Twitter’s lightning-fast pace and 280-character limit make it among the trickier social media platforms to master. Keeping up with the constant flux of trending topics and hashtags can seem like a full-time job, and it takes some time to learn the language of the Twitterverse.

However, if your audience is on Twitter, then it’s a perfect sphere to build brand awareness and participate in conversations with your clients and with other travel brands. Once you get the hang of tweets and hashtags, it can be a lot of fun!

These tips will help you set a Twitter account for your agency, and guide you in creating tweets that will engage your followers.

1. CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT: Signing up is simple at this link. If your agency already has a presence on Facebook or Instagram, keep your Twitter handle (@KHMTravel, for instance) consistent with the rest of your social media profiles.

2. ADD IMAGES: Your Twitter profile photo is what appears next to each of your tweets, so it’s important it stands out–in a good way, of course! You can use a business logo, but a head shot of yourself makes it more personal. You will also need a header photo, similar to your Facebook cover photo. Keep it professional but choose something that represents your business, like your favorite destination.

3. CHARACTER COUNTS: Twitter caps tweets at maximum length of 280 characters. Any URL will count as 23 characters toward the limit. Longer links will automatically be shortened, and shorter links–such as KHMTravel.com–are still counted as 23 characters. Visual media such as photos, videos, and GIFs aren’t counted, so they’re a great way to add personality to your account. As a rule, even without photos and URLs, try to keep your tweets as short and sweet as possible.

4. HASHTAGS, PART ONE: Use a maximum of three hashtags per tweet to give context to your message.  Look to see which hashtags are trending with travel suppliers, your fellow agents, and on relevant travel news site like TravelPulse and Travel Weekly. The site hashtagify.me allows you to search and view the popularity of a certain hashtag, and tagboard.com lets you view mentions of a specific hashtag across multiple platforms.

5. TAG OTHER USERS: On Twitter, the equivalent of tagging someone is to use the @ symbol and their handle. For instance, if KHM Travel wanted to express our excitement for our 2019 Crystal Conference at sea, we’d mention @PrincessCruises in our tweet. Using “@username” in the content of your tweet counts toward the character limit, but the users listed as you reply to a tweet aren’t counted.

6. BEWARE OF AUTO-POSTING: Twitter doesn’t play nice with Facebook or Instagram, so auto-posting your content from these networks to Twitter won’t look pretty. That doesn’t mean you can’t post photos on Twitter–in fact, you definitely should! Rather than auto-post, use Tweetdeck or HootSuite to schedule your Tweets out ahead of time.

This is how Facebook posts look when they are auto-posted to Twitter.

7. BE ORIGINAL: It can be tempting to retweet every piece of travel news you come across, but stick to the most relevant to your business. If you’re only retweeting others’ content, your followers won’t get to know YOUR business. One way to blend the two is to use the “Comment with Retweet” function, which adds your thoughts alongside the other user’s posts.

8. MAKE CONNECTIONS: Twitter is a fantastic way to network, and Twitter chats are a great way to connect with other users. Twitter chats are periodic discussions, usually in question-and-reply format, that center around a specific topic. For example, Travel Weekly hosts a monthly Twitter chat with a rotating series of travel-related themes. Conversations are connected by using the hashtag #TWchats.

9. USE THE APP: Download the Twitter application on your phone, so you can tweet and respond while you’re out and about! If you have a personal account, you can easily switch between it and your business account by clicking on the profile picture in the top left corner of your Twitter feed.

10. HASHTAGS, PART TWO: To discover relevant conversations, consider the key words surrounding your business. For KHM Travel, searching for hashtags like #TravelAgents, #TravelTips and #SmallBiz turn up results of interest to us and our network of agents. Using #KHMRocks and #KHMLive will always get your host agency’s attention!

The most important of these Twitter tips for travel agents is that your account and tweets represent who you are as a travel professional.

Follow KHM Travel on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for more social media tips and ideas for travel agents.

KHM Travel Group provides our independent travel agents with the marketing skills and resources needed to be successful. Learn more on how to start your travel agent career by visiting our website or calling 1-888-611-1220.