3 Insights for Travel Brands on Twitter | Social Media Today

Frederic Gonzalo Owner/Partner, Gonzo Marketing
@gonzogonzo
3 Insights for Travel Brands on Twitter | Social Media Today: I like to think of Twitter as the best “other” social media around. I mean, whenever a discussion comes up about the best network for business purposes, professionals and/or a B2B setting, most people will agree that Linkedin is the go-to platform. Then perhaps Twitter.

Many people like to get their news via Google alerts or perhaps through Facebook’s trending feature. Then perhaps Twitter.

Facebook and YouTube are fighting it off for video consumption supremacy, while Instagram and Vine are competing for shorter, 6-15 seconds-long videos. As Vine belongs to Twitter, well, perhaps we don’t talk about it just as much.

Yet whenever a big event comes around, i.e. Super Bowl, Oscars, breaking news, it’s through Twitter chatter that we sift. So why aren’t there more travel brands making the most of Twitter yet?

Where travelers engage 

A recent study by Twitter and Millward Brown found that Twitter was indeed a much-used tool by travelers, especially in North America. In fact, here are three insights that can help travel brands understand the potential that lies within Twitter."

A recent study by Twitter and Millward Brown found that Twitter was indeed a much-used tool by travelers, especially in North America. In fact, here are three insights that can help travel brands understand the potential that lies within Twitter.

1. Tweets happen before, during and after a trip

Sure, we tend to tweet mostly during the travel experience, from the airline to hotels to attractions and restaurants. In fact, 39% of travelers use Twitter while on a trip. So travel brands ought to listen, as some travelers now tend to voice their concern or discontent directly via Twitter rather than at the front desk.

Interestingly enough, travelers also tend to tweet prior to their trip (21%) as well as after their trip (28%), meaning travel brands have the opportunity to engage prior to arrival and continue the conversation long after the trip ended, turning satisfied travelers into potential brand advocates.

2. Twitter boosts brand favorability

Back in 2013, a study had found that 70% of comments left on brand accounts on social networks (Facebook and Twitter, mostly) where left unanswered. In other words, only about 30% of brands answered comments and questions left on their Facebook wall or Twitter feed. Surprising? Yes and no. It aligns with other stats that tell us that about only 32% of travel brands listed on TripAdvisor actively manage reviews, which means responding to guest comments among other things.

Dutch airline KLM understands the importance of customer response on Twitter, highlighting waiting time to manage expectations.

According to Millward Brown, we learn that while 40% of travelers have engaged with a travel brand on Twitter, only 28% of those received a response. Which isn’t so bad, right? 28% out of 40% actually represents a 70% response rate. But here’s the kicker: of those travelers that were answered to, 73% felt more positively about the brand afterwards. Thus, there is true opportunity here to make a difference and get better perception for our brand by actively engaging and responding to customer tweets.

3. Twitter content influences travelers

Since Twitter has its own jargon and user base, it tends to attract different folks than those found on other social networks. Perhaps this explains why travelers are 44% more likely to learn about a new travel brand on Twitterwhen compared to Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Pinterest and Tumblr.

So if you are churning quality content on your corporate blog and newsletter, why not amplify it through social networks such as Twitter where there are many travelers seeking this kind of content? In fact here are the tweet content travelers most want to see:

1. Exclusive discounts (46%)
2. Last-minute deals (41%)
3. Contest and promotions (30%)
4. Funny content (30%)
5. Travel ideas and stories (27%)

Check out the complete infographic below for more details on this recent study.

Visit source: HERE

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8 Common Facebook Mistakes Social Media Managers Need To Avoid - Hootsuite Social Media Management

8 Common Facebook Mistakes Social Media Managers Need To Avoid - Hootsuite Social Media Management: "Among the many tasks social media managers face, one is learning how to navigate the ever-changing world of Facebook. Previously on our blog, we discussed the most common social media strategy mistakes. Today, we want to focus on specific Facebook mistakes social media managers need to avoid.

To put it plainly, there is much anxiety surrounding the do’s and don’ts of social media, especially when it comes to what social media managers should do. In light of the recent changes to Facebook’s algorithm, the following are 8 common mistakes that can be avoided on Facebook.

8 Facebook mistakes social media managers should avoid

Overly promotional posts

According to the recent changes with Facebook, they will be reducing the number of overly promotional page posts in users’ News Feeds. This is as a result of an ongoing survey with Facebook users, in which the most common feedback was that people wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content. An overly promotional post is one that solely pushes people to buy a product or install an app, enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context, or reuse the same content from ads. The best way to avoid creating overly promotional posts is to leave product promotion to Facebook Advertising."



READ MORE: 8 Common Facebook Mistakes Social Media Managers Need To Avoid - Hootsuite Social Media Management:



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StarBuzzOnline

How To Make Social Media Data Work For You - Hootsuite Social Media Management

How To Make Social Media Data Work For You - Hootsuite Social Media Management: "In business, data is synonymous with answers—evidence, objectivity, hidden insight. This perception of data as the magic key that opens doors holding information to anything we’ve ever wanted to know makes us obsessed with the latest ways to get it: Big Data, data visualization, open-source data, data scientists. But, as marketers, are we doing data right?
While Big Data and data-driven everything have been framed as universal analytics solutions, their effectiveness can be threatened by the same issue that faces all innovative tools: if you haven’t set proper goals you want to achieve using social media data, you risk making a lot of false conclusions.
Whether you or your company are early adopters of social media data, or just looking into better ways of using this information to inform business decisions, to get the most out of the social media data available to your business, you should go back to basics. Use the following 3 questions to evaluate your perception of data and the effectiveness of your data strategies."



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Imgur Releases A Fast Video-To-GIF Converter | TechCrunch

Imgur Releases A Fast Video-To-GIF Converter | TechCrunch: "Here’s an embarrassing secret: Before today, I’d never made a GIF.

I mean, obviously I’ve seen them, laughed when they’ve been passed along, and made a note so that I could share them myself later.



I’ve even searched for them once or twice on Giphy.

But deep down, I knew I was a fraud, someone who feared the day when an editor would say, “Hey, can you whip up a funny GIF about this?” and I’d have to admit that I didn’t have any idea what I was doing.

That’s why I breathed a sigh of relief when I learned that Imgur was launching Video to GIF — as the name implies, it allows you to easily convert online videos into GIFs. In fact, the popular image-sharing service describes this as “the easiest and fastest way to make awesome GIFs from videos.”

Since I haven’t actually created a GIF before (yes, it’s embarrassing, we discussed this already), I don’t know whether this is truly the easiest and fastest method (YouTube, by the way, has also been rolling out its own built-in GIF creator), but it is pretty friendly to neophytes like me.



You just enter a video URL, select the portion of the video that you want to convert, add some text, and voila, you’ve got a GIF a few seconds later.

Imgur says the tool is compatible with more than 500 video sites, including YouTube, Vimeo, and Vine.



http://i.imgur.com/fxam3Rx.gifv

Even I managed to do it. I’ll admit I had a brief moment of panic when I got confused by the various markers showing the start, stop, and current play points in the video, but nonetheless, I did it. Even if it’s a dumb inside joke (borrowed from HBO’s Silicon Valley), and even if I haven’t figured out how to make the text larger, I still feel a ridiculous sense of accomplishment. GIFs, I will never fear you again.

And if you weren’t looking for a new GIF-making tool, it’s still interesting to see Imgur expand — maybe it can turn lurkers who pop by the site into active posters. In the press release announcing the tool, Director of Product Sam Gerstenzang said the company is “democratizing GIF creation for everyone.”

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Microsoft OneDrive to Get Slew of New Features in Upcoming Updates | NDTV Gadgets

Microsoft OneDrive to Get Slew of New Features in Upcoming Updates | NDTV Gadgets: "Microsoft has announced an update for its file-sharing and cloud storage service OneDrive, with some new image sharing/ viewing features and a new Search system. It is worth mentioning that the updates, which will roll out over the next few weeks, are built upon what Microsoft demoed on Windows 10 during the recent 'The Next Chapter' event last week.
The upcoming update for Microsoft OneDrive will let users view and manage images much easily than before both on mobile and desktop devices. As a part of the update, OneDrive will also include Albums, which unlike other traditional albums, will show larger thumbnails and display images in an edge-to-edge layout. "Albums also let you bring photos and videos together from anywhere in your OneDrive," added Microsoft's Douglas Pearce on the company blog post. The Albums feature will reach the Web version and the iOS app first, followed by the Android and Windows Phone apps."



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Facebook Lite Launched For Low-End Android Phones

Facebook Lite Launched For Low-End Android Phones: "WASHINGTON: The social networking site has reportedly launched a simplified version called "Facebook Lite" for low-end Android devices used by customers in emerging markets. This is a very good news for the Facebook lovers to explore something new for Low-end Android smartphones.


It is just 252 KB in size and can be used by those on 2G internet connections, Techcrunch reported.


The app is based on Snaptu, Facebook's feature phone client.


It includes some native Android features such as push notifications and camera integration to make the experience a more sophisticated one.


The app has been launched launched in some countries in Asia and Africa, where it is being testing with a view to further expanding its features, the report added.


Nearly 10,000 people have downloaded the app so far, with a 4.6 rating from an initial 693 reviewers."



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StarBuzzOnline

True Colors: What Your Brand Colors Say About Your Business [Infographic] | B2B Marketing

True Colors: What Your Brand Colors Say About Your Business [Infographic] | B2B Marketing: "The most prominent brands in the world are defined by their colors. Think of McDonald’s golden arches, the name Jet Blue, and UPS’ slogan, “What can Brown do for you?” These companies, and many others, strategically use colors in their logo, website, and product to appeal to customers. As a B2B marketer, it’s important to think about how you utilize colors and what the colors you choose say about your business.



Research has found that different colors provoke very different reactions in people. Marketo choose to use the color Purple for branding because at the time Marketo was founded, purple was relatively un-used. Additionally, purple represents wealth, royalty, and richness which also has associations to leadership and revenue. Integrating your brand colors in your logo, landing pages, product, and more will help you achieve the highest impact. We put the rainbow under a microscope to find out how each color can help you connect with your consumers."



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