follow them…the hashtag search pops it into a feed window. If you’re like me, you run out of characters and the first thing to go is the hashtag.

Where can people find you online and via social media?

Brad Franko – News 2 (Facebook)

WCBD News 2 (Station Facebook, great resource for your readers!)

@BradFrankoNews2 (Twitter)

@WCBD (Station Twitter)

Here in Indianapolis, we recently experienced one of the worst tragedies we have seen in years: the scaffolding collapsing on a crowd at the Indiana State Fair waiting to see country duo Sugarland. Six people have now died with many more injured and recovering.

David Lindquist, longtime music reporter at the Indianapolis Star, was on hand covering the concert for the paper, but quickly became witness to this disaster and found Twitter allowed him to report the story in real time to his followers, which grew from 2500 to 4000 in the ensuing days.

In an article today in the Indianapolis Star, Lindquist, @317lindquist on Twitter, recounted his experience and how he attempted to report on the tragedy live as it unfolded in front of him. His first tweet: “”Tragedy at fair concert. Entire stage collapses on track.” He was able to interview a few people at the event, including a videographer on tour with Sugarland, quoted as saying “This is as bad as it gets” — which served as the front page headline for the paper the next day.

Lindquist used his phone to report back to the paper, all the while tweeting what he saw and what he heard.

I’ve heard my friend and founder of TheDigitel, Ken Hawkins, who formerly worked at the daily paper the Charleston Post & Courier, say he felt social media would turn the average Joes into the witnesses and the information gatherers of news, a job formerly done by reporters, while journalists would become those who provide the context for that information, helping it make sense to readers and viewers. However, here, Lindquist found himself in the role of man on the ground and context provider.

In addition to reporting the story, he too became “the story” with countless media interviewing him about what he witnessed that night. He made appearances on “The Today Show” and “Entertainment Tonight” to tell his story.

What strikes me here is the powerful way this journalist was able to use social media to its fullest effect to get out information not as just a witness, but as a journalist trained to capture details, verify information and translate that into an understandable story to the public.

Without Twitter, we would have heard that story live on TV, some hour and a half after the event occurred, without the trained firsthand account he was able to provide. I was watching TV that night, and this was how long it took for them to report the story. The CNN email News Alert came at 10:13 p.m.; Lindquist’s first tweet above was at 8:54 p.m. Or we would have read about it next day when Lindquist was able to write a more finely crafted story of the night’s events.

Thanks to David and to Twitter for providing us reliable reporting and a vehicle to share the information immediately. While this is a case where Twitter is being used for good, it also reminds me how we’ve seen recently people using the tool to organize criminal activity and other inappropriate actions. Unfortunately, though, that is their right. Just as with free speech, we can say what we want, but we hope the best thoughts and actions rise to the top just like the admirable reporting the night of Aug. 13.

The week started out with everyone discussing the debt ceiling and this held true for social media as well. Several Twitter hashtags popped up showing the country’s financial frustration, the most popular being #f***youWhiteHouse (we censor on this blog J). President Obama asked all citizens to turn to Twitter and tweet Republican lawmakers to #compromise. This campaign may have backfired a tad since he lost more than 36,000 followers in the process. I’m not sure if it had more to do with people feeling pressure or the fact that in four hours he released some 100 tweets asking people to tweet their GOP representatives.

If this wasn’t enough, Newt Gingrich has been accused of buying most of his Twitter followers. I hate to say this because I love that social media has become such an important part of our lives and politicians are embracing the platform, but COME ON people. There are important issues to address and to me these issues are definitely NOT fake followers and hashtag campaigns.

Enough ranting from me (what do I know, haha) and on to some fun stuff! Twitter has trashed their old version, Foursquare has introduced do-it-yourself business pages and Google+ is sending out their first business page invites today.

Just one last thing: Yesterday we had a food truck in front of our Charleston office and the food was amazing! I now know that they are so huge right now and are all over the social media scene. So blessed that we will have them twice a month from now on!

The hotel industry has changed dramatically over the past decade, first with the introduction of online booking sites such as Expedia.com, then with the increased popularity of review sites such as TripAdvisor.com and now with social media.

Step Ahead Inc. demonstrated the power of social media for hotels with a group of Myrtle Beach area hotels, for whom we managed all Facebook pages and a single Twitter account for the group. The results we saw over time were astounding including dramatically increased web traffic, revenue in excess of $14K per month directly trackable to social media and an ability to handle some 15-20 major customer service issues per month.

We were able to increase Facebook friends from just a few hundred in 2009 to over 47,000 for all pages together by early 2011. We turned their pages into a source of helpful information about theMyrtle Beacharea, literally turning each Facebook page into a virtual “front desk” for the hotels. People loved it.

The Power of a Review

Facebook, it turns out, is a place where people feel very comfortable sharing positive and negative reviews. We saw lots of positive reviews on theMyrtle Beachpages and the occasional negative review, as well.

Some argue they don’t want a Facebook page, so as to avoid negative reviews, but people will share them whether you want them to or not. If they’re on your own page, at least you can monitor and respond to them. If they get posted somewhere else in Cyberspace, if you don’t have an active online monitoring service in place, you’re likely to miss it and it could easily spiral out of control.

Positive reviews, on the other hand, are a great selling point for your hotel, and can help sway potential customers. We found that often when someone said something negative about the hotel, other people would come to the defense without us even asking. What a powerful testimonial!

Beyond 9-5

A big key to successfully managing social media for hotels is being present outside of office hours and that means more than scheduling posts outside those hours. You have to be on and engaging.

If someone posts a complaint or negative review, you need to respond within a couple of hours max. Twenty-four hours is a lifetime in the world that is social media.

Also, don’t forget that people are very active on Facebook over weekends and holidays, often more so than during the week. That’s the time when they tend to be planning trips, doing research and booking hotel rooms. If you’re not on, you’re missing a key chance to engage your prospects.

This constant monitoring may seem tedious, but when you make your Facebook friends feel special and important they become even more loyal brand ambassadors and return visitors.

Social Media as a Money Maker

Who says you can’t make money on social media? Hotels who offer online booking certainly can and we proved it!

In early 2011, Facebook was averaging $14,000 per month of bookings for this hotel group directly trackable to Facebook and Twitter. This more than covered their social media fees, making social media a very profitable endeavor for them indeed.

Keep in mind, this number only includes direct traffic to their website, not phone calls from Facebook or Twitter friends. They did not have a tracking system in place to track phone calls that may have been generated from a visit to their page and we can only imagine how many of those originated on Facebook.

Traffic, Traffic and More Traffic

On a monthly basis, the Myrtle Beach Facebook pages were sending more than 5,000 visits to the websites, making Facebook one of their top referring sites.

We also noticed that the quality of traffic sent to the sites was very high, with a lower than average bounce rate and people stayed on the sites longer than average.

An important thing to note here is that in order to get the traffic and get the booking, your Facebook page should be made up of friends who are the right target, not just anyone you can get to click “like”. We take a very targeted approach to building a friend base and we believe that’s critical to generating these dramatic, measurable results for our hotel clients.

Social media has become a must-do marketing strategy for hotels, enabling them to be more effective at customer service, generate more revenue by providing followers with information for booking online and a way to get more eyes on your hotels as people research where they want to stay. Take a dedicated, consistent, targeted approach to social media and see if you don’t see your results from social media take a sharp turn upward.

This short holiday week was full of announcements! Facebook unveiled video chat powered by Skype! That’s a great idea for Facebook, because now you are able to increase your communication with friends all over without ever leaving the social network. Company pages can’t communicate with their “likers” yet but it’s just a matter of time before that’s an option and I’m sure video ads will be in the future as well!

What you might not know or remember is that MySpace released Skype-powered calls many moons ago in 2007! It’s funny how things don’t seem as cool when someone other than Facebook does them. In this case, many people just think Tom and MySpace were ahead of their time, considering Skype didn’t have the video option quite yet.

Google also released their Facebook competitor, Google+, and it’s getting rave reviews from early adopters and the social media glitterati! Here are 10 testimonials from those who are already registered courtesy of Mashable. We’re giving it a go here at Step Ahead and will have a blog next week detailing our thoughts.

I’m leaving you this week with a few questions: Did anyone follow Obama’s Twitter Town Hall? If so, what were your thoughts? Did anyone else religiously follow the TV show “The Voice” like I did? If you did, then you won’t be surprised that they snagged the title of “most social TV show in June”!

Final question: Who misses 4th of July already? I certainly do mainly because I love fireworks. If you love them like I do, here are a few great Twitter images from Independence Day!