I can't tell you how often I hear from leading travel brands, "so why should we Tweet?"
Tweet your brand to give you an online personality, and form conversations and relationships with your customers, I offer. Form a dialogue with brand champions, and leverage their input, I add. Work in real time with customer service issues, I plead...Provide followers with special offers/sweepstakes and let them benefit from being the "first to know." Make 'mo money using this channel - and learn how it works, I finally suggest.
Well instead of pleading my case, I turned to the experts - 32 travel brands who "get it" and who tweet daily to make brand "friends" and money. In aggregate, these brands reach millions of active Twitter followers (also known as consumers), and reap the benefit of their Twitter strategies and tactics. Take a look, and try out Twitter for your travel brand - you'll thank yourself in the morning :) And please add me to your Twitter followers list @SusanTravels!, so that I can keep you posted on even more creative travel uses for Twitter...including brands that offer Twitter-exclusive deals.
Oh - one more thing...I asked each to let me know how they use Twitter in 140 characters or less. Not easy...but at least it's not Haiku!
1. @Tripology: Twitter is an amazing research assistant. A constant flow of articles plus a great way to do quick "sniff tests" of ideas.
2. @MacdonaldHotels: With Hospitality its a people First focused business & you need to move with the times....http://tinyurl.com/dk3nkf
3. @AlaskaAir: Hi Susan. We use Twitter to listen & connect with our customers.
4. @FunjetVacations: We use Twitter to speak directly with both consumers and agents to constantly be in the know of their wants/needs & service.
5. @Oceanisleinn: Great outlet for exposing our hotel, events, places to dine, and our area. Also links people in the hosp indus. My whole staff is involved.
6. @TiaraHotels: We're using twitter since Oct.08. Easy client/partner engaging tool. Direct contact, great exposure. Planning future specific twitter offers
7. @SecretsResorts: Twitter has been great for listening to our customers, participating in relevant conversations and promoting dialogue about our resorts Also, it gives us the opportunity to share what is going on at the resorts day-to-day through photos and tweets!
8. @ConnectByHertz: Best use: (1) building awareness - our products /services as well as our industry/travel as a whole, (2) Customer Service & Feedback 3. Connecting with our customers
9. @PleasantHoliday: To make B2B brand more B2C; low marketing cost; speed to market for promo of travel deals. Let me know if need more info.
10. @trazzler: we use twitter to share info about travel, trazzler.com, and to communicate with our users
11. @Cheapflightscom: We use Twitter to share travel deals, give travel ideas, report travel news & help people find the cheapest flight/hotel.
12. @EliteTravelGal: Booked 6nt stay at FS Scottsdale 4 new Twitter friend after she saw my post re: getting bfast/perks at all 4SeasonsHave 2k+ followers after 2 weeks
13. @flight_centre: engage http://bit.ly/vUEco inform http://cli.gs/pLJa5p cust serv http://cli.gs/LP1ES2 & strongest spoke to Hub http://cli.gs/u7QnWv /Spoke
14. @napamarriott: Hi Susan- Twitter allows us to directly connect with guests. We try to be an area resource helping with suggestions, recommendations, etc.
15. @hotel_preston: We proactively seek out folks traveling to Nashville & looking for a hotel. We also do giveaways & provide Nashville info
16. @LindbladExp: As a niche, experiential brand, we use Twitter to listen, send out videos/content & to watch trending industry topics.
17. @NileGuide: We use twitter to converse/engage with travelers, communicate NileGuide site & blog updates & other travel tips/news. Thx!
18. @TravelMuse: Why: Get instant feedback/endorsement and easy to scan/consume news. How: Push out new content; RT relevant tweets; talk to customers/peers/media; competitor analysis; industry news.
19. @whereivebeen: We tweet because we love to keep up-to-date with vital travel information, written by jet setters, from around the world
20. @dealbase: Thx! We always want to be close to the pulse of the early adopters: feeling & taking & responding to it, making it go faster
21. @TripAdvisor: How/why: to connect w/ & get feedback from travelers; to share TA’s content & community resources; to hear from hoteliers on how we can help
22. @MarriottIntl: Our dept's SM strategy, which is corporate based, is about open, honest conversations w/stakeholders in line w/our corporate philosophy.
23. @Travelzoo: This helps drive traffic to our site and subscribers to our newsletter, while providing an avenue for us to connect with our users. As a travel deals publisher, we use Twitter to alert our followers of the latest and greatest travel deals in the market.
24. @hotel_max: Hello! We use Twitter to spread info and fun giveaways about the Max, Seattle, and also keep an eye out for people who are coming to the city to tell them.
25. @TravelOregon: We use Twitter to have conversations about travel to Oregon with consumers in a setting that they're comfortable with.
26. @yapta: Yapta.com uses Twitter to keep travelers abreast of important travel news, Yapta product updates & to issue airfare price drop alerts
27. @JohnnyJet: Drive traffic to my site.Create brand awareness.Stay on top of travel trends/news.Gives me a pers/prof connection w/readers in real time.
28. @rogersmithhotel: Connecting & sharing our product. Making friends first that will hopefuly become guests. Customer service and real time info. Announcements
29. @fodorstravel: We find Twitter valuable for engaging passionate travelers, connecting with top travel bloggers, and promoting Fodor's and its community.
30. @UnitedAirlines: Maintain a micro-dialogue with our customers on issues they care about. Recognize their interest in United with special deals and promos.
31. @CharlesHotel using twi to build our audience, communicate directly w/ guests, share info, and give special offers to loyal followers
32. @PeabodyMemphis: provide helpful, newsworhty content; being human; mentions of other local attractions, staying in the conversation, twitter exclusive promos
4 comments:
@adventuregirl because she ROCKS with travel scoop and information! GO Adventure Girl!
Thanks for this list, I followed all that weren't purely there to promote their business (in other words, I could sense a person behind the twitterfeed and/or they tweeted about more than their business and specific locale).
As expected, it is difficult to summarize a social media strategy in 140 characters. One point I would like to expand upon is the idea that Roberta (@robertaw99) raised in her comment. As both a sender & receiver of information, one of the most valuable aspects of Twitter is that it makes everything personal. For example, when I receive a tweet from @Susantravels, it is as if Susan (you) has sent it directly to me and I am free to respond, comment, retweet, etc. Similarly, when I send tweets from @PleasantHoliday, I seek to communicate directly to my followers & look forward to personal conversations with each one of them. I want my followers to think of Pleasant Holidays not as a brand or a company but rather, as a group of individuals working together to meet our customers' needs & to provide them with the best possible travel deals, information, and service. Feel free to comment back to me at @PleasantHoliday or @TravelSocial
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