Digital Marketing - Social Media
It is not without a little bit of hesitation I begin this section of our tactical array. Social media marketing can be daunting with so many platforms and with the rapidity with which the rules can change. Yet, there is little doubt a serious and determined travel marketer can generate very effective marketing programs on the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.
Rather than go through the set up and use of each of the platforms, we are going to instead speak in general terms about the relevancy of social media marketing to travel consultants, addressing the creation of a solid marketing persona and the rhythms of a successful social media marketing campaign. To the extend we are going to focus on any one platform, we will use Facebook as our model. |
“Is marketing on Facebook or any other social media platform really necessary to my travel practice?”
The answer is a resounding “No!” There are many different ways for anyone to market their travel practice and Facebook is only one possible vehicle. But there is a really good reason for marketing on Facebook every travel consultant should consider. Facebook is where the people are.
Think of the other venues where you might market. Chances are pretty good you cannot afford to advertise in your community news paper everyday, and most travel consultants will find themselves using a PR tactics such as a press release, an event or a speaking opportunity only a few times a year. I would never diminish local physical marketing venues in the least as I think them perhaps more important than digital. However, it is highly likely you can afford to market on Facebook every day of the year.
I am not arguing for a constant steam of self-promotion or a barrage of travel specials to your Fan base. What I am suggesting is the value of touching clients as often as possible. By remaining engaged with your friends, family and acquaintances, you remain highly visible to them. You must be subtle in your marketing, you must depend on the osmotic impact of “being there.” But do it correctly, and the next time your clients think of travel, their next thought will be of you.
Marketing is all about that very thing.
Facebook, and other social media, expands your opportunities to build loyalty and deepen your existing relationships. Sharing your interests with others places you solidly on common ground with your Friends and Fans. When they Share your Posts or Like your Page, they signal their approval to others who may not yet know you. You have a built-in testimonial for your travel practice.
Facebook as a media may be new, but marketing in this manner is not. Facebook enhances in a new setting traditional word of mouth, advertising and public relations. In so doing you can greatly widen your sphere of influence and increase traffic to your website and, eventually the sale of your services to travelers.
I am convinced the greatest sin most travel professionals commit on Facebook is a failure to socialize authentically. Be yourself, but keep in mind the reason your clients and potential clients go to Facebook is to learn more about you, others and themselves, to socialize. Give them what they want.
Socialize. One day, every one of your Friends and Fans will go on vacation.
When they do, give them a reason to think about you.
It’s all about engagement
The answer is a resounding “No!” There are many different ways for anyone to market their travel practice and Facebook is only one possible vehicle. But there is a really good reason for marketing on Facebook every travel consultant should consider. Facebook is where the people are.
Think of the other venues where you might market. Chances are pretty good you cannot afford to advertise in your community news paper everyday, and most travel consultants will find themselves using a PR tactics such as a press release, an event or a speaking opportunity only a few times a year. I would never diminish local physical marketing venues in the least as I think them perhaps more important than digital. However, it is highly likely you can afford to market on Facebook every day of the year.
I am not arguing for a constant steam of self-promotion or a barrage of travel specials to your Fan base. What I am suggesting is the value of touching clients as often as possible. By remaining engaged with your friends, family and acquaintances, you remain highly visible to them. You must be subtle in your marketing, you must depend on the osmotic impact of “being there.” But do it correctly, and the next time your clients think of travel, their next thought will be of you.
Marketing is all about that very thing.
Facebook, and other social media, expands your opportunities to build loyalty and deepen your existing relationships. Sharing your interests with others places you solidly on common ground with your Friends and Fans. When they Share your Posts or Like your Page, they signal their approval to others who may not yet know you. You have a built-in testimonial for your travel practice.
Facebook as a media may be new, but marketing in this manner is not. Facebook enhances in a new setting traditional word of mouth, advertising and public relations. In so doing you can greatly widen your sphere of influence and increase traffic to your website and, eventually the sale of your services to travelers.
I am convinced the greatest sin most travel professionals commit on Facebook is a failure to socialize authentically. Be yourself, but keep in mind the reason your clients and potential clients go to Facebook is to learn more about you, others and themselves, to socialize. Give them what they want.
Socialize. One day, every one of your Friends and Fans will go on vacation.
When they do, give them a reason to think about you.
It’s all about engagement
Marketing on Facebook can be a tricky endeavor. Your followers are not there to enable your business and overt advertising often fails badly. What is very clear is the need for your brand building efforts to be completely and comfortably ensconced in great content that is both educational and entertaining, with an emphasis on entertainment. The content you choose for your Posts has to be relevant and it has to possess a high interest factor. You have to hit your followers where they live with articles that keep them involved with your posts and eager to see the next.
How do you know what interest your followers? Ask them! Open-ended questions are a great technique for engaging clients. Look where an open question might get you. An open question on the Travelhoppers page received the following feedback on the left. If the goal is to get engagement from followers, this post seems to have done so. Look at the truly wonderful information the Comment feedback provides. I know with a fairly high degree of certainty articles on Hawaii, Fiji, passenger rail and European travel will be welcomed. If I knew my followers well enough, as many of you will, I could even use the information above to market directly to individuals over a period of time. Appeal to topics in niche markets that will draw upon interest in activities other than travel. For example, many of your readers will no doubt be fond of cooking, fine dining and wines. Mixing those interests with travel will almost certainly draw engagement from your followers: |
Note the tenor of these posts: I am talking about travel, I'm creating community. I am drawing on topics I know have a high interest factor and I am giving my followers the opportunity to talk about themselves. Isn't this exactly like the same dynamic that occurs anytime people get together and talk in a casual setting? There is nothing dynamically different about social media than any other SOCIAL gathering.
Note that I am not trying to SELL anything overtly. This is social media marketing, not social media sales! I am conditioning the sales environment: I am selling myself. I am creating community. The next time one of my followers thinks of travel, they will think of me!
Find Topics of Interest!
If possible, draw in articles and topics encompassing a high number of potential “hits” on a variety of interests. For example, the following article might appeal to animal lovers, environmentalists, and people who have an African safari on their bucket list:
Note that I am not trying to SELL anything overtly. This is social media marketing, not social media sales! I am conditioning the sales environment: I am selling myself. I am creating community. The next time one of my followers thinks of travel, they will think of me!
Find Topics of Interest!
If possible, draw in articles and topics encompassing a high number of potential “hits” on a variety of interests. For example, the following article might appeal to animal lovers, environmentalists, and people who have an African safari on their bucket list:
Write a short introduction to each article that highlights some of the most important information, again promoting your business without overtly marketing your travel practice. Educating clients with articles that can make them better consumers will always be appreciated. Each day, the papers and internet delivers up travel content that is often educational, unusual and even amusing. Don’t hesitate to put information in front of your clients that draw attention to the many strange events that sometimes occur in travel.
Combining a great graphics with a quotation about travel is an almost certain way to generate engagement. Look at the following taken from the Travelhoppers page:
Your Social Media Marketing Plan
Far too many travel professionals treat their social media marketing with a very casual attitude. A strong effort, however, requires a plan, and you already know my preference for written plans! Posting on a regular basis, using posts designed to engage, entertain and inform is a winning formula. Like all other aspects of your business, social media marketing needs to be worked methodically. The concept of engagement comes both from you and your followers: if you don't actively engage, neither will they. I know agents who even have editorial calendars to enforce a discipline on their social media marketing efforts. Not a bad idea!
Paying to Play: Boosting Your Posts
In the earliest days of social media marketing, most outreach to followers of a business page happened organically. If you posted a photograph of overwater bungalows in Fiji, your followers would see it. Not so any longer! Now the algorithms of Facebook suppress organic views of business page posts and you must "boost" your posts to be seen. Fortunately, however, you can still get by in most local market with very modest expenditures and it is possible to narrow your audience right down to your hometown.
Look, for example, at this post where we spent $20 to boost the effort:
At Travelhoppers, we are often going for a national market, so a $20 expenditure was a worthwhile investment. However, you should experiment with a $2 - $5 investment at first until you become comfortable with the dynamics and your ability to choose posts with a high engagement factor.
Note: remember not to boost posts originating on other sites, like articles from USA Today. It doesn't help you to pay to send traffic to other sites! Only boost posts that call attention to either your page or your website, driving traffic to where you want it to land. In terms of narrowing your market demographic, the graphic on the right side of this page demonstrates the type of focused targeting you can accomplish. In this way you can bring all of your marketing efforts to bear in your local market and influence your followers from a number of different angles locally. This is ideal from the perspective of "campaign marketing" which we earlier discussed. Ideally, your clients will get to know you through your social media efforts, will read articles about you in the local newspaper, attend events you sponsor and talks you give. Social media provides you with an excellent tool for conditioning your market, but I want to again caution against doing so without a written plan. Too often we find ourselves browsing instead of working and then wondering where the day has gone! Discipline your use of social media to the ranks of a marketing tool, not a form of entertainment! |
Facebook provides your travel practice with a variety of advertising vehicles for promoting your page. Like all advertising, one of the key objectives, and difficulties, is converting your advertising dollars into a measurable return. I have experimented with a number of different Facebook advertising vehicles with great success in terms of generating Likes and Engagement. I am less confident of the success in our monetization of those metrics into actual revenue, however. Nevertheless, I am impressed the the ability on Facebook to target and reach a demographic of people. I suggest some small investments by those of you willing to experiment and would love to hear any feedback on your own experiences.
Firstly, don't feel you must jump right into paid advertising. While you can limit your daily spend and exposure, it is still very important to have a plan laid out and a method of testing and measuring your results. Read as much of Facebook's own materials on paid advertising as well as excellent resources such as http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com.
Also be sure to explore https://www.facebook.com/business/ which is a very complete guide to using Facebooks' power to place your advertising in from our your selected audience.
Finally, Facebook's Blueprint series has many excellent tutorials for your use: https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/lessons/how-business-owners-can-use-facebook
Firstly, don't feel you must jump right into paid advertising. While you can limit your daily spend and exposure, it is still very important to have a plan laid out and a method of testing and measuring your results. Read as much of Facebook's own materials on paid advertising as well as excellent resources such as http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com.
Also be sure to explore https://www.facebook.com/business/ which is a very complete guide to using Facebooks' power to place your advertising in from our your selected audience.
Finally, Facebook's Blueprint series has many excellent tutorials for your use: https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/lessons/how-business-owners-can-use-facebook