Blog Year Resolutions

Good morning faithful blog followers (and WELCOME to you if this is your first trip to our part of the blogosphere!),

I hope that you have all had a wonderful holiday season, and that you’re as ready as I am to conquer all of the challenges that 2012 will bring. A lot of the “experts” are on the fence as to whether 2012 will be better than 2011 for the travel industry, but I KNOW that Wilmington has a lot more to offer for a wider range of travelers than many other cities, and there’s no reason why we can’t be a city that leads the pack during the industry’s recovery!

Of course, a new year means new resolutions for a lot of people – and I’d like to take a few moments to share some resolutions I have for our blog this year. (And, yes, you can come back on December 31, 2012 and remind me if I missed the opportunity to capitalize on one of these ideas this year!)

1. Make our blog more personal.

   I never want this to become a stale corporate blog filled with “anonymous” posts – I would much rather you feel as if you know (and can trust) the person behind the blog. Early this year, I will add a page “About the Blogger” so that you’ll have a better connection with me throughout the year as you enjoy all of the posts containing our hotel’s news.

2. Add more media!

   I plan to share more candid shots of our hotel and our staff with you this year, and hope to include a few videos as well. I realize that you may not have a lot of time to linger over the text in our blog every week, but it doesn’t take much time at all to check out a picture or two!

3. Connect with more travel blogs.

   We have a blogroll on our site that contains blogs written in Wilmington by local businesses. I hope to continue to expand our “Wilmington” list, but I’d also like to find other Holiday Inn (or Holiday Inn Express) blogs to link to. I’m also going to be searching for a few good influential travel industry blogs and will post links to those, as well.

4. Engage some of our other employees to “Guest Blog” for us throughout the year.

   Back now to the efforts to make this blog more “personal.” I plan to recruit some of our other staff members to write submissions for our blog. This should be especially interesting for those of you who enjoy “getting to know” people from all departments of a hotel.

5. Highlight local businesses and attractions in blog posts.

   Our city has so much to offer, and I plan to take time this year to tell you about some of our best local businesses and biggest attractions. I’ll be reaching out to those businesses in advance of the blog post to ensure that I get the latest information and (hopefully!) some great images or videos to share with you all. Finally, if you have a local business that you’d like to have featured – all you have to do is ask!

I hope you enjoy following our blog this year to see how we make changes to implement all 5 of our resolutions. If you have any additional ideas, I’m always available for discussion. Catch me on Twitter at @HIEXWilmington, write us a note on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/HIEXWilmington, or email me at dowellim (at) gmail (dot) com .

Best wishes for a very Happy New Year!

– The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Wilmington – University Center