Seemingly everyone’s doing it. So if you have yet to get on the Twitter bandwagon, here’s how you can get started. First, set up an account – it’s 100 per cent free. Once you’ve signed up to the micro-blogging site, here’s how you can make the best use of it to satisfy all your travel needs (and more).
Remember that this networking site is fast becoming an indisputable tool for both savvy travellers and travel industry professionals and offers updates on everything from best deals to travel news and advice. However, each message – or tweet, to those in the know – is limited to just 140 characters meaning that there is no room for waffle, just the facts and snappy, too. As a result, Twitter is now also the fastest way to communicate with other travellers and travel industry professionals, including airlines.
Follow the tweeter
The key is to follow the tweeters best suited for you, be they travellers, travel agents or airlines. Start by selecting your favourite airlines to follow. See the US low-cost airline JetBlue for a good example of what’s potentially on offer. It has almost 500,000 followers to date of its main page (@JetBlue) and also features a separate dedicated deal alerts page (@JetBlueDeals) that sends followers latest deals information.
WestJet Airlines (@WestJet) is the domestic airline Tweeter to watch. Load factors, 50 per cent off sales and travel delays - it’s all here.
It has been suggested in some circles that airline staffs are more responsive to queries sent in via Twitter than the traditional methods utilizing the phone or e-mail.
Twitter for bargains
The Twitter universe is a lot of things to a lot of people but few are as catered for as bargain hunters – though you need to make sure you’re following the right people first. You can’t go wrong when starting out by following Matt Gross, the New York Times Frugal Traveler columnist best known for travelling around the globe in 90 days on a budget. His regularly updated Twitter page (@frugaltraveler) features links to affordable hotels and cheap eats around the world plus an endless supply of invaluable budget tips.
The UK’s Daily Telegraph recently published an article about how Twitter can help you plan your holiday and includes an interview with Andy Washington, Director of Sales at lastminute.com (@lastminute_com), who explained how the company uses Twitter to advertise its deals: "When we secure great last-moment deals we often only stream them on Twitter because they are so time sensitive. Customers following us have access to the best bargains we offer."
This of course means that it can be all too easy to miss exclusive Twitter discounts, be they from an airline, hotel or travel site. However, you can ensure that you miss nothing by setting up Twitter feeds. This can be done by clicking on "RSS feed updates" on the profile page of the Tweeter you want to follow or through Twitter applications designed specifically for your smartphone.
Joining the Twittersphere
According to the growing army of expert tweeters, the most useful tool for new converts to micro-blogging is Twitter Search which has a simple search box that displays related results from the site. This means that if you’ve booked a flight with Air Canada departing from Vancouver Airport, you could set up a search for "Air Canada YVR" and Twitter would display all related real-time tweets posted on the site by everyone from other travellers, the airline or the airport.
Another useful tool for Twitter users is TweetDeck, an application that behaves like a personal browser to display messages from selected tweeters in easy to navigate columns that organize the content according to your preferences.
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Updated June 2009
