How to get Twitter followers for your hotel (without hurting profits or your brand)
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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]
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With tools like Twitter Search, Tweetdeck, Twellow, SocialMention and more you can find relevant people within your target groups and follow them. It’s a two-side approach.
Best regards,
Gianluigi Cuccureddu
Josiah,
I recently ran a survey about how people interact with restaurants on twitter. A full 50% didn’t even know restaurants were tweeting these days. Even worse, of the remaining 50%, 36% didn’t follow ANY restaurants. I bet hotels would face similar, if not worse, statistics.
I guess my question is, why would I as a consumer ever want to follow a hotel on twitter? Yes, it would be great to hear about exclusive deals, but my study of hotels on twitter has lead me to believe that is rarely what you get. Even if hotels did use twitter to unload last minute inventory, I would only care when I am actively searching… Can you clarify the consumer value proposition?
Thanks,
Brett
Interesting research, Brett – and you have a very valid point. I think the hotels need to be sharing information about their area or info that is otherwise useful to the audience. If a hotel was just broadcasting deals, I probably wouldn’t follow them either!
These tips are excellent – one thing I might add though is a visible call-to-action for your twitter profile in e-newsletter campaigns to further assist in leveraging your existing fan base towards your twitter profile. If you have a huge newsletter subscription base, why not use it?
Mark.
Exactly. Hotels need to look at ways they can invite their existing fans from elsewhere.
Twitter is a very good tool for marketing your hotel. By having a huge number of targeted followers you can get real good profits.
It’s easy to Tweet something that doesn’t have value, thanks for the reminder. I would also add that having followers is great, but it’s smart to track who is clicking on your links and coming to your website and most importantly if they are booking. By using a URL shortener like http://bit.ly/ or http://kl.am/ you can track how many people clicked on your link and analyze if your Tweets are working for you.
Great point, Trent. I think it’s important we remember to track this stuff so we can see what’s working.
We must remember the “why” of social media marketing instead of getting caught up in the “how”
excellent post…. Two thumbs up….