I need to make something very clear: Travel PR are a client of mine, but I have had nothing to do with their Twitter / social media work. Whilst I’m happy to crow about my my own success stories, I’d never want to take any credit for things I’m not responsible for.

Anyway. On to the interview.

Travel PR do PR. For travel companies.

Travel PR are a perfect example of a company that “gets” social media. With just under 5,000 followers they are the most-followed PR agency in the travel industry.

Richard Mellor, Travel PR’s Head of Social Media, dragged himself away from his timeline to explain how he’s done it.

When you started using Twitter did you have a plan, or was it a case of “let’s jump in and see what happens”?

I had a plan. Having scrutinised other Twitter accounts – PR firms and otherwise – I decided that our account should try and traverse the line between fun and interesting. I wanted it to provide interesting, discursive travel-related news nuggets, but retain a light-heartedness, and something of our personality; and specifically, I wanted it not to just blandly list our clients’ special offers (which is basically spam) or how great the cookies are at our local deli, which is the sort of tripe others routinely come out with!

Richard Mellor, Travel PR's Head of Social Media

How much time a day do you spend Twittering? Including reading, replying, researching?

Typically 60-90 minutes. I have a loose aim of three or four tweets a day, and I try and consistently check the tweets of those I’m following, as much as my other work (social media and otherwise) will allow.

How do you choose who to follow? Is it strategic (follow people who you want to follow you) or just for your own interest?

I don’t believe in following people simply to encourage them to reciprocate; that always seems a bit shallow! I follow every key travel journalist that I can find, so I can be aware of any requests, rants and so on that they make, and then a few news sources which consistently provide me with re-tweetable content. As a rule I’m fussy about who we follow, simply because I can’t check Twitter all the time, and thus, when I do, I want to see only the most relevant tweets – as opposed to potentially missing some because I’m following people I needn’t be.

On a similar note do you do anything to manage your followers? e.g. blocking

I keep an eye out for anyone inappropriate, and block them if need be; we also block other rival PR companies, as we sometimes tweet client exclusives, and the more secretive we can keep those, the better!

Do you track ROI? Or is it more of a branding exercise – getting your name out there and building up contacts and relationships?

It’s both things. Partly the exercise is just about having a very successful Twitter account (ours is, happily, the most-followed by far of any UK travel PR firm) and thus indicating that we’re wholly adept at social media, and Twitter in particular. But it’s also about analysing how effective Twitter can be for us and for clients. For Travel PR that means monitoring press coverage that comes via Twitter; for clients, it means seeing how much reach tweets have, the sort of pick-up they get, and so on, using analytics tools like Hoot Suite, bit.ly and Twitter Reach. You can over-obsess when it comes to monitoring Twitter, but it’s very useful to know how effective you or a client is being.

The numbers speak for themselves

You’re noticeably more active on Twitter than on other social media sites – why did you choose that site over the others?

Twitter’s the most effective for a PR company, plain and simply – it has more of a business/news focus, unlike other, more personal-facing platforms. While others, from Facebook to Pinterest, can much benefit clients, they’re not so likely to yield business or improve the profile of a PR firm. We do a lot of work on those sites, but much of it is research or client-based work, rather than squarely with a ‘Travel PR’ hat on.

Last year you were listed as one of the “top 100 Twitter accounts to follow to improve your social media knowledge”. What do you do that makes you different from the millions of other Twitter accounts?

There’s no one, stand-out reason why I think we made that list, but I do reckon we do a good job of spreading fun, relevant content. If you follow us, you know what to expect: engaging, briefly-diverting travel-related tidbits that’ll improve five minutes of your day. I also think it’s vital that we’re not spammy or self-serving on there; we just keep it fun and ever-so-slightly frivolous!

What advice would you give to small businesses facing the vast choice of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Youtube and so on? How do you decide where to start and where to stop?

The two key questions are always a) which of these platforms is most-suited to the audience I want to reach, and to what I do, and b) which are most widely-used. So with a), a glossy, fashion-focused brand might be advised to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon, while a hard-hitting, news site will be better served making noise on Twitter. That said, I think everyone should have a presence on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube if possible, as they’re so popular. As for where to stop, that links into b), and it’s always a bit of a guessing game. The most scientific advice I can give is ask a range of friends and contacts, ‘do you use Pinterest?’ ‘Have you heard of Gtrot?’ ‘Signed up to Foursquare yet’? Ultimately your time will only stretch so far, so it’s about having a presence on the sites that truly count.

Has it been worth the effort?

If you mean with Twitter, then yes, definitely. We’ve captured new clients from there, built up relations with hitherto unknown journalists and generally become recognised for our social-media prowess. That’s invaluable!

Do you run any social media courses that we could conveniently mention at this point?

We are about to start doing so. At the moment social media is included in the general PR classes that we run, but specific social media sessions are on the horizon.

Visit Travel PR’s website or follow them on Twitter.

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