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Many travel agencies know social media is a fast way to show experiences and stay connected with travellers, but struggle to use it effectively. Posts often remain irregular and off-strategy, making it hard to grow an audience or turn followers into bookers.
Underneath article will help you understanding the strategy and tactics of social media
At VTP Digital Marketing, we help tourism SMEs and DMOs solve the challenge of a consistent and strategic social media pressence by combining AI tools with sustainable storytelling strategies.
With the arrival of Gen AI content, social becomes an important channel to help travel agencies to convert their target audiences into bookers. Its a fast way of visualizing the quality of your experiences, and the place to stay in touch with your audience. But many tourism business struggle with social media, they don't have much time to create posts and end up posting irregular and not always aligned with their strategy. Confusing visitors what the social media channel is about, and then its almost impossible to grow an audience. You stay on the same level, getting a few likes with now and then a share, which is not very motivating to keep putting energy in your social media channels.
It's important to have an engaging social media presence, because it boosts sales if you will do it right, it can be an extra feeder channel to your website or even be a sales channel on its own.
For travel agencies, social media platforms offers a great opportunity to showcase their destinations, inspire wanderlust, and build a loyal customer base. Billons of people spend hours a day on social platforms: its already 8 years above 2 hours a day.
But with so many channels and ever-evolving algorithms, crafting a winning strategy can feel overwhelming. This comprehensive guide will empower you to transform your social media presence into a powerful tool for growth.
To make social media work for you, we created this blog. Make a plan based on your strategic direction and digital marketing plan with the help of AI and all those amazing pictures and videos you or your DMO have of your destination and experiences.
You need a social media plan, to help you stir your AI tool like Chat GTP or Gemini to create fast and consistent content.
Setting your Goals
All plans and strategies start with setting your Goals. You have direction goals that define how you want to use your social media, is it for story telling, service ? Building a community. But you also need to contribute to sales.
In your marketing plan you can find how many sales or visitors you need to get from your social media to reach the companies goals. In your social media you define that further. Views and engagements per channel, Number of people send to the website through adds.
Select the Right Social Media Channels
Focus is key ! Not all social media channels are created equal—each caters to a different demographic and content style. For travel agencies, the top platforms include Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube. Select a channel carefully, don't do more then you can handle.
Focus is key. Here's a breakdown of the top platforms for travel agencies and how to leverage them:
Instagram: Your visual playground. High-quality photos and videos are essential. Use Stories and Reels for immersive experiences. Hashtags expand your reach, and influencer partnerships can amplify your message.
Facebook: Build community. Create a business page for updates and live videos. Consider a Facebook Group for customers to connect and inspire each other.
Pinterest: A mood board type of social media channel that can fuel the travel inspiration and help the planning process. Pin stunning visuals, itineraries, and tips. Use keywords strategically to boost discoverability.
YouTube: Offer in-depth travel guides. Create destination videos, customer testimonials, and behind-the-scenes content. Optimize for search to maximize visibility.
TikTok: The upcoming short video platform is still rising and becomes more and more important. Mostly the younger generations are using TikTok, the average age was 30 years in September '24. Users get inspired by fast paced short videos with up-tempo songs or go for relaxing soothing videos to show the chill down side of your experiences. TikTok has created hypes for several tourism experiences leading to long rows to get a certain snack for examples. Users discover content with a combination of hashtags like #family #travel and algorithms based on previous interest. Use the combination of hashtags to build a niche community around specific interests like #nature #adventure. Work together with local content creators who understand TikTok and are proud to show their destination, vary this content with influencers that visit your destination.
Blueksky , X , Threads : Bluesky came up as an X alternative, with one of their main interesting approaches for you as a tourism professional is that the feed is organized based on the way the user wants, vs an algorithm deciding that for them, this can give opportunities for you to reach your niche audience.
Use Storytelling to Captivate Audiences
Humans connect best with brands through stories, and travel is a topic that offers plenty of possibilities to create overarching narratives based on the interest of your audience. Use storytelling to inspire and educate your audience about your destinations and experiences. Create a connection with your audience that feels like an invitation of a friend. Share the passions of the people they will meet during their travels together with the amazing natural and cultural beauty they will see that will fuel and connect their own inspiration and passions to your destination and company. Focus on stories your audience will enjoy, create themes and find the right characters and settings that show your destination and experiences in a way the would love to be part of. Small videos of micro stories, that show the reward of a beautiful scenery during a hike, a series of carousel photos that tell the story of how a local artisan creates it crafts.
- Connect Through Experience - Share customer testimonials as a series, featuring personal journeys and the impact of travel. These stories can be much more than just another marketing ploy—they can be the emotional fuel that ignites wanderlust in your audience.
- Show Behind-the-Scenes - People love to see the "making of" anything, and travel is no exception. Whether it's how you curate a personalized travel experience for customers, the detailing that goes into a group tour, or the personal anecdotes of your agents, behind-the-scenes content adds authenticity and humanizes your brand.
- The History of a Destination - Take your audience on a historical tour of destinations through posts or videos. This can provide a richer context for travel, making it more than just a pit stop but a learning experience.
Remember, the art of social media is maybe even more about listening then it is about speaking. Engage with your audience through comments, incorporate user-generated content, and keep the conversation flowing.
Grow a community
Social media is about being social, being helpful to like minded people. Invoke conversations by asking questions, but also be part of other peoples conversation, like, react, comment and share other peoples posts. Especially in the first day or even hours of a post its essential you react on comments and or maybe write extra comments with context in posts you wrote, to signal the algorithms, that your post is interesting and can keep users longer on the platform. If people react to your post, ask questions back to keep the converstaion flowwwing, If you want to maximise your reach, always write with the intention to keep users longer on the platform. Thus only rarely use links or refer to link in Bio for actions outside the platform.
Make a Content Calendar
Consistency is key in social media, and a content calendar is the tool that ensures you're posting at the right times with the right content.
- Theme Your Weeks or days - Each week or day of the week could focus on a particular theme, whether it's a destination highlight, travel tips, sustainability in tourism, or seasonal offers. This not only provides structure to your content but also educates your audience about various aspects of travel.
- Micro stories - Create micro stories based on your story world that tells the story of your destination, company, products, partners and customers.
- Capitalize on Trends and Events - Be aware of global events and social media trends that you can tie back to travel. From World Tourism Day to Instagram photo challenges, participating in trending events can increase engagement and reach. But always make sure it has value for your brand and your customers.
- Plan Your Offers - In the travel industry, timing is everything. Integrate your special offers and promotions into your content calendar so that they're not just standalone ads but part of the larger narrative you're weaving.
A well-constructed content calendar will keep your social media efforts focused and purposeful, saving you time and ensuring you have a consistent presence.
Use this free prompt from Story Safari to build a content calendar.
Use Micro Stories to Heighten Engagement
Social media is fast, try to tell your story in smaller micro stories which are cover one message and are easy to consume. Use a visual that grabs attention and shows emotion and is different. to draw viewers to your content. And create pre planned series of micro stories to create a layered overview of your whole vision and messages you need to guide travelers through a customer journey.
A Photo Series
Rather than posting a single photo, turn it into a series. Start with a teaser or the most picturesque shot, then follow with snippets of the location, tips on what to do there, or customer experiences. This series could run over a day or more, keeping your audience engaged and providing depth to the destination. Make sure they fit within your story world.
A Weekly Feature
Choose a day of the week to consistently feature a story. It could be #TravelTipTuesday, where you share advice on packing, language tips, or cultural insights, or #FarawayFriday, showcasing exotic locales your agency serves.
Local Guides Takeover
Involve locals in your content by allowing them to "take over" your social media for a day, sharing their favorite spots and activities. This not only provides unique content but also harnesses the authenticity of local voices.
Micro stories should be part of your bigger content strategy, enhancing your overall message by providing fresh, interactive content.
Boost Your Best Posts
On social media, not all your posts will reach your entire audience organically. Algorithms, timing, and even the content itself can affect its visibility. That's where boosting comes in, which is paying to have a post being seen by a bigger audience.
Identify Top Performers
Regularly monitor your posts' performance to identify the posts with the highest engagements, that have the most likes, comments, shares. These post are resonating the most with your audience and deserve a bigger audience. Just check if they align with your key messages and are about your top destinations, experience and your USPs so you spend your advertising money in consitetnly branding your tourism company.
Boost for Action
Even your top performing posts will have a limited reach, because there is just so much content to compete with. Therefor boosting post is an essential instrument in your social media plan. To decide when to boost a post, you're not just looking for likes and shares; you're aiming for a specific action. Whether it's to visit your website, sign up for a newsletter, or book a trip, make sure your boosted post has a clear call to action.
Target Your Audience
Use the targeting tools available on each platform to ensure your boosted post reaches the right people in your niche, who share the passion of your post. You can target by demographics, interests, and even previous interactions with your content.
Boosting can give an extra push to the content that resonates the most, increasing its reach and the likelihood of conversion.
In conclusion, a successful social media marketing plan for a travel agency is one that combines the art of storytelling with strategic content planning and a versatile understanding of social media channels. By creating a consistent and engaging presence on platforms that speak to travel enthusiasts, your agency can turn social media into a powerful tool for community building, customer engagement, and ultimately, driving sales.
Spending time on social media
Being an active social media user yourself helps to stay on top of trends, be an active member of your community and helps you find good content. However be smart with your social media, it's easy to get lost. Set yourself strict timelines and follow only the most valuable channels for your niche.
Response to inquiries
To be an active part of your community its important you react fast on comments, questions and inquiries. Schedule time for this activity. If you get many questions through social channels like Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp AI solutions like Manychat can help you.
Measuring your results
To measure the results of your social media efforts you can analyze how involved your audience is with the content you created;
- Discovery, Noticing your content, How many people discover your content, to be measured with the metrics views & impressions
- Interacting with your content, Did they click a link, played a video or reels, how much did they watched of the video.
- Do they like your content, Adding likes
- Do the Advocate your content, Sharing of your content
- Do they contribute, Adding comments
In conclusion, a successful social media marketing plan for a travel agency is one that combines the art of storytelling with strategic content planning and a versatile understanding of social media channels. By creating a consistent and engaging presence on platforms that speak to travel enthusiasts, your agency can turn social media into a powerful tool for community building, customer engagement, and ultimately, driving sales.
At VTP Digital Marketing, we’ve seen the struggle of Tourism SMEs to turn social media into a driver of bookings. We help DMOs and SMEs with simple solutions to improve their sustainable tourism marketing, authentic storytelling. We use the latest AI insights and combine them with tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. Our approach is simple; combine ai supported strategy building with, templates, the expertise of the SME, the facilitation of a DMO and link them togheter with prompts that can be used in any AI assistant.
Want to see how this works for your business or destination ? Contact VTP Digital Marketing for a free 30-minute session where we’ll show you how a toolbox works to turn your social media channels into a engaging and strategic platform that facilitates bookings with the help of AI.
Also see the LinkedIn of Guido van de Graaf for the latest insights and free tourism marketing prompts.
