Twitter’s head of travel Jeff Flores shared some best practices for reaching consumers on Twitter during the Phocuswright Conference.

Hoteliers can tap into Twitter’s conversations in a meaningful way by implementing the right strategies, according to Jeff Flores, head of travel for the company.

Flores shared best practices for managing and leveraging the conversation during a panel titled “Making an impact with Twitter: Best practices and creative success stories,” during the Phocuswright Conference. Twitter has more than 284 million active users, and those users send 1 billion tweets every two days, according to Flores.

“Every second, someone is tweeting about their hotel room. Good and bad,” Flores said. Here are six strategies Twitter uses to help its advertising partners, including hoteliers, tap into those conversations:

1. Geo-targeting

Geo-targeting refers to the practice of delivering different content to a website user based on his or her geographic location. One example: The Westin Hotels & Resorts brand geo-targeted the Manhattan region of New York City, and using the company’s #WestinWellBeing hashtag, the team tweeted “Who needs some headspace?”

“They selected a winner, and then they filmed the on-ground activation with that person,” Flores said, adding that this type of campaign has multiple touch points. An on-ground activation involves hotel marketers taking the promotion or conversation offline and addressing the winner in person.

“It doesn’t only have to live on Twitter,” he said. “You can put folks on the street and have an extended impact on your creative campaign.”

Another example was from Emirates, a Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based airline, which used geo-targeting to reach travelers in Chicago.

The airline announced it was launching a new route from Dubai to Chicago, so it coordinated with Twitter to run a geo-targeted campaign, Flores said. The company sent out tweets that formed the word “hello” using landmarks within the marketplace in Dubai.

“The company then asked Chicago to respond with similar letters or words,” Flores said. The win? There was an opportunity here for someone to get his or her “15 seconds of fame” he added, but also to win two free tickets from Emirates. This geo-targeted campaign drove traffic to the airline’s website and drove user engagement.

2. Keyword targeting

Online travel agency Travelocity used keyword targeting in conjunction with the Discovery Channel’s airing of “Shark Week.”

The company targeted terms such as “great white shark” and “shark week.” From there, it routed users to a landing page where people could figure out how close they were to a shark, in terms of their location. “They had a very compelling experience on the platform,” Flores said.

The landing page was something that others were likely to share, Flores continued. “It was a big boost for them, in terms of views. And there was constant engagement extending the value of the investment.”

3. Themed Twitter chat

A Twitter chat offers followers an opportunity to respond and see if their response is highlighted. One effective element of the Twitter chat is tying it in with a hashtag because then the conversation can continue, Flores said.

For example, Expedia hosts a themed chat every week by using #ExpediaChat. “They pretty much dominate the OTA space when they’re doing these themed chats,” Flores said.

In a specific instance shared by Flores, Expedia posed the question: What comes to mind when you think of a foodie destination? Those following along with the chat will respond with their answers, and Expedia will retweet or modify their favorite responses.

4. Promoted trends

On 20 June, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority purchased from Twitter a promoted trend, which allowed the destination marketing organization a 24-hour takeover of the platform and a trend of the hashtag #VegasSeason, Flores said.

The cool creative? A six-second Vine video, Flores added. But the action didn’t stop there. The LVCVA had an on-ground activation in Chicago where 100 Las Vegas dancers converged on Union Station, belting out Vegas Season carols, including “Put Your Booty in a Swimsuity” and “Summa Girls, Vegas Girls.”

Additionally, the campaign tied into the 100-year anniversary of Wrigley Field, where Wayne Newton and Giuliana Rancic were live tweeting about the event, Flores said. “(The promoted trend) increased awareness and also tied in with a great local on the ground activation.”

5. Promote followers

Back in May, Hotels.com launched on TV an obscure individual named “Captain Obvious.” When the company first launched Captain Obvious and his Twitter handle on the platform, he had about 36 followers, Flores said.

“In August, we worked with them to create a promoted effort to increase followers. When they started the campaign, there were about 1,500 followers,” Flores added. After Hotels.com ran the campaign, which lasted about a month, the handle had roughly 22,000 followers. Now the handle has about 44,500 followers, Flores said.

“Now they’re able to reengage and promote from that handle and communicate with those following him,” he added. Captain Obvious is straightforward and true to his authentic voice, something that Flores said is effective on Twitter.

“If you stay true to your voice, and it doesn’t smell like overt advertising, it works,” Flores said.

6. Mobile-app promotion

Mobile-app promotion is something Twitter is doing a lot of recently, Flores said. Twitter can do two things: promote new installs of companies’ mobile apps or reengage those who have downloaded the app by deep linking.

Deep linking involves using a hyperlink that links to a specific, generally searchable or indexed, piece of Web content on a website rather than the home page.