Timing Your Tweets & Other Twitter Refreshers for Hotels

A new study from Buddy Media was released this week that provides helpful insight for social media marketers. The study examined 320 Twitter accounts from the world’s biggest brands. While these brands are not specific to the hospitality or hotel industries per se, some of the findings and statistics can easily be applied to hotels. The study looked at engagement levels between the Twitter accounts and their respective followers, focusing specifically on how the engagement levels varied throughout the weekdays and weekends.

One of the most impactful findings is that engagement on Twitter was 17% higher on Saturdays and Sundays than it was on any weekday. The report also found that the brands were tweeting too much in the middle of the week. This happened during times when engagement is low. They were also not tweeting enough on the weekends. This is when brands should be tweeting because of the increased engagement found occurring on these days. It may be intuitive, but it’s also worth mentioning that the study found 30% more engagement on tweets posted between 8am-7pm than those posted after-hours.

The above are helpful guidelines when tweeting for your hotel. Each property has a different audience, so trial and error with your social media accounts are essential. Many people are traveling and turning to social media on the weekends, so it makes sense that the hospitality industry would find higher engagement on Saturdays and Sundays as well.

The study also found that it is best to tweet four times per day. However, responding to tweets specifically directed to you from your followers that want genuine interaction with your hotel or brand is not frowned upon at any time. Many people don’t know that if you begin a tweet with an @reply, your tweet does not show up in others’ feeds (unless someone is following both you and the person to whom you are @replying). This way, if you end up @replying to multiple people in one day, the rest of your followers won’t be bombarded with tweets from you in their feeds.

Other Twitter refreshers to keep in mind are that tweets see higher clicks and engagement if the tweet includes a hashtag, link, or photo. The study also noted something else interesting – if you are asking for retweets, you get more if you use the word “Retweet” instead of the shortened “RT.”

These are all things for hotels to keep in mind when managing their Twitter accounts. Simple tweaks of your social media marketing strategy can have a significant effect on your engagement, and who doesn’t want more audience interaction? The most important thing to remember, however, is that no matter how many of the tactics mentioned above, you incorporate, content is king. If you don’t have anything interesting to say or compelling content to include, that’s what you should be worrying about first.