Successful social media marketing for a travel business can be a huge opportunity to grow your leads. This is due to the appeal of sharing beautiful destination photos, captivating your audience with fun travel videos, and so much more. In this article, we will share:
- How to get started with social media.
- Building a social media strategy.
- Ideas to get you rocking and rolling to new client leads!
Is social media right for my travel business?
The answer to the question is yes, of course! However, it’s important to recognize that social media isn’t going to be everyone’s bread and butter for creating new leads. That’s why it’s important to be honest with yourself on where you want to put your marketing efforts and grow.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t use social media. You absolutely should because it helps get your business discovered. But don’t stress – you don’t have to use all platforms and try to excel at everything they have to offer.
A great first step is to create a profile for the main social media networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and any others that feel important and relevant to your target audience. The reason why you will want to create profiles in all of these channels to make sure your branding is visible and you can claim your username/profile name.
Pro Tip: Fill out your entire social media profile and be sure that your logo and photos appear correctly. Always make sure you have contact information listed so a new lead knows how to reach you.
The next step is to better understand each platform’s demographics and what type of content you are wanting to share and create. If images and videos are more your thing, you might want to focus on Instagram and YouTube. But if you are more interested in writing blogs on your website or sharing travel inspiration articles from other sources, maybe Facebook and Twitter are the best channels for you.
A great place to start is to research each platform and search for inspiration. See what other travel agents are doing and understand who the audience is on these platforms and make sure they match with your ideal client.
Building a Social Media Strategy
Once you have taken consideration into which social media channels you would like to focus on, begin planning how you will market to these channels. What type of content are you planning to share? Start to jot down different topics or themes you would like to focus on (see ideas in the next section for inspiration to get started). As examples, here are some focus themes: Destination focused, travel tips, lifestyle, quotes, etc.
Next, decide a goal for how often you will post to each channel. Consider using a social media scheduling tool to be more mindful with planning instead of trying to come up with something last minute as well.
Below is an example of a simple social media schedule:
Sunday: Quote or Saying (Instagram) Monday: Tuesday: #TravelTuesday Destination Highlight (Instagram) Wednesday: Thursday: Travel Tip (Facebook) Friday: Behind the Scenes/Personal (Facebook & Instagram) Saturday:
This is just an illustration but it gives you an idea of how you can lay out what you will focus on where and when. It’s also important to note that you don’t have to post 4+ times a week. If you just want to work on 2 posts a week, that’s okay too!
Once you do begin posting content, be sure to check on your data and total reach for each post so that you can learn to adjust accordingly. As an example, maybe Sunday isn’t a popular day to get views, so you move posts from Sunday to Monday. Always pay attention to what’s working and what’s not so you can define what works best for you.
Social Media Content Ideas
So you have your social media channel(s) ready to go, now what? Here’s the fun part of creating content that your audience and potential new leads will enjoy. Below you will find 10 different ideas to get inspiration flowing for new content to share:
1. Introduce Yourself
Consider sharing a post every so often about yourself. This gives you the opportunity to welcome new followers and audience. Share information about who you are and fun facts like your all-time favorite trip or travel destinations.
2. Share a Food or Drink Recipe
Why not share one of your favorite recipes with the audience? You can create a video or share an image with a description. If it’s from a certain destination, tell your followers about it. It’s all about inspiring future travel!
3. Highlight a Destination or Experience
After all, travel is your speciality so be sure to share travel ideas to your audience. Create a weekly segment of #TravelTuesday and highlight a different place each week. Share the top things to do and see there and what makes it so special.
4. Travel Tips and Hacks
Have a unique packing trick that you swear by? Share that! This can also be special tips for visiting a destination like a hidden speakeasy in NYC or something similar that would make people want to save that post for later viewing.
5. Host a Q&A
This could be live with audience involvement or you can put out a post asking for people’s travel questions. You can begin answering those in one or multiple posts. This can also be a great way to get new content and see what your followers are most interested in.
6. Inspiring Quotes
Share an inspiring quote or saying. You can even find a beautiful picture and add text to it and voila, you have an inspiring post!
7. Share “Behind the Scenes”
Are you working from a coffee shop planning your client’s next trip? Snap a photo and share it with the world! It’s always fun for your clients to get a glimpse into what you’re doing behind the scenes making their travel dreams come true!
8. Get Personal
Don’t be afraid to share insight into your life beyond your travel business. Maybe you just got married or you’re on a weekend getaway with your best friends. Don’t be afraid to live your brand and share your life with your clients and followers.
9. Ask for Engagement
Ask your followers a question and get a conversation going in the comment section! A great question is as simple as “Where is your next travel destination?” or “What is your favorite travel memory?”. Don’t forget to reply back to comments, engage and even share your own answer!
10. Host a Contest
Create a fun content with your audience! You can have a simple trivia question or ask for others to participate in the post. The winner could get a special gift or maybe you offer a waived fee or discount on their next booking.