Scotland Hour: How To Get Involved

Scotland Hour is a monthly Twitter travel and tourism chat which takes place on the last Wednesday of every month, from 9-10pm GMT.

#scotlandhour celebrates tourism and travel within Scotland and encourages tweeters to share their experiences. It’s a useful travel tool and a way for Scottish tourism businesses to chat, network and share information. Use the hashtag #scotlandhour in your tweets to take part, and check out the 2013 calendar of monthly themes.

Here are some ideas for how you can get involved and get the most out of Scotland Hour:

Prepare for each monthly SH chat in advance

Think about what your venue, hotel, destination, attraction etc can offer the visitor or the customer in relation to the monthly theme. What do you want to tell people about? Collect links to web content or features, and keep them in a document. Identify photos or video you want to show and have them ready to tweet or include in your scheduled tweets. Good content is usually always shared – and goes a lot further.

If you are short of time, schedule some tweets in advance via Hootsuite or Tweetdeck or a similar platform

This means that during the actual hour when SH is happening, you will have more time to read others’ tweets, Retweet and favourite content which is of interest to you.

Respond to relevant tweets during Scotland Hour if you can but check #scotlandhour tweets after the event

If you find tweeters interested in your area/attraction/activity/hotel, respond to them on Twitter – can you help them with their travel plans? Are they interested in booking with you/visiting? Is there a business that you could partner with in the local area or which could complement what you are doing?

Create your own blog posts related to #scotlandhour themes

Use themed blogs as a resource each month to create a ‘buzz’ leading up to and after the Scotland Hour themed chat on Twitter.

List the SH monthly themed chats as specific events on your websites and online spaces

Signpost the chats online so that more people can find out about them.

Run a #scotlandhour related Twitter competition in your visitor attraction, hotel or venue, encouraging use of the hashtag

Get your visitors to create content such as photos or videos and offer a prize for the best themed #scotlandhour tweets.

Offer useful information about your business and local area during #scotlandhour to help with recommendations for potential visitors

Places to eat, things to do, tips, suggestions. Whether visitors are coming for shopping, a festival, a wedding, snow-boarding, or a hen weekend, they all need a place to stay and food and drink to sustain them. How can you or your business add value to the visitor experience?

Communicate what #scotlandhour is to your visitors before they arrive, remind them of it in your follow-up  communication

Include information on Scotland Hour to visitors in e-shots and online communications. Create a Scotland Hour ‘spot’ on your website or blog to let visitors know how they can take part and what they can find there.

Make more contacts during Scotland Hour chats – talk to other tweeters, ask questions, share your knowledge and tips

Be generous and be social – you’ll get more back if you take a pro-active approach and share.

Summing up….

• If you’re a traveller and visitor, you can use #scotlandhour as an information tool and share it with others.
• If you’re part of the tourism industry, think about how you can add value to the #scotlandhour resource and take advantage of the networking opportunities. What stories do you have to tell and how are you going to use #scotlandhour to get them out there?
• If you’re a blogger, you can help spread the #scotlandhour word by sharing and blogging about relevant SH content within your own travel content themes.

For any enquiries regarding Scotland Hour please tweet the team:

@bairdtravels @lesleyjudge @aileenlamb @2edinburgh @HIEHamilton @fionadrane or get in touch: info@smart-tourism.co.uk

© Lesley Judge, Smart Tourism 2012.