With everything going on, your life (and your business) can seem like it’s going a mile a minute. The goal of this blog article is to slow everything down, even just a little bit. We’re thinking about defending the business that we have and potentially may not have looked to the future. But marketing, and in this case social media marketing, has a place in your business now. Once things slow down and you have some time, try tackling a couple of these tips to not only do something with social media, but improve it. Without further ado, here are 5 social media tips when using Facebook.
Tip 1: Brighten up your posts with pictures and, if possible and applicable, videos.
Yes, this is probably a very well known fact about Facebook and social media posts in general, but it’s always good to be reminded of it. Even with posts that are just meant to inform (your agency’s cancellation policy, your efforts in supporting travelers in COVID-19, etc.) could use a pick-me-up with a picture. According to Kissmetrics, photos get 53% more likes, 104% more comments, and 84% more click-throughs on links than text-based posts. An easy thing to use to create photo content for these posts is with Canva. You don’t have to have graphic design chops to create beautiful and engaging photos.
Tip 2: Facebook groups are a great source of learning, networking, and community.
Because we’re all stuck at home during our quarantine, finding some connection to the travel industry is difficult. A good way to get in touch with people, even passively, is by joining several industry Facebook groups. You can go from just reading posts and gaining insight that way, to actively engaging by commenting on threads and posting your own thoughts and ideas. For instance, you can join our user started and operated Travefy Facebook Group, Travefy Pro Users. What’s better than learning from your peers?
Tip 3: Tackle some of the scarier things to learn, such as Facebook Ads, Analytics, and Insights.
If you have a business page, there are tools that Facebook provides to learn more about how you’re using it and if you’re using it well. For Ads, these won’t replace the posts that you’re regularly creating on your page. These are great to expand your market share, and are pretty affordable to get directly in front of people. With Analytics and Insights, even if you’re not “data-driven” in your decision making for your business, knowing the trends for your own business should help you make smarter decisions, show you what your audience actually looks like, and directs your time and focus in the future.
Tip 4: Incorporate other softwares into your Facebook post (hint hint Travefy).
We can’t speak for other softwares you might use, but Travefy provides you with multiple sources of potential content. From using itineraries to show clients samples of the trips you plan to using our Free Marketing Profile to share all the information your potential clients would need to know about you and your agency, using Travefy is an easy “integration” to your posts.
Tip 5: Have fun with your content!
There are four different goals of social media posts: Entertain, Educate, Inspire, and Inform. With COVID-19, traveling being prohibited, and trips being canceled, there’s a lot of bad news. So break through that noise and don’t just be a bearer of bad news in regards to the travel industry. People are still dreaming about traveling to new and exciting places, so be that inspiration for people to take the time (we all have it) to start planning their dream trips! Once things are back to normal in our world, you might be the one they turn to to make that dream and those plans into realities.
Bonus tip! Don’t just post and be done. Stay engaged with your customers.
This can be done even with a simple like or comment on your client’s posts. Invite them to share their stories or pictures, ask them questions, or conduct polls in Facebook Stories to keep your agency top of mind during this time (tons of people are increasing their social media usage so capitalize on that!). A good first step is to set aside some concrete time each day (say 30 to 60 minutes) and further divide up that time to be a certain percentage proactive (creating new posts, content, etc.) and a certain percentage reactive (answering questions, addressing commented concerns, etc.).
We hope these tips are useful as a reminder for you as you make the most of this time. We will all come out of the other end of this COVID-19 period better and stronger, and social media is a great thing to learn. If you have any questions, please let us know at professional@travefy.com.
Check out these links to learn more about various subjects addressed in the blog article: