RESULTS (as of July 2009):

• Twitter is currently one of the largest sources of traffic to LocalGetaways.com
• Secured thousands of qualified followers in less than 30 days
• Tracked Twitter clicks through to sales
• Realized more than 20K website clicks in 2 months
• Generated national traditional media story
• Tweets trickled out to other social media sites, generating additional website traffic

TACTICS:

• Identified, followed and engaged other San Francisco and Bay Area influencers
• Create a consistent flow of information about Bay Area events, deals and attractions whether or not they are on the LocalGetaways.com website
• Track conversations regarding San Francisco and Bay Area travel and participated when appropriate
• Reduce character length to accommodate retweets
• Created three LocalGetaways.com accounts, @getawayguru; @LocalGetaways and @bayareagetaways
• Utilize Ink Foundry’s Twitter accounts where appropriate, remaining authentic to those accounts content focus

WHY TWITTER IS SUCCESSFUL FOR LocalGetaways.com:
This case study is a great example of how by just participating in a very basic way, the micro blogging service can drive traffic back to the site and generate sales. Granted, Local Getaways is a content-driven website with a generous amount of content to create a wide range of tweets that appeal to a diverse demographic.  And travel is also a high value social media conversation tool. However, we are seeing similar results with our other clients.

Ink Foundry is preparing to launch a full scale multi-channel promotion for LocalGetaways.com that will include Twitter and we will compare against the baseline that has been established.

As we engage additional layers of social media participation for this client, we anticipate Twitter may lose some of its rank against other social media outlets. However, we believe that Twitter will sustain its importance as a vital communication launch pad for outbound messaging.

We will continue to share our social media marketing for small business results as they become available.

Additional Twitter Articles:
11 Top Tips To Build Your Twitter Following

Top Twitter Trends To Consider