Archive for the ‘Networking’ Category
Friday, February 22nd, 2013
Travel pros are always searching for new ways to reach untapped markets.
Leverage your LinkedIn Presence
LinkedIn is the opportunity to reach new potential clients in a different channel and meet them thru a business networking situation. That’s great news for both leisure and corporate travel consultants, hoteliers that focus on both markets, as well as tour operators and receptive operators.
LinkedIn has been called the ‘red-headed step-child’ of social media. As a red-head growing up with dark haired parents, I always thought that maybe I was the step-child. When LinkedIn came along I had to check out this new ‘Red Head’. So I jumped on the band wagon and have found great connections and new ways to communicate with colleagues.
Marketing tactics
Travel consultants
Think of the possibilities of marketing yourself to distinct groups of professionals by giving them the gift of time and relaxation in their next vacation. Consider reaching small business owners and providing them expertise for their corporate travel planning.
Hoteliers
Consider LinkedIn as a way to reach out to conference planners and corporate-stay decision makers.
Tour Operators
Have you thought about maximizing your connections with industry leaders and keeping up with your suppliers.
I love the Infographic below as it brings focus to 10 ways to make the most of your social networking.
Positive Positioning Statements
My favorite tip is #2: Optimize your positioning statement. This is a critical piece of your LinkedIn success when members are searching for a skill set or expertise.
Travel pros may want to list their title as “Cruise Expert” or “Vacation Pro” to aid in search results both within LinkedIn as well as in organic internet searches.
Tour operators may find success listing their key destinations in their title. It may look like this; “New York and Washington DC inbound receptive expert”.
What successes have you found on LinkedIn?
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Join me socially: Facebook, Twitter , LinkedIn and Pinterest
When you ‘like’ my Facebook page you’ll have access to Free Resources just for travel pros!
Here are other marketing articles for travel & tourism pros:
5 Creative Ways to Market your Social Presence
3 + 30 Proactive Promotional Tips for your Blog + Infographic
5 Key Blog Marketing Tactics+ Infograhic
By Catherine Heeg
Tags: hospitality, hotelsales, LinkedIn, marketingplan, Networking, sales, salestips, Selling, smallbusiness, social engagement, Social Media, tourism industry, tourismbusiness, tourismsalestips, touroperator, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry
Posted in Branding, hospitality, hotel industry, Infographics, LinkedIn, marketing, Networking, promotion, sales, Social Media Marketing, strategy, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry | No Comments »
Friday, February 8th, 2013
Google +. Is it worth paying attention?
With 400 million registered users and more than 100 million active users visiting the service every month it’s hard to ignore the impact on the tourism, hospitality and travel industry.
With the introduction of Brand pages, Google+ leverages another marketing channel to connect, inspire and compel brand advocacy…plus maximize revenues and relationships.
Here are some clear reasons to get involved today!
- Hangouts. Free video conferencing is available for up to 10 other Google+ members. Tap into social interaction that can be recorded and viewed by others on demand. Imagine group planning sessions, media interaction, guest relations and internal communication all via video chats.
- Hotels consider using a Hangout with staff members from around the country.
- Attractions can use a Hangout to let sales people and tour operators know of new developments.
- Tour Operators can Hangout with key clients or group leaders.
- Circles. Similar to lists on Twitter and groups on Facebook, Circles takes you one step deeper into your marketing efforts. A business can now easily market directly to segmented audiences by sharing content only with selected Circles. Business pages can Circle other businesses, but not people…at this point in time.
- Hotels can pass along rate information only to tour operators, not their entire list of followers on Google+
- Attractions can target the drive market with promotions to geo-based Circles.
- Tour Operators can create a Circle of potential group leaders (who have a business profile on Google+) and learn what is needed to build the perfect package.
- Note: When people add you to their Circles they will always see your brand’s posts.
- SEO Ranking. Google is proven to give preference in search rankings to content shared in Google+. This means that your business is more likely to rank higher in Google searches and that ranking increases for people who have added your business into one of their Circles.
- Search. When your company is searched using “+your company name” it stands out immediately as the company logo is shown and the real estate is larger for Google+Businesses. See this example for Tauck Tours:
Searching Tauck on Google+
What do you like about Google+ brand pages?
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Tags: Google + Brand pages, Google Plus, Google+, hospitality, hotelsales, marketing, marketingplan, Networking, sales, salestips, Selling, social engagement, Social Media, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry
Posted in Branding, Google +, hospitality, hotel industry, marketing, Mobile marketing, Networking, promotion, Social Media Marketing, strategy, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
Did you know that your Facebook fans only see about 16% of your posts? I was appalled when I learned this.
Here’s the secret to boosting your exposure and reaching more of your fans.
#1 Get Notifications
To ensure that your hard work, research and frequent posting gets you the most mileage possible your fans now have to take one more step to get information from you. The secret tool in your toolbox is to ask your fans to check ‘Get Notifications’ and ‘Show in News Feed’ once they ‘like’ your page. Here’s how it works:
You may want to post this graphic (see the smaller version below) on your page and then include a post showing people what benefit they’ll get when the check “Get Notifications”. (To save this image to your page, please right click on the image below, choose ‘save link as’ then choose a place on your hard drive to save this graphic. Then go to your Facebook page and select “Photo Video” > Attach Photo> browse your hard drive and select this graphic that you saved >Post.)
With this graphic you may consider saying something like this:
Travel pros may want to say “For the latest travel info, please remember to check “Get Notifications” so you’ll be sure to receive the most up to date destination info from me.”
Destinations—consider posting a brief note like this…”Do you LOVE ______________(fill in your destination name)? Check “Get Notifications” so you’ll be the first to hear what’s hot and happening here in ___________(fill in your destination)
Hotels can easily mention a benefit that’s provided on their Facebook page and create a post like this….”If you’re looking for more great recipes and fun events at _________ (fill in your hotel name), don’t miss a beat. Click “ Get Notifications” and keep up to date!
Remember to do this yourself as well! This way you’ll continue to get the information you need from the business pages you’ve ‘liked’ right in your newsfeed. This will keep you up to date on all the news from your own suppliers, destination partners and services that you depend on to provide the best service for your clients.
Hint, Hint….you’re invited to click ‘Get Notifications’ on my page. Here you’ll find relevant social media and marketing tips for travel and tourism pros.
#2 Interest Lists
Are you finding it hard to sort thru all the great information you receive every day on your Facebook page? Here’s a way to sort thru it quickly and easily while capturing a snapshot of what’s top of mind in our industry.
When you set up “Interest Lists” on your personal profile, you can easily manage your news feed by creating a customized newspaper for yourself. Here’s how to set up interest lists on your personal page.
First: On the navigation bar on your personal page scroll down to Interest Lists, then click “Add Interests” (See #1 below in the screen shot)
Second: Name your “Interest Lists” and add interests as related to your business and the topic of the list.
Travel Pros may want to add an Interest List for each specialty; Cruising, Adventure Travel, Top Hotels, Tour Operators, etc. They may also want to create Interest Lists for their top destinations. This will give you a birds-eye view of what businesses you’ve ‘liked’ are talking about .
Destinations can create Interest lists on the personal page that’s associated with the business page. You may consider adding Interest Lists for Entertainment, Dining, Attractions, etc. This will give your page manager a chance to easily scroll thru posts and share information relevant to your Destinations page fans.
Hotels consider creating Interest Lists for attractions, restaurants, shops and services in your locale. Like Destinations this will give you easy access to relevant posts that can be shared on your Hotel page.
In #2 on the screen shot below you’ll see how to add business pages to your customized Interest lists. Facebook also provides suggestions for you to subscribe. These new subscriptions will appear in your customized Interest List feed.
This simple step makes it easy for you to curate and assemble your own customized newspaper so you can easily see what’s happening and share relevant info with your fans.
Taking this one step further you may want to also encourage your fans to add your business page to their own Interest Lists. This will give you even greater exposure and opportunity to build a stronger relationship with your fans.
These 2 tactics are part of a marketing strategy to bring you more buzz and biz!
What other tactics do you find helpful in growing your following?
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Join me socially: Facebook, Twitter , LinkedIn and Pinterest
When you ‘like’ my Facebook page you’ll have access to Free Resources just for travel pros!
Tags: Facebook, facebookfans, Facebookmarketing, facebookpromotion, marketing, marketingplan, Networking, Questions, sales, salestips, social engagement, Social Media, Timeline, tourismbusiness, tourismsalestips, touroperator, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry
Posted in Facebook Marketing, hospitality, hotel industry, marketing, Networking, promotion, Social Media Marketing, strategy, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry | No Comments »
Friday, January 25th, 2013
Fact or Fib? 80% of U.S. social network users prefer to connect to brands through Facebook.
Fact or Fib? Social media and blogs reach 80% of all U.S. Internet users.
Are you reaching your potential clients with your social media marketing?
Here are 5 powerful ways to reach a wider audience while drawing more fans, readers and followers to your social channels. By creatively funneling people from one channel to another you will leverage their involvement and help them become more engaged. They’ll get to know you better!
You know the saying; people buy from people they know and like. Here are some tips to develop that relationship.
#1 Blog Sharing 
Sexy Bookmarks is a great tool to encourage people to share your blog. It’s reactive and cool! When you hover over an icon it pops up! Plus you can customize which icons appear in your blog. Here’s what it looks like.
An RSS feed is a way to capture their attention with each new blog post.
Bonus tip: Once people see your blog, remind them to connect with you on your other social sites by including an invitation to connect via hyperlinks to each of your other social and web sites. See below for an example.
#2 Facebook | Blog 
Networked Blogs is an easy to set up app/tool that will automatically roll your latest blog post right to your Facebook page. Here’s what it looks like on your Facebook page.
#3 Pinterest |Facebook 
WooBox is the go-to tool ensuring that your Facebook fans have direct access to your Pinterest page. Simple to install it puts a Pinterest app front and center on your Facebook business page.
Bonus tip: Pinterest has just added Business pages. You can now change your personal Pinterest site into a business page and add your website verification that makes it easier for people to find you. When you complete this step by adding some code provided by Pinterest to your website .
Here’s what your Pinterest bio will look like.
#4 Twitter Engagement 
Have you uploaded your new Header image? Twitter has recently given us more real-estate to brand and show who we are and what we do. Here’s your chance to put a picture or graphic of your specialty, niche or latest fam destination. Remember to include links to your other social sites in your Twitter profile. Here are some great examples from our industry.
#5 Measure & Monitor 
Some of my favorite tools to learn more about when to post, fan demographics and HOT news are:
- SocialMention-track what’s being said about your top destinations, suppliers and your company
- Crowdbooster—measure and optimize your social marketing, plus tips to help you improve
- GoogleAlerts—set up a notification system to be alerted to top news on your key words
- TweetWhen – track your Twitter stats
- Facebook Page Insights—check your fan demographics and success of your posts
- Reachli—learn more about your Pinterest audience with analytics
- More of my favorites.
Fact or Fib? Both are FACTS! Gripping reasons to leverage your involvement and up your game!
For more stats please go to: http://bit.ly/W3mWet and http://bit.ly/U3QKGa
What success stories have you had marketing your social sites?
Connect with me online
Join me socially: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest
When you ‘like’ my Facebook page you’ll have access to Free Resources just for travel pros!
Tags: blog, blogging, Facebook, facebookfans, Facebookmarketing, facebookpromotion, hospitality, hotelsales, marketing, marketingplan, Networking, Pinterest, salestips, Selling, social engagement, Social Media, tourismbusiness, training, travelagent, travelindustry, Twitter
Posted in blogging, Facebook Marketing, hospitality, hotel industry, marketing, NACTA, National Tour Association, Networking, NTA, OASIS, Pinterest, promotion, sales, Social Media Marketing, strategy, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Twitter | 2 Comments »
Friday, November 30th, 2012
Pinterest is the newest ‘shiny’ thing to become a part of the travel & tourism industry’s social involvement. And it’s really bright & shiny!
The biggest news is that it’s actually working to engage travellers while they’re in the trip planning stage.
Travel consultants are leveraging this by using their own library of photos along with photos from supplier image galleries to entice, enthrall and close more sales.
Destinations are reaping the benefits as travelers are posting photos to their own boards and further spreading the word to future travellers. In addition, pins a DMO posts on related boards are benefitting local businesses as they’re being frequented by travelers.
The big question now is how to leverage this exposure over other social sites. Here are some marketing tactics to help travel pros spread their Pinterest page content to their other social pages.
Pinterest |Facebook
- Make sure you add the Pinterest app to your business page. Check out Woo Box to easily add access to your Pinterest site.
- Add a Post to your Facebook page announcing your newest board
- Ask your Facebook fans to follow you on Pinterest
- Make sure your Pinterest address is in the About section on your Facebook page
- Monitor your social presence. Here are some tools for you.
Pinterest |Website
- Add a ‘Pin It’ button onto your website
- Add the Pinterest icon linking directly to your Pinterest site.
- Create ‘Pinnable’ web materials
Pinterest |Blog
- Add your Pinterest address to your blog post
- Add a ‘Pin It’ button to your blog
- Blog about your Pinterest contest or your newest board
- Get creative with your photo editing. Here are some tools for you.
Pinterest |Twitter
- Tweet about your new involvement in Pinterest and provide a link to your newest board
- Create a Welcome board that showcases photos of your latest trip, an upcoming group departure or your newest blog post and Tweet about updates to this board.
- Update your Twitter profile to include a link to your Pinterest site.
Pinterest |LinkedIn
- Add your Pinterest address to your LinkedIn profile’s Professional section
- Announce new boards to relevant groups on LinkedIn
Pinterest |Google+
- Post your latest blog or photo updates to relevant Google+ circles
- In your G+ posts, include information on your latest Pins with a link to the relevant board.
Here are some other tactics for you to make the most of your Pinterest presence and grow your following of raving fans. See Infographic below.
Tags: blog, blogging, Facebook, facebookfans, Facebookmarketing, facebookpromotion, hospitality, LinkedIn, marketing, marketingplan, NACTA, NTA, Pinterest, sales, salestips, Selling, social engagement, Social Media, tourism industry, tourismbusiness, tourismsalestips, touroperator, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry, Twitter
Posted in blogging, Facebook Marketing, hospitality, hotel industry, marketing, Monitoring tools, NACTA, National Tour Association, Networking, NTA, OASIS, Pinterest, promotion, Social Media Marketing, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Twitter | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, August 21st, 2012
Measure, Monitor and Metrics are the key words in social media today. Many of us find that merely getting the social marketing plan executed is demanding enough. Let’s explore the essential tools designed to boost your effectiveness by giving you insights into your audience engagement.
Social fans today demand relevant, up to the minute information that will help them plan, execute and dream about their next trip.
Engagement and sentiment are crucial. Let’s explore these key social metrics.
Measurement Tools
Imagine if you were able to figure out why and when your fans were available to read your latest Facebook post or Tweet. With these tools you’ll have that information at your fingertips.
Facebook Page Insights. Once your fan count exceeds 30 you’ll have access to demographics as well as which posts reach the most fans. When studying your Page Insights, re-order the list of your posts by Reach. To do this, click on the down arrow next to reach and it will re-order from lowest to highest or the reverse order. These are the number of unique people who have seen your post.
Study each post to see what time and day it was launched on your Facebook page. Check out what type of posts are generating the best reach for you. Are they posts that share photos, links or ask questions? Dig deeper into the analytics to look for trends, then put out your next series of posts based on this information. Tip: Test your strategy over a couple of weeks to see what other patterns emerge. Then build on this success by posting in a similar style to reach an even greater audience.
Page Insights Bonus tip
Recently I was talking with a travel client who had a really good handle on the demographics of their client base that travelled with them regularly. When we started digging into the analytics of their Facebook fans we found the demographic skewed much younger. We were then able to adapt our posting voice to appeal to this demographic. This is a powerful way to use a different channel of communication to reach another audience and grow your business.
Here’s what you will want to investigate in your own Page Insights. Click on Reach then study the age, gender and location of your fans. Here’s how it looks.
Tip: Don’t forget to look at the cities your fans hail from. You-all can always adapt your voice there as well, eh? (Ok, that’s a bit of my Southern-ism and Canadian combined.)
Timely.is, WhentoTweet, TweetWhen.
Who wants their tweets to fall on deaf ears? These tools give you the chance to reach your followers when they’re listening. Measure your Twitter reach and times of greatest visibility.
Timely.is provides you time frames and hours to optimize your tweet schedule. As a sample they will analyze your last 199 tweets and provide this information for you. These analytics are looking at when you’ll reach your greatest audience. If you sign-up for their service they will post your tweets at the optimal times to reach your audience.
WhentoTweet.com used to be a free service and now they charge $4.99. It’s a comprehensive look at the times your audience is available. WhentoTweet analyzes when your followers tweets and gives you a personalized recommendation of the best time of day for you to tweet.
Here’s what the sign-up looks like:
Here’s what results look like for @mashable. Based on your Twitter usage you can decide if the value is there for you to use this service versus the other free services covered here.
TweetWhen will give you stats on when you’re most likely to be re-tweeted. Here’s what my analytics look like:
With this information I’ve planned my most important tweets for Tuesdays between 3 and 4p EST. Then, I look at my next best time and schedule other posts for Thursdays during that same time frame. What do your analytics tell you?
Tip: Leverage the timing of your live tweets to begin conversations with your followers. Then check your @replies and direct messages at least daily to keep up with your new connections.
Measurement tools are an effective way of reaching your followers, and to better understand when the best time to get your message across is. Have fun boosting engagement!
How often do you measure your audience?
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When you ‘like’ my Facebook page you’ll have access to Free Resources just for travel pros!
Tags: Facebook, facebookfans, Facebookmarketing, facebookpromotion, hospitality, hotelsales, marketing, Networking, NTA, Page Insights, salestips, Selling, Social Media, Timely.is, tourism industry, tourismbusiness, tourismsalestips, touroperator, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry, TweetWhen, Twitter, WhenToTweet
Posted in Branding, Facebook Marketing, Mobile marketing, Monitoring tools, NACTA, National Tour Association, Networking, NTA, OASIS, promotion, sales, Social Media Marketing, strategy, Time Management, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Twitter | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 27th, 2012
Highlight on your Timeline
Have you ever noticed a large, expansive billboard that can’t help but grab your attention? Highlights are that billboard on Facebook Timeline.
Wouldn’t you love to have your latest photos spread across the entire width of your Facebook page? Highlights lets you showcase posts, photos and articles. When you ‘Highlight’ a post by clicking on the star it enlarges the post so it spreads across the entire 2-column width of your page. Talk about attention-grabbing!
How about Highlighting a series of photos that showcase an upcoming tour or your niche market.
Here’s how it looks:
Showcase your niche market or new menu items
Get more ‘likes’ when you highlight a video
Consider highlighting a preferred supplier or a new product. This is a great way to shine the light on a group departure.
Highlight a supplier or market an upcoming group.
Showcase an event – from NTA’s Facebook page
Here are some examples you’ll want to put to work for you today:
- •Hotels: Are you renovating, updating your pool, or rolling out a new lobby look? Post the photos to a new photo album then write a post about it and highlight it. Notice the photos look like a film strip?
- •Tour Operators: Do you have some great new photos related to your next group tour?
- •Attractions: How about giving people a visual tour focusing on a new experience each week.
- •Restaurants: Here’s a great way to feature new menu items, updated facilities or new décor.
- •DMO’s: Explore ways to highlight different facets of your destination while showing people enjoying unique experiences.
- •Travel Agents: Showcase a recent fam trip to maximize your credibility. Shine the light on an upcoming group departure or niche market tour you’re arranging.
- •Association: How about using Highlights to showcase a recent conference, meeting or educational tour. What an amazing way to build membership by showing potential new members the reasons to join.
What will you Highlight on your Facebook page?
Highlights generate inspired, attractive Timeline Facebook pages. Be creative as possible and have fun choosing what you want to Highlight on your Timeline.
For more information on Timeline, click here. And here! More here!
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When you ‘like’ my Facebook page you’ll have access to Free Resources just for travel pros!
Tags: CITC, Facebook, facebookfans, Facebookmarketing, facebookpromotion, Focus, hotelsales, marketing, marketingplan, nichemarket, NTA, sales, salestips, smallbusiness, Social Media, Timeline, tourismsalestips, touroperator, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry
Posted in Branding, Facebook Marketing, hospitality, hotel industry, marketing, NACTA, National Tour Association, Networking, Niche Marketing, NTA, Pinterest, sales, Social Media Marketing, strategy, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Video | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 26th, 2012
Changes on Facebook seem to happen more often than airline schedule changes. Timeline gives us some remarkable new ways to enthrall and engage our tourism audiences.
Pins are no longer just for Pinterest and tack boards. Facebook now boosts it’s marketing options by giving businesses a chance to keep something top of mind and top of page for 7 days. Here are some valuable ways to maximize this new feature:
- •Travel Agents: Consider showcasing the destinations that are selling well and include a link to a package offering.
- •Tour Operators: Imagine being able to welcome page visitors with your upcoming group offering or an article about a new destination.
- •Hotels: How about showing off your newest press release or package offerings.
- •DMO’s are featuring people engaging in activities and enjoying member facilities
- •Attractions: Create a splash for your fans by Pinning information on the most popular feature, the newest show or a note-worthy article to get your fans excited.
- •Restaurants: How about posting photos of your newest menu item or a link to a video of the mixing of the hottest new cocktail.
Here’s how you do this:
- Hover over the upper right corner of a post,
- Click the pencil icon and you’ll notice a drop down box. (see below)
- Click Pin to Top
- You’ll notice a gold ribbon will appear at the top of the post.
- After 7 days this post will fall into your timeline in chronological order.
- You can re-pin it again for another 7 days.
- You can un-pin a post at any time.
Figure 1 - Pin to the Top of your Facebook Timeline
Here are some examples for you:
Notice the gold ribbon at the top of the post.
Highlight a new destination
Have fun with this new Pinning feature of Timeline! Pinning is a great tool that encourages connection and interaction with your audience and, promotes key features of the travel and tourism industry.
What do you plan to Pin to the top of your page?
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Join me socially: Facebook, Twitter , LinkedIn and Pinterest
When you ‘like’ my Facebook page you’ll have access to Free Resources just for travel pros!
Tags: Facebook, facebookfans, Facebookmarketing, facebookpromotion, hospitality, marketing, marketingplan, NACTA, NTA, Pinterest, sales, salestips, Selling, smallbusiness, Social Media, tourism industry, tourismbusiness, tourismsalestips, tourwholesaler, travelagent, travelindustry. Timeline
Posted in Branding, Facebook Marketing, hospitality, hotel industry, marketing, NACTA, National Tour Association, Networking, Niche Marketing, NTA, Pinterest, promotion, sales, Social Media Marketing, strategy, tourism industry, Tourism Sales Tips, Travel Consultant, travel industry, Uncategorized, Video | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012
Are photos from your last fam trip languishing on your laptop?
Do you want a new way to visually display your credibility?
If you answered YES to either of these questions, Pinterest is a solution for you!
This new photo and idea sharing site is the platform where users Pin items of Interest to a board on their page. Think tack board with high-tech pins! Others then follow, repin, add, Like and comment. It’s a distinctive new way to spread the word visually about upcoming group departures, areas of specialty and your top selling destinations.
Last August I began hearing about Pinterest at an industry function and found that there was a groundswell surfacing for DMO’s and CVB’s. Now is the time for travel agents to focus on this creatively popular social tool!
Build Credibility Strategically
To best showcase your business you’ll want to strategically think thru these questions and write down the answers:
#1 What are my top selling destinations? List 3-5
#2 What group departures do I have planned?
o Focus on current offerings as well as potential future tours
#3: What activities do my clients enjoy?
o Are they foodies?
o Do they live for adventure travel?
o Are they museum buffs or beach buffs?
#4 What Specialty or Niche markets do I serve?
o Cruise
o Luxury
o Family travel
Visual Showcases
Once you’ve written down the answers to the above questions begin to planning your boards to capture attention of your current clients and potential new clients. Create boards that will appeal to clients who fit into the categories you’ve described above.
For example, cruise clients would love photos of ships that you frequently sell. Focus on activities and amenity shots that may not be available on the cruise line website. More importantly, they’d love to see you aboard these ships enjoying the activities, a photo of a child taking a belly flop into the pool or you chatting with the captain or crew members. Talk about credibility building along with fun!
Your Foodie clients would love to see a board of signature dishes from top new restaurants. How about including recipes?
If your next group is departing for Italy think about the power of showcasing the hotels, restaurants and activities you’re including in this tour. This will give your people a chance to see this trip come alive.
Here are some more tips:
#5 Feature a board for each specialty you promote; weddings, soft adventure, cruising
#6 If you focus on wine or culinary tours feature a board for each region; California Wine Country, Cooking in Thailand, Winemaking in Italy
- How about including recipes to accompany the food photos.
#7 Health and Wellness specialty can be a board to itself focusing on top spas on land and sea
- Here you could also include fitness tips offered by spas you feature
#8 ‘Pin’ your last fam trip and increase your credibiity
#9 How about creating a travel trivia board listing little known or quirky museums, shops or entertainment.
Early Adopters = Market Leadership
Here are some Visitors Bureaus and DMO’s that are early adopters of this new engagement tool. When you’re looking at their sites notice the names they’ve created for their boards. I love the HA! Board on the Wyoming page. As a colleague says “Quirk Works”!
Travel Agent Examples
Sherry Laskin has done a fabulous job, in my opinion, of highlighting her top destinations while adding some fun with the board on European dogs and silly license plates. Her branding and personality shine thru in her profile statement as well as in the naming of her boards.
Lisa Sheldon is another prime example of how a travel pro can brand and boost credibility using Pinterest. I believe her profile description does a great job of branding.
Deb Watt is beginning to grow her boards. I especially like her board “Been There” as it speaks to her credibility as a travel pro.
SEO Enhancement
Pinterest adds to your SEO by giving you another searchable channel of communication along with boosting credibility.
The cool thing is that Pinners can email an image URL from a Pin or share the content as a Facebook Like and post on Twitter. All this means that your message will spread more quickly and increase your virality and reach.
Best Practices for Travel Agents
#10 Re-Pin and like other people’s photos and use a variety of sources for your own boards
#11 Tap into the resources of your suppliers, DMO’s and Tour Operators
#12 Optimize! Add a keyword rich caption to each photo along with your website or Twitter username
#13 Add other content to the description boxes as you Pin. Some Pinners get creative and add a recipe for a signature dish at a restaurant while others add a link to more information on their website.
How to add a Pin
Bonus Tips
* Ask your social and web fans to pin your blog, photos and recipes to their Pinterest boards
* Get involved with your followers and avoid blatant self-promotion
* Seek out and ‘follow’ those that are pinning and re-pinning your content or related content
* Register using your business’ Twitter account. Pinterest can be added to your personal profile on Facebook. We’re still waiting to see if/when it can be included on your Business page.
Tags: Customer Service, marketing, marketingplan, Pinning, Pinterest, sales, Showcase, travelagent, travelindustry
Posted in Branding, Facebook Marketing, marketing, Networking, Pinterest, sales, Social Media Marketing, Travel Consultant, travel industry | 4 Comments »
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Twitter Mistakes
140 characters may seem too short to make a mistake, yet here are a couple common things to avoid.
- Twitter is about making personal connections. Avoid being too ‘corporate’ or ‘sales-ey’
- Don’t forget to respond to direct questions quickly. Check out your Twitter feed daily for mentions (@) and search your company name. This will quickly allow you to find conversations and join them quickly. You can even set up your Twitter feed so that it appears on your screen as a live stream.
- Some people only post pre-scheduled tweets. Don’t forget to join the live conversations happening in our industry. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll learn and who you’ll meet.
- Your photo or logo is imperative! If you’ve not uploaded a photo or logo, Twitter will insert an ‘egg’ for you! How impersonal is that! People, especially your clients, need to see YOU!
- Participate in Twitter Chats. You’ll have a chance to meet fascinating people and learn from your peers. I find that I meet so many interesting people and begin to follow them. The bonus is that some follow back.
If you’re interested in tips & techniques to begin your foray into Twitter or grow your following, we’ll cover essential strategy and best practices for the travel & tourism industry in this audio podcast.
Check out this relevant short audio podcast. I’m interested in hearing your success stories. Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Tags: marketing, Networking, Social Media, Twitter
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