The social media savvy way to travel, connect, and save in San Francisco!

I wanted to get as much leisure and sight seeing in as possible on my recent work related trip to San Francisco, CA. Once my hotel was booked, I took to the web and Tweets to plan and navigate my way around the city's famous attractions.

First, I started with the hotel's website for a list of all the complementary perks (there were quite a few! My favs: complementary bicycles, daily complimentary happy hours, and a companion goldfish for my stay). I connected Hotel Palomar SF on Twitter.  They were very welcoming and social, tweeting with me during my stay.

I also checked out a travel blogger's review via a RT find from Kimpton San Francisco's Twitter account. This gave me a real perspective of what the hotel is like as well as a few tips that were handy in my stay.

From websites to Facebook to Tweets: Hotel Palomar's website has a great list of local attractions with distance from hotel and links to the destination's websites (extremely helpful!). 

I also planned where I would go by visiting the SanFranciscoTravel.com website and connecting on Facebook and Twitter to some of the local attractions. While on the websites of the attractions, I downloaded coupons and signed up for San Francisco savings email newsletters. You never know when there may be a deal the week you're in town!

I also searched the city's hashtag, #SF on Twitter to see what restaurants or attractions were also Tweeting. I connected to all the Twitter accounts of the destinations I wanted to see:  Golden Gate Bridge, SF Chinatown, Pier39, Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz Island, and more. Being the "Type A" organizer that I am,  I also created a stream in HootSuite to make searching and viewing SF tweets easier from my HootSuite iPhone app.

Taking it Mobile - I made a "cheat sheet" travel list on my iPhone with notes of addresses, phone numbers, Twitter handles, hashtags and other personal notes so that it will always be handy from wherever I am. Then, I searched "San Francisco" iPhone apps and downloaded ones that might be handy during my stay:  Pier39, weather, happy hour, yelp, and other specific to the city apps.

I found Google+Local to be most helpful because it searches places nearby and provides navigation to get you there. This came in handy when I got lost a few times.

Not Just Social Media - social networking IRL (in real life) is the most important! I reached out to the leadership of Social Media Club San Francisco (also leaders of the global Social Media Club community) to meet up. 

Kristie Wells and Golden Ashby ended up being great tour guides, showing me the city's best views, while chatting about social media club and social marketing. If you are planning a trip to San Francisco, or any city for that matter, I hope you can use some of my social media travel tips to socially enhance your experience. 

P.S. You can connect with other social media club members across the globe by visiting www.socialmediaclub.org. Happy Travel Tweets & Adventures!
Remember be a good social citizen: take & share your pics on Instagram and check in and share tips on FourSquare and Yelp.