How to Be A Good Travel Tweeter
Image: NYCArthur
I absolutely love Twitter. I was obsessed from the very beginning.
Joining the travel community changed everything, though. I started by following a few of the big names in travel, and in time, I found myself in an enormous community of intelligent, kind and absolutely hilarious people. And it’s SO much fun. I love the tweeting; I love the conversations; I adore my followers!
There’s an art to using Twitter for travel. Some people are great at it. Some aren’t.
Here are ten ways to become a good travel tweeter:
1. Join #TNI! Travelers’ Night In, founded by the ladies at ZipSetGo.com, is one of the highlights of my week. Every Thursday from 3:30-5:00 ET, travel lovers discuss 10 different travel questions and share travel stories, all under the #TNI tag. If you can’t make it, I write the #TNI Recaps on this site every week.
#TNI is a place to learn about new destinations and fun things to do around the world — as well as tell inappropriate stories and laugh your ass off. All are welcome, so even if you rarely tweet about travel, don’t be afraid to join right in!
2. Share great travel content. Come across an interesting travel story? Enjoy a travel blog post? Share it with your followers! And if the author is on Twitter, please mention him or her, too. Every writer loves being appreciated!
3. Be considerate and responsive. If someone asks you a question, answer it. If someone pays you a nice compliment, thank him or her. I know this sounds like the basics, but you’d be surprised at how many people don’t do these things.
Even if you have upwards of 10,000 followers, it’s not hard to take 10 minutes once a day to comb through your replies and respond to the thoughtful ones. You don’t have to follow everyone. Just be kind.
4. Follow wisely. I follow about one third of the people who follow me. Some people follow everyone back. I prefer to keep my levels manageable. But if you interact with me, we chat a bit, and I like what you tweet, of course I’ll start following you!
Keep your followee level at what works for you. You’ll be much happier that way. And if not, you can always make Twitter more manageable with lists!
5. Don’t exclusively promote your own content. Twitter is for interaction, not a PR stream. If you are a travel blogger who only promotes his or her own content, it will be incredibly obvious to the rest of us.
6. Go easy on the hashtags! Any more than three is going overboard. And use hashtags that people might actually search for!
Good:
adventurouskate What to Eat in Florence, Italy http://bit.ly/c4sr0z #food #italy
adventurouskate Celebrity Hangouts in #Vegas http://bit.ly/8YQHPv #travel
Bad:
adventurouskate What to Eat in Florence, Italy http://bit.ly/c4sr0z #food #italy #italia #firenze #meat #wine #su #lp #travel
adventurouskate #Celebrity #Hangouts in #Las #Vegas http://bit.ly/8YQHPv #travel #celebs #nightlife #lasvegas
7. Don’t beg people to share your content. If I ever see “please retweet” on a tweet that isn’t about an emergency (think Amber Alert) or for a worthy cause (“i need to raise $500 for breast cancer research asap!”), I’m unfollowing you immediately.
Don’t beg your followers for retweets, stumbles or comments. If your content is good, people will share it.
8. Import FourSquare wisely. Integrating FourSquare can be a smart move, but more often than not, you’ll end up just annoying your followers.
If you’re going to connect FourSquare to your Twitter account, don’t set it to tweet every update. Tweet when you have something of value to share. We don’t want to hear about your errands.
Good:
adventurouskate Best clam chowdah in Boston! (@ Legal Sea Foods)
adventurouskate Just landed in NYC! (@ JFK Airport)
Bad:
adventurouskate I’m at Hynes Convention Center Station.
adventurouskate I’m at CVS Pharmacy.
Check into as many mundane places as you’d like on FourSquare…just don’t tweet them!
9. Make the most of #traveltuesday. #Traveltuesday has two purposes for the Twitter travel community: to share travel-related stories and advice, and to spotlight your favorite travel tweeters.
Sometimes, #traveltuesday doesn’t seem that different from most days, since we travel tweeters already live and breathe travel 24/7! But this is the best opportunity to highlight both your own and other people’s content, as well as your favorite travelers (think #followfriday lists, but for travel). Share the love!
10. Tap your followers as a resource. Within an hour of asking for things to do during a brief trip to New York, I had a slew of suggestions: a fashion exhibit at the Met, ice cream to try at Momofuku, pubs to visit in the Village!
We love to share our favorite places, and we know how to get off the beaten track in popular destinations. All you have to do is ask!
What are you tips for travel tweeters?
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At age 26, I quit my job to travel the world alone. I spent six fantastic months in Southeast Asia and turned my travel blog into a full-time business. Today, I travel full-time, going anywhere that sounds wacky or beautiful or interesting. My goal is to show YOU how you can travel the world on your own -- easily, safely, and adventurously. 
Great tips. I was kind of lost on Twitter when I first joined, and it definitely has a learning curve. I would have loved to have read this when I first signed on. Great tips. I think in order to be a good travel tweeter you just have to use some common sense and be a nice person. Just be polite and considerate, and it will come back around to you. I love the twitter travel community.
Nice post and interesting tips!
I often miss the #TNI because it’s so late in Thailand.. too bad!
I also don’t use foursquare, never really understood the point of it!
I find FourSquare to be cool to find out where your friends are at any given time — but it only works if you have lots of friends in your city!
Ha ok thanks!
Well, don’t have many friends in Chiang Mai yet
Cheers!
3:30 – 5:00 PM ET means 3:30 – 5 AM in Indonesia, where I live..
Absolutely right on all counts!
Hehe, love the overuse of hashtags in that example. Madness. I agree with everything 100%
#candace #walsh #is #a #travel #rockstar #and #I #love #her #tweets
#this #happens #a #lot #in #Instagram #for #some #reason
LMAO
GREAT post, hopefully lots of people read this and take note!!!
Love this post! I totally agree on everything:)
How do I join #TNI? Do I just jump into the conversation? Must be fun!:)
Giulia, just join right into the questions at 3:30 ET on Thursday! Follow the #TNI tweets. @ZipSetGo, @ZipSetRachel and @GoApril are always hosts — follow them!
Ok, thanks! Will follow them and try to join the conversation!:)
# 4 is a great tip because I recently started over on twitter (I didn’t know any better when I started). So many auto follows and auto DMs that it got very annoying.
Really good tips! We love using Twitter to get the inside scoop on the best pet friendly places to visit when we’re traveling.
I have yet to make it to a #TNI.. Somehow I can never make the time conversion and end up on twitter mid-way through, disappointed because it looks interesting.
Love your Twitter 101 post. I agree with you on following people who you chat a bit instead of following everyone back. So it’s more manageable to keep track and have the interaction going.
Fantastic tips! I probably follow too many people back and liked especially your tip about keeping your stream manageable. Off to trim down the list!
Cheers!
Kathryn @Travelfusion
I also think people should space out their tweets. I can’t stand getting ten tweets in a row from the same person. Space it out a little!
This is a GREAT post!! Love it and tweeted it out!
Great tips here! My only complaint is that traveler’s night in isn’t at night–it’s during work hours when many of us aren’t able to actively participate
That’s true — but we have a lot of people in Europe participating! I only wish my Aussie friends could join. :-/
You hit it right on! Be kind and don’t abuse the twitter norms!
Great travel twitter tips! I still haven’t participated in TNI. I need to stop procrastinating and find the time, but I always see the interesting conversations going on. This week I will make it my goal to join in.
Brilliant advice! Thanks Kate!
P.S. Couldn’t agree more on point 7!
Great post kate… did anyone so anything naughty on twitter to make you write this post? lol
Well, let’s just say I didn’t dream up all these pet peeves out of nothing.
Awesome tips, thanks!
I was so excited when I saw this! I was really cautious and weary when I started with Twitter, especially as all the hashtags and conversations were already established! Although I found most newbie’s are pretty welcome, it’s always nice to have some tips laid out!
Next I’ll just have to get myself into #TNI in the next week or two!
Good post!
Hi Kate,
These are great tips for someone involved in the travel community on twitter. Its good to know you recap what’s happening on #TNI. Its always nice to get a summary in case someone has missed some really good conversation. Its also an opportunity to really discuss topics with others and create that community.
Cheers!
Natalie
thanks SO much for this Kate!!! such a good roadmap for us twitter newbies. have to confess- we’ve naively broken rule #7 with “please be sweet- RT
” but will mend our ways! can definitely see how in such a densely information-packed environment, reserving “please RT” for plea-worthy causes is important. happy trails! 
Lorna
I was just thinking to myself earlier this evening how I was hoping to find a post on this topic. Great info–thanks!
I am glad someone finally explained #TNI to me. These are some great tips and explanations. In fact, I followed the advice found in #2 by retweeting this article.
Great tips Kate!
Great suggestions! I LOVE TNI.
Thank for this post Kate, I got here from your link to it on Travelbloggers facebook page. It has helped me to understand the basics of Twitter better. I am glad to know I am not the only one that feels intimidated as a twitter newbie.
P.S. thanks for pasting the gravatar link as well, I didn’t even know how to do that.
Incredibly relevant and helpful. Just realizing what a great community of travelers there are on twitter!
I’m brand new to twitter and found this very helpful
thanks for a great post!
great tips. Thanks Kate, I’ll apply some of these that I haven’t done so far, like the #traveltuesday and making travel list.
And yes, I find our (Indohoy’s) followers very helpful when it comes to information on interesting things to do in a place.
One travel tip I’d like to add: avoid negative tweeting (ie. whining or insulting) as much as possible. They eventually will wear your followers down. Cos emotions are contagious, even online