Blue Helm

Come on Marriott! Jump into Facebook!

Making a Facebook page is like baking brownies. The recipe is easy, the end result is familiar and the overall quality depends on how much effort you put into it (baking brownies from a box vs. brownies from scratch).

But what if you don’t like brownies? Or rather, what if a large, prominent company doesn’t have an official Facebook page? Even when it seems like everyone else is stampeding to jump on the Facebook rollercoaster?

Marriott is one of these companies. I’m not sure why the hotel conglomerate doesn’t maintain an official Facebook page. Maybe it doesn’t want one. Or maybe it hasn’t gotten around to making it yet. I’ve found several pages run by local Marriott establishments, but nothing official for the whole company. Regardless of the reason, Marriott International should create a Facebook page. Here’s why:

Control the chaos: When I search for “Marriott” pages in Facebook’s search box, I get gazillions of results—everything from phony Marriott sites to local hotels to indie musicians. But nothing official from Marriott International. I can find a page for a particular Marriott hotel here in Provo, but not one in my hometown of Jacksonville. And there’s a page that advertises itself as the official Marriott Facebook presence—with over 13,000 fans. But it isn’t the official page (though I’m sure thousands of its followers think it is). Where’s the consistency? Where’s the authority? There’s none, and that’s bad for business.

Set a precedent: Local franchises could benefit from a well-organized company template. Maybe Marriott International has already given its franchises instructions about creating a Facebook page, but many still don’t have one up. Is there uncertainty about how to make a page or what’s acceptable to include? Marriott can clear up any confusion and encourage its local establishments to utilize social media by maintaining a high-quality page.

Get ahead of the curve: Many of Marriott’s global competitors are not on Facebook. Yet.

Engage your customers: Marriott International maintains a great Twitter presence, regularly responding to customer inquiries and updating followers about discounts and promotions. Why not do something similar on Facebook? With over 300 million users (far more than Twitter), Facebook is the premier information hub in the social networking universe. Marriott may find more PR gurus and corporate travel planners on Twitter, but Facebook is where moms, college students and small business owners are flocking.

As far as what Marriott International could do with a Facebook page, well, that could easily take up another blog post. Advertise promotions, create a hotel locator, stream your Twitter feed, spotlight new franchises…maintain a useful page that attracts, preserves and rewards its fans. There exist few legitimate cons to creating a page for the company (despite what others might tell you). Marriott could at least throw up a basic Facebook page to take back control of its manhandled brand. At least make brownies from a box!

So why am I singling out Marriott? Because it’s a great company with limitless potential. And like so many other businesses I come across, it’s not utilizing all the powerful possibilities social media has to offer.

Bottom line: I’m a loyal Marriott customer that can’t find my favorite hotel chain on Facebook. How many other Marriott customers run into the same problem each day?

Elizabeth Bernstein wrote a marvelous piece in the Wall Street Journal today about the pitfalls of Facebook and how the site has the potential of ruining friendships. Now I can’t say that Facebook has ruined any of my personal friendships, but I have distanced myself from certain people (and fan pages) that post strange, annoying or inappropriate content on the site. And one of my absolute favorite Facebook tools is the ability to ‘Hide’ the status updates of a friend or page. With the click of a mouse, you can easily conceal someone’s updates without altogether ‘unfriending’ that person or group and without them ever knowing (just move your mouse to the right side of a friend’s status update and click on the ‘Hide’ icon).

But what if you’re guilty of being hidden? You’ll never really know, but if you spew out the following types of status updates, you’re probably not being seen by as many of your Facebook friends as you think:

“I’m so tired! I wish I could go back to bed.” Ugh. Status updates like these are pointless and repetitive. This is perhaps the biggest problem with Facebook updates—they’re boring! Before you post a useless statement like this on Facebook, think to yourself: “Would I care about this if I saw it on my news feed?”

“It’s Monday.” Yes, well of course it is. Most of us have access to calendars or brains, so we really don’t need updates like these.

“I miss my smoochy koochy boo so much! Come home baby boo!” Avoid the mushy romance talk on Facebook. No one likes it. Except your boo.

“I’m so hung over from last night. I haven’t been that drunk in a long time.” Now your boss, coworkers, grandparents and former elementary school teachers know you’re a boozer. Congrats.

“I’m having a really bad day. I wish I weren’t so lonely.” It’s fine to use Facebook as a forum to fume about a product, company or difficult situation, but don’t use it as a way to vent about how sad or friendless you are. It makes you look pitiful.

“Why the h*** do those d*** cops give out so many f***** tickets!?!” Profanity turns most people off. It’s best not to use it on Facebook.

Other topics to avoid on Facebook include potentially offensive religious or political rants, information about your sex life, disparaging comments about other friends (or your boss!) and shameless self-promotion (that last one is especially applicable to businesses and fan pages). Oh, and please lay off the quizzes! I don’t care what Muppet Baby you most resemble or what African mammal you would be in another life.

Bottom line: people want variety. They want interesting, genuine, unique and funny status updates. They want motivating or attention-grabbing comments. They want links to hilarious videos or relevant news articles. They want to see what you’re up to, but only if it’s intriguing or inspiring or amusing.

We’re all guilty of posting dumb updates sometimes. But the repeat offenders should beware. I’ve hidden over 50 of my friends over the past few months. Are you one of them? You may never know. Pwahahahaha!