Online insurance company Kanetix is enlisting two well-known travel bloggers for a new monthly chat on Twitter.
Starting Nov. 19, an hour-long monthly discussion (#TravelShare) will feature Cam and Nicole Wears from TravelingCanucks.com. The globetrotting Vancouver couple will chat about popular destinations and answer questions from participants.
While the idea of #TravelShare is to raise awareness about the importance of buying travel insurance, the bloggers won’t actually be talking about travel insurance.
“It won’t be directly saying, ‘Hey come to Kanetix and shop for travel insurance,” said Natasha Carr, public relations associate at Kanetix. “We’re very conscious not to use our social media platforms for that.”
Carr said the hope is that people will research Kanetix after the chat or follow the website link on their Twitter page to see what the company is all about. “Hopefully by doing that, they’ll find out that we do sell and provide a quotation service for travel insurance.”
In the first chat, the bloggers will discuss Costa Rica, including hot spots, where to eat and the country’s cultural traditions. However, participants can ask the bloggers any questions about travel.
“We wanted to get consumers engaged and connect them to the experts who have the answers,” said Carr. “A lot of times when consumers are searching online looking for a travel destination, they still want to have the personal connection of talking to someone.”
This is the company’s second foray into Twitter chats. Earlier this year, Kanetix launched a mortgage chat series. But Carr said the company decided Twitter “was not the best platform to discuss such a complex financial topic… We feel our travel chat will be a better fit for us as the content will be light-hearted and consumers love talking about their travel experiences.”
The travel chats will take place on the third Thursday of every month and run indefinitely. As an incentive, participants will be entered into a random draw for a $100 Air Canada gift card.
