Customers jump to social media whenever they need help or have any grievances against a brand. Brands often use an additional account to address these communications from the customers. Twitter is now rolling out a series of features to help brands provide better support to their customers.

Using the new customer support settings, businesses can display if their account provides customer support. Enabling this option will add “Provides support” on your brand profile while also allowing the account to receive direct messages from anyone, a feature that has been around for quite a while. Now however, the Direct Message button will be more prominent. Twitter also allows brands to display the active hours on their profile so that customers know when they can expect a response.

The information of support account will also be visible in suggestions when people search for a business or @mention in a Tweet. @Uber_support is among the early adopters of this feature.

The prominent message button should drive a fraction of the complaints and requests to the inbox, cutting down on the volume of negative conversations visible publicly. Visible active hours would also help set the expectations right, minimising the possibility of being blasted by users when the support team is inactive.

Source: Twitter

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Twitter seems to have a long-long phase of an existential crisis. In this attempt of getting itself together, it’s on a huge spree to roll out n-number of features and tools. Last quarter saw a considerable number of features getting out of the conveyor belt, but leading to what? Its stakes took a downfall then. Their user database is still at a standstill and it feels dreadful. Losses? Check. Despite the corporate restructure, it lacks that confidence. However, these features seem like a desperate measure to lure influencers and marketers to take these tools for a spin. Let’s have a look at how these features could prove value to the travel brands, travel bloggers, and SMEs in the travel industry.

Dashboard as a stand-alone SME app

Dashboard was launched last week proclaiming a more friendly approach to hog followers and manage small scale businesses. This tool is a friendlier and simpler replica of its other more complicated cousins. The new service, available on both web and mobile, is aimed at businesses that want to use Twitter to connect with their customers. The key feature of dashboard would be the ability of the user to monitor Twitter posts that go beyond their mere mention and dive into hashtags. That ways the SMEs and medium level travel agents could get to know what all is being talked about and can keep a track of their mentions.

Engage as an influencer app

Engage does more complicated stuff. It’s all about data, data implications, data analysis and of course followers. This app would facilitate celebrities and big brands to engage their followers and indicate real time data, allowing brands to grow quickly and understand their audiences. Hospitality chains could create more thriving conversations around what’s rolling in to retain their loyal customer base. The app creates an outline which can provide easy statistics visibility for the brands by accessing demographics. Hotels could carry out conversations to handle customer service well by not missing a single mention.

The Sticker hashtag

Travel bloggers can make most out of this feature. It would help them to add creativity to the content. Why is this such a unique take on sharing images? Well, that’s because it lets the user search all relevant content with respect to a particular sticker. Travel bloggers would be able to create a buzz around their content by promoting a particular sticker. This would populate the newsfeed of the users when they search for that specific sticker.

Location feeds backed by Foursquare

This Twitter feature is peculiarly interesting as it enabled location tagging. This would enable the users to tag locations in a particular tweet which will be visible in the Twitter timeline. The location feed would open with a map up top. The travel marketers could potentially promote their content as the users would be able to see tabs and tweets in the form of dedicated media.

Twitter videos

Twitter decided to extend the video viewing time to 140 seconds and Vines include a Watch More button which opens a 140-second clip. This feature would come as a boon to the marketers as the video uploaded may not be necessarily made for Twitter’s platform. Showing more, longer videos could seduce more mainstream users inclined to sit back and watch instead of laboriously reading through reams of text tweets.

These features could be taken as a desperate attempt to retain their customer base and travel marketers could leverage theirs as well.

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Twitter is widely used as a marketing channel by travel brands. The platform has over 332 million active users and almost all the brands use Twitter to engage in real-time conversations with the users. Recently the platform has undergone multiple transformations in a bid to stay competitive against the new and old rivals. As the social network turns 10 today, we look back at the journey of this amazing platform since its inception on March 21, 2006.

The Twttr days

just setting up my twttr

— Jack (@jack) March 21, 2006

March 2006- The social network came into existence on March 21, 2006 as Twttr and was actually opened to public on July 15 of the same year. When it began, every user’s first tweet was automated and carried the text “Just setting up my twttr”.

The birth of #Hashtag

how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?

— Chris Messina ✌︎ (@chrismessina) August 23, 2007

August 2007- Hashtags, the highlight of Twitter didn’t come into existence till August 2007. It was proposed by @ChrisMessina who suggested users use the ‘#’ sign to tweet around a single topic and that is how hashtags were born.

The iOS App

April 2010- On April 11, 2010, Twitter acquired Atebits, a company that designed an award winning Twitter client called Tweetie. The app is now official Twitter client for Apple devices now.

More visibility for brands

April 2010- To generate revenues, Twitter announced plans to offer paid advertising for brands by offering them the option to purchase promoted tweets on April 13, 2010.

Added visuals in feed

October 2010- ‘New Twitter’ started rolling out with a redesigned interface. ‘@Mentions’ and ‘Retweets’ were added above the stream and it also offered the ability to see pictures and videos from sources like Flickr and YouTube.

The graphical tweet

#MammothLakes, #California.

Image by: Lonely Planet/Yue Xu pic.twitter.com/cKX3wWXkNX

— Lonely Planet India (@lonelyplanet_in) March 16, 2016

June 2011- Soon after allowing images to be shared from other sources, Twitter also introduced the option to add images directly to tweets, a feature which is widely used by almost every user, especially by brands.

Easier discovery

December 2011- To further give advertising a boost on the platform, Twitter introduced ‘Fly’ design on December 8, 2011. It was designed to make it easier for new users to follow accounts to promote advertising. The ‘Connect’ and ‘Discover’ tabs were introduced in this update.

Simplified advertising

March 2012- Twitter introduced its self-service advertising platform on invite only basis which was later introduced it to all US users without invite

The solo bird

June 2012- Twitter decided to dump the text from its logo and went ahead with a new logo retaining just the redesigned bird.

Play with motion

October 2012- As videos were started to pick up, Twitter acquired the short video sharing platform Vine in October 2012 which was later launched in January 2013

Amplify your brand

May 2013- Twitter introduced another advertising feature called Twitter Amplify primarily focused on media and consumer brands. The Amplify ads would run video highlights from major live broadcasts with advertiser’s name and message being displayed before the clip.

Going public

We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale.

— Twitter (@twitter) September 12, 2013

September 2013- Twitter announced on September 12, 2013 that it had filed papers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission for a planned stock market listing. As expected, this announcement came through a Tweet first.

Easier live posting

October 2014- In October of 2014, Twitter acquired TwitPic, a service (website and app) that allowed users to post images on Twitter and was widely used for real time events.

Jumping on live streaming

March 2015- Live streaming was picking us as a hot trend with Meerkat and Periscope gaining momentum. In March 2015, twitter announced the acquisition of Periscope, the popular live streaming service and integrated some Twitter features into it. Many brands, including some travel brands like Skyscanner were quick to use this interesting new platform.

Ask your followers

October 2015- In a bid to add yet another engagement option, Twitter rolled out polls. They are primarily being used by brands and influencers as they are open for 24 hours and voters are not personally identified.

Spotlight for brands

Feb 2016- Last month Twitter announced another advertising option for brands. The new feature called ‘First View’ offers advertisers the option to take the top spot in a user’s Twitter stream gaining them more visibility.

The love-hate evolution

Feb 2016- In the same month, Twitter also announced a major change which is still receiving mixed responses from users and brands. With this update, the tweets will be sorted according to relevancy instead of chronology.

The hashtag #LoveTwitter is being seen in the trends today. You can also join the celebrations by tweeting with #LoveTwitter.

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Twitter has been an important part of the marketing strategy for a large number of travel brands. Brands use it not only to promote themselves but also to keep an eye on the kind of conversations that are happening around them. It is also a platform widely used by them for engaging with influencers and spreading the word about themselves. But the platforms has been going through a bad phase. Growth has been slow for the platform and stock prices have been rolling southwards. Investors were losing faith in the company with the stocks hitting all time low on expectations and it was time they changed something.

Image by Aaron Durand

Twitter has been experimenting with the visibility of tweets on one’s timeline and asking users for feedback. The reasons are obvious. While the real time environment is a strength of Twitter, it was also turning out to be a weakness as many people can’t keep up and engage with the updates coming from all the people they are following. Now they have officially announced an update to the algorithms that will change the visibility of tweets.

After this update rolled out on Wednesday, the tweets will be sorted on the basis of relevancy rather than chronology. The feature is opt in for now and won’t be available by default, at least for now. Users have to manually enable it in account settings but eventually they will switch it on for everyone with an option to opt out of it.

Twitter hasn’t really made it very clear on what factors will be taken into account to determine the best tweets and the number will vary from user to user. The ‘best tweets’ won’t replace the ‘while you were away’ feature that was introduced earlier. It will continue to exist and will be visible when you have spent too long between sessions.

They have also recently introduced a new premium advertising option for brands that is receiving mixed responses. First view, the new offering will allow brands to put a video ad near the top of news feed. While this looks promising for the brands willing to spend for the visibility, it might alienate the users who have already been complaining about the abundance for ads.

The changes would affect travel brands and influences that rely on quantity over quality but nothing is certain for now. It is quite possible that we will see multiple tweaks and variations in this new feature and only time will tell how it translates for the travel brands.

Twitter blog

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This has been an exciting year, for the travel industry as well as for us and that means we had plenty of stories to share. Newer brands made as many headlines as the established names and there were many highs and lows.

Looking back at this year, we have created a round-up of our most popular stories to refresh the events just in case you missed them.

#1- Plenty of investments

Many travel startups got a strong start to the year 2015 with heavy investments by both foreign and domestic investors. While the investor activity slowed down near the end of year, there were some newsworthy investments earlier. We compiled an infographic of the funding raised by the popular travel startups in different categories. Read full story.

#2- Twitter lessons from AirAsia India MD & CEO

Mittu Chandilya is the young Indian at the helm of AirAsia in India. While working his plans to make India operations the largest of AirAsia subsidiaries, he also actively engages with the customers on social media to ensure quality of service and customer satisfaction. We spoke with him to learn a thing or two about using social media right for an airline brand. Read full story.

#3- Year of budget stays

Budget hotel startups were the highlight of this year. This segment saw the entry of multiple players trying to revolutionise the way we look at the low cost hotels but at which some of them picked up pace, it was clear that the OTAs won’t be happy. They were gaining the power to leverage volume to their advantage, something that wasn’t seen in the hotel space at this scale until now. Read full story.

#4- OTAs hit back

Like we said, the OTAs didn’t appreciate the idea of letting the budget hotel aggregators feed on them. Before the startups could do serious damage, some major OTAs blocked them cutting one of their major source of bookings. Read full story.

#5- TripAdvisor takes a swing

It is not at all easy for the OTAs. The hoteliers don’t like them even when they drive large share of bookings. Not only the budget hotels but their friend TripAdvisor also entered the same playground. Lower rate of commissions and better visibility were enough incentives for smaller players to skip their name and shake hands with TripAdvisor. Read full story.

#6- Conversation with Winnie Tan, Tripzilla

The Singapore based company started in 2010 and quickly went on to become the favourite of outbound travellers in the region. Along with that they are also a good example to look for on how to use content right to inspire travellers. Recently they also launched a flight metasearch engine which gives the OTAs a pass and offers only direct deals. Read full story.

#7- Stayzilla shifted focus to alternative stays

India based accommodation booking platform Stayzilla took a strong focus on homestays and other alternative stays options this year. With the message of ‘Make room for something new’, they are actively inviting the people to start adopting the fast approaching shared economy trend. Read full story.

#8- Marketing lessons by the industry experts

There is something seriously wrong in following the patterns. There is no one strategy that can fit all brands and the marketers should stop pushing the same buttons. Marketing experts like Taranjeet Singh, Country Business Head, Twitter India and Terrence Voon, Director, Marketing Activation, Singapore Tourism Board shared some strong pointers for promoting a travel brand. Read full story.

#9- British Airways social media blooper

British Airways made lot of news this year, social media campaigns, new Dreamliner place and more. But one social media mistake made the strongest headlines for them. British Airways got strong backlash on social media after they sent a predrafted tweet to cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and stayed for quite a while in the twitter trends. Read full story.

#10- Technologies for the road

Driverless cars, especially the Google ones were also in the headlines every now and then. If and when they come in, the travel industry will see major transformations. While we were waiting for these autonomous cars to arrive, we also listed down some other technologies that are coming to our cars soon. Read full story.

We have got lot of exciting things lined up for the year 2016 and for a start, we have already announced Startup Knockdown Mumbai and there will be more coming soon.

The post 2015 Round-up: Most popular stories of the year appeared first on TravHQ.

British Airways has been quite instrumental when it comes to their overall social media strategy. Some of their social campaigns across YouTube and Twitter have received love from fans not just in India but all across the globe. But as they say one bad day in the office can outshine the best of your marketing efforts and put you in the news for all the wrong reasons.

A twitter response which looks to have been made by an executive handling customer service queries for British Airways has put them in a Twitter storm all over India. Within no time, British Airways started trending in India on number 1 position.

British Airways, Trending on Number 1 position in India

It all started with this tweet by cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar. Naturally, he seems to be frustrated with poor response from the airline.

and then… British Airways came up with the biggest social media bloopers of all time. God save theintern!

The last thing you would expect from global twitter account of a premier airline like British Airways would be to mess with India’s sporting icon Sachin Tendulkar. As we write this, British Airways is in the middle of a twitter crisis with all sorts of hate-tweets coming in from Sachin’s fans.

Tit for Tat time

Bring back the Kohinoor someone…

.@British_Airways First you don't return kohinoor, Now @sachin_rt luggage also!! How much we should tolerate?!

— Indian Nazi (@IndianNazi) November 13, 2015

and this for a reality check!

.@British_Airways This might help. @sachin_rt pic.twitter.com/iQhyICSZ83

— Advanced Maushi (@AdvancedMaushi) November 13, 2015

On the lighter side

I appreciate the fact that British Airways will only return Sachin Tendulkar's baggage if he admits that his middle name is Ramesh.

— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) November 13, 2015

This might put a smile on the faces of even the BA team.

BREAKING:
Arvind Kejriwal writes to David Cameron, seeks control of British Airways

— The UnReal Times (@TheUnRealTimes) November 13, 2015

Mistakes can happen with anyone, and in our opinion no mistake is big or small. The key is how fast can you learn from such experiences. For all brands, the important lesson in crisis management is to always think before you formulate your tweet even if it is a response.

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As travel marketers, we use the phrase ‘viral marketing campaign’ all the time. We often try to desperately push the brand or product and achieve big numbers. With the increasing number of travel startups, more brands are rubbing shoulders to take a bite out of the limited attention of the audience. On social media, it is a small window for them to leave an impression.

Ajay Jain, Terrence Voon and Taranjeet Singh talking about online marketing campaigns

During ‘The Singapore Dialogue: Innovation in Travel’ organised by TiE and Singapore Tourism Board earlier this month, these travel marketing campaigns were the topic of an interesting discussion. The panel included Terrence Voon, Director, Marketing Activation, Singapore Tourism Board, Ajay Jain, Founder, Kunzum.com and TiE Delhi-NCR Travel SIG – Chair and Taranjeet Singh, Country Business Head – India, Twitter India. Some interesting stories and lot of insights were shared during the discussion. Here are some snippets from the conversation.

#1- You don’t always need to start the conversation

Brands often try to tell people about their products or brand and initiate conversations around it. They will host chats around themselves and invite people to talk. This might work to some extent for some major brand but not everyone will have this luxury. Brands should keep track of what the conversations on the platform are around and plan campaigns around the topics that people can connect with. Taranjeet shared the example of how the #saluteselfie campaign by Reliance gained huge traction because the timing was perfect to join the Independence Day conversation on Twitter.

#2- Customers don’t care about your product

“Customers don’t care about your product, your profits, your brand or your success” said Terrence Voon. It is important that your marketing strategy has a very clear objective. It should inform people about something new, educate them about a topic or entertain them, make them laugh. If that is not the case, you need to get back to the drawing board and rethink the strategy.

#3- Get local

It is important to have different strategy for different markets. Terrence shared the story of how Singapore Tourism made news among the people of Philippines. The people there really love music so they got a local rock band on-board to play for the promotional video. The video got millions of views and the song was picked up by local radio stations. Its success inspired more content around it like behind the scenes video.

#4- Trending hashtag is insignificant

Taranjeet shared how Brand Managers often go to Twitter because they want their hashtag to trend. According to him that is absolutely pointless and hardly makes a difference if you can’t get your message through. Even if brands rope in accounts with strong following to tweet about them, they are not connecting with the target audience but just working to be in the list of trends.

They should try to focus on leveraging the trends like Lufthansa did during FIFA World Cup 2014. Emirates was the official airline partner but with just one simple tweet, Lufthansa was the one who grabbed all the eyeballs.

#5- No marketer can ever plan a viral campaign

“There is nothing like a viral marketing campaign. It is an end result, a consequence of people on the platform engaging with the content. No marketer can ever plan the end result”, said Taranjeet when asked about suggestions to plan a viral campaign and we couldn’t agree more. According to him, brand strategists should take a step back and define the objectives of campaign clearly. Twitter should be used more as a listening tool. They should observe the usage pattern of various words/hashtags to plan out the campaign. When questioned about influencer marketing for campaigns, he said that it is good for temporary spikes at times but hasn’t got a significant advantage in the long run.

You can find more stories from this event here or other past events here.

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