Carrie Finley-Bajak
One of the biggest social media marketing decisions that needs to be made in 2015 will be where to invest time and resources to reach new and existing customers online. Knowing what channels will yield the best results while trying to build and nurture relationships takes time, effort and a commitment to consistency.
What social media channels should agents focus on in the year ahead? Where social media is concerned, don't try to be everywhere. Instead, focus on driving engagement across a couple channels, putting quality content first.
Facebook
Due to the size of the network, Facebook is the most obvious place agents should spend time and effort on social media. Travel agents who work independently might have better results on their personal Facebook page, where they can be more casual and conversational. However, a Facebook page for your business is also a necessity to access insights about engagement, to develop ad campaigns and to deliver unique calls to action to fans who are expecting information about travel from you.
• Facebook ads are an option for people looking to target specific demographics. Travel agents need to determine if they want to promote specific offers or if they want to use ads to build audience share. Start off small and do multiple tests to determine the best course of action to yield the highest return on investment.
• Make sure to spend time on the fan pages of your preferred suppliers to monitor news and to discover topics that might be of interest to your audience. When there is limited time available, sharing posts from suppliers with a personal message is a great way to post Facebook updates.
• Network with other agents on Facebook to share best practices. There are quite a few agent community groups on Facebook that can serve as inspiration and support.
Twitter
Although it continues to baffle some agents, Twitter is a useful tool for those who can invest the time it takes to build relationships. Although mostly useful for interacting with travel suppliers, other travel professionals and members of the media, there are pockets of consumers looking for advice and inspiration about travel.
• The best place to engage with others on Twitter is during live chats. These events take place at a specific time, and users can follow the stream by monitoring a hashtag. Use Hootsuite or TweetDeck, free programs that make it easier to view multiple streams like hashtags, Twitter lists or searches. There are numerous travel-related Twitter chats taking place on a regular basis. Tweet me (@CruiseBuzz) and I will help you find a chat that might be of interest. In the meantime, plan to join Travel Weekly's monthly Twitter chat (#TWchats), where we explore trending travel news.
• Tweets should be crafted to promote engagement. Use open-ended questions and include links to your website to drive traffic.
• Try out the new Twitter Small Business Planner, available in the App Store and Google Play. Features include suggestions for compelling Tweets, Twitter Ads campaign strategies and information on tools to help measure success.
Google Plus
Google Plus is a social networking and identity service that is owned and operated by Google. Here are some reasons it's worth trying:
• Google Plus is easy to use and adds another avenue for using social media to reach prospects. Post photos, links to blog articles and videos to gain exposure and referral traffic.
• Google Plus Communities have a lot of potential. These groups of like-minded people can be full of leads.
• Feedback (+1s) concerning posts can lead to influence, which strengthens a travel agent's network and ranking in a community.
Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, YouTube
Make sure to leverage image content and video, especially during site visits, ship or hotel inspections, fam trips and while on vacation. Feel free to mention the airline, hotel or cruise ship in your social media updates to get retweets, reposts, likes and shares from your favorite suppliers.
Best practice tips
1) Make an editorial calendar that covers messaging and frequency and indicates a person within the organization who will post to approved channels.
Social media marketing tasks don't have to take a lot of time. The social media cycle begins with creating a monthly editorial schedule that outlines your marketing initiatives: basically, what you will post (a promotion, destination, unique experience). It is best to plan one month at a time to remain agile. Align social media updates with Web content, blog posts or email marketing.
2) Use analytics to increase engagement and to build better campaigns.
Besides having a plan of attack about what to post, travel professionals need to use social analytics tools. Analytics can help improve the user experience by providing insight into what an audience is interested in, which can lead to deeper engagement and brand loyalty.
• Use Facebook Page Insights to monitor and track people's activities. Some of the metrics available are: the number of people your post reached; the number of people who clicked your post; the number of people who liked, commented on or shared your post. You can also get data about engagement rates, i.e., the percentage of people who saw a post and then liked, shared, clicked or commented on it.
• Use Google Analytics to track inbound leads and referral traffic.
• Use a social listening dashboard to discover what people are saying about your brand. Sprout Social or several competitors offer free trial versions of their products.
3) Become your own community manager.
Agents can provide valuable information to travel researchers during all phases of the buyer's journey, from inspiration to transaction. One way agents can add value is to generate content that will drive engagement and encourage users to take action.
• Invite your online communities to help with decision-making. One of the ways to engage with fans on Facebook is to take a poll. Ask your fans their opinion about what destinations or products they would like to see featured on your Facebook page.
• Acknowledge contributions within the community. In some case, sweepstakes, awards and incentives are great ways to drive engagement.
• Get to know your audience members and improve their user experience by creating highly individualized campaigns to target likely prospects about deals, news and product ideas.
• Craft calls-to-action into social media updates. Incorporate words such as "follow," "share," "like," "comment," "retweet," "click," download" or "register." Action phrases such as "Check it out" or "Find out more," coupled with a link to a landing page on your website, are also effective.
Finally, social media marketing in 2015 is going to be about quality, not quantity. Focus on nurturing relationships within your existing audience while inspiring prospects to take action.