Twitter for Tourismby @SnowgooseSA a.k.a Heidi Schneigansz

So, WTF is this ‘twitter’ thing anyway?

It’s Microblogging

• An online common room

• A mixture of banter, socialising and practical advice

• Users answer the question “What are you doing?”

In 140 characters or less

Everyday, millions of users create, share and discover ideas on Twitter

58.4 million, to be exact

Twitter use by country

Source: comscore report September 2009

But it’s only for teenagers, right?

Wrong…• A huge chunk of twitter users are 35-54, that magic

tourism age group

Source: comscore report August 2009

OK, but how does it work?

Twitter lets you write and read messages of up to 140 characters, or the very length of this sentence, including all punctuation and spaces.

The messages are public, and you decide which accounts you want to receive messages from, by subscribing to them

Twitter works equally well from your desktop or mobile phone

Learn the lingo

• To follow somebody is to subscribe to their messages• A tweet is an individual message• A DM or direct message is a private message on Twitter• RT or retweet is to repost a valuable message from

somebody else on Twitter and give them credit• Trending topics are the most-discussed terms on Twitter

at any given moment

Learn the lingo

• @username is a public message to or about an individual on Twitter

• A hashtag–the # symbol followed by a term and included in tweets–is a way of categorizing all the posts on a topic

• Shortened URLs. To fit links into the short messages, Twitter shrinks some URLs down automatically

People use twitter to

• Share their daily activities• Have group conversations & chats• Crowdsource ideas• Find useful and interesting content• Get their news• Even propose marriage!

And for Tourism businesses?

It’s even more valuable

Users also find great value in connecting with businesses of all kinds on Twitter to:

• Share their experiences, both good and not so good• Provide feedback on recent events or launches• Discuss product ideas• Learn about exclusive deals or offers• Get customer service

A success story

• Twitter is currently one of the largest sources of traffic to LocalGetaways.com

• Secured thousands of qualified followers in less than 30 days

• Tracked Twitter clicks through to sales• Realized more than 20K website clicks in 2 months• Generated national traditional media story• Tweets trickled out to other social media sites,

generating additional website traffic

Source: http://www.inkfoundry.com

Wow, so how do I do that?

Getting started

• Go to twitter.com and hit

• Signing up for an account takes just a few minutes and it’s free

• To help people recognize and trust your account, fill out your profile completely and include a picture

Getting started

• Find and follow relevant people by using http://search.twitter.com

• Write a content plan, don’t just tweet

• When people follow you, follow them back

STOP. Let’s run a little exercise…

Tips for success

Build relationships on Twitter• Listen for comments about you• Respond to comments and queries• Ask questions• Post exclusive deals• Post links to things people would find interesting (they

don’t have to be about your business)• Retweet messages you would like to share• Use a friendly, casual tone• Don’t spam people

Tips for success

Leverage the real-time nature of Twitter• Ask questions, float ideas, solicit feedback —

and expect fast feedback most of the time• If you’ve launched a product, new branch or new

campaign, search Twitter for comments• Respond to customer service issues quickly• Engage in discussion on a tricky public issue your

company is dealing with

Tips for success

Measure the value of Twitter• Before setting up measurement tools, focus on the

quality of your engagement: do a gut-check of how things are going

• Try to analyze the quality of feedback and topics of discussion, you may find this changing over time

• Keep a tally of questions answered, customer problems resolved and positive exchanges held

• When offering deals on Twitter, use a unique coupon code or separate landing page

Get creative!

The dog that tweets

• A chocolate Labrador at the Best Western Chocolate Lake Hotel in Halifax, Nova Scotia

• She gets fan tweets, fan mail, and has become an attraction unto herself at the hotel

• Having a dog like Cocoa (her real life name) as a concierge also allows the hotel to engage with an audience of dog lovers who may also like to travel with their dogs.

It’s awesome, but I don’t have time!

Enter

With Hootsuite you can…

• Manage multiple social networks• Tweet from multiple accounts• Schedule your tweets• Keep a tally of questions answered, customer problems

resolved and positive exchanges held• Embed twitter widgets in your website• Track your tweet statistics• Set up team workflows• …and much more… for free!

So you’ve seen what twitter can do for Tourism — now go and get an account!

Get in touch

• Twitter.com/SnowgooseSA

• Snowgoose@quirk.biz