[The Insider] Hotel Berlin, Berlin

With its 52 years "Hotel Berlin, Berlin" clearly is not a new comer in hotel business. But when the hotel was bought out of a big chain in 2006 the heads decided to reinvent the hotel and its meaning once more. Beside a new facade for the building this included a new brand and new ways of marketing; taking the hotel into Social Media.

And once again Berlins third greatest hotel is leading hotel business to new innovative ways. Last week we got the great opportunity to talk to Anne Bubner, Brand and Media Manager and her Assistant Maria Langhammer both managing the Social Media appearance for the hotel. Like no one before they showed us how Social Media is more than just another communication channel and deeply effects the hotel and its processes.

[Should I care about] Location-based Services (LBS)

Even before the latest peak in downloads of scvngr  Location-based Services had a huge buzz in the internet community; Foursquare's and Gowalla's (both launched last year) growing user base put Facebook under heavy pressure. So heavy that about a month ago they launched their competitive service called Facebook Places.

Location-based services promise to "socially engage" users for your local business like cafés, bars, museums and similar public places. But how do these systems work? Why is there a hype about them? How do they try to keep this promise and what would I - as a business owner - have to do to participate? All boiling down to one major question: Should I care about Location-based Services?

Marketing by Sharing

Oh no, thats not just another TED Talk. It is not, really! If you want to see some interesting TED Talks about marketing and social media I would suggest you to have a look right here and here. They won't dissappoint you. I promise!

But lets get back to the main topic. I guess a lot of you know 37signals. They are the creators of "Basecamp" (and more) and writers of "ReWork" and "Getting Real", some awesome books on building web based services.

Jason Fried (Co-Founder and President of 37Signals, the guy in the video) talks about a possible way to promote and marketing your products and services: marketing by sharing.

Good Night my Blog, Good Morning Twitter!?

Das Wachstum rund um die Nutzung von Microblogging in Unternehmen erinnert mich in vielen Facetten an die Veränderung der Firmenkommunikation mit dem "Einbruch" der Blogs. Das Gefühl man müsste den alten Zug verlassen und mit einem anderen weiterfahren um ans Ziel zu kommen ist nun wieder erkennbar.

Vor kurzem bekam ich einen Artikel zu lesen, in dem die Meinung vertreten worden ist, Microblogging würde den Blog in Kürze ablösen, denn die Tendenz zu kurzen Mitteilungen sei nicht zu übersehen.

Dabei bin ich der Meinung, dass sowohl Blogs im ursprünglichen Sinne als Microblogging für eine gelungene Social Media Kommunikation unabdingbar sind. In einigen Gesprächen mit Unternehmen kam immer wieder die Frage auf, ob es sich denn tatsächlich lohnen würde, einen Unternehmensblog weiter zu führen, wenn doch Twitter und ähnliche Dienste vorhanden seien.

Ich sage ja!, es ist sinnvoll, aus den folgenden Gründen.