Starwood Research Group Research Performed by: Justin Hill Junior Katie Day Senior Abbigail Leonard Senior Haylee Sloan Senior Tim Foutz Senior

Who is Starwood? 2016: Marriott International merges with Starwood Hotels to create the largest hotel company. 1997-1999: Starwood acquired Westin Hotels & Resorts, IIT Sheraton Corporation, and Vistana Inc. They also became Starwood Vacation Ownership during this time. 2006: Starwood went worldwide by purchasing Le Meridien (137 properties located in Europe and Middle East). 1993: The company bought their first hotels. 2010: Starwood opened their 1000th hotel. 1994: Starwood owned interest in more than 30 properties. 1991: Starwood was formed in Chicago. 2009: Starwood financed enhancements as part of the Sheraton Revitalization Project. 2012: Starwood Preferred Guest launches richest elite traveler benefits in history. 2003: Starwood started welcoming pets.

Objective? Target Audience? Our team’s objective for Starwood Hotels is to identify the best possible ways the company can utilize all of the latest marketing features of today’s top social media websites with the utmost efficiency and profitability. We also aim to discover the most effective approach to keeping Starwood Hotels in the loop on the latest social media trends and business features.  Target Audience? Our team believes the two audiences we should target with our research should be business travelers and leisure travelers ages 22 to 62. Business travelers are our main focus, as they are the people most frequently booking hotels. Leisure travelers 22-62 cover most travelers who are out of college through those in retirement. We feel both audiences are likely to use social media regularly in today’s society and therefore are suitable targets for our social media marketing research.

Starwood’s Facebook Today After reviewing Starwood’s Facebook page, we noticed the last post was on September 23, 2016 announcing the merger with Marriott International. We also noticed that other post were pertaining to employment opportunities. As shown in the screenshot, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. have 207,031 people that have liked their page and 204,497 people who follow the page. They have also included their website link.

Need to Know Facebook Updates: One update Facebook has created is reaching customers offline. This works by using the customer’s phone location services. This will create pop up ads on the customer’s Facebook page on a later date. For example, if I googled “Starwood Hotels” and searched the main website. The next day or weeks later, an ad for the hotel would pop up on my home page. This is causing revenue to increase for businesses and enhancing the company’s name. This also helps narrow the target audience down to the people who are interested in that company. Another update Facebook created is new layout templates. First impressions are essential when pursuing new customers. Facebook is now offering templates where the business has full authority to choose the perfect template that best suits their company. These templates offer have different layouts for videos, pictures, text, etc. When businesses use these templates, they are trying to impression the customers by creating a page no one else has. Another important Facebook update is live video. This is the simplest and easiest way for businesses to advertise. This could be used to record one of the many hotels Starwood has to offer. People often want to see everything hotels have to offer before booking. This creates a way for people to see the hotels without guessing every feature. This also creates open conversation by letting people react to the video and comment their opinions.

Starwood offers quick responses that include the message box when opening their Facebook page. Starwood has their website link posted on the Facebook page for easy access. Starwood is Keeping Up Starwood uses Facebook to reach out to people for employment. Starwood post pictures of their different properties to let people have a glimpse.

Starwood’s Instagram Today After reviewing Starwood’s Instagram page, we found that they post frequently on their Starwood Preferred Guest page. We noticed they post beautiful pictures from their many properties. They include a link to their site for their latest sales. On the other hand, their other page has not been active since March 25, 2014. Starwood has more than 191,000 followers.

Need to Know Instagram Updates: One update Instagram offers is adding a location on pictures. This allows people to see the exact location the picture was taken. This will help to put a location on each picture posted from a different hotel. Often, people see pictures of somewhere and wonder the location. With Instagram’s newest update, it allows Starwood to put a location with a brief description of the hotel. Another update Instagram offers is stories. The stories can feature a video, picture, or text. This update can help businesses advertise sales or different hotels. This pops up first when logging onto Instagram. This causes people to see the stories and most likely view it. This also allows viewers to comment on the stories and allows the company to see who has seen the story. Another Instagram update is featured posts. Instagram allows you to feature a post to a wall where millions of people will see it. This can help boost advertisement by making it to where many more people will see the post.

Starwood Hotels has the largest numbers of followers out of all other hotel pages. Starwood includes locations on their “Starwood Preferred Guest” page. Starwood is Keeping Up Starwood posts beautiful pictures of landscape with their hotels. Starwood promotes their out of country hotels to increase international travel.

Starwood’s LinkedIn Today After reviewing Starwood’s LinkedIn account, we found that it is pretty up to date. The job postings are up to date. The main page provides a short bio of Starwood Hotels. Starwood has 410,238 followers. The site also explains they currently have 10,001 employees.

Need to Know LinkedIn Updates: One feature LinkedIn offers is ‘The Company Profile Visitors’ option. This feature measures how many users are viewing and interacting with the content on the page and places the data into a graph. This is important for analytics because it does the work for you. This number will provide the company with exactly how many people are impressed or interested in their company. Another feature LinkedIn offers is ‘The Career Page Clicks’ option. This option shows how many times a viewer clicked on different elements on the career page. This helps employers to see who is serious about future employment. Another feature is the Visitor Demographics graph. This will display a breakdown of the users visiting your page based on information logged on their profiles such as seniority, industry, function, and size of their company.

Starwood has up to date information on their LinkedIn page referring to the merger with Marriott. Starwood provides current job openings for areas around the viewer. Starwood is Keeping Up Starwood includes the number of employees currently employed for them. Starwood includes their website so potential employees can do further research on the company.

Starwood’s Twitter Today After reviewing Starwood’s Twitter page, we found that it is up to date. They seem to respond to viewers and answer any questions. They have over 221,000 follower.

Need to Know Twitter Updates: One feature that Twitter has is direct messaging. This feature allows customer’s to message the company without having to call or wait days to receive an email back. This is convenient if the customer needs a quick answer referring to check in or out or locations of hotels. This also helps give a good reputation to the company. The customers know they can rely on you for a quick response. Another feature offered by Twitter is quick tweets. Tweets are meant for 140 characters. This means that they are short and to the point. Company's can use twitter for short advertisements or links to their site. If they were to post something long, they would use Facebook or Instagram.

Starwood has responded to people recently Starwood has responded to people recently. They have answered any questions and responded to comments. Starwood includes their website link and a short bio of their company. Starwood is Keeping Up Starwood includes that they are a global company. Twitter is an international social media; therefore, people will know they are a global company. Starwood has over 221,000 followers. This is helping the brand name.

Starwood’s YouTube Today After reviewing Starwood’s YouTube page, we discovered that the page has not be active in almost five years. We found that Starwood has 1,571 subscribers. The last video uploaded by Starwood was posted five years ago with over 9,000 views.

Need to Know YouTube Updates: YouTube allows you to track the data by analyzing subscribers, liked and disliked videos, and comments left for each video. The feature to use is ’YouTube Analytics API’. Instead of just seeing the comments and the views, this program helps explain. Another unique perspective is that YouTube can increase sales by using video. It is a proven fact that video is more effective when referring to marketing tools rather than words.

Starwood is Keeping Up Starwood has an established YouTube account. Starwood has subscribers. Starwood is Keeping Up Starwood is a hotel company which is good for blogs. Bloggers sometimes use YouTube to post videos. Starwood is an established hotel that has the potential to have a thriving YouTube account.

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