What is this?

I was told that I had to check out Twitter by a relative of a friend, so I checked it out. I decided to create a profile name and Tomtravel was taken so I became by accident @Tomtravel2. At first I was baffled by the whole thing, as I was only following a few people who were not tweeting much. Then I listened to a podcast by Laura Fitton @Pistacio on the marvels of Twitter. Much of what she said focused on the utility for business networking and made a lot of sense, so I followed her.

Now I had something! Adding a prolific tweeter livened things up a bit. I began to look at who she was following and followed them. Things got even more interesting, but still being confused I sought clarity and guidance. I followed some of the people on the Twitter Elite list at Twitter Grader. Through the tweets of these “elites” I followed links to some much needed guidance and advice on Twitter usage, strategy and ethics.

Building a Community

While I was in the early stages of my Twevolution I was teaching myself about web site design, search engine optimization (SEO), and search engine marketing (SEM). I searched for some likely sources of information in these areas and followed some great tweeters. I live in the Valley of the Sun, or greater Phoenix metropolitan area, where  Phoenix meets Scottsdale so I searched for the Twitter Elite in those two cities and followed them as well. Ditto for Arizona.

I am a travel professional and began to seek people who work or in my field. I also looked for people who expressed an interest in travel. I searched for cruise lines, hotels, resorts, and other travel agents. This activity has made up the bulk of both my following and follower lists. I also followed anyone recommended by or mentioned by the travel tweeters in my network. Within two months I was in the thousands.

Play Nice

One of the most important things I have learned from wiser tweeters is to play nice with others. Stated in many ways by different people that is how I boil it down. My philosophy or “Twilosophy” is to first and foremost use good ethics or “Twethics” at all times. From the beginning I have thanked those who retweet or #followfriday me. I try to return those favors as well. If a tweet amuses, interests, informs, or enlightens me I retweet it no matter who the tweeter is. If it’s cool to me someone who follows me might just like it as well. @tomtravel2 replies are acknowledged and responded to as soon as I can get to them.

Another part of playing nice in my opinion is adding something of value in my tweets. I am a hungry reader of travel news so I post a link most days to the articles I found most of interest. I try to give #followfriday props to tweople who seem to reflect the play nice twilosophy as well. I also try to help new tweeters with a tip or two from time to time. Lastly, I try to add a bit of spice to the Twuniverse by adding a dash of humor in my tweets.

It Works for Me

Since I am not out to gather a huge quantity of followers or make a quick buck with my Twitter activity, what I have done so far works for me. In a few months I have grown a following that has quality and meets my narrow goals. I have met some great people often in random ways. My community is focused on my primary interests with a few exceptions. Twitter has given me an easy and fun way to network with a variety of interesting people in travel and the internet.

I welcome you comments!

I have been outlining and brainstorming this site for the past month, with plans to have it ready for launch later this summer. Life has a way of changing my plans. I had an opportunity to go on a “last minute” FAM to the Riviera Maya, which is the stretch of coast south of the Cancun hotel strip down to the fabled ruins at Tulum.

H1N1 Swineflu Blues

As anyone who follows me on Twitter knows, I was on my way to Mexico when the news broke on “H1N1″ or the “swine flu” (boy did that piss off the pork producers). I am a news junkie, particularly news on travel, so of course I did my due diligence. My trip was planned for the remote desert coast of Sonora far from the capitol so I went and had a great time. No H1N1 to be found where I went.

The main impact of the flu scare in my opinion has been that it scared people. This has prompted waves of cancellation of trips to areas of Mexico that have had no cases or few cases of H1N1. The Cancun area is down to around 30% occupancy from the normal 80% for this time of year. The good people at AMResorts decided to fill some of those empty rooms with travel agents to attempt to turn the tide on the flu scare. I jumped at the chance to head down and get to know some of their Riviera Maya resorts.

Zoetry, Secrets and Dreams Resorts

I have stayed at several Secrets Resorts, and we book Secrets, Dreams, and Zoetry often for our clients. These are among the most luxurious all inclusive resorts there are. There are four new resorts in this area since I last visited and it is a great chance to see for myself what they have to offer my clients. So my H1N1 cloud now has silver lining. Yes, some of our clients canceled travel plans due to flu fears, but Now I have a chance to help you get to know some cool resorts!

I will be live blogging on my trip (have laptop will travel) here and in my tweets on Twitter. I plane to eventually share oodles of great pictures with you. If I can figure the technology out I will share some short videos as well. Today I leave for L.A. and Monday I will arrive in Cancun for my first night of two at Secrets Maroma Beach. My last night will be spent at Zoetry Paraiso de la Bonita which will be a great way to end my trip.

Que le vaya bien!

I knew this would be a busy trip, but I did not wrap my mind around just how busy it would be. I imagined I could fit in photo uploading, blogging and tweeting easily. I imagined wrong! Each day on this trip is a full day of visiting, inspecting, and learning about resorts. It is a great opportunity to see for myself what each property has to offer my clients. It is an even better chance to meet the management of each resort.

Blog Curve

I learned even more about what I do not yet know about WordPress set up and organization. I can assure you that what you see now is a work in progress. I had fully intended to set up something that looked more like my other web site but it is going to take some time to get there. On this trip, there simply isn’t more time. So here I am taking a test drive of the blogosphere with my learner’s permit. The blog driver’s license and more photos of the trip will be coming when I get home and have some time to get the kinks out.

Our host for this trip is Secrets Maroma Beach Resort. You can follow Secrets on Twitter at @SecretsResorts. We arrived in the late afternoon and had a nice introductory meeting with the sales staff and our host from AMResorts. We flew from LAX on Alaska Airlines. I really enjoyed the flight which was only about half full. We had plenty of room to spread out.

We actually do our “site inspection” this morning at 9:00 so there should be more to come. My first impressions are very positive. It is a lovely property, and as you will see from my pictures, the rooms are well appointed and expansive.

More to come…

If you’ve been tweeting for a while, you have seen DMs, profiles and posts kindly offering to share “The Twitter Trick” or some such nonsense. After following one such link to a dead-end page with a video and a form for my email etc, I lost all interest in a few seconds. I am not a big fan of anything “auto” on Twitter. If I DM you, @ you, or tweet anything  you can be assured that I am doing it manually.

Everything I have done on Twitter is personal. I have sought out people with common interests and common geography to follow. I have chosen not to follow people who are out for a quick buck or a quick bazzillion followers. I have responded to people who @ me, retweet me, and #followfriday me. I have tried to put my personal touch on my tweets even when I am posting the travel news.

Slowly at first, but with growing momentum of late, I have built a good size following. The most important part to me is that I am now connecting with people I want to connect with. Many share a common field of work in the travel business. Many are people who love to travel and looking  for news and insight. Some are in website design, SEO and SEM which are my means to the end of connecting with travelers. Some are Twitter experts who I learn from daily. Some live like I do in the AZ particularly the Valley of the Sun or Phoenix metropolitan area.

“My Twitter Trick”

All in all, “My Twitter Trick” has worked for me. Since I am not out to get as many followers as I can, but rather out to build a quality community I want to interact with, I call it a success! I will lay out the particulars of what I think the Real Twitter Trick is:

Interact, respond, entertain, inform, inspire, and play nice.

Interact

If you are not on Twitter to interact, go home. Twitter is not a broadcast medium, I repeat, Twitter is not a broadcast medium. If you treat it as such you are doing more harm than good to your image, your brand, and your reputation.

Respond

If you are asked a question, answer it. If you receive a comment, reply. Join in the conversation. Better yet, spark up a conversation of your own. Find people with common interest and shoot them a question or comment. Then be ready to respond again. Search your @ replies daily and let people know you see their tweets. Thank those who #followfriday you. Give out #followfriday shout outs of your own, and include people with whom you have interacted.

Entertain

Throw me a bone! Make me smile, make me laugh, make me groan, or make me spray coffee out my nose and I will follow you to the ends of the tweet stream. If something strikes you as amusing I might like it too. Tweet it out there! Many of my most retweeted tweets have had a good dose of humor in them.

Inform

Tell me something I don’t know. I learn something new every day. Now that I am on Twitter, I learn dozens of new things every day. I look for articles or blogs that have something unique in them to link. The “same old, same old”, is not going to get as good a response as the “no kidding” or the “I didn’t know that.”

Play Nice

If someone does something nice for me such as retweeting or giving my tweet a thumbs up, I try to find a way to do something nice for them. I also try to generate random acts of niceness whenever I am tweeting. If I see something I think is of value chances are someone else will gain value if I retweet it. I will do this for any tweet even if I don’t know the tweeter. If I see some one playing nice I will thank them for it.

If you have the urge to play badly restrain yourself. Twitter is a dangerous place to engage in a flame war. Insulting people will get you nowhere fast as many have learned to their dismay.

I hope you like “My Twitter Trick.” Take for a spin and see how it drives for you. I’ll be tweeting you!

Tomtravel2.com

Welcome to Tomtravel2.com! I am as excited about this new venture as I am about travel! On this blog you will find a unique perspective on travel. As a Virtuoso luxury travel agent I will strive to bring insights, observations, news and opinions that will add value to travelers and travel professionals alike. Virtuoso is the first name in luxury travel, and it has been a wonderful experience being a Virtuoso travel agent. This blog has been in the dreaming and planning phase for some time, but an opportunity to “live blog” from the beautiful Riviera Maya south of Cancun has come my way. Because of my upcoming trip I decided to take the plunge and start blogging sooner rather than later.

Travel News

I love to follow the latest news that pertains to all things travel. Those who follow me on Twitter know that I also love to share that news with you. Look for links to articles and blogs on luxury travel, foreign travel, soft adventure travel,travel vendors, trends in travel, and the business of travel. I will also share the quirky, unusual, and odd as I find it.

Twitter and Travel

Many of you will find this blog by way of my “tweets” on Twitter where I am @Tomtravel2. I encourage all lovers of travel, and travel pros to follow me there. Shoot me a DM or reply, and I will be happy to respond. I will over time devote a good deal of my time blogging about Twitter and other social media. I plan to provide some of the resources that I found helpful as I climbed the Twitter learning curve. This exciting new medium is a wonderful way to connect to people with common interests. Future blogs will cover my “Twilosophy” and “Twethics.”

Luxury Travel

I plan to introduce my readers to the best experiences and vendors in luxury travel. This coming week I have the opportunity to visit a number of luxury all inclusive resorts on the Riviera Maya in Mexico (Zoetry, Secrets, and Dreams). Look for detailed reviews with a luxury travel agent’s perspective. I will taking pictures and linking to them from this site. Over time I will include details from all my future travels and some from the recent past.

Travel Business

As a former stock and bond market trader and analyst I have an innate curiosity about how the travel business works. Look for my observations on the business of booking travel, and what it means for the consumer and the industry. I always have an eye on the horizon so I will blog about where I think travel is headed.

Comments Welcome

I look forward to your comments and feedback, and I thank you for visiting my blog.