Friday, 17 March 2017

#HolsDirect Twitter Hour Mon 20th March


#HolsDirect is a Twitter Hour run by Book your Holiday Direct Twitter Hour every Monday evening from 7pm to 8pm (UK time) and 8pm to 9pm (in France)




Helping the #HolsDirect Twitter Hour to Grow 


Last week covered the aims and objectives of #HolsDirect Hour.  The ultimate aim is to increase direct bookings for holiday home owners and therefore the more successful the Hour can be and the further #HolsDirect tweets travel the greater the chance we have of each achieving this aim.  Over the next few posts I would like to give some ways that YOU can increase the success of #HolsDirect.

1.  ReTweet, and chat, ReTweet, and chat, ReTweet, and chat ...


It cannot be emphasised enough how important it is to Retweet (RT) lots of #HolsDirect tweets put out by those joining in.  The hour won't achieve anything if you simply answer 1 or more of the questions or add a promotional tweet and then head off without doing anything else.  Get RTing.  Get talking to others.

If you are worried that some of your followers might not like the sudden rush of tweets during the Hour you can always put out a tweet explaining how mad things might be for that short period on Monday and they can choose to ignore you if they want to. 

2.  Follow large, relevant Twitter accounts and promote #HolsDirect to them


At the end of the Hour last week, tweets containing #HolsDirect had reached an estimated 27,814 Twitter accounts. 12 hours later this had risen to 152,422 accounts.  This increase was due to a few accounts with large followings RTing some of the #HolsDirect tweets.  Not every tweet reached all of those accounts but if a Twitter account with LOTS of followers RTs one of your tweets that tweet potentially can be seen by all their followers.

 So we need to promote #HolsDirect to more accounts with large numbers of Twitter followers who might also have an interest in the holiday industry.  This might include 

  • Travel Bloggers 
  • National, regional and local tourist boards
  • Other Twitter Hours especially those specific to your regions
  • Accounts promoting areas 
  • Local businesses especially those that cater for the tourist trade eg restaurants, bars etc
  • Local attractions - zoos, theme parks, NT properties, museums, outdoor centres etc etc - all the sorts of places your guests might like to visit.

None of these accounts are directly connected to renting out holiday homes but they all have an interest in travel/tourism and getting visitors to your area ... visitors who need accommodation.

When you find an accounts that looks worth following (and to be honest this applies to ANY account you follow) first have a quick read through their timeline and check that:

  1. The account is active - it is no good following an account that hasn't tweeted for ages
  2. They tweet some interesting stuff - an account full of just tweets stating their follower gains/losses etc isn't worth following.

If they have an active account they should have some good tweets so give some of these a RT and/or reply to them.  Showing you are interested means you are more likely to get a follow back.  But do be aware that some accounts don't follow back at all.  However if it is an account that tweets lots of great facts about your area it is still worth following for you to RT interesting local info.

Once you've followed them and RTed some of their tweets then it is time to tweet to them about #HolsDirect.  Remember to include the hashtag and @BookHolsDirect so they know where to look.  Don't be shy - shout about #HolsDirect from the Twitter rooftops!  Together our combined strength will work together to spread the word that booking holidays direct with the owner is easy, safe and gives guests the best price.

These are 2 ways to help make #HolsDirect a success. Look out for more tips in later blog posts.

#HolsDirect - 20th March


From 7pm UK time (8pm French time) we will be asking 4 questions related to holiday accommodation and holidays in the UK and France and asking owners of holiday accommodation and those looking for holidays to join in with #HolsDirect. 

#HolsDirect Hour Questions – Monday 20th March


7pm, Q1: Everyone:
A cup of tea or a strong espresso?  What is your favourite hot drink?

7.15pm, Q2: Holiday Home Owners
Share your March, April and Easter availability and special offers.

7.30pm, Q3: Everyone:
Tell us what holiday & dates you are looking for.

7.45pm, Q4: Holiday Home Owners:
Where is your favourite beach, loch, river or lake?
It’s free to join us and totally free to promote your holiday home. Join the friendly admin team on Twitter and Facebook to showcase your holiday property to the World Wide Web!

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/BOOKHOLSDIRECT

Please remember no links to booking websites or agencies.

If you need a bit of help knowing how best to take part have a read of our tips here and here.

We look forward to chatting with you on Monday 20th March #HolsDirect.

Alison and Rosie

PS - if you have any questions please join our Facebook group and message one of the admin team.

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