It’s that time of year: Time to take stock of the good, the bad, and the ugly—then plan for a brighter future.
Social marketing is changing so quickly. How can we keep up with all the new ways to connect with clients, inspire them to travel, and then stay tip-of-tongue as they become our destination and attraction brand advocates?
Let’s run through some tactics to tune up your social marketing.
Present profiles
What do your current profiles proclaim about your business? Do they tell your updated story and showcase your latest and greatest attractions and tours? Here are some quick details to run through:
- Review and rejigger all your company’s social bios and “About” sections to reflect product additions, staff changes, and company vision updates.
- Re-imagine your visuals: cover images, channel art, corporate videos, and even website graphics.
- Ensure you’re using all the available sections and tabs on your social sites that relate to your business. Is your Facebook “Products” section up to date? Have you added “Services” to your Facebook page? Are the “Showcase” pages complete on your company’s LinkedIn page? And have you updated your YouTube playlists?
Survey success
Trends change as fast as the seasons, and you should keep up with your fans as they vacillate between social platforms. One day everyone loves Instagram; the next day it’s TikTok!
You can send out a quick three- or four-question survey to better understand where your clients spend their time. Check out Survey Monkey for an easy (and free) tool that has great analytics. Armed with the knowledge you’ll glean from the survey, you’ll be prepared to update your social strategy to catch your fans in places they hang out.
Analyze analytics
Understanding your successes and misses will help you continue to put out social content that hits the mark with your fans and followers. Don’t miss these steps:
- Check out the available measuring tools in each social platform you use.
- Consider a deeper dive with third-party analytics tools for your
- social sites.
- Facebook’s Audience Insights is a powerful tool that many savvy marketers miss. As you better understand your ad audiences (), you’ll be able to create more appealing ads that convert.
- Become a super sleuth by checking out the ads of others in our industry. Yep, this is now possible, and here’s the navigation: On Facebook, go to the page of a company that you’d like to investigate, find Page Transparency (on the right side of the business page), choose See More, then Go to Ad Library, and filter as needed.
- Use your Google Analytics social tools to understand the navigation path of social-to-web visitors.
Rejiggered video strategy
While we don’t have all day to network, adding several posts over a week is usually manageable. Keep in mind that all of your connections won’t see every post you make.
- Emotional storytelling: Reworking video scenes by incorporating more stories and less selling hits the mark now. Check out the latest from NTA-member Travel Oregon: .
- Small-budget storytelling takes the form of capturing authentic experiences. Refocus on emotions, fun, and solutions.
- Mix things up and post video on a variety of platforms, and don’t forget about Facebook and Instagram Stories.
Remix posting strategies
Is your social editorial calendar in a bit of a rut? Do you always post specific things on specific days of the week? Mix it up! If you normally add a quick travel trivia video on Friday, post it on Sunday instead. Then check your analytics to note any changes in viewership, engagement, and reactions. You may find a new winning strategy.
Keep your fans and followers in the loop with a comprehensive advertising strategy. In our pay-to-play world, updating ad audiences, split-testing, and continually evaluating ad relevance scores () will keep your destination or attraction—or tours—top of mind.
As time flies ahead, don’t get left behind because of a stale, outdated social strategy. Keeping on top of trends and ever-changing fan interests means your business will be earning more eyeballs and staying ahead of the curve.
Catherine Heeg, an international speaker and trainer, focuses on social media marketing strategies for the tourism and hospitality industry. Connect with her socially and at cmsspeaking.com.
Top photo ©chinnarach/Adobe Stock
