In the span of just a few years, networking has gone from the trading of business cards at professional events and tradeshows to "linking" and "friending" on the World Wide Web. This new outlet, • social networking, encompasses nearly all age ranges and demographics in some way, and its connection to the hotel industry is becoming evermore present as days pass.

Social networking's outlets are many, including • blogs, video sharing sites, photo sharing sites, • message boards and other online communities. Independent and branded hotels have started to embrace social networking and social media, but all are just at the brink of what this vast network has to offer.

"We're in the very early stages in the use of social media and social networks, so it's not like everybody's got it down to a science," said Cindy Estis Green, managing partner of The Estis Group and author of Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International's special report "The Travel Marketer's Guide to Social Media and Social Networks: Sales and Marketing in a Web 2.0 World."

In the plans

Green The Estis Group

Hotels getting into the fray first and foremost should include "some form of trip planning" on their sites, whether it's consumer reviews or a space to make vacation plans, Green said, noting The Norfolk (Va.) Convention and Visitors Bureau recently launched a website on which hotels, restaurants and other businesses are shown on an interactive map. Then, users drag and drop places they want to visit into folders on the site.

Getting social

Interactivity is one of the main reasons hotel companies are getting involved in social networking. "At Hyatt, we are creating social environments for guests to communicate with each other, as well as making sure Hyatt is participating on existing social sites to facilitate discussions and provide information on our properties worldwide," said Bill Bernahl, VP of e-commerce.

Depending on the hotel or brand's target audience, different social networking outlets exist.

"For the hospitality industry, quite honestly, the Facebook and MySpace pages have been successful for contests ... but not for broad audiences," Green said. "If you are Southwest Airlines and you're attracting college-aged cohorts for promotion programs, then it's great. But if you're the Waldorf=Astoria, you're wasting your time."

Although data shows older adults use these social networking sites more and more, they use them for a specific reason rather than to surf the site, Green said.

GETTING A FIRST LIFE IN SECOND LIFE

Nonetheless, many brands have developed Facebook and MySpace accounts, and some have seen great success, such as Sheraton Hotels & Resorts' fan page of Facebook, which boasts more than 13,000 fans. Hyatt has career and employment pages that Bernahl said have been popular and effective in recruiting, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide's brands all have fan pages with embedded video content and podcasts to drive guests to the page, said David Godsman, VP of global Web for Starwood.