Seven Ways your Travel Brand Could be Using Twitter Lists

On average, there are 6,000 tweets uploaded to Twitter every second. That’s an impressive statistic, which you can visualise here. As you can imagine, it becomes near-to-impossible to keep up with all that activity without devoting hours a day to social media engagement. Twitter’s answer to this problem was Twitter Lists and, although it’s not a new concept, there are many travel brands and businesses that aren’t yet utilising them. If this applies to you, read on to find out what you are missing.

First, what are Twitter Lists?

Twitter lists allow you to curate people and businesses into groups of your choosing. You can create your own lists, or subscribe to ones created by others. For example, it might be advantageous to create a list of clients, employees, bloggers, journalists, industry leaders, etc.

How Do I Create a Twitter List?

Creating a Twitter list could not be easier. Go to the account of the person or business you wish to add and click on the ellipsis next to the follow button. A drop-down menu will appear that includes ‘add or remove from list’. That link will take you to a box that includes lists you’ve created or the option to create a new one.

When creating new lists, you can make them public or private. It’s important to note that public lists can be seen and followed by anyone, while private lists can only be seen by you. More information on how to create a list can be found here.

Seven ways a Travel Brand Could be Using Twitter Lists.

1. Surveying Industry Leaders

Whether you consider other industry leaders rivals or allies, there is no doubt that you can learn a great deal from them. In the spirit of always striving to improve, following industry leaders is always a good idea. If they are in direct competition with your business, most businesses choose to make this list private.

2. Maintaining client relationships

Consider following clients while they travel with you, and don’t forget to keep in touch once they return. The positive impact of engaging with customers is a no-brainer. In fact, “77% of users who receive a responding tweet from a brand, feel more positively towards that brand and are willing to share that sentiment through their own tweets” (source). Twitter lists make it easy to scroll through your loyal customers and regularly engage with them.

3. Destination News

Your travel brand may wish to follow local news agencies and DMOs within different countries around the world. This is a quick way to keep up-to-date on travel warnings and natural disasters, as well as to see accolades and awards for those destinations.

4. General Travel News

Most major news channels, such as The Guardian, Telegraph, Times, MSNBC and BBC, have a twitter page dedicated to their travel section, where you can find fascinating articles about various destinations and any travel-related news from around the world.

5. Airlines

Airlines are quite active on Twitter and often share weather advisories and news on the destinations to which they fly. Keep up to date with new routes, discounted fares and overall airline news with a Twitter list of all the airlines that serve your destination.

6. Hotels and Ground Operators

As travel companies know, there are many components involved when putting together an itinerary. Be sure to stay up to date with your partners across the globe. Whether they are welcoming clients at their hotel, guiding them through an ancient city or driving them from point A to B, it’s important to maintain those partner relationships.

7. Bloggers

Most brands are aware that bloggers with a large reach can help amplify their brand. Getting to know a few, and watching how audiences engage with their content, can be a worthwhile venture. You might even consider working with them to help promote your brand.

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Hopefully this post has inspired you to create a few Twitter lists, so you feel more connected to valuable clients, partners and industry players.  With the help of Twitter Lists, Twitter can become an organised and manageable media platform for staying informed and engaged.

Mandy Haakenson – Digital Marketing Manager, Travel PR