The document summarizes Hotels.com's Twitter strategy in EMEA. Key points include: - The objectives were to engage customers/media, drive traffic/bookings, and boost awareness. Goals included promoting deals, improving the brand, and engaging in conversations. - Results showed the most successful tweets promoted special offers, destinations like Europe, and top 10 lists. PR tweets on quirky stories and videos performed well. - Marketing tweets on last-minute deals and sales in Europe and domestic destinations worked best. Special offers giving a choice of hotels also engaged people more than specific hotel deals. - Testing in September focused on offers, events, and top destinations on each country site

1. Twitter - An International Strategy

2. Hotels.com
Twitter

3. EMEA Plan
• Overview
• Objectives
• Results
• Findings
• Actions
• Tools
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4. Overview
Our Twitter Account
 Creation: April 2009
 Name: Hotels.com EU
 Bio: Hotels.com offers more than 100,000 hotels worldwide. Book your stay with
Hotels.com and Wake up Happy
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5. Objectives
Objectives
 Create more opportunities for engagement with customers and media
 Offer more meaningful interaction with key audiences
 Drive traffic to the Hotels.com site
 Boost hotel bookings
 Generate awareness and interest in Hotels.com
Strategic Approach
Establish Hotels.com as a key player in the social media world and share travel
information, holiday deals and community events whilst also networking with
consumers, media and stakeholders
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6. Objectives
Goals
1. Produce Messages to leverage our 3 “B’s”:
Business: Promote Deals and Promotions
Brand: Improve awareness and image
Brilliance: Show off our industry expertise
2. Increase followers: Build a large network of influencers, consumers and media
3. Create a dialogue: engage in two-way conversations with followers - ask and answer
questions, provide useful nuggets of travel information, engage and interact more
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7. Results
Tweet Messages: our 3 B’s
How did we tweet?
134 Tweets in July – 54 PR + 80 Mkg
137 Tweets in August – 68 PR + 69 Mkg
Tweets were spread out throughout the day
with a particular focus on messages between:
10am - 11am
12pm – 1pm
5pm – 8pm
Tweets were predominantly posted
Monday to Friday
Source: Tweet Stat
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8. Results
Tweet Messages: our 3 B’s
 What did we tweet about?
PR:
o Hotels.com Activity (Nanobreaks, Doodlebox, Hotel Visualiser)
o Press Releases (Prison Hotels, Top tips to save money on holiday, minimoons)
o News Features (100 best UK days out, free ways to entertain the kids, Britain’s most overrated tourist sites)
o News (Alton Towers bans men wearing Speedos, 340,000 people hit Bournemouth beach)
o Videos (24 hours in the life of the world’s air travel as seen from space)
o Interesting Facts
Marketing:
o Special Offers/Deals/Campaigns (Last Minute Summer Sales, Hilton 2 for 1, Top 10 Family Hotels)
o Events (Festivals, Concerts, Sport events)
o Specific Destinations (chosen due to their importance and performance or their ongoing deals highlighted on the
website)
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9. Results
Tweet Messages: our 3 B’s
 Which tools did we use?
o Tweetdeck
o Tweetlater
o Twitter Website (Hotels.com account)
 Tweet Examples
PR
“Your holiday pics not what you hoped for? With our Doodlebox app you can spruce them up”
“Which sex is cutting back on their stag or hen party, whilst the other is spending nearly £200 a head on celebrations?”
“Lying on the beach not really your thing? Check out ten of the best beach games to keep you amused”
“Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is set to become home to the first ever writer-in-residence at a UK aiport”
Marketing
“Still searching for the best deals in Europe this summer? With Hotels.com Summer Sale, experience some Europe's finest hotels
and enjoy savings up to 40%”
“Home sweet home - bag a British bargain! Stay 2 or 3 nights and save from 15% to 20% - Manchester | Liverpool | Belfast.”
“Hilton 2 for 1! With Hotels.com and Hilton treat yourself to vacation that is twice as long with price twice as nice! ”
“Want to wake up (happy) in a city, that doesn't sleep? Discover the Hotels.com latest deals for New York, New York!”
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10. Results
Tweet Messages: our 3 B’s
 PR Results – July to September
Month Number of total tweets Number of total clicks
July 54 651
August 68 836
September 58 923
What worked well?
July & August
o Doodlebox(364 clicks)
o Nanobreaks(143 clicks).
o A link to a video e.g. a video of the world’s air travel from space (27 clicks)
o Interesting and quirky news stories e.g. the squirrel who hijacked a couple’s holiday photo (37 clicks)
o Links to handy tips for holiday makers e.g. the Hotels.com press release on money saving tips (39 clicks)
o The announcement that Hotels.com had been voted as the best website for booking hotels in America (51 clicks)
September
oThe news story about the man who travelled through 37 countries with just £1 (38 clicks)
oThe three HPI press releases (83 clicks in total)
oThe HPI (41 clicks)
oThe strangest things to do this autumn (30 clicks)
oThompson Airways safety video with children (33 clicks)
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11. Results
Tweet Messages: our 3 B’s
 Marketing Results - July
Month Number of total % of English % of French % of Spanish Number of total Clicks
Tweets Tweets Tweets Tweets
July 80 62.50% 33.60% 26.79% 462
What worked well?
o Tweets which linked to Top 10 lists (30 clicks)
o Barcelona offers (26 clicks)
o Last Minute Summer Sales for European destinations (19 clicks)
o Hilton 2 for 1 special offer (19 clicks )
Conclusion
o People tend to trust Hotels.com selection of top hotels as well as travellers’ opinions
o Special offers that give the choice of several hotels are more attractive than specific deal on a
specific hotel
o People tend to be more attracted by European destinations
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12. Results
Tweet Messages: our 3 B’s
 Marketing Results - August
Month Number of total % of English % of French % of Spanish Number of total Clicks
Tweets Tweets Tweets Tweets
August 69 56.52% 42.46% 4.71% 577
What worked well?
o Last Minute Summer Sales for European destinations (35 clicks )
o Last Minute Summer Sales page (29 clicks)
o 48 hour New York sale (27 clicks)
o UK hotel deals e.g. London (26 clicks)
Conclusion
o More Special Offers promoted in August
o Deals/Last minute deals more attractive towards middle/end summer
o People are still more attracted by European destinations deals
o Domestic travel destinations are becoming more popular
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13. Results
Tweet Messages: our 3 B’s
 Marketing Results - September
Month Number of total % of English % of French % of Spanish Number of total Clicks
Tweets Tweets Tweets Tweets
September 115 63.24% 36.75% 0% 852
New tests
o In order to identify trends, we shifted the focus onto Special offers, 4 type of events (Sport, Holidays, Concert,
Festival) and Top 10 destinations of each POS websites (Best GBV)
o Aim to measure differences between languages/POS
What worked well?
o English: New York deals (166 clicks), Special offers (161 clicks), deals in cities welcoming Concerts (147 clicks)
o French : Deals in cities welcoming Concerts (71 clicks), New York deals (68 clicks), Barcelona deals (27 clicks)
Conclusion
o Success of New York offers for Both POS – deals and seasonality?
o Mentioning an event attracts more people
o People are still more attracted by Special Offers
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14. Results
How to measure
Bit.ly – July and August Double Click – September
Measure the performance of messages Measure the performance of types of messages
Advantages: Advantages:
o 3 for 1 : Shorten, share and track links o Provides consistent measurement on a daily
o Possible to know where the clicks come basis across all the POS.
from (US, Canada, Other) o Measures clicks and conversions.
o Easy to run reports frequently, customise them
and automate report delivery
Caveats: Caveats:
o Measure only clicks o Tracking duplication
o Difficult to find the information: No
“search” button; URL not associated with
any message; 1 URL for a lot of messages
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15. Results
Increase Followers
•Since the beginning of July the number of followers went from 247 to 711 (+464)
Source: Twittercounter.com
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16. Results
Increase Followers
Our followers: - Frommers Travel
- TravelJunky
- Rough Guides
- CNTraveler
- TravelEditor
- Expedia
- Etc…
We follow: - Brinkwire
- Timestravel
- CNTraveler
- Travelmail
- Travelocity
- Sky Travel
- TravelEditor
- Venere_Hotels
- Expedia
- Etc…
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17. Results
Create a dialogue
Once Hotels.com had increased its Twitter presence, our goal was to engage in conversation and interact with
the community. Tools used : TweetDeck and Twitter Search
 Re-tweet and reply to build a network
• Who re-tweets us?
• Who do we re-tweet?
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18. Results
Create a dialogue
• Who do we reply to?
theomeef
 What is the consumer saying?
852 followers
451 followers
153 followers
310 followers
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19. Findings
Increase followers
 How to attract people
 Follow our followers
 Follow influencers and key media within and outside the travel
industry
 Follow those with a key interest in travel
 Follow those who could be interested in travel e.g.Golfers interested
in finding the best UK courses (PR) and hotels near courses
(Marketing)
 Competitions and vouchers
 Conduct a poll
 ”Where we holiday”
 “Meet the team”
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20. Findings
Create a conversation
 Retweeting influencers and media allows us to build a network
• Read the bio of those who follow us (Engage in dialogue)
• Promote others and share our best information (Support and Credibility)
 Devise a strategy to respond to negative tweets
• Direct Message (One to One communication) VS @replies (Mass communication)
• Definition of roles (SEO, PR or Customer Service)
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21. Actions
New tests
 Message quantity and frequency
 Produce more messages (maximum of 3 or 4 PR and 5 or 6 Marketing)
 Test success of weekend tweets
 Test success of tweets during commuting hours
 Message creation and content
 Create an event calendar to base our tweets around
 Introduce visual content (TwitPic)
 Focus on what we know works well :
- Successful Marketing content (Travel tips, Special Offers, Europe)
- Successful PR content (Travel tips, Visual news, Quirky news)
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22. Tools
 Additional Tools tested
Topics/keyword trends
o Search.twitter.com
o TweetStats trends
o Trendistic (graphical interface to see
trends and keywords on Twitter -
hours, day, weeks)
o Monitter (track trends in real time)
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23. Tools
Leverage tools to Increase followers
 Tool Opportunities:
To ensure we follow influencers:
WeFollow and Twellow - Directories of Twitter users
- Categorises users by industry, hobby or location
TwitterGrader and Twitterholic.com - Checks the power of users’ Twitter accounts
- Records the number of followers, power of
those followers and the level to which they are
engaging the community
Technorati.com - Directory of blogs and web content to follow
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24. Tools
Create a conversation
 Tools opportunities to track retweets and brand reputation
o Tweetmeme and Twitturly - Websites focusing on retweeting and link sharing
o TweetBeep and Trackur - Online monitoring reputation tools
- Provide detailed information and analysis
- Keeps track of retweets and conversations about
Hotels.com, competitors and products.
- Send automatic alerts
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25. LATAM Plan (Brazil)
•Overview
•Objectives
•Results
•Findings
• Actions
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26. LATAM Twitter Hoteis ponto com
Objectives & actions
• Use the roadmap
developed for EMEA
• Increase followers
• Engage users to
consume Hoteis.com
content
Twitter account
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27. LATAM Results
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28. Latam Results
Followers evolution
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29. Latam :
Twitter Engagement
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30. LATAM Engagement: Content
Tags
Daily
Tweets
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31. LATAM Engagement: Content
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32. LATAM Engagement
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33. APAC Plan (JAPAN)
• Overview
• Objectives
• Results
• Findings
• Actions
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34. Twitter Japan Twitter Market Stats for Japan
Current local subscription Top searched term in
Google 2009
rates for Twitter in Japan
are estimated at 1.2
million (Nov 2009)
Awareness for Twitter Twitter goes mobile
exploding (Japan the only market
globally)
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35. Twitter Japan Key Program Objectives
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36. Twitter Japan Tactics for Achieving Objectives
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37. Twitter Japan Objectives & How to Measure
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38. Twitter Japan Q1/Q2 2010 Schedule
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39. Twitter Japan Month-to-Month KPI Tracker – March 2010
KPI Tracker Observations
Month Target Followers Actual Followers Visits Lists • During it’s second month live, the
February 2010 100 345 118 28 Hotels.com Twitter campaign
March 2010 300 653 78 49 gained and additional 308 followers
April 2010 650 for a total of 653 – 117% above our
target of 300 – as well as recording
May 2010 1,300
78 visits* and being added to 21
June 2010 2,000 additional lists for a total of 49.
July 2010 TBD*
• Follower growth was steady
April 27, 2010 throughout the month, with a small
Follower Growth boost noted around the 17th when a
top page Twitter banner was
placed on Hotels.com Japan, as
well as embedded within the
weekly members’ newsletter.
• As our Twitter activities continue
over the next five months, we will
chart our progress here, drawing
parallels between spikes or drops
in KPI numbers and real-world
events.
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40. Month-to-Month KPI Tracker cont’d – March 2010
Twitter Japan
Top-Clicked ULRs* Observations
# Top-Clicked URLs Tweet Topics Clicks • As in February, the most popular
1 http://jp.hotels.com/hotel-deals/jp_easter_hero_70 45% Recommended Cities 124 tweets in March involved specific
2 http://jp.hotels.com/sd1313946/hotel-special-deals-bankoku/ Bangkok Deals hotel listings 33 hotel properties featured in the
45% Off Recommended Cities
4 http://jp.hotels.com/sd1431094/hotel-special-deals-honoruru/ Honolulu Deals hotel listings 31
promotion.
3 http://jp.hotels.com/sd725674/hotel-special-deals-jing-dou/ Kyoto Deals hotel listings 27
6 http://jp.hotels.com/sd26633/hotel-special-deals-shidoni/ Sydney Deals hotel listings 21 • Bangkok, Honolulu and Kyoto
7 http://jp.hotels.com/sd1633563/hotel-special-deals-keanzu/ Cairns hotel listings 20 were the top-clicked
9 http://jp.hotels.com/sd712491/hotel-special-deals-roma/ Rome Deals hotel listings 18 destinations; Kyoto in particular
5 http://jp.hotels.com/sd1655844/hotel-special-deals-shingaporu/ Singapore Deals hotel listings 16 demonstrated a surprising level
8 http://mixi.jp/view_community.pl?id=4824702 North America Mixi Community 15 of domestic demand.
10 http://jp.hotels.com/hotel-deals/asiasale_jp 3 Day Asia Special Promo 12
• As a weekend usage test, we
*All Clicks data via URL shortener bit.ly tweeted over Saturday and
Sunday (20th, 21st); this Sunday
was among the highest click
count days tracked in March
Weekly Breakdown Daily Click Distribution*
Date Visits Pages / Visit Avg. Time
March 1-7 13 3.8 93 Outlined in red,
Saturday the 20th
March 8 - 14 17 2.9 421 and Sunday the 21st
March 15-21 13 1.5 131 were test days for
March 22-28 17 4.4 442 weekend tweeting:
March 29-31 18 2.3 168 Sunday in particular
saw a large volume
Monthly Totals: 78 of clicks
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41. Thanks/Obrigado/ Arigatou
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