CVB, DMO, Tourism & Destination Marketing - Online Marketing and SEO for Travel and Tourism Sites » twitter

Choosing the Right Twitter Hashtag for Your Marketing

admin — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:59:00 +0000

Used to be you’d see a billboard advertising a product or service with a phone number underneath the company logo. Then the phone number became a website address, then a Facebook user name alongside the unmistakable blue square with rounded corners. Today, you are more likely to find advertisements that display none of these things as they are replaced by a hashtag and a simple word.

Take for example, recent advertisements for the HBO series, “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” A title card displays the show’s name along with #curb. The show doesn’t necessarily want you to like a Facebook page or check out a preview on YouTube, but they want you to create conversation. The #curb tag in Twitter or other social networks gets you into an exclusive club of Curb fans – you can search now and see what people are saying, and generate your own buzz among your friends and followers. It’s a smart move by HBO and Curb to market the show in this manner, because who can better promote a TV series, book, music act, anything, than an active group of fans?

It’s one thing to have a Twitter account with thousands of followers, and another to have thousands of Twitter users actually talking about your products and services. At the end of the day, which do you think is more valuable: a thousand people reading your posts and possibly patronizing your business, or a thousand people each tweeting about your business to their followers, and potentially increasing your visibility? This is not to say you should stop trying to bring in new followers, but this is a great time to shift some focus in your Twitter marketing to encourage positive chatter.

The Hashtag VS. the @Mention

Even if you are new to Twitter, you know the difference between using # and @ in conversation. The @ mention often directly addresses another Twitter user, while the # addresses a specific topic in Twitter that is popular, or “trending,” or part of a pertinent discussion. Conference planners often set up hashtags for conferees to follow for information, and fans of TV shows and movies may add a tag to their tweets to generate attention. Fans of “True Blood” converse during the show – just look for #trueblood in Twitter to see the activity.

As you formulate a marketing strategy that involves Twitter, you will want to focus on a unique hashtag people can use when referring to your company. While an @ mention may alert you more easily, not all of these tweets may be visible to everybody, depending on the Twitter client used. Use of the hashtag is better to promote your brand to as many Twitter account holders as possible.

Selecting a Tag

In selecting a hashtag that will identify with your company, you want to be mindful of the following:

1) Make sure it’s not already being used. Play around a bit on Twitter and test potential hashtags you would use for your company identity. Your company name or a derivative of it may work, but have an alternative if you find it’s being used.

2) Keep it short. People should discuss your company with as much free space as possible. You have 140 characters per tweet, so try to keep the hashtag less than 10% of that.

3) Make sure people know to use it. Let people know the hashtag, and use it often in your own tweets. As followers go by your example they may soon converse on their own about you, and the hashtag allows for easy monitoring.

Having customers talk to you via Twitter is good. When they follow you, it’s great. When they talk positively about you on Twitter or anywhere else, you strike gold.

Kathryn Lively is a social media specialist assisting clients with social media writing and Facebook marketing. Clients include vendors of organic mattresses, travel companies offering cheap European hotel reservations, Virginia health care services, Norfolk Realtors, global trade portals, and Gainesville bed and breakfast inns.

Twitter Connections – How to Establish Connections on Twitter

admin — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:59:43 +0000

What can a business do on Twitter to improve their social media clout and click-through rating? As somebody who works in social media, I’m asked this often. Where Facebook and YouTube appear to offer businesses a clear understanding of how they work and how they benefit others, Twitter remains an enigma. Business marketers know they should at least have their brand established in a profile, with the proper links in their bios, but beyond that… what? Do you fear Twitter is useless in business for the noise it creates and the saturation of users trying to market to you? If you believe this, perhaps it’s time to step back and approach your use of Twitter differently.

If you have dabbled in promotional tweeting to tout your products and services, you may have noticed other businesses follow the same path. Tweeting turns into repetitive sales pitches that get lost in the ether. Of the people you follow, the majority of re-tweeted messages come from comedians or companies taking advantage of paid tweeting, and only they know the effectiveness of such campaigns. To succeed in using Twitter as part of your online marketing, you need to focus not on how many people will get the message, but how many people will do something about it.

In other words, rather than blast out sales and codes ad nauseum, take a personal approaching to using Twitter and reaching people individually. Convert to sales one Twitter user at a time.

Okay, so how do you achieve this? First thing you want to do is set up a feed that tracks specific key phrases relevant to your business. Whether you are searching for people looking for hotel rooms, shoes, books, car rentals… eventually somebody is bound to ask the Twitterverse where he can find something. Check the feed regularly and weed out possible leads, then approach the user with a friendly greeting and an offer to help.

Now, as you use Twitter you want to have a client in place that alerts you immediately when you receive replies and direct messages. This allows you to remain timely in your one-on-one marketing. If you respond to Twitter users and disappear for eight hours, you aren’t much of a help. What if a reply goes unanswered and a competitor picks up the ball? For heavy-duty Twitter use, somebody on the team needs to watch the account.

When you are not directly approaching people on your account, use Twitter to humanize your business. Talk about what you are doing, what the weather is like outside the office… keep the narrative light-hearted, and even include an occasional third-party link to something interesting. Retweet followers where applicable, and always respond to mentions, regardless of whether they are friendly or harsh. People need to know there’s a person behind your social presence, and putting a genial attitude in your social media works to establish trust.

What You Can Learn From BP’s Mistakes

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:01:57 +0000

Of all the lessons learned from the BP debacle, the most important was the first one BP learned. The internet is a powerful PR tool that can crush you quickly. Bad news gushed across the internet like…well, like a broken pipe. In the days, and now weeks, following the initial report, BP continued to make one bumbling decision after the next. It didn’t take long for every move that that BP made (many of them sluggish and poorly executed) to be scrutinized and commented upon by everyone who had an internet connection. BP quickly learned that they weren’t just managing an environmental disaster, they were managing a PR disaster – one they still haven’t grasped.

It’ll be years before the victims of this disaster recover, if at all. But, as we can’t unring that bell (or in this case, put the oil back in the pipe), we have to focus on what we can do to facilitate recovery for the lovely coastal towns whose beaches and reputations were stained by this disaster.

If you’ve got marketing dollars, now is the time to spend them.

Your tourism, visitor’s bureau, local or regional website needs to be addressing all the wonderful features of your town and reminding vacationers that you’re still open for business. If you’ve got local photographers, invite them to submit new photos and then get those photos out through Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.

Build a social media campaign, like this one run by the Jamestown Foundation that encourages past visitors to talk about their vacations and events. If you’ve got a YouTube channel, so much the better. Link to vacation videos that show your sparkling beaches, your lovely shops, your friendly locals and fantastic restaurants. Need some inspiration? Check out Currituck County, North Carolina. Now is an excellent time to invest in a pay-per-click campaign that helps users reconnect with your town or find you for the first time.

Family vacations, reunions, honeymoons and holidays are all still happening. Make sure these people know that good things are still happening at your place, too.

Melissa Baumann is a Search Marketing and Tourism Specialist as well as a seasoned world traveler.

Reach Out to Traveling 20-Somethings Through Social Media

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:15:36 +0000

It isn’t a secret. Actually, you’d have to be living underground for the past 10 years to avoid it.

People crave their social media networks.

Facebook and Twitter are no longer just Web sites, but verbs used to describe online activity. We are a culture that is tuned in and connected to each other easier than ever.

However, have you ever stopped to realize just how dependent we are becoming to social media?

The wonderful people at eMarketer have recorded these numbers for us, which reveal some valuable information for destination marketing to 20-year-olds.

As soon as people under 25 years old wake up, 31% of them are checking and updating Facebook and/or Twitter. This is significant, meaning that the first priority of these people in the morning before they do anything else is tuning in to find out what happened over night.

How can you use this in tourism and destination marketing? Easy.

Make sure you aren’t forgetting your 20-something and college-aged audiences when advertising and marketing your destination
Find unique ways to draw in their attention with words like “affordable” “group rates” and “make unforgettable memories”
Seek out this age group on Facebook by searching for interests or fan pages. Then, bring them information they want to see about your destination.
Post to your Facebook pages and Twitter feeds over night, so when this age group is catching up on what they missed over night, they will find your posting

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites, European hotel booking, and professional social media services.

Creating a Social Media Plan for Tourism Marketing

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:25:41 +0000

If you wanted to take a vacation, you wouldn’t just hop in a car and go. You’d have a roadmap.

If you were going to bake a Boston creme pie, you wouldn’t just start mixing ingredients together. You’d have a recipe.

Seeing a trend? Most successful ventures in life generally start with a plan. Unfortunately, most who decide to use social media for marketing tourism and travel forgo necessary goal-setting and strategy. This typically leads them to wonder what they are doing wrong on sites like Facebook and Twitter when they don’t have as many followers or fans as they would desire.

Having a strong presence on Facebook and Twitter doesn’t “just happen” overnight. However, through the careful planning and interacting on these networks (and others), you can drive traffic to your destination.

First thing’s first: Set your goals.

This is probably the most valuable takeaway from your plan. If you are aimlessly wandering into the world of Facebook and Twitter just because every one else is, you will have no way to measure your success because you won’t know what “success” is. What specifically do you want out of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? Increased sales of at least 25%? More inbound traffic to your CVB’s homepage? Be specific. Also, what’s more important: 1,000 fans or more hotel bookings? Decide this early on so you can determine what true social media success is.

Secondly: Know thy tourist.

You should have at least a general idea of who your audience is. The more specific, the better. This will help determine what networks you should participate in. For example, if your target audience is older than 45 or 50, MySpace is probably not the best network to join. Also, if you deal with niche audiences such as mothers, sports lovers or busines travelers, there are specific niche social networks that you can join to help attract those groups.

Facebook seems to be a catch-all social network for most demographics, but knowing your audience will help develop strategies within Facebook that best targets your future tourists. Facebook marketing strategies range from paid advertising to fan pages and groups.

Third: Give them something to talk about.

This is the part that most jump into right off the bat, but it’s only after careful planning you enter this phase. Even after you begin this step of your master plan, you still need to know how to talk and what to talk about. For example: What are you going to do if someone negatively bashes your destination or staff? Respond openly or privately? Who is going to be the person updating your status everyday and does that person have a clear understanding of your online branding efforts? How much time daily are you going to commit to each social media account?

Also, remember conversation is two-fold. Don’t just talk. Listen, then listen harder. Go beyond comments written on your wall and find out what your fans are interested in on their own profile page. Learn what they like and don’t like and apply that to what you can do better.

Finally: Measure your efforts

Each month, measure your growth. Are you meeting your goals? Can you make better use of your time on Facebook and Twitter? Use tracking software and analytics to gauge where your traffic is coming from and learn from these reports.

Keep comparing your goals month after month and continue to improve on your efforts.

Social media isn’t easy just because everyone does it these days. Creating a successful social media campaign means work and much time invested. However, if proper steps are taken in the set up and planning stages of your social media marketing plan, you will lay the ground work for destination marketing success.

Jessica Swink is a freelance writer specializing in articles about SEO for travel Web sites, European hotel booking, and professional social media services.