Starwood's Loyalty Program Launches Twitter, Facebook Strategies

(Monday, October 12, 2009) - As its customers flock to social media sites, Starwood's loyalty program today will announce the launch its own social media strategy that involves Twitter and Facebook.

Why bother?

Stats about its loyalty members and booking patterns tell the story. Starwood Preferred Guest members are generally active social media users, and of them 50% indicate frequent involvement, according to Starwood stats in its press release. And it's the group of frequent social media users who tend to book Starwood hotels and stay more frequently, according to Starwood. Also, members who belong to social networks are nearly 20% more likely to book a Starwood hotel than other SPG members - and those who create blogs are nearly 80% more likely to book.

Starwood's loyalty program already launched its Twitter account in June. But now, it's creating what it says is the hotel industry's first travel tips mash-up, which is sort of like an exclusive, map-based database.

Members will be able to tweet tips on restaurants, bars and entertainment with whatever mobile Twitter application they use. The SPG program then automatically uploads the tip and puts it on a map with latitude and longitude of the device from which it was sent, according to Starwood's press release. The idea is to get many travelers to add their tips to compile an easy-to-search, worldwide map for and by SPG members. For now, though, the map contains tips already loaded by Starwood hotel concierges.

The other is Facebook application that lets SPG members share vacation or business trip photos from their own Facebook accounts.

Essentially, if you have five favorite photos from your trip that you'd like to share, then you can tag to be entered into SPG's searchable photo album - called SPG TripShare - on Facebook. The photos don't have to be related to a Starwood hotel - just a destination, whether a beach, a mountain, a ski resort or city, that you think is worth showcasing.

Starwood will also be talking about its iPhone application today, but so are other hotel companies so I'll do a roundup of them later this week (flu permitting).

SPG members: I've been noticing this story get passed along via Twitter since I posted it early this morning. So...now that you've had a chance to check out SPG's new concepts, I'd like to hear what you think of them. Do you think you will use them? Why or why not?

View all Starwood Hotels & Resorts Press Releases

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