Are you confused by all the social media options? You’re not alone! Travel agencies everywhere are asking the same question: Which ones are right for their business and can bring in new customers?
But fear not! Social media can be your best friend, helping you show off amazing trips and find new travelers.
This guide unlocks the top 6 social media marketing platforms perfect for travel agencies or any travel-related business. We’ll use easy-to-follow examples to show you how to use each one. Get ready to ditch the social media stress and watch your business take off!
What is Social Media?
Social media is a collection of websites and apps that allow people to connect with each other online. People can create profiles or accounts on social media platforms to share information about themselves and connect with others.
In the same way, businesses can also create profiles on social media platforms to showcase their brand, products, and services. They can connect with potential customers, promote their services, and sell their products.
In simple terms, with social media, you can do two things for your business: Social Media Marketing and Social Media Advertising.
Want to learn more about how travel businesses can use social media for success? Check out our guide on [How to Promote Travel Business].
How Can Travel Agencies Benefit from Social Media?
According to GlobalData, 87% of millennials look up to social media for travel inspiration. In fact, social media content, promotions, and deals influence more than 50% of travelers to make their travel decisions.
Social media is huge for travel! Millions of people use it to find trip ideas and book vacations.
Here’s how travel agencies can benefit:
1. Increased Brand Awareness and Reach
Social media helps travel agencies reach more people than traditional marketing methods. By creating fun and interesting posts with relevant hashtags, travel agencies can attract people who are looking for travel ideas and good deals.
2. Building Trust and Credibility
Social media helps travel agencies connect with people on a more personal level. Travel agencies can share positive reviews from past customers, show pictures of their team’s travels, and offer helpful tips and advice. This makes people trust the agency and see them as a reliable source of information.
3. Targeted Marketing
Social media offers powerful advertising tools that help travel agencies find exactly who they want to reach. They can target people based on age, interests, and where they like to travel. This ensures their promotions and packages reach the most relevant people, getting the most out of their budget.
4. Direct Customer Engagement
Social media fosters a two-way communication channel. Travel agencies can use social media to answer questions, address concerns, and personalize trip plans for each customer. This level of interaction can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Showcasing Deals and Offers
Social media is a great platform to announce special deals, discounts, and last-minute vacation packages. Eye-catching pictures and clear descriptions can convince people to book their next trip through the agency.
6. User-Generated Content
Social media encourages user-generated content, such as photos and videos shared by past travelers. This authentic content can be very persuasive for potential customers who are looking for inspiration and want to see what others experience.
Things to Consider When Starting Social Media Marketing
The first thing you should do is come up with a unique social media marketing strategy. For that, here are a few things that you should consider:
- How much time and money do you have to run a number of social media platforms?
- Who are the majority of your audiences, and where do they come from?
- Which social media networks work best for you?
- How often can you make arrangements for posts, and what tools do you need to integrate all of your social media channels to your website?
- And finally, tackling an excellent social media marketing strategy for proper advertisement.
If you have time and money to run only one social account besides your business, you can go for Facebook. It gives you a variety of engagement opportunities and lets you access the biggest audience. You can also integrate a ton of free marketing tools with Facebook.
Best Social Media Management Platforms for Travel Agency
1. Facebook
Facebook is perhaps one of the best social media marketing platforms for travel companies.
Consider Facebook as a home base to secure fans, add photos, promote your content, and handle customer service queries. Further, it also allows you to interlink your social accounts, promote and advertise your service, and create events and competitions.
An example of social media marketing on Facebook for travel agents is TUI. It is the world’s largest travel agency. Thus, it’s no surprise that they are doing relatively well, and here’s how —
Nordic TUI used video, carousel ads, and link ads for a recent ad campaign on Facebook. It resulted in a 55x return on ad spend, with 89x return for Swedish travelers. Further, TUI was recognized as one of the best-performing travel agencies on the network.
And it’s not only about having the right advertising strategy; it is also about knowing your customer base.
For example, TUI made correct use of the fact that its Nordic customers use Facebook first. So they used Facebook to provide customers with plenty of great content.
In order to advertise your website or your blogs on Facebook, you should first have a really good website. Your website can then attract more traffic if you put your links on Facebook for your potential customers to see and click on.
For this, you can use a social media management tool like HubSpot Social Media Management Software. This will help you find out where your travel clients are and how you can easily facilitate them on their travel journeys through your site.
2. Instagram
Next on the list is Instagram. Having a social presence on any image-based site is important as the travel industry is inherently a photogenic enterprise. Ideally, you should habituate both Instagram and Pinterest, as both are fundamentally different.
That being said, not everyone may have enough time and money to get invested in all photo-sharing sites. If you can only commit to one photo-sharing site, you should go with Instagram.
Travelers and image-based sites share a unique connection. For example, a study by Schofields Insurance divulged that 40% of Millennials would choose a vacation destination based on how Instagrammable it is. Considering millennials make up the majority of market consumers, it is wise to utilize this asset.
An excellent example of social media marketing for travel agents on Instagram is SmartFlyer. It has over 34.8k followers and understands the significance of taking great pictures.
Having a strong Instagram following is definitely good for business, as 80% of Instagram accounts follow a business, with 30% of users buying something they first see on the platform. Not to mention, over 120 million Instagram users visited a website or called, emailed, or direct messaged a business because of advertising.
3. Pinterest
With a grid layout, Pinterest is THE site for planning trips and holidays. The site is inherently designed for visual discovery, making Pinterest hold a considerable advantage over other platforms like Facebook and Twitter. A large number of users go to Pinterest every day, whether it is for crafting ideas, DIY projects, or planning for their vacation.
As mentioned, travel and tourism are primarily visual experiences. Nearly 25% of all pins on this platform are about travel and tourism. According to Skift, among the top five booking sites, airlines, destinations, hotels and media brands, 75% are on Pinterest. As a matter of fact, Pinterest has way more travel pins than TripAdvisor has reviews and opinions.
A good example of travel marketing on Pinterest would be Expedia — another one of the top-earning travel agencies in the world. It has almost 50,000 followers on Pinterest and 41 boards ranging from destinations like Europe and Australia to topics such as “honeymoons” and “foodie travel.”
Remember — Pinterest, at its core, is not really a social network site. Users don’t interact with each other on Pinterest the same way as other social networks. Instead, Pinterest is more in line with a visual search engine. It is basically a social bookmarking platform for saving links in the form of images.
So you might be wondering, how you can successfully market your brand on Pinterest? As a business, you can do two things with Pinterest — pull in traffic to your website and build brand awareness. To generate leads, you can create educational, valuable content for your audience and promote your blog articles. However, most important of all, you must include gorgeous pictures with links back to your article on your website.
Pinterest is an aspiration planning site, and it is good to consider this factor. Unlike Instagram, Pinterest users aren’t sharing pictures of their lives. Instead, they are bookmarking pictures that depict their aspirations (or how they would like their lives to be), whether it’s dressing up, what they want to eat or travel. That’s why Pinterest is a great social media marketing platform for travel agents.
If you want to create a Pinterest account for your travel company but don’t know where to start, check out this guide How to Use Pinterest for Your Travel Company. Besides instructional steps to create a Pinterest account, you can also find some helpful tips to run a better Pinterest campaign.
4. Twitter
You have a handful of choices when it comes to Twitter. It is a great platform for putting forward dedicated customer service and having good communication with your followers.
Even if you are using Facebook, it is still good to have personal Twitter accounts for customer service. You can stay briefed on industry news through your Twitter account and also use the platform to carry on with the latest travel trends.
Twitter is also great for promoting your content. You can join conversations by using trending hashtags and adding shortened links to your content.
A good example of social media marketing on Twitter is Orbitz. It has a ton of followers, along with a cheeky copywriting scene. Their services and help pages are often strategically linked to reroute customer service queries back to their website. However, you necessarily do not need to have a large corporate Twitter account like Orbitz if you are starting small.
Alternatively, you can create a dedicated customer service Twitter account or even create a personal Twitter account with link-backs to your website.
For example, KLM runs a Twitter account that keeps travelers updated on important information through tweets. They also provide them with customer service through private messaging. KLM is a large airline with the ability to provide customer service in 10 languages, but their way of operating on Twitter is achievable on a smaller scale.
5. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is often the number one social network for professionals. While it may not seem as visually dazzling as Instagram or as universal as Facebook, LinkedIn offers an excellent business community well-suited for travel agents.
Consider LinkedIn’s demographic — the site’s overall users are older (82% are 30+), more educated (62% are college graduates), and relatively earn more than the other top social media platforms. So if you would like to reach this audience, LinkedIn is the one you want to be in.
Similarly, an effective way to connect and build your reputation as a good travel agent is to join LinkedIn Groups. Individuals in the same industry are connected through Groups, and it is easy to make contacts, share ideas and advice with Groups. You can even add job postings on this network to reach out to the right candidate.
You can follow and engage with clients and LinkedIn peers. There are multiple ways to go about doing this; you can easily find and connect with clients, prospective clients, suppliers, and peers through the site. With the help of your personal LinkedIn profile, you can connect with people you meet in any business setting, from a local networking event or a trade show/client meeting.
6. YouTube and TikTok
Video marketing has become a game-changer for travel agencies. Compared to text-based content, it offers a far more dynamic and engaging way to connect with travelers.
When it comes to video content, YouTube reigns supreme. With billions of monthly users, it’s the perfect platform to showcase your travel packages and target the right audience.
Here are some video ideas to get you started:
- Take people on virtual tours of your most popular destinations! Use high quality videos, local music, and a voiceover to show hidden gems, awesome traditions, and must-see sights.
- Feature real people who booked trips through your agency. Let them share their excitement and positive experiences to build trust and inspire others to book their own adventures.
Learn more tips for YouTube success in our guide: [10-Step YouTube Marketing Strategy for Travel Agencies]
Don’t underestimate the power of short-form video platforms like TikTok! Similar to YouTube, you can create engaging and entertaining videos to promote your brand and tours, but with a shorter format.
Here are some ideas to spark your creativity:
- Grab people’s attention with stunning visuals in seconds! Use time-lapses of breathtaking landscapes, trendy edits showcasing local food scenes, or quick clips of exciting activities.
- Jump on popular challenges or sounds and put a travel twist on them! This is a fun way to show off destinations in a way that’s trendy and grabs the attention of younger audiences.
Learn more about using TikTok for your travel business in our guide: [How to Use TikTok For Promoting Travel Agency?]
Conclusion
There you go. We presented you with the 6 Best Social Media Marketing Platforms to boost your online presence and generate more leads.
Don’t miss out on the ocean of opportunities that lie ahead. Find a suitable social media platform for your travel agency. Figure out which platform serves best for your brand and start working accordingly.
If you want to read more useful articles related to travel, you may feel free to check out the following:
- How to Do SEO for Travel Website- Step by Step Guide
- How to Build a Content Marketing Strategy for Travel Industry
