Allianz Global Assistance USA Turns to Twitter Chats
by Cheryl Rosen
Destinations, hoteliers, and travel insurance companies are using Twitter Chats “to build community, enhance brand awareness, and engage with opinion leaders in the travel industry,” says Allianz Global Assistance USA spokesperson Sarah Fouts. And so the travel insurance company has been giving the technology a try.
A “Tweetup” or “Twitter Chat” is typically a scheduled online Q&A session. By searching for the chat’s hashtag, anyone with a Twitter account can see and participate in a discussion about a specific travel topic at a pre-determined time.
On #TravelSkills, for example, travel bloggers Johnny Jet and Chris McGinnis have been chatting with 27,000 travelers and travel media for a year. “Twitter has been an amazing tool for us to share our knowledge and also to get our sponsor’s message broadcast in front of a large travel-oriented audience,” Jet said.
Allianz has been running #TravelHappy twitter chats on the @AllianzTravelUS Twitter page for 12 months; conversation topics have included travel hacks and tips; family, business, and professional trips; study abroad topics; and dream vacations. The most successful chat, on the subject of business travel, generated 15 million hashtag impressions, with about 60 million cumulative hashtag impressions for 2015.
“We wanted to engage with travelers in a fun and useful way, on a platform that has been underutilized by insurance companies,” Fouts said.
Future chats will include culinary travel, travel apps and tech, road trips, and long weekends.
