I use Twitter to network with people who read my blog and it helps me build a new audience. It’s great that travel companies are starting to embrace social media but I wanted to look at their behaviour and were they interacting with travel consumers.
Twitter secret shopper
I could have carried out these few tests on my Travel Rants twitter account, I did occasionally, but that would have been too obvious, so I’ve been a “secret shopper” and created a few accounts. This is no means the bigger picture because the tests were carried out on a small sample of travel companies.
Tracking their brand on twitter
Rather than just interacting with travel companies I used keywords that like ‘cheap flights’ ‘Thomson’ ‘Thomas Cook’ ‘Jet2’ and tons of other travel related search keywords and brands. It became apparent that very few companies track what people are saying about their brand or niche.
78% – did not respond to my questions using their brand name
12% – responded over 7 days to reply
10% – responded within 7 days
Twitter response times
What was encouraging is that most of the companies answered my questions within 24-hours:
69% – answered question within 24 hours
18% – answered question within 48 hours
13% – answered question within 72 hours
In the past I have searched online for holidays at silly times in the day and night, sometimes I have been frustrated that systems have been down in the early hours because they “were updating their databases” so I knew that no one would respond to me outside of business hours.
How surprised was I that 16% of companies answered questions outside of business hours.
Interacting with their network
What is disappointing is the lack of interaction. I was surprised how many companies simply posted updates on their site. Very few asked questions, created polls, it was all very corporate. I don’t know about you but Twitter is a social media tool so you need to be sociable too.
58% – posted updates and no interaction
30% – interacted with their network occasionally
12% – interacted and asked questions
Your thoughts
I’ll post part two later on this week, where I will highlight the companies who I think are using Twitter well, and what improvements I think some companies can make. I’ll also reveal some “stats” on tourism boards and their Twitter behaviour.
Feel free to add your thoughts and opinions in the comments.
Related posts
- The beginner’s guide to Twitter for travel consumers
- Five things that annoy me about travel companies on Twitter
- Asking questions about travel
- Ask a Travel Question
- Britain holiday ideas for British tourism week
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Happy Hotelier | 10 August, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I’m very curious about your Tourist Board finds…very low expectations:-)
Keith | 10 August, 2009 at 10:51 pm
I tweeted about the lack of engagement just a few days ago. I’ve noticed (through my own experience but also reading the tweets of others) that many brands simply use Twitter to post updates and do not take this ‘golden’ opportunity to engage with Tweeps who may be their biggest fans. That’s a missed opportunity in my book and a big shame because so much goodwill (not to mention free marketing opportunities) can be created just by the simple act of acknowledgement.
Darren Cronian | 10 August, 2009 at 11:07 pm
@ Keith
Yes, spot on. Its not just about replying to people’s questions, it’s all about interacting. So many of the feeds I was viewing were all plugs. I saw very few who asked questions, created polls etc.
When I say ask questions it can be anything, like ‘What is everyone up to this weekend?’ it gets people involved, shows that your interested in what people are doing. I suspect the problem for a lot of travel companies is that thing called time.
@ Guido
I don’t think you’ll be too surprised. Some were better than others, but I won’t give too much away.
Carla Young | 10 August, 2009 at 11:24 pm
One factor to consider is how responses have changed as twitter has become more “mainstream.”
As an early adopter two years ago, few business were on twitter. Those that were, were extremely engaging….I would say almost 80% interaction with their network.
I had several discussions at length with two certain airlines that were tweeting…who often sent me relevant information on deals that I might be interested (actually taking into consideration my location and needs)
Now that the market is saturated, I think it’s a matter of not “understanding” twitter, and too much signal-noise ratio.
Twitter has bore me some amazing deals though, $1 hotel rooms in Venice, $50 flights from AUS-LAX, $300 flights from LHR-SYD, Free flights and hotel stays in vegas, free flights to new york, and even a job interview.
Claude | 11 August, 2009 at 7:30 am
Darren,
Would be informative if you tell us your tests number panel for your stats
Best
Gp | 11 August, 2009 at 7:39 am
as consumers and travelers what we love about Twitter is the interactive, supportive atmosphere and the willingness to share and reshare information amongst the Travel Tweeple! Lack of interaction gets unfollowed by us as there are too many competitors and I’d rather have two way tweets with other interesting tweeters. totally agree with Keith about missed opportunities.
looking foward to part II!
Simon | 11 August, 2009 at 7:39 am
A lot of companies use social networking as a channel for building their brand name, seo advantages etc. and in many instances the people maintaining those social network pages for the company are actually paid agencies, not the company themself!
Darren Cronian | 11 August, 2009 at 7:53 am
@ Claude
Good point, will add some detail behind the stats tonight. First time, Ive done a post like this.
@ Simon
Your spoiling part 2 
Great point tho and I think the companies that use agencies stand out I thought.
Honor | 11 August, 2009 at 7:53 am
I definitely have experienced your first point. I have asked questions to several larger brands but I don’t get the response from the brand. I kind of like that though as it means I can speak directly to someone instead of a company. My access point is the brand name but the response is more personal.
I do see a lot of advertising online – I also like to promote any special deals that I find that might be of interest to someone visiting Tokyo. I think like most things in life its about balance – some promotion is ok (especially if you are selective and choose things directly related to your audience – obvious I know but… ) but you need to balance it with interaction to keep everyone happy.
MWD Stephens | 11 August, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Agreed regarding interaction. Twitter is perfect for initiating, or taking part in, conversations with your customers. Many companies post deals but show no personal touch, or even consideration, for Twitter’s own personal style and advantages, such as its instant and even short-term nature, or that they have a direct line to the desktops and workplaces of their potential markets.
I also believe many businesses don’t consider what value they themselves can acrue from using all social media, not just Twitter, and thus do not take it seriously enough.
David Lytle | 11 August, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Interesting read. As the editorial director for Frommers.com, I make a point of following up on tweets that include the Frommer’s brand in any way — good or bad. I find especially with criticisms, once you engage a person in a conversation, they reconsider their opinion and we, as a company, can learn something new. There’s a great value in being able to connect directly with customers/users.
Cheers,
David
@davitydave
Emma | 11 August, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Agree with what you are saying Darren, but think in a lot of cases it’s due to lack of understanding of how to use Twitter effectively and also perhaps time as Carla says. I would like much more interactiion with our holiday website via twitter. We post holiday deals every day, which have led to some very happy customers as a result which is good of course but I think there’s so much more dialogue we could have and that I’d like to have (just for the record (@Simon’s point) we don’t use an agency and all our staff post tweets). I’d definately like people to tweet me/us and interact with us more and your comments have re-iterated to me that perhaps we need to initiate that interaction more than we are.
Will be interesting to see your results.
Darren Cronian | 11 August, 2009 at 9:51 pm
@ Emma
I had an email conversation with a hotel chain the other day, and its interesting that they said the same as you; in that you would like more interaction. I haven’t looked at your feed, but what I noticed about the hotel’s is that I didn’t see any questions being asked.
It’s like blogging; if you don’t ask a question, how do you expect to get people leaving a comment. For me as a blogger using Twitter, I generally post all sorts of stuff (without being libel of course!) where if I worked for a hotel chain, I’d have to be even more careful about what I said.
I don’t see any problems companies asking questions what people are doing at the weekend, or, or creating a twitter poll (twtpoll.com) or get people involved by doing a twitter-only competition.
@ David
Even I track what people are saying about me and I am just a little blogger! I think it’s important to track your brand, that way you can learn, but you can also give your point of view if someone is saying something negative about your brand. I am sure most of you use Google Alerts, but if you don’t go sign up now!
Happy Hotelier | 11 August, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Darren Interesting to know how you track:-)
Garri | 11 August, 2009 at 11:19 pm
The tracking of the conversation not just about your brand, but everything, will become more vital as Twitter progresses. From what you’re saying Darren, I doubt whether travel brands are even doing that much!
With one of our travel websites we’ve been tracking the term ‘glamping’ which has lead to media exposure and other opportunities. We don’t even use fancy tools, just saved the query on Twitter which in turn has an RSS feed built in and then used Netvibes to organise the results (we track many other terms also etc)
Tracking stuff leads to opportunities.
Darren, perhaps you should write a Twitter 101 for Travel Companies. Would be glad to provide anecdotes, if required.
Mark H | 11 August, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Some major brands (esp the more traditional style ones) appear to do little more with Twitter than have automated messages appear. I wouldn’t be surprised if in some cases, some internet consultant has set it up and they aren’t even aware of how much monitoring is required. The response of the gentleman from Frommers is reassuring above that maybe some companies are starting to do a much better job. Certianly his attitude to online criticism is reassuring. Other aspects of tourism such as hotels, sights and tourist offices may struggle as well.
Darren Cronian | 12 August, 2009 at 1:33 am
@ Garri
This is a small sample of 25 companies that I have done this analysis on, so a small subset of travel companies using Twitter. I’ll reveal more about the companies concerned in part 2, but yes, its not just about tracking brand, its keywords too. I’ll take my Leeds site as an example; big festival coming up, 70,000+ people heading to Leeds, so I’m using twitter and Google alerts to track discussions and blog posts. I then jump in (politely of course ) into the conversation.
When you don’t have big marketing budgets (and Google is still learning to trust you!) you use what tools you have in front of you. This is why, I think small travel companies should be jumping on Twitter and social media in a bigger way than large brands.
@ Guido
Just the old fashioned excel spreadsheet and a calculator. Nothing scienctific about this at all. I selected the companies and monitored their responses.
Nancy D. Brown | 13 August, 2009 at 4:08 am
I look forward to reading your tourism boards results, Darren.
I have found that a lot of travel companies still don’t understand the effectiveness of engaging travel bloggers and leaving comments, let alone using Twitter.
As a PR pro and travel blogger, I was discussing the pros and cons of keeping your twitter brand in-house. During our conversation, the woman who worked for the hotel said, “who knows the brand and what’s going on at our property better, me or a PR account executive?” Nuff said.
Darren Cronian | 13 August, 2009 at 9:19 am
@ Nancy
As a blogger I don’t care if travel companies interact with me or not. As a consumer that is a completely different matter.
Ian McKee | 13 August, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Very interesting. But I’d like to know more about how you conducted this, I assume your mystery shopper test tweets were asking questions?
This post – http://www.tourcms.com/blog/2009/07/21/brand-is-what-people-say-when-you-are-not-in-the-room/ – from Alex Bainbridge is about when brands should get involved in conversation. I think the conclusion is, not always.
Is it possible that the companies who didn’t respond were monitoring and saw your tweets, but didn’t interject as they felt it was not appropriate? If you tweeted something like ‘how do I contact Jet2′s customer service dept?’ then no doubt they should tell you, but if you Tweeted ‘Jet2′s customer service dept are great/useless’ there’s an argument to say they’d be better off just watching what you say and taking note.
I realise the answer is probably that they just weren’t monitoring, and I agree that most travel companies are using Twitter ineffectively and with a disregard for it being a social medium, but this possibility does need to be addressed I think…
PS: Also intrigued to hear what you have to say about tourist boards! More my field 
Nick | 13 August, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Darren,
You know me am not techno phobic, however twitter I finding hard to follow… if a company was on twitter I think it would depend on it size how it would interact.
A larger company would need to employ someone to watch it, the cost would be around 30-40’000 a year. I can see them going to board members and being asked… now what value did that add… turning round and going no idea as a reply. I am sure that would really fly.
With a smaller company, it about cost/time… if your busy and do not have time having twitter go quite for a week is not very good.
And type of company… interacting with customers who use you one every year or two is harder than someone who’s customers use them several times a year.
Darren Cronian | 13 August, 2009 at 3:36 pm
@ Ian
It was a simple experiment, nothing scientific, I just wanted to find the truth; if companies were using twitter a as communication channel, or just pimping their services. Of course, I asked questions, open questions, and no statements. The questions were varied, based on the type of company I was monitoring, and I would have expected a response.
I agree that they do not need to respond to every thing fired at them, but I do not agree with you on the ‘ABC company’s customer service dept is useless’ statement. I think in this situation you need to act pro-actively, not hide behind the monitor.
Confront them; ask them why they feel like that, maybe there is something wrong with the customer service? As a business you could learn from that person’s experience and improve the service.
@ Nick
I am really glad you joined Twitter and you’re giving it a try, hats off to you for that. It’s difficult to put myself into the head of a travel agent, but, I can relate to the time issue. For a smaller company I think it’s about raising awareness of your brand and opening up new doors.
You have to interact with people, so that people “follow you” and as you have more followers, more people will be aware of your brand and company.
The odd person having a rant about your company is not going to cause you any damage, but let’s pretend that person has a lot of people within his/her network, and then 20,40,60 people start to ‘re-tweet’ their rant, and before you know it, everyone knows about that person’s negative experience.
Maybe set 10 minutes every day to jump into a discussion, and, post a few holiday deals, it’ll take time. I think the younger generation will expect (demand?) that they can communicate with companies on social media networks. I doubt that Twitter generates revenue for travel companies, that’s probably a different post.
Meghan Porter | 13 August, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Great post! I can’t wait to see Part 2 of your Twitter findings. I completely agree that companies should be interacting with their customers more, instead of just using Twitter to promote themselves without considering the customers’ needs. A lot of travel companies can benefit from reading this!
Pingback - Roaming Tales | 17 August, 2009 at 8:57 pm
[...] Travel companies on Twitter. Darren Cronian at Travel Rants has gone incognito to investigate how travel companies are using Twitter. [...]
SIR - Robert | 17 August, 2009 at 11:44 pm
In reply to Darren ref @Emma 11th Aug. Hi Emma I think the hotel Darren was talking about is our our account for @MacdonaldHotels & @BotleyPark. We asked Darren for a little help with encourageing more engagement with guests / prospective clients, although we have built up a following over the past couple of months, we are finding it hard to get questions answered or even anyone asking us about our hotels?
We have chosen to keep our @Replies out of the public time line to keep it clear for anyone stopping in. Any questions asked are replied to in private so as to not upset anyone listhening to conversations they do not wish to hear about. Do you think this is a wrong descision ? Were all here to engage and talk but we would like some more interation….
And with the life of a Tweet only about 2 – 4 Hours our timeline probably does look a little like one offer after another, we’ed be happy to open it up…and I’d like to post a great Tweet from @zappos
“If the person you’re talking to isn’t listening, be patient. Maybe he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.” -Winnie the Pooh
Your comments would be greatly appreciated.
SIR – I Robert Sandles
@MacdonaldHotels
@BotleyPark
Tom Smart | 22 September, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Its is astonishing how UK companies have NOT GOT Twitter. The twitter platform enables companies to reach out to their customers in real time,garner instant feedback, create buzz and even spy on the competition.
The marketing landscape has changed forever. In this new world the tools are Free and herein lies the problem. we have been taught that “Nowts for free” and if it is it cant be any good. Nothing could be further form the truth with twitter and indeed there is a price to be exacted and that is one of time. Time to learn how to use the tool in the first place do that and the rewards are nothing short of phenomenal.For all in the travel related industry get with twitter before it gets you!
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26 responses to “Travel companies twitter behaviour – Part 1”