How to automate your Hotel’s Messages on Twitter

A couple of days ago I wrote the blog post “Top 10 of Algarve Hotels on Twitter – Is Twitter Misunderstood or Underestimated? ” and I thought of digging a little deeper and have a look at how often these hotels are “Listed”, while taking the opportunity of posting on the importance of twitter lists for Hotel marketers.

To no surprise from the underneath table it is clear that the most engaged Hotels in the Algarve are also listed more than those hotels with a relatively lower score on Klout, Tweetreach and Twitalyzer, the metrics used to rank them in the aforementioned blog post.

		Twitter Handle	Listed	Klout Score
1	Portobay Hotels & Resorts	Portobay	253	44
2	Tivoli Hotels & Resorts	Tivolihotels	126	30
3	Pestana Hotels & Resorts	pestanahotels	118	53
4	Hotel Faro	Hotelfaro	77	29
5	Holiday Inn Algarve	HolidayInnAlg	55	10

Hotel marketers might have further necessity in creating lists. When enthusiastically (and automatically?) following everyone who follows you, you may find yourself very lost quickly; your Twitter timeline gets congested, making it difficult to find tweets and users that are really important to your hotel. You need to get rid of people with little relationship potential by unfollowing those not following back and optimise your following-to-follower ratio.

Twitter lists create grouped tweet streams of the people on them. Effectively listening and monitoring people without following them makes it easy for hotel marketers to carry out market segmentation, market research and gather info. Lists will facilitate greater engagement in reaching audiences that are more receptive, responsive and willing to help spread the word about your hotel brand or destination. Each Twitter account can create 20 named lists. Put your most relevant lists at the top and give your list a short descriptive name, sparking interest and taking advantage of SEO benefits, whilst being able to tweet them easily. Either privately or publically listed, you could consider clustering your lists as follows:

1. Segment various target audiences
2. Research new markets and audiences
3. Track target accounts/prospects
4. Track current clients and frequent guests (Brand Advocates)

Advantages of using Twitter Lists

• Good Twitter list improves the visibility in your market.
• People you follow in your public lists will appreciate the recognition.
• By providing a useful resource, you will increase your credibility and attract more followers.
• Monitor shortened lists organised by category, will save you time and allows you to find relevant information more easily and good candidates for retweeting.
• Expand your own reach on Twitter. As you tweet excellent content and your following grows, people will add you to their trusted lists and more people will follow their lists.
• Gain trust and authority. When added to someone’s list, they trust your tweets and want to follow you closely in a category column or filtered stream; gaining a much higher chance of being seen, read and retweeted – crucial for getting your message out.

Additional Sample Uses of Twitter Lists

• Follow the Experts. Put them in a list to keep up with their latest conversations. Watch how they interact with their followers and what they share
• Learn About Your Brand Advocates. What better way to learn about your (frequent) guests than following their conversations on Twitter?
• Monitor Your Competition. You will be able to see what works and what not.
• Monitor Industry News. Track local, destination news and from around the world
• Inner Circle List..Co-workers, family or friends.
• Must Follow List..People you recommend other tweepl should follow

Twitter List Management Tools and where to find Lists?

You can follow lists other people have made and organise them through tools such as Formulists, Check out the lists created by hotel experts, those will be the ones to follow. There are also sites that help you find lists created by others, such as: Listorious, Listatlas, TweetFind, ListiMonkey, Listomatic

How do use Twitter lists? Share your favourite lists in the comments and do not forget to follow me on your Lists!

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