Twitter

Some twitter basics today.

It's come a long way from only 140 characters in a tweet and Teens tweeting that they're currently in the bathroom.

Celebrities are using it. Causes are using it. It even comes in handy during political upheaval.

Few people are using www.twitter.com = though if you're a true beginner, it's a great place to start.

Twitter tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck have evolved to help humans use the Twitter concept better and more effectively. Also Twitter for mobile is another handy tool for your smart phone

You're also going to need a URL shortener (is that a word?). Something like www.bitly.com
In order to drive people to your website or to other interesting websites, you need to use as many characters as you can to write witty content and use a URL shortener to make those long website addresses as short as possible.

In order to find out if people are clicking on your URLs you need an account with your preferred URL shortener. AND you need to tie it into your Twitter tool.


For example

You find a super awesome website you want to share

You open Hootsuite, which you've tied into your bitly account (using the options inside Hootsuite)

You write "check out this awesome site http: short link !"

You wait

Pretty soon, one of your followers will retweet you, you'll know via Hootsuite

And you'll open your bitly account and it will tell you how many people clicked on your link to your awesome website

You can compare that to the number of followers you have to see whether the percentage is high enough for you to say "I got some good ROI on that"

If not, then go back to the drawing board and try for better content in your next tweet.

Also try hashtags - putting a # in front of keywords

Example Tweet: I love #nb #potatoes fresh from the #garden smothered in real butter

This kind of tweet can be found by people doing searches on the words NB, potatoes and garden

For more on hashtags check out www.tagdef.com

Again this is just an overview on twitter, I didn't even talk about sharing photos or finding followers, or what to do when a spambot signs up to follow you.

I'm saving that for later.

Til next time,

Beth

Think like a customer

Liberally copied from Dear Radian6 - but it totally sounds like something I would say, and since I haven't said anything in a while, it's a good place to start again :) So many times I've read articles and thought, I should write something similiar for my peeps but never get to it. My new strategy is I'm going to start quoting more - we'll see how it goes.


If you are thinking like a customer, you can better appreciate what your customers may like. So keep this in mind when you share content, advice or just reach out in a friendly tone. Make what you say count. Infrequent, compelling interactions will mean more to your customers than a whirlwind of pokes and hellos that only fill a social site up with too much talking.


It is likely a rare occurrence that a customer taps you on your social-web-shoulder, pokes you and giggles then waves frantically in excitement just for the opportunity to be your friend. Customers want to know what’s in it for me? – known in marketing circles as WIIFM. So if you’re waiting for customers to cheerfully connect with you online just because, you may be waiting a long time.


Do you remember the excitement you felt when you were given a wrapped gift and the contents of the box were entirely a mystery? Surprises can be exciting, so why not surprise your customers by friending them first and joining in on the conversations they are having about you, about travel in general and their love/need for flying? Customers who experience an interaction from behind a social profile tend to turn their ear towards that brand and actually listen.

Perhaps one of the greatest examples of surprising customers is the KLM Surprises campaign. KLM really took flight using social media to demonstrate just how eager they were to soar above customer’s expectations.

The video is a little slow in the middle but hang with it.






If you need help with your social media strategy, contact me, the TourismTechnology.com program can help

Til next time
Beth