How prepared are your social media evangelists to ‘Tweet the un-Tweetable’: to capture the essence of your world and deliver it socially to the hearts and minds of the very customer you are trying to attract? It is a question that Ed Perry, our guest columnist has been pondering.

How untweetable is your product or destination? Intrigued? So was I when I first saw an ad campaign from Wine Country Ontario, Canada, challenging consumers to ‘discover, capture and share’ the moments and rich experiences of this local wine country that could not easily be put into words. Essentially they were asking them to imagine and ultimately Tweet the 'untweetable'.

As a social media guy, I draw my excitement from helping hotels to maximize their social presence. One of the most common challenges my industry colleagues face is what I would characterize as ‘dialogue paralysis’. How does a single hotel maintain daily conversation with their key customers without running out of things to say? Indeed, it’s a valid question, especially if you are a smaller property in a secondary destination.

We all realize at some point of our outreach that being a social media evangelist is a hard job. We try to showcase our product or service with just the right twist to promote our brand, while maintaining an edge to engage our followers. So how do we do this?

1. Don’t be a bore  

At the height of trying to find new things to talk about, we tend to fall back on the basics which can bore our consumers: how grand our restaurants are, how pretty our cocktails look, how great our service is and how gorgeous is our bedding. Fact is, if I know nothing about a destination, there is a pretty small chance that I will experience any of those great items.

2. Talk about the destination

I am a huge proponent of pitching destinations first and then pitching the product. Suppose that you are a hotel in Santa Fe. Travellers may not travel to you for your great dinner menu if they are not aware of all the great things to do in the city in the first place. A great strategy would include gradually educating your followers of the seasonal opportunities available in Santa Fe and tie those in to a fantastic stay at your hotel or resort. In other words, knowing why you vacation in a destination is a first step to enticing followers with your services.

3. Make a lasting impression

That leads to a second point: destination outreach. Like it or not, every destination is in competition with one another. Should we take that local road trip to Nashville that we have always wanted to do or fly to Vienna for that dream vacation in Europe? Apart from cost, what springs to the top of a person’s mind is also a motivating factor in terms of consumer spend. The better we are at making a long-lasting impression of our destination on social outreach channels, the more likely the businesses within our area will benefit from our engagement. Sites like Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, Facebook and Twitter offer outstanding means to highlight the richness of a destination to entice interest in local business. How are you supporting your local convention and visitor bureau to support social outreach for your community and business interests?

4. Go a step further - involve people

Bringing it all together - product and destination outreach all boil down to authenticity - so what makes your product real and attainable? In the social sphere, that normally revolves around people. People that have experienced what you have to offer and can vouch for you. Our outreach needs spokespeople for the product you are trying to sell. It’s an extra step and sometimes a challenge, but it’s a sure recipe to humanize what we are selling. If you’re pitching a dinner menu, take a video of people enjoying a meal as opposed to a generic message with a price tag. If you’re trying to push a museum package, take pictures of people enjoying the museum as opposed to a mundane ad with a price and validity date.

5. Make it compelling

Remember this: Your followers are inundated by choices and your story needs to be the most compelling story in their world. If not, you will be passed over to the highest bidder. In this case, it will be the brand with the richest experience, fostered by social media.

We have reached a new era of social outreach. This is no longer a newbie profession. Understanding this will help your people capture the essence of their role as communication specialists in this fast evolving medium.

This guest column was penned exclusively for EyeforTravel.com by Edward Perry, Global Senior Director of Social Media, OTA Partnerships and Innovation Projects, Worldhotels.