Social media can be an effective tool for promoting things like vacation deals and special offers, and using it correctly will help travel companies to reach their intended customers and make more sales. However, there are many companies doing the same thing so it may require a bit more innovation to get ahead.
Here are some ways that travel companies can leverage social media to their best advantage.
1. Photo tools
Making posts look attractive is one of the primary factors in generating scroll-stopping and appealing content. It doesn’t pay to generate posts that are intentionally fake or misleading, but it also doesn’t hurt to show scenery and images off to their best possible advantage. Before posting pictures of vacation destinations or hotels, try a few different filters, enhance unclear or dimly lit images, and sharpen up blurry photos. The tools included in most social platforms will help you to tweak and improve your images so that they look as clear and attractive as possible to entice users and followers.
2. Video content
Live video is a great tool, especially if your content circles around tourism and destinations. Video content is a fabulous way to provide insights into areas or destinations, or even provide live company updates about your business. Video content is on the increase with 80% of users actively consuming video posts and many prefer to access information in video format. Video posts can be generated live, or prepared and edited before sharing to social channels. Either way, these ‘mini-movies’ are a powerful and often preferred way of digesting information.
3. User-generated content
Travel companies should actively encourage and take full advantage of user-generated content to support their brand. Customers who have purchased from your business and who share videos or photos of their experience are an excellent way to promote your travel business. Peer-to-peer recommendations are much more likely to generate sales than company-generated posts, so encourage your customers to share and tag you on their social media shares.
4. Content sharing
Social accounts don’t just have to be about photos and videos, there are other forms of content that will expand reach and raise awareness. Things like interviews with industry experts, podcasts, or even blogs and articles can all be shared with social media accounts. These types of posts are helpful and informative and give users a solid reason to follow your accounts, reaching people who are seeking advice or information. A routine sharing of insightful and useful content can also help to establish your travel business as an expert or an authority within your chosen niche, or as the ‘go-to’ company for specific vacations or destinations.
5. Destination reviews
People are hungry for information and those who are seeking new or exotic travel destinations are no exception. This gives you the opportunity to generate posts or video content in a bulk posting or even a series of posts to provide in-depth and detailed information to your audiences. Cover things like destination information and the best beaches or restaurants. Things to do and places to see are also binge-worthy watching for users who are considering booking their next trip, and if your travel company specializes in a niche like skiing trips or cooking vacations, it is an opportunity to supply a wealth of granular information to your followers. Supplying extensive knowledge will also position you as an authority in your chosen area of travel, and inspires consumer trust.
6. Customer reviews
If you regularly receive emails or messages from your customers along the lines of ‘Our trip was AMAZING! Thanks for helping us book’ then make sure you share these on your social accounts. This is the perfect way to demonstrate your capability and professionalism as well as show the world that you have happy and satisfied customers. It provides an excellent validation for your services and gives your potential bookers security that they are dealing with an experienced and professional company.
7. Special deals
Everyone loves a bargain and travel deals are probably one of the most sought-after incentives. Use them to your full advantage by sharing any special offers, deals, or discounts that you have available. This could be things like a percentage off for early booking or extras thrown in for choosing a specific hotel or apartment. Whatever it is, make sharing these deals on your social platforms standard practice. If the deals are too frequent to keep up with, think about outsourcing your social media management to an external company that can manage your accounts for you. Having branded content provided by a professional company helps to keep your accounts updated with fresh content while you focus on more essential areas of the business.
8. Travel guides
Help your followers plan their trip to their chosen destination and guide them on things like the best time of year to book, the best hotel chain to stay at, or the best airlines and flights to choose. This helps your followers to get the most from their vacation by making the process easy and minimizing things like travel and transfer time so that they can get the most out of their stay. This kind of ‘value added’ content can go a long way to attracting and maintaining customers who want to make every minute of their trip count. The best part is that generating social media content of this nature is virtually unlimited and it can be shared on social channels, web pages, and other channels to increase visibility.
9. Live video
Showcasing content whether your own or generated by customers is a powerful tool especially when it is live and unedited. Video can be used to share the latest company updates and offers and make your users feel like they are really a part of your world. It builds trust and loyalty and can inspire user engagement in a way that static posts cannot. Live video posts can share news, travel tips, or even generate bios on staff and employees. They can help to build followers and drive better brand recognition. Sharing visually impactful and sumptuous content can create a desire to book that destination or visit that specific hotel, and you don’t even have to be there, Video allows you to share a virtual location or simply to create an opinion piece on why someone should visit places that you recommend.
10. Opinion polls
Keeping users engaged is much easier if they think that their opinions are valued or actually make a difference. Tools like interactive video polls which encourage followers to cast their votes can be a way to keep users on your channel, but more than that, they can actually help you to gain valuable customer feedback. Polls are an effective way to determine what your customers want and need and what resonates with them. This information may then be used to create future content that your audience wants to see. Ask questions, solicit opinions, and gain insights into your user’s preferences all in a fun and interactive way.
11. Best of features
Best cruise, best airline, best hotels, best beaches. Customers usually want to know what the best of everything is and vacations are no exception. With time away from work often being limited and the pressure to make family trips a success running high, knowing how to access the best things is valuable to vacationers. As a travel company, it can be helpful for customer satisfaction to present researched options to tourists, destinations that are showcased are more likely to encourage bookings and reservations so best-of features can be powerful posts to drive sales.
12. Social groups
Many companies overlook the opportunity to connect with followers in social media groups. Platforms like Facebook provide the capability of making private or public groups to swap tips and share information. Giving travelers a private forum for discussion where you can monitor and answer questions allows you to make real connections with potential customers and build loyalty among participants. It allows you to be immediately available to respond to concerns or facilitate bookings, earning you more bookings for your travel company.
Social media and the visual, interactive, and video tools can be extremely useful for gaining followers and advertising to a specific group or travel niche.
Contact Smarcomms today to learn how we can grow your social accounts for your travel company.
