More people than ever are discovering the power of social media, and as we reveal in our feature “Time to tweet” in the September print edition of Business Traveller (to subscribe click here), engaging with travel companies via your Twitter and Facebook accounts can be an effective way of making complaints, giving feedback, making requests and finding out information in real time.
For those who are already up and running, we have compiled lists of Twitter and Facebook pages for all the major airlines, airports, hotel groups and car rental companies so you don’t have to go to the trouble of searching for them. If there is anyone we have left out, please let us know and we will be happy to add them.
If you are still confused about Twitter, here is a beginners guide to commonly used jargon…
Tweet This is simply a written message using Twitter. Type into the “what’s happening” bar whatever you want to post. Make sure it’s concise because you only have 140 characters to play with. Then press the tweet button to publish your message.
Follow Following someone on Twitter means you are subscribing to their tweets, which will appear on your timeline. This may be a friend, business, or anyone you find interesting. You will find the follow button under a tweeter’s profile picture. Getting followers isn’t as easy. Twitter discourages asking people to follow you through tweets. It is advised that the best thing to do is to be active and follow people who interest or mean something to you.
@ Replies and Mentions If you want reply to someone who has written a post or draw their attention to a tweet in which you are mentioning them, use the @ symbol, which creates a link directly to their twitter page, to let them know. Eg: Really enjoyed article on the future of economy class food @BTUK, keep up the good work.
# Hash Tag People use hash tags to categorise their tweets, so they show more easily in Twitter searches. Eg: Just about to board @flybmi flight from #Heathrow to #Berlin
It also allows your tweets to show up in “trending” categories or join in discussions because when you click on a hash tag is shows all the other current tweets that also have the same hash tag. Eg: Shops closing early today in Notting Hill #Londonriots
RT or Retweet If you like someone’s tweet and you want to share it with others, hover over it with your mouse and click RT/retweet to share it with your followers.
For in-depth help with using Twitter, click here.
For in-depth help with using Facebook, click here.
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Follow us on twitter.com/BTUK
