Travel agencies are gone, social media is alive for long. Nobody is using travel agencies anymore to book journeys, right?
If you can book your own plane tickets, rental cars, and virtual Airbnb flats, why would you? Why would you ask you where to go when you go to Instagram and Pinterest?
But what if the team could be joined by travel agents? What if it was all on social media that it took too?
Okay, most travel agencies think that the way to go is to have a good social media presence. Whether it’s on Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, or all three.
For travel agents, good social media marketing is all it takes to get the show on the road. And that’s quick.
It’s the same as driving–asking someone to let you decide where to go and how to get there is all you need to do.
This is why this article is going to tell you:
- The 5 best travel agent social media marketing networks.
- How to execute the agency’s social media marketing strategy.?
- How to take advantage of social media learning and online listening?
The 5 Best Social Networks for Travel Agents Social Media Marketing
The first thing you want to do is to come up with a unique approach for social media marketing. In the start, here are some questions you should consider:
- How many social media networks are you running with time and money?
- Where is your target and what social media networks should you choose?
- How often do you prepare posts and need tools to assist you?
- How are all the platforms and websites of your social media integrated?
- How do you handle a social media marketing advertising strategy?
- What is the value of social media management and what tools do you want to use for it?
What are the best social media platforms for a travel agency?
A word of counsel. If you only have enough resources to run a social network in addition to running your company, go to Facebook. The social network will provide you with the most diverse opportunities for interaction, access to the largest audience, and compatibility with a lot of free marketing resources.
Here are the top 5 social media platforms that travel agencies need:
Marketing for travel agents on Facebook social media.
For travel agents, social media marketing must start with Facebook. Speak of your home base as Twitter. You want to secure fans, add pictures, promote content, handle customer service queries, connect your social accounts, advertise, and create events and competitions.
Marketing for travel agents via Instagram and Pinterest social media.
First, joining at least one photo-sharing page is safest. In an ideal world, as the two sites are fundamentally different, you should have a presence on both Instagram and Pinterest. But it is important to have an account on any image-based site as the travel industry is photogenic.
Plus, travelers have a unique connection to these places. A research by Schofields Insurance, for instance, showed that 40% of Millennials choose a holiday destination based on how Instagrammable it is. Millennials constitute the majority of customers on the market.
Expedia, one of the world’s top won travel agencies, has almost 50,000 Pinterest followers and 41 pages. Boards range from destinations such as Europe and Australia to travel subjects such as “honeymoons” and “foodie travel.” Pinterest is an ambition planning page, a good thing to consider. Users do not share pictures of their lives, unlike Instagram. Bookmarking images that show how they want their lives to be. Whether you want to wear, what you want to eat, and where you want to go. That’s why Pinterest is a big part of travel agents ‘ social media marketing.
Twitter Social Media Travel Agents Advertising
You have a few choices when it comes to Facebook. Facebook is an excellent platform to offer committed customer service and connect with your fans. If you are using Facebook or other customer service outlets, having personal Twitter accounts is still a good idea.
Use your Twitter account to keep up-to-date with industry news, keep up with travel trends, monitor influencers, and promote content. Using trending hashtags and add condensed links to your material to access conversations.
Orbitz has a lot of fans, as you can see, and cheeky copywriting. They also connect to their support and assist page in redirecting customer service requests back to their website.
If you’re starting out small, you don’t have to have a large corporate Twitter account like Orbitz. Alternatives involve creating a dedicated Twitter account customer service and creating a personal Twitter account and connecting back to your website or other pages on social media.
LinkedIn Social Media Marketing for Travel Agents
Ultimately, LinkedIn is a great way to become the industry’s leading thinker, run recruiting campaigns when you employ, and network with important people.
In fact, the site is designed for skilled staff. And there are vacation days for working people and business vacations. Not a bad place to post beautiful pictures and content showcasing how fun it is to go on holiday and get away from it all.
YouTube, other promotional choices for travel agents in social media.
You might want to look at Youtube as well. Why? Consider the fact that by 2021 video will account for 82% of all Internet internet traffic worldwide. Video also keeps alive travel places. There are plenty of free tools to help you make videos, and on Facebook and Instagram, you can post your videos as well.
How to use social media as an entity in business travel.
Now you know where and how many tools you have to write. But what does travel agents ‘ social media marketing look like in action?
Here are some suggestions for you:
Keep up with hot trends and holiday spots.
Tracking influencers is one way to stay on top of hot topics, and Instagram has a lot of them.
Spread the word about sales and promotions.
Spread the word about your sales and offers and make good use of your social media accounts. And inform customers of offers, you can use any of your accounts.
It is worth noting that travelers from the Millennials are now in traveling experience. Travel agents ‘ social media marketing can start with posts about sales, discounts, and promotions. Yet giving access to experiences to your customers offers added value and extra opportunity to book a trip.
Keep sweepstakes and run social contests.
Facebook is a perfect sweepstake and competition website. You can also use some free Facebook social media marketing tools to help you choose winners and run contests. Facebook or Instagram can also be used.
Crowdsource photos and promote content that is created by the user.
User-generated content could take travel agents ‘ social media marketing to the next level. That’s because for user-generated content, the travel industry is great. Think of it. When are photos taken by people? Okay, many people take selfies nonstop with the advent of smartphones.
But most people take pictures of significant events in life such as births, marriages, and graduations. And most people on their holidays still take tons of pictures.
Yet why would you like to retweet or post the holiday pictures of so-and-so? Research shows that over all other forms of social media marketing for travel agents, Millennials (aka most consumers) trust user-generated content. Over and above traditional media and banner ads, 53 percent say user-generated content affects their purchasing decisions.
But how can you make good use of great user-generated content? To continue with, find content you can share. You can post customer images, comments, and positive feedback. You don’t need to share the content of influencer. But using social media management software, you can identify micro-influencers.
You can also create photo competitions where your followers can give you pictures of their holidays. The trick is to give the owner credit after the social channels or website features content.
Move the scope of your website, add feedback and curate great content on travel.
Creating a travel-related blog is a good way to generate traffic for your page and share content with your fans and followers.
So, let’s say you’ve got a blog. The posts should be organized by your social media marketer (or you) and your web manager. Therefore, having a free management tool like Trello to schedule content is a good idea. Travel agents ‘ social media marketing may also include group management and mitigation posts.
Let’s say you’ve got no blog. You still have to share content on all your social media profiles on a regular basis. Not posting is one of the best ways for your audience to lose touch. You need to post regularly, and if you don’t have material, that’s hard.
Curating and sharing related content from your company is one way to fill in the gaps. Link to travel blogs, for instance, with relevant content, tips, and pictures. All you need to do at the end of the day is to know your audience and be imaginative. Checking out the competition is also a good idea. Here are some curated marketing ideas:
- Hot Spot Locations.
- Tips and warnings for travel.
- Tips for packaging and regional design.
- Travel guides and lists must be provided.
- Unique accommodation and hotels.
- Bucket lists and holiday wishes
If you have a website, you can also curate content. Sharing or retweeting excellent content that you know your audience is going to enjoy is great. Make sure you follow managers of content, travel writers, influencers and publications from the industry.
Pro Tip: Pinterest is a great place for content creation. Pinterest’s social media marketing starts with exclusive boards featuring packing tips, bucket lists, or food. Add great explanations of beautiful images and then link back to your website or related, curated content.
For live stream quality, use Periscope or Facebook Live.
Video is where it is, and the new hot thing on Facebook is live streaming content. All you need is knowledge of how to stream and when, and a creative idea of what to screen. Here are 7 suggestions for the content of live video:
- Cruise tour of the ship.
- City Tour.
- Review of the hotel.
- Experience in food and dining.
- Guide to the museum.
- Dance performance or activities on the streets.
- Local festival or event
Make sure you’re ready before making a video. Write a script or scenario, check the cameras and lighting and make sure your team is comfortable with their positions. Live streaming is good as it reveals things that are happening right now. The downside is you can’t edit it.
Why do travel agency business owners also need to consider travel agents ‘ social media management?
The next level of social media marketing for travel agents is social media monitoring and social listening. Social listening includes gathering and evaluating all references, including a keyword or topical phrase, for trends and patterns. You can use social media management to monitor your brand, study trend topics, identify influencers, and understand your audience better.
Here’s a sample of the kind of information you can gather for monitoring:
- Where travelers are posting.
- Which hashtags they’re using.
- Who is trending as an influencer and where.
- What the sentiment is toward the topic and why.
- What people are saying and sharing.
- Who you can tap for user-generated content.
- Where commenters are located.
There are # seville, # spain, # travel, and # wanderlust famous Instagram hashtags.
For travel agents, social media marketing is the first step. But for any business that wants to stay ahead of the game, social media management and social listening practices are important.
Loyalty points can enable prominent users to make positive reviews and comments. Positive posts regarding rewards from membership, in effect, inspire others to participate. Holding clients is much better than finding new ones.
Final Words.
While some may say “travel agent” is a dead career, this is not entirely true. Sure, social media and the Internet made booking trips solo easier for some.
But now it’s easier for you to find and connect with potential customers as well. All you need to do is indulge in travel agents ‘ social media marketing.
Decide where to start, create great content, share content created by users, and stay on top of trends. When you find the right balance, you’ll be on the right track to give your customers their dream vacations.
