Social media influencers get real attention

When the founder of Twitter gets his luggage tied up, everybody listens…

Evan Williams is a real person that has a lot of Twitter followers, like over 1 Million. Little moments like sharing frustrations about poor baggage handling by an airline have real consequences.

Something to consider, how to leverage the voice of such influencers in a positive direction for your brand. A group called 140 Proof is building an advertising platform that will focus on targeted ads on the Twitter platform using influencers like Evan.

Branding twitter channels by vacation phase

Great read on how Dell is using Twitter to maximize customer relationships.

In travel marketing, there a distinct phases in the vacation planning cycle that are always mentioned: research, consideration, purchase, anticipation, the actual cruise experience and retention. The article on Dell points out branded twitter channels for customer service and deals which are great examples to sort against a cruise planning cycle.

Let’s use Celebrity Cruises as an example and brand a couple feeds within each phase:

• Research phase: @New2CelebrityCruise Talks about value proposition of Celebrity cruising and how it is different than Princess and Holland America.
• Purchase phase: @CelebrityButler A great customer service channel for frequently asked questions, boarding tips and even help on what shore excursions to choose from and how to purchase packages with your existing reservation.
• Anticipation phase: @CelebrityRollCalls Allows booked users excited to share their itinerary news with other booked guests. Encourage participation by voting on events onboard by itinerary dates.
• Actual cruise phase: @CelebritySolstice Follow the ship even if you are not on it and get tweets and pics from guests live onboard. Have the captain broadcast messages and hotel directors share event and port information.
• Retention phase: @CelebrityAlumni Cruisecritic power users love to live blog and archive their cruise experience. This channel is great for loyalty members to stay connected and share their photos after the cruise.

These examples are pretty detailed and some may even apply across phases, the point is conversations can be framed. Focusing these conversations about your brand may work in some cases and may not, but it does not hurt to try and see how your users adopt the channel and use it.