What’s more important than planning enough content to share on social media? Get to know your audience inside and out so you can reach the right demographics on each social site. Generation Z and Millennials are avid users of Twitter and Instagram, while Baby Boomers and Generation X lean towards Facebook. How does that match up with your target audience?
Each social site offers various free tools such as Facebook Insights that can shed light on where to find and engage with travelers. Or you can purchase subscriptions from sites such as Sprout Social, Buffer, or others for a more thorough analysis and to better target social users with tailored content.
Adapt Your Strategy for Each Social Channel
The million dollar question for everyone on social media is, “How do you want your audience to interact with your content, and how do you get them to engage?” It depends on the platform and your clientele.
Facebook: As the largest social media site, Facebook is great for inspiring your clients to venture to places they wouldn’t normally travel. Post beautiful pictures of people enjoying their travels or taking unique adventures to help spark conversation among your audience, like examples on our Facebook page. This in turn can also inspire your clientele to share their travel tips, which also does well on Facebook. Allocating a small budget to boost your posts is a great idea, since the current algorithm limits businesses’ reach in users’ social feeds.
Twitter: Twitter is a highly engaging platform where people would rather have conversations with you as opposed to being directly sold your product. Thanks to an increase in character limit to 280, you can share more information regarding what your business does, links to travel news, blog posts, and articles, as well as participate in Twitter chats relevant to your brand. You can find numerous travel advisor Twitter chats like #TravelHappy and #TravelSkills simply by searching for them with hashtags. Hashtags are important here if you want to be found in the Twittersphere. According to Travel Market Report, adding a hashtag or two can make your tweet 33% more engaging.1
Instagram: A study reported on by Forbes has shown that over 40% of Instagrammers use the platform to search for their next travel destination, making it exceedingly beneficial to you as a travel advisor.2 Instagrammers love user-generated and behind-the-scenes content, so posting travel photos or videos from you or your staff can spur engagement. With the permission of your clients, you can even share photos from their vacations and tell how you helped inspire their adventure. Include a quote from them about how your influence changed the way they travel. Hashtags are also king on Instagram. You can use a maximum of 30 hashtags, however 7-10 hashtags are optimal. Research which hashtags will help your photos standout among the millions of images within the platform—some examples are #travelagent and #travel_captures. There are free hashtag websites to help you do this.
Test Posting Times and Frequency
You can experiment with how often and when you post during the week, depending on your audience per platform. Below are general times when users are typically the most active and engaged, which offer a starting point. Remember to tailor this to your audience as you learn more about the demographics of your clientele on each site.
- Facebook: Monday-Friday, 9am-2pm
- Twitter: Monday-Friday 9am-1pm
- Instagram: Monday-Friday 5am, 9am-4pm
You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to gain inspiration for travel content to share on your accounts. Learn more social media tips in our Travel Agent’s Guide to Social Media Marketing.
For more resources and tools to step up your marketing strategy, download our 2018 Agent Marketing Guide.
Citations:
1. “12 Top Tips For Travel Agents Using Social Media,” Travel Market Report, June 2017
2. “Here’s How Much Instagram Likes Influence Millennials’ Choice Of Travel Destinations,” Forbes, January 2018