Mashable put together a nice article with some tips for managing your brand identity on the web. The most important advice in my mind was…

Let someone else say it

This was especially helpful:

[Starbucks] Product Manager Brad Nelson is often the genius behind the company’s online and social media initiatives, he’s also the primary person behind the brand’s very popular Twitter account. Much of his day-to-day responsibilities involve online brand management, and as such he’s learned that sometimes the best way to say something on the social web is to, “have someone else say it.”

Nelson advises other brands to take the same course of action. “If you can find a tweet, photo or blog post that says what you’re trying to say then use that instead of writing it yourself. It does a couple of great things. Your readers will see it as an external validator, so they’ll be more likely to respond than they would if it was a billboard on the side of the road. It also makes the original author happy. Everyone wants to see their content get exposure.”

In fact, Nelson says that he tries to “find things to retweet every day.”

Find something to retweet every day

Of course retweeting is where you find something someone said on Twitter, and pass it along to the people following you.

It’s so powerful because you’re letting someone else do the talking. It’s more credible.

My retweeting opportunity

A few weeks ago, my story on Craigslist founder Craig Newmark was retweeted by Craig and Robert Scoble – some of the most powerful people in technology.

Retweeting their retweets served this function. If Newmark and Scoble liked the story, others probably will as well.

And they did – I received hundreds of new readers from this single tweet.

So today – and every day – go out there and try to find something to retweet.

I love how That INDIE Dude includes Twitter into his site design:

This is so much more compelling than the standard “Follow us on Twitter” button. Or even this site, for that matter.

What if you created a similar illustration for your social media ambassador?

Or had your hotel mascot tweeting out one message at a time like this?

Or created a separate one-page website on its own domain to encourage your Twitter following?

I’d like to see more creative Twitter integrations like this. Mashable has some more examples.

In today’s interview, I talk with Steve Lambert, General Manager of the Radisson Nashua Hotel. We discussed the practical details and day-to-day skills for using Twitter successfully, including:

1. How they took advantage of a renovation and rebranding to launch their social media activity
2. What types of content work best with Twitter
3. How to gather stories for sharing online
4. The system Steve built on his iPhone for capturing ideas as he finds them
5. Does syncing Twitter and Facebook updates automatically work well?
6. The metrics important to Steve
7. How he attracts new followers
8. Criteria for deciding who you should follow and interact with
9. How to stay on topic while at the same time maintaining diversity in your updates
10. Who in the hotel should be managing Twitter and your social media marketing
11. How Steve involves his whole team in the process
12. What’s next in social media

Listen here:

Bonus: The Twitter tools that Steve uses

Steve mentioned some of these tools in the interview – you may want to check them out for your own use:

• Itweet.net
• Twittearth
• Twinfluence
• Tweetmeme
• Futuretweets
• Song.ly
• Twiturm.com
• Tweetvisor
• Tweetvolume
• Asktwitr
• Backtweets
• Tweetbeep
• Friendorfollow

Not many people in the hotel industry know this, but my very first venture was an RSS software company. I saw RSS as the direct distribution channel of the future, but it turned out Twitter largely fills this purpose.

You don’t have to be a Twitter power user to set up searches and lists that provide you with a customized flow of information and content. This was the vision of RSS, and I’m pleased to see this come true – even if through a different technology.

I used to promote Feedburner. Today I set up @HMSblog for those who want new post notifications from this blog… and none of the thoughts, ideas, and chatter on @HMarketingHelp

Twitter has finally begun to gradually introduce an advertising platform - Promoted Tweets – allowing businesses to publish promotional tweets. Since Twitter has revolutionized how we communicate online, it only makes sense their advertising program is a little different.

What do hotels need to know about Promoted Tweets?

There are 3 core principles of the program:

• Twitter will insert the ads into the Twitter stream, clearly label them as promotions, and give them all the functionality of standard tweets
• Ads are confined to the standard Twitter character limit (140 characters)
• Promoted tweets that aren’t attracting attention are to be pulled out by Twitter.

I listened to a number of insiders here at ad:tech San Francisco, and some of the key points that are emerging…

It works best if you’re already doing well in Twitter

Twitter CEO Evan Williams:

[Twitter ads] will definitely work best for companies who Twitter works well for generally

In other words, if you don’t adopt the mindset of being interesting and useful, you can’t simply buy your way into the Twitter community.

Relevance is key for success

Relevance is the big issue when it comes to Twitter advertising. Advertisers will bid on keywords based on a CPM basis initially, but Twitter intends to use a “resonance score” metric to see how much reach and impact individually sponsored tweets have. User interaction with ads will determine the price and longevity of specific ads.

On the Twitter blog, Biz Stone says if your message doesn’t connect with your audience, you’ll be removed:

There is one big difference between a Promoted Tweet and a regular Tweet. Promoted Tweets must meet a higher bar—they must resonate with users. That means if users don’t interact with a Promoted Tweet to allow us to know that the Promoted Tweet is resonating with them, such as replying to it, favoriting it, or Retweeting it, the Promoted Tweet will disappear.

Relevance – as measured by audience interaction – was core to the success of Google’s advertising model. Twitter’s development of the Promoted Tweets program seems to be the next step in the online advertising evolution. I see a strong chance for it to influence other advertising platforms.

Ads will begin in search results

ReadWriteWeb calls the scheme “delightfully boring“:

Advertisements will begin in search, with keywords being bid on and a single advertisement appearing with frequency dependent on its performance. Then the ads will be extended to 3rd party applications like TweetDeck and others…Finally, ads will begin to appear on Twitter.com, tailored to the interests of users, as easily observed by their messages published and received.

The benefit of Twitter advertising

The ads could become a good way to maintain visibility for important keywords (searches) if the stream is “polluted” with a lot of noise.

For example, many “hotel” related Twitter search queries are full of chatter useless to someone looking for (or working with) a hotel. Sponsoring a tweet that sits on top of this chatter stream could significantly raise your visibility and prevent it from being ‘drowned’ in other tweets.

Program timeline

Messages are currently limited to a small group of test marketers, including Red Bull, Starbucks, Virgin America. (All strong Twitter users already) Expansion of the platform depends how users will react to the Promoted Tweets platform.

Twitter hopes to eventually insert advertisers into the timelines of messages that users see from people they network with – when the message seems appropriate.

Key point to remember

Promoted Tweets values personal interaction. Advertising isn’t enough. You’ll have to focus on creating quality content that your fans love.

Dallas Lawrence says this well in his Mashable article:

During the past year, Twitter has trained successful online brand marketers, reputation managers, and digital thought leaders to focus on the “value of providing value.” Unlike almost any platform to date, Twitter has urged, nudged and down-right forced messengers to infuse value into the dialogue, 140 characters at a time. With Twitter now offering an expanded road map for pay-for-play engagement, those entrusted with managing online reputations forget these lessons at their own peril.

3 tweets, 1 big lesson:

That’s awesome. Especially the ‘dagger through r hearts‘ bit.

Look at how with one tweet – and actually caring – they turned a complaint into a very happy guest.

Forget about Twitter for revenue… are you providing service like this?

If you know a little bit about who is following you on Twitter, you’ll have a better idea of what topics will interest them. TwitterSheep, a cool tool I came across today, creates a tag cloud that illustrates this nicely.

Here’s the top keywords for people who follow me on Twitter @HMarketingHelp -

Many hotels use Twitter to communicate with their fans, but Fairmont is taking it a step further.

The Fairmont Chateau Whistler (@fairmontwhistlr) asked their Twitter followers for input in building a winter travel package. A poll was created where people could vote for the top activities they wanted included.

The result? A “Twinter Travel Package” that includes a fondue dinner and horse-drawn sleigh ride for two.

I want to see more of this. There’s a lot more we could do to involve our customers in creating new products.

After all, who better to ask than the people that will buy it?

There has been some buzz on Twitter how Wynn Las Vegas (@WynnLasVegas) built a following of over 300,000 fans within six months. While they do a great job interacting with their fan base, the sheer number of people following them is remarkable — especially when most big hotels fail to pass 10,000 followers.

So how did they do it?

According to @HHotelConsult, Wynn Las Vegas appeared in the “suggested user” list that people see when signing up for Twitter.

This is a massive advantage. It’s better than publicity, because now the hotel has a way to communicate with all these people. As the New York Times explained in an article this summer, those on this list become Twitter “kings.”

So maybe the bigger question is…

How did they get on that list?

To run effective Twitter promotions for your hotel, you need people listening. But what if you have no followers? Where do you start?

Note: this list is a little different from other “how to be popular on Twitter” articles in that I understand hotels need to maintain their brand reputation. Some of the more aggressive tactics used in other industries probably should be avoided.

That said, here are some proven ways you can get more Twitter followers – even if you have none now:

Leverage your reputation. You’ll notice most of the top Twitter users are celebrities elsewhere. Bringing their brand to Twitter helped them quickly grow a fanbase in the network. If people recognize your company, simply taking part will cause others to spread your message and grow your influence.

Leverage your existing web presence. If you have an existing online profile – large or small – use it to promote your Twitter account. This may be Facebook, your blog, or your main website. Link to your Twitter page and actively encourage people to connect with you there.

Tweet regularly. Predictable, regular updates increase the chance people find you. You’ll appear in the public timeline, Twitter searches, and the likelihood of people retweeting your message goes up.

Look at the big picture. Talk about things other than just you and your hotel. Depending on your target audience, this could range from business travel tips to art shows in your city.

Provide value. Why should people follow you? Have a compelling reason.

Tweet during peak times. For me, the most activity happens during US business hours. A leisure audience may be different. Test and find what works for you.

Give away free stuff. No, it doesn’t always have to be rooms. What else could you give away that has a high value for your audience, but costs you little? Free gets attention, if the offer is good enough.

Learn from the pros. It can be very useful to follow the top hotels and experts in your niche to see how they build their followers. Perhaps you can use some of the tactics yourself.

[photo credit: tanakawho]