Travel Agency Tribes Email Marketing

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the three most popular social media channels in the Travel Industry – Facebook for its more than 2 billion users, Twitter for its brevity in communicating messages, and Instagram for its image capturing functionalities.

It goes without saying that any travel agent who wants to access the millions of potential customers in these social channels will have to come up with creative ideas to market his/her agency.

Note:Each of the social platforms has its culture and posting protocol. You will need to understand the rules in order to make it work for you. Below are a few tips:

Twitter

If you want to know what’s trending and newsworthy, go to Twitter.The channel is a great resource from which you can track changes in travel customers’ tastes and preferences.

Twitter is a great channel to share your content beyond your existing network because people on Twitter are more likely to share, like and retweet great content.

• Always put great content such as blog posts, videos, and images on twitter to drive more users to your website.
• Once you have established an expert status on Twitter, grow your community by participating in travel related chats that are regularly scheduled on the platform.
• Promotional selling does not work very well on Twitter. If you want to put deals on Twitter, make them less than 10% of your total Tweets.
• Make sure you use images and hash tags to increase the chances of your tweet getting retweeted.

Facebook

Most of your potential customers are already on Facebook and so if you haven’t chosen which platform to invest your time and resources in, then Facebook is a great place to start. Due to its high reach, Facebook is also the best platform to develop your brand.

• Always share images of picture perfect destinations that inspire people to want to book their travel with you.
• If you are not advertising a destination, share rich and share worthy content that puts out your brand as a resource.
• Engage your followers and audience with questions, polls and comments. This helps you to learn more about your community.
• To sell to a larger community, market your deals and offers using Facebook ads.
• There are ad targeting tools on Facebook that help you run a more targeted campaign. Use it.

Instagram

The English say that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’.Instagram has brought this realism to life by allowing the world to share images on its platform. On Instagram, you do not have to descriptively tell of the amenities in a hotel that you are promoting. All you need to do is share beautiful photos of the hotel rooms and your followers can decide for themselves if the hotel is worth booking for their vacation.

• Only post high resolution images on your Instagram profile. Blurry or stock images make you seem unprofessional.
• Use tools such as Buffer and Hootesuite to schedule your image posting. Always schedule the posts to out when most of your target audience is online.
• Use hashtags to increase your reach. The optimal number of hashtags is 10, but you can use up to 30.

Share your personal travel images. This shows that you have some personal experience of what you are selling. It also gives your brand a human face.

Additional platforms that a travel agent should consider include; Pinterest, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Snapchat and YouTube. Understand your targeted audience and use the social platform that works best for them.

Did you find the above social media tips for travel agents helpful? Click here to get a comprehensive social media marketing package from Travel Agency Tribes (TAT).