Some travel marketers are chatty. Other people are salesy. Some people just talk about themselves too much. Others probably should talk about themselves a bit more. It’s the same with Twitter accounts.
NB: This is a viewpoint from Andy Crestodina, strategic director,
Orbit Media.
But there’s actually a simple guideline you can following to make sure your social streams are well balanced. It’s called the Twitter Rule of Thirds. You can use this rule-of-thumb to make sure your Twitter activity includes all three types of tweets: self-promotion, sharing and conversation.
- Promotion: ⅓ created content (HootSuite) - Letting people know about your content; promoting your business by promoting your articles and posts.
- Sharing: ⅓ curated content (Buffer) - Finding and sharing content that’s most relevant to your audience and industry, regardless of who wrote it.
- Conversation: ⅓ networking (Twitter.com or app) - Tweeting directly to people, asking and answering questions and thanking others for sharing your content.
These guidelines don’t actually suggest your business tweets an equal number of each. It’s simply a way to make sure that you include all three and that you aren’t overdoing it with any one type of tweet.
1. Promotion
Twitter is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get your message out there. Hopefully, you’re using it to promote useful content and not just tiny press releases. It’s best if promotional tweets include links to helpful articles that entertain or inform your audience.
To promote its summer travel programs,
Road Less Traveled uses twitter to gather pictures for their photo contest.
Whatever you’re promoting, you need to tweet is several times at least or very few people will see it. Social streams move fast!
Too many of these tweets and you’ll come across as a self-centered broadcaster of your brand. Who wants to follow that?
Too few and you’re not getting promotional value from Twitter as a channel.
HootSuite makes scheduling future tweets very simple. When a new post goes live, be sure to schedule a series of tweets, several today, one for tomorrow, one the next day, one next week, one next month and one last tweet for a few months down the road.
Tip: You can use a tool like FollowerWonk to find people who may be especially interested in your article. Look for people with the topic or interest in their Twitter bio. Next, mention them at the end of the tweet. This kind of 'Twitter Targeting' is an effective way to promote content and make new friends.Tip: If you mentioned any people or companies in your article, you can mention them in the tweet. Quoting people makes the article more interesting, but also gives you a reason to share it with someone. Quoting people in a post and then mentioning them in a tweet is called 'share bait' or 'ego bait'.2. Sharing
When browsing other travel websites and reading newsletters, you’re sure to come across some great content that your audience may enjoy. Tweet it and put it in your stream! When you do, you become more useful to your audience.
Greenspot Travel shares information from other sources, related to green travel.
Too many sharing tweets and you won’t drive traffic to your own site.
Too few sharing tweets and you won’t be helping your audience or connecting with influencers.
Buffer is a great tool for managing these sharing tweets. If you come across several great articles in the morning and tweet them all at once, your audience may miss them. Buffer spreads those tweets throughout the day. It’s is a browser plug-in for Chrome or Firefox that keeps these from getting bunched up in your stream.
Sharing tweets is also an opportunity to connect with influencers. When you mention them in your stream, you’ll get their attention. Eventually, you may build relationships with travel bloggers and journalists who may someday write about you.
Tip: Always mention the author and publication in the tweet. They may thank you for sharing or even retweet it. This will make you visible to a broader audience.3. Conversation Tweets
Once you’re used to it, Twitter is a lot like a big public telephone conversation. Every great social stream includes actual dialog between people. There aren’t usually links in these tweets. These are the comments and the observations. The hellos and thank yous. The questions and answers.
Sports Traveler uses Twitter to celebrate sports accomplishments.
Too many conversation tweets and you won’t drive traffic.
Too few conversation tweets and you’ll miss the chance to make new friends.
For hospitality businesses, it may be information about the destination. For transportation businesses, it may be information about travel conditions. For all travel companies, it’s customer service.
More than customers in other industries, travellers often have extra stress. This may be why they turn to Twitter when they’re frustrated. Travel companies have to be ready to respond when unhappy customers take to twitter.
- Address unhappy quickly and with empathy, even if your initial response is simply 'we’re looking into it'.
- Don’t move the issue to other social networks. It’s best if it’s contained to Twitter.
- Have a crisis management plan in place if all else fails!
Tip: When you mention someone in a Twitter dialog, and you’re having an online conversation, be deliberate about using the @ symbol in the beginning of a tweet. If a tweet has an @ symbol as the first character, it will appear only in the home streams of people who follow both you and the account you mentioned.Always use the @ as the first character when providing customer service online, dealing with complaints or answering a customer-specific question. Use another character first when providing general information, thanking someone for a compliment or answering a more general question.Creation, Curation and Conversation.
A good travel twitter stream is a blend of all three types of tweets. If there’s no promotion, it’s just social media. If there’s no conversation, it’s just advertising. It’s called social media marketing because it’s both social and it’s marketing.
As Mana Ionescu of
Lightspan Digital says: “Be purposeful in your social streams.”
NB: This is a viewpoint from Andy Crestodina, strategic director,
Orbit Media.
NB2: Hashtage image via Shutterstock