Transcript Social Media Strategies for the Travel Sector

@AffWin
#AWEvents
#AllAboard2012
Agenda
Time
Event
1.40pm
“Social Media Strategies for the Travel Sector” Julie Falconer
2.20pm
Networking Begins (drinks & nibbles at the bar)
4.00pm
Raffle Prize Draw in aid of
5.00pm
Finish
What is All Aboard?
Why now?
Ski Holidays
Winter Sun
Early Summer Bookings
Talking points
Tools available
Promotional Plans
Payment
Data Intelligence
Mobile
Findings
• 65% invested more budget into Affiliate
Marketing in 2012 (A4U Travel Report)
• Average Attribution to Affiliate Channel is
8.2% with some clients nearing 30% (A4U
Travel Report)
• Email is growing in this sector when it comes
to upstream traffic to travel sites. (Hitwise)
Social Media Strategies
for the Travel Sector
Julie Falconer
14 November 2012
Social Media in Action
Hashtag:
• #AllAboard2012
Twitter:
• @aladyinlondon
• @AffWin
Brief Introduction
Julie Falconer is a London-based travel writer and
consultant. She writes an award-winning travel blog, A
Lady in London, for which she has traveled to 90
countries and developed a strong social media presence.
Originally from San Francisco, Julie came to London in
2007 after leaving a career in finance, during which she
worked for Goldman Sachs and a hedge fund. When she's
not traveling, she enjoys tweeting pictures of her food.
http://www.aladyinlondon.com
How to create and
monitor an effective
social media strategy in
the travel industry
Creating a Strategy
Creating a Strategy
What is your goal?
How much time and resources do you have?
What are the motivations of your audience or
customers?
What is your goal?
This will dictate your overall strategy
Goals can include:
Engagement
Community building
Sales
Traffic
How much time and
resources do you have?
This will dictate how many platforms you
use
With limited time and resources, you
should only use one or two social media
platforms
A Twitter account with 1 tweet from a
year ago looks bad
What are the motivations
of your customers?
This will dictate which platforms you
use and how you interact on them
Find out where your target market is
and don't bother with social media
platforms that your users aren't on (e.g.
if you target men, Pinterest might not be
a good use of time)
Implementing a
Strategy
Implementing a Strategy
Set up profiles
Tailor your strategy to each platform
Build your following
Profiles
Make sure to have consistency across
social media platforms, across your
brand and across your online and offline
marketing efforts
Fill out profiles completely and
customize where you can
Profiles
Use TweetDeck or another platform to
manage multiple accounts
Connect your Google+ page to your blog so
your photo comes up in search results
Put icons on your site so people can find
your social media profiles
Tailor your strategy
Don't automate or cross-post
Facebook is good for offers; people will "like" your
page if they feel they'll get something out of it
Pinterest and YouTube are good for competitions
Twitter is good for customer service and
networking
Build your following
Partnerships
Bloggers, businesses, PRs
Find, follow, and engage
Journalists, experts, industry leaders
Use hashtags
Build your following
Look at who is following your
competitors or similar companies
and follow them / engage them
Host an event and have a live Twitter
feed and hashtag
Cross-promote via your other channels
Give a reason to follow
Post interesting and engaging content
Offer an incentive
Facebook – landing pages, new tool
for deals and offers
Give a reason to follow
Run a competition
YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram
Invite users to collaborate
Group Pinterest boards, ask
questions, etc
What Works in
Travel
What Works in Travel
Visual
Creative
Collaborative
Visual
Travel is a very visual industry
Show me, don't tell me
A picture is worth 1,000
words, especially in real time
I’m on a beach
I’m on a beach in Madagascar
I’m on a white sand beach in #Madagascar
Visual
Photography - share on all platforms
Instagram
Pinterest
Stumbleupon
Flickr
Twitter (#FriFotos)
Facebook (EdgeRank)
Google+
Blogs
Visual
Video - inspire people
Destination guides
Interviews and demos
Adventure travel
Examples:
YouTube
Vimeo
Embed in blog posts and websites
Facebook
Visual
Infographics - so hot right now
Be creative
Good for viral efforts
Great way to present a press release
visually
Creative
Have a creative take on a destination or
offering:
Writers
Travel Companies
Offer a unique perspective on a
popular destination
Tell people about a destination
your competitors don’t offer
Cover an off-the-beaten-path
location
Post about a tour of an off-thebeaten-path location
Get backstage
Show that you offer backstage
access
Interview someone
Tell about how you offer access
to someone
Creative
Blogging - integral part of website
Highlights of your product or service
offerings
Trip reports, top picks, interviews, etc
Let your personality or that of your
brand shine through
Make sure to include photos, video, and
other media
Creative
Pique curiosity
“I’m drinking a cocktail”
Creative
Pique curiosity
“There's a cocktail
in this honey pot”
Creative
Ask questions to encourage engagement
“Can you guess where this is?”
Creative
“Do you know what kind of animal this is?”
Creative
Inspire people to do something
“If I can run a marathon, so can you!”
Creative
Crowdsource
“Where should I travel next month?”
“What would you like to see us offer?”
“Help us design a new…”
“I just arrived in…” [use local language]
Collaborative
Networks and groups on Facebook
Global Bloggers Network
UK Travel Bloggers
Groups and connections on LinkedIn
Connect with key players
Join discussions
Collaborative
Twitter networking and hashtags
Follow influencers
Participate in #FriFotos and other
industry memes
Forums and message boards
Lonely Planet
Fodors
FlyerTalk
Be relevant, don’t spam
Collaborative
Offline - tweetups, events
Great ways to network with those you
interact with on social media and meet
new people to engage with and partner
with
Examples:
Travel Massive
London Bloggers Meetup
World Travel Market (WTM)
ITB Berlin
Ensuring
Effectiveness
Ensuring Effectiveness
Monitor results to improve effectiveness
Stay updated
Monitor results
Bitly and Hootsuite
Google and Facebook Analytics
Monitor results
Big brands can benefit from listening tools
Free tools to see the best time to tweet, etc
Use the data to refine your strategy, tailor
content to your audience, time posts, etc
Stay updated
Stay updated on new trends in social
media (e.g. Facebook EdgeRank) by
subscribing to blogs or newsletters
Social Media Today
New social media platforms
Pinterest, Instagram
Thank You
Hashtag:
• #AllAboard2012
Twitter:
• @aladyinlondon
• @AffWin
@AffWin
#AWEvents
#AllAboard2012