On this #traveltuesday, it’s no secret that social media plays a big role in travel for the adventurer and travel distribution company alike. And while Twitter is the tool of choice for quick travel interactions, many people are still learning how to make this micromedia site sing.

Here are a few tips to ensure smooth sailing on the social seas!

For the Traveler and Travel Brand alike:

1.Use hashtags. Find and use the hashtags where others are talking about the same travel topics that interest you or are relevant to your brand. To get you started, Flightster put together this top five list of travel related hashtags. (If you’re not already well versed in the world of hashtags, the Twitter help center does a good job of explaining their use here.)

2. Ask questions. Posing a question to your followers can jump start travel conversation, help you to gather insight or find the answers you’re looking for. However, questions thrown out to the Twitterverse are only as good as the followers who are reading your tweets. To better amplify your queries and improve better engagement, see #1 – use hashtags!

3.Jump in on conversations. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or you make a living selling services to travelers, being part of travel discussions – even when there is no immediate need to know or share anything – will help you grow your network. Having the right friends and followers nearby when you have questions (see #2) will improve your chances of timely and on-point responses.

4. Share. Sharing happens at the speed of fast on Twitter. People are quick to retweet great material, and you should be no exception. Just remember not to make it all about you. Mix up your tweets so you are sharing questions, retweeting great advice or interesting articles and catering to a broader audience. Share places you’ve been and ask for recommendations. Or share an article that features your brand if you’re in the travel biz. Today I saw this fun share on Twitter:

RT @2cre8: ✈ 6 Largest Indoor Water Parks in the World vsb.li/PgMaMl #Travel #Vacations RT @Flipbooks #travelTuesday

— Michelle Mangen (@mmangen) December 13, 2011

Notice how Flipbooks has more than one retweet? Apparently @2cre8 and @mmangen found it interesting enough to want to share further. (Also, notice the use of hashtags!)

For the Traveler:

5. Search. Maybe before you take off on your travels you wish to get recommendations from other social media users like I did in Vegas. Or perhaps you are looking for conversations about the city you will be traveling to. Try searching for keywords such as Disney World to see how people are talking about their recent experiences. You can even save the search so you can come back to it time and time again. (The latest Twitter facelift has a new search functionality called Discover where you can enter keywords or hashtags to help find topical conversations. Have a closer look at the new redesign here in Shannon’s great post.)

6. Follow travel services and companies. Start with the obvious ones. The brands you already know and love.  Companies you are familiar with may be using Twitter to share news, exciting features and additions, events and even discounted rates.  Using Twitter’s Discover, search for brands you know less about or places you plan to visit. If brands are smart, they’ll ensure they are easily discoverable. To assist in making travel plans, try searching for your desired destination/city and selecting ‘people.’ This will show you Twitter handles with the destination/city in the handle itself or in the bio. I searched for Orlando and found @VisitOrlando for example.

7.  Follow like minded people. Using similar logic as #’s 5 and 6, take the searching one step further and make friends with the people who are talking about the very things you’re interested in experiencing through travel. They’re going to be able to offer helpful tips when you finally get to that resort you share in common.

8. Chronicle your travel. Similar to #4, this is where you can give back to your friends, followers and advice-givers by giving them a snapshot of your vacation. After all, you have gleaned the advice of others in preparation for your trip and they most likely are interested in the outcome. Just like you searched for tips and tricks, someone else may now benefit from you giving back. Twitter makes it easy to share photos and videos. Go nuts!

For the Travel Brand:

9. Engage. Travelers are talking about you, reaching out directly to you and planning how they will spend their vacation when nearby your awesome attraction. There are many opportunities to engage with your would-be customers, and not just with hashtags or in direct conversations. Searches are a great start to listening, but there are great monitoring platforms and tools available to help you better manage the flood of tweets just waiting to be mined like diamonds.

10. Be easy to find. Travelers are searching (see #5) for things to do in the towns and cities they’re visiting. They’re looking for recommendations of services that you may offer from a place to rest a weary head, to the actual method of getting from point A to point B. If you fail to fill out your Twitter bio, using terms and keywords that would catch the attention of tweet-savvy travelers, you may miss the boat, so to speak.

11. Cater to your audience. Deals are great and tips about your brand are helpful, but there comes a point when you can talk much about yourself and risk losing the attention of your followers. Listen to the conversations people are having in relation to what you offer, and add personal touches when possible.

12. Follow back. I saved my favorite for last. I understand it is not possible or useful to necessarily follow the entire twitterverse, but two things stand out to me regarding brands following back. The first thought is personal preference and so I can’t really fault a travel company entirely, but when a brand follows no one at all it appears to me as though they are more about themselves than their community. A quick click to their Twitter stream may prove otherwise if I see lots of direct engaging with other Tweeps (Twitter users). Second, if you plan to engage via DM (direct message) at all, you NEED to follow back. I could write an entire post on cases where brands have direct messaged me and asked for more information, only for me to have to @reply to explain to them how the DM works.

What about your Twitter travel tips? I’m sure you have some and I would love to hear them in the comments below.

Jenn Seeley tweets, talks and blogs about Travel, Entertainment and Leisure. Follow her on Twitter and check out her past posts here.

Tags: #traveltuesday, Flightster, Flipbooks, Orlando, travel, twitter, vacations, Walt Disney