joseph jaffe

Did you know that New York City offers more opportunities than the standard tourist attractions? Did you know that there are other hotels beyond the Hyatts, the Hiltons, the Omnis, the Sheratons, and the Marriotts of the world in NYC? I know when my parents come to NYC, they go to what’s familiar. When you go to a conference in Manhattan, you probably seek out hotels that you’ve also heard of. Face it, it’s a competitive landscape out there, especially for tourists who flock to familiar names but perhaps do not realize that there are other options in the city. How does one small hotel possibly compete with these hotel franchises? Is it even possible?

We can say that it is. In fact, the Roger Smith Hotel did it quite successfully. Now known as the “social media hotel” of NYC, Roger Smith is attracting a really incredible bunch of people who have raved about the ambiance and the company’s approachability online. I spoke with Brian Simpson, Director of Social Hospitality, for more insights into how social media became an asset for Roger Smith, and I learned some great things. Brian Simpson is a cancer survivor and discovered Twitter in the spring of 2008 when he endured the grueling process of chemotherapy for a period of 7 months. Twitter, he says, “became my way of talking with a community of people.” He explains that “Twitter allowed me to be social without having to be IRL.” After he joined the Roger Smith staff (as Assistant Director of Food & Beverage), he helped spread Roger Smith Hotel’s amazing stories, including three years of archived video, across the social media space.