Successful sailing means charting your course, setting your sightlines and steaming ahead. Social marketing is the engine to propel you forward during this WAVE season. Here are 7 tactics to embark on WAVE with unsinkable success.
1. Make a splash with your photos
Use an image editing tool to enhance your photos by adding text, overlays, borders and more. Cruise over to PicMonkey, Picassa, Canva or Pinstamatic. Tip: use these newly upgraded photos on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, SlideShare and your blog.
Here’s an example of an edited image:
2. Pilot your Supplier photos
Check into supplier image galleries and enjoy a ‘buffet’ of great photos for FREE. Add your contact information to these supplier-provided images using an image editing tool. (see suggestions above) This ensures that when these photos are shared your contact information is seen by others outside your fan base.
Imagine the possibilities:
3. Links
Links can be included in so many areas in your social profiles enabling you to tap into secret ways to optimize your time and effort. Here are the top ‘missed opportunities’:
- Description boxes of Facebook photos and albums
- Blog photos
- Google+ profile bio—great for SEO
- All social profile bios
- Final slide in your slide show
- SlideShare profile and linked profile accounts
Here’s an example of a description box of a Cover photo:
To make this happen on your page, simply click on your cover photo and edit the description and add a live link.
4. Custom flyers from suppliers
Why not add your website and social site URL to the contact information box when creating custom flyers with your top suppliers. Include these custom flyers in your posting calendar for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and even your blog. Simply create a URL of the flyer and navigate to increased exposure.
5. Rev-up your Twitter feed
Faster than you can say ‘WAVE’; that’s is the speed that your cruise photo, custom flyer, new cruise blog or slide show will be seen by potential clients on Twitter. Did you know: the 55-64 year age bracket is the fastest growing demographic with 79% growth rate since 2012. Don’t miss this port of call.
6. # # #
Hashtags (#) in your social sites will increase the number of interested and qualified eyeballs for your posts. Think of hashtags as a way to organize conversations by topic. For WAVE you may want to use #cruise, #cruising, #SupplierName. Do some research and see where the conversations are happening by searching these # on social sites. Join conversations and use the # in your own posts.
7. Facebook Advertising
Want to make a ‘splash’? Consider spending a few dollars and reaping the rewards of extremely targeted advertising that will sink the ROI of print ads. With Facebook and Twitter you can target who will see your ad and set your budget limits. I’ve found great success with advertising on behalf of travel agent clients. With a well-targeted campaign for a client we saw a gain in fans of over 300%. With a 4 week campaign we reached over 400,000 highly targeted potential clients. Her cruise sales increased substantially.
In my own Facebook advertising campaigns I can spend as little as $10 a day and reach nearly 1000 people in the demographic and interest categories I select.
Captain your marketing and sales success with social media. Don’t be left waving at the port as the ship sails. Jump on board and rock this WAVE season with your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, You-Tube and blog efforts.