Twitter can be a powerful promotional tool for your blog or website, but it also makes a great supplement.

Twitter adds personality to your brand

Many top blogs are becoming like online magazines. Staffed by full-time professional writers, there is a tendency to become overly factual.

But through a Twitter account, many corporate bloggers feel more free to be themselves and lighten up a bit. By bringing these two tools together, you can provide both informative content and a little personality behind it.

Twitter helps you get to know your readers

Blog discussions in the comment section can serve the same function, but I find them to be less spontaneous than the back-and-forth nature of Twitter. For any blogger, it’s important to build relationships with your readers, and regular communication is the way to do that.

Twitter expands your network

I’ve probably met more new people through Twitter than any other social networking tool. Whether it’s another blogger or a business you wanted to find, Twitter can help open doors and establish connections.

Twitter is an idea goldmine

If you follow the right people, just watching the tweets stream by for a few minutes can give you lots of fresh ideas and interesting links. I use TweetDeck to carefully monitor a select group of people’s tweets, and usually check in a few times each day.

Additionally, you can get a lot of very good ideas by asking questions to your followers. Whether you just want a second opinion on your logo design, or need to do a more in-depth survey, it’s a very convenient to have real time feedback.

Twitter is also a great research tool

Twitter is a recorded stream of consciousness of the web. Entering keywords into search.twitter.com helps you measure the pulse of what people are thinking.

Twitter is the preferred subscription method for some

Some people would rather receive your blog updates on Twitter than through RSS or email. Whether the motive is accessibility or security, cross-promoting blog updates on Twitter is a good idea for these people.

Let me ask you: Does Twitter help you as a blogger? Drop by my shiny new Twitter page and let me know.

The difference between Google and Twitter

After last week’s experiment, several months of testing various Twitter integration tactics, and reaching 100,000+ people in 36 hours, I’ve learned some interesting things.

Read more…

Last Friday I asked you which you prefer: sharing links to blog posts on Twitter – or actual information in the tweet.

Over the past week, I took some recently popular blog posts, broke them down into 140-character, “bite sized” pieces – and made a list of about 50 of these. I then used Tweetlater to automatically update my Twitter account with useful information.

Before the experiment I had 1,871 followers; after, 1,963. I also got a 7 retweets, but new followers and retweets may not be the most efficient metrics for determining effectiveness. I think your feedback is most valuable.

I know many of my readers here follow me on Twitter, so what did you think? Did you like the tiny tips, or do you prefer less “noise” and a link to the full article?

I’m trying a little experiment on Twitter.

For the next week or so, I’ll be publishing excerpts from my blog posts as tweets using Tweetlater. The idea? To provide value and complement the myriad of links people (including myself) are dumping into Twitter.

What do you think: do you like this idea? Would you find it useful, or is it just duplicating the content here on the blog?

Photo credit: visualpanic

As much as I like to think of myself as a seasoned blogger, I still get surprised from time to time by which posts become most popular. Some articles I spent 6-8+ hours writing fail, and others I spend 15 minutes on are my biggest hits.

My post last week – Viral video disaster: what NOT to do – was a good example of this.

In case you haven’t read the post yet, it just contained some brief comments on what I saw as a social media campaign gone wrong. I wanted to share the videos with you as an example of something to avoid – but had no idea it would spread virally as it did.

As far as I can tell, the post was re-tweeted (shared) by 48 Twitter users within the first 36 hours, and I also received several hundred new readers from Chinese blogs I wasn’t aware of previously. Among the people sharing the post on Twitter was social media A-lister Chris Brogan, whose updates are read by over 73,000 followers.

Twitter traffic spike

A few thoughts on this experience:

1) Social media has a lot of real potential. There is a lot of hype out there (even I get tired of hearing about it) – but the results can be very real and tangible.  How else could I have spread my message for free to over 100,000 people that quickly?

2) The top social media power users have disproportionately large influence. Normally, it would take a lot more than 48 re-tweets to reach an audience this large. Thanks to Chris and several other marketing stars on Twitter, the traffic I received was very substantial.

3) Negative/controversial content gets attention. I have mixed feelings on this – even wish it wasn’t true – but that is the reality.

4) Viral traffic from Twitter has a very short lifespan – often no more than a few hours. For long-term traffic, you need to gain the attention of bloggers and website editors. Thankfully, many bloggers are active users on Twitter, so this often works out well.

Encouraging people to spread your message virally on Twitter is more of a science than I initially recognized. There are a lot of excellent tutorials and case studies on the web, but here are a few I found especially helpful:

• How I got my blog post retweeted by @problogger, @GuyKawasaki and 250 more (by Marko Saric)
• Make your blog go viral with Twitter ReTweets (by Marko Saric)
• What’s in a Retweet? The Data Behind Viral Messaging on Twitter (by Dan Zarrella)
• Retweet: The Infectious Power Of Word Of Mouth (by Jeremiah Owyang)

I would like to post some industry-specific articles and case studies of how hotels have used Twitter to virally spread a message or special offer. Have you experienced a similar results – or know a hotel that has? Let me know in the comments, and make sure you’re subscribed to receive future posts on this topic.

Today Hyatt Hotels CEO Mark Hoplamazian announced the launch of @HyattConcierge – a new 24/7 global concierge service on Twitter. Barbara from USA Today’s Hotel Check-in blog followed up with her thoughts.

Hyatt Concierge on Twitter

Apparently, the account will be staffed 24/7 by customer service agents around the world. Hyatt already provides round-the-clock service by phone and email, so it was just a matter of training the agents to type responses in 140 characters or less. As Adam said, it’s amazing no other major hotel brand tried it earlier.

John Wallis, global head of marketing for Hyatt, explains the company’s thoughts on Twitter:

“Whatever we did, it had to be with the theme of going the extra mile, providing additional service. We really believe that it is a concierge service rather than a promotional tool.”

I like that mentality. It will be interesting to see how this works for Hyatt…and how many other chains try it themselves.

Just opened a Twitter account, and not sure how to use it? Are you looking to build your network and get some new ideas? Here’s a list of some of my favorite tweeple:

Good examples of hotels

• @rogersmithhotel – Roger Smith Hotel
• @hotel_preston – Hotel Preston
• @napamarriott – Napa Marriott
• @peabodymemphis – Peabody Memphis
• @icehotel_sweden – Ice Hotel
• @thesofiahotel – The Sofia Hotel
• @oceanisleinn – Ocean Isle Inn
• @hyattmccormick – Hyatt McCormick
• @opushotel – Opus Hotel
• @ThePeechHotel – The Peech Hotel
• @hotel_max – Hotel Max
• @cavallopoint – Cavallo Point

Some multi-property accounts

• @TiaraHotels – Tiara Hotels
• @JDVHotels – Joie de Vivre Hotels
• @kimpton – Kimpton Hotels
• @MacdonaldHotels – Macdonald Hotels
• @stchostels – St. Christopher’s Inn
• @MarriottIntl – Marriott

Hoteliers

• @happyhotelier – Guido vanden Elshout
• @travel_tip – Kamal Bouskri
  
• @rogerswain – Roger Swain

Hotel consultants

• @hhotelconsult – Michael Hraba
• @claudebenard – Claude Benard
  
• @jensthraenhart – Jens Thraenhart
• @keenerguy – Shane Keener
  

Other industry examples

• @smithhotels – Mr. & Mrs. Smith
• @hotelsmagazine – Hotels Magazine
• @hotelemarketer – HoteleMarketer

(And the “.5″ user…) A few months ago I opened a Twitter account dedicated to providing free hotel marketing advice. It’s been a great experience, and last night we passed the 1,000 friends mark. I invite you to connect with me as well….

@hmarketinghelp

Photo by RonAlmog on Flickr

Rather than our usual ‘Friday cool site of the week,’ I want to share a cool link I found that could help a lot of you profit from Twitter. Our own free advice channel – @hmarketinghelp – has grown in popularity, and I find myself using the service a lot more in recent weeks. Yet with the explosion in popularity, I know many of you are still looking for ways to monetize the platform.

John Jantsch has written a very useful post on how to use Twitter to turn up new business.

By using Twitter’s advanced search feature, you can find people looking for solutions you can solve. Maybe they’re looking for a hotel in your city and you can offer them a special rate. Or maybe they’re just looking for things to do on their vacation, and you can provide some tips. I can think of a lot of possibilities here.

It’s even possible to set up RSS newsfeeds to get this information delivered to your reader. This would save a lot of time and automate the process.

Check it out: Twitter advanced search

To help you promote your hotel, we’re now offering free hotel marketing consulting through a dedicated Twitter channel.  Send us your questions, and we’ll give you advice in 140 characters or less.

Try it: @hmarketinghelp

Twitter is one of the fastest-growing social media networks, a microblogging tool that allows its users to make text-based posts in 140 characters or less.  An estimated 5.5 million people now use the service, with website traffic up 573% over the past year according to Compete:

The whole service is based around letting you answer the question, “What are you doing now?”  While this may initially seem like a waste of time with little relevance to a hotel marketer, many organizations have found it useful as a one-to-many broadcasting tool.

Here are some ideas for using Twitter in the hospitality industry:

• First, use Twitter Search to see what people are saying about you, your competitors, your area, and your industry
• Like most of social media, Twitter isn’t just about pushing what you have to sell.  Try to be genuinely hepful to your followers. (JetBlue shares travel tips)
• Share ideas and links to interesting stuff you find.
• Ask your followers for advice on new ideas.  (Get way to get concise, helpful feedback.)
• Break news on Twitter, especially if it affects your web presence
• Use it as a tool to improve your customer service (like Frank at Comcast)
• View Twitter as a way to build customer relationships, and show the human side of your company

So go sign up for an account today, and be sure to follow us on Twitter for all the latest hotel marketing tips.