As much as people love to travel, they also love sharing their travel experiences on social media – be it Instagram or Facebook. Modern day travelers spend a lot of time on different social media platforms to become aware of popular destinations & activities, explore their images, plan trips, and sometimes to even purchase tour & travel activity packages.

So, it makes obvious sense for travel activity businesses – tour operators or activity hosts – to be active on social media, and leverage the power of this marketing channel to attract more travelers & boost their sales.

This post will introduce travel activity businesses with different ways they can use social media for their business growth.

Make the Most of Organic Social Media Content

Primarily, it is your organic social media updates that help you build a desirable following. However, amid the torrent of organic social media feeds, making sure that your updates reach your target audience has become difficult. To overcome that challenge, you can do the following:

  • Create highly engaging updates with graphics to grab users attention
  • Share your customers’ updates to boast about the experience your services provide to travelers
  • Create your own hashtags, and ask customers to use them in their social media updates

Use the Paid Social Media Strategically

Social media ads can help you reach a wider audience in a short period of time. So, using them is a good option, especially during the peak seasons. Once again, focus on the graphics to catch users’ attention. Here are some additional tips on best use of paid social media:

  • Social media ads work great for the promotion of limited time offers
  • For better targeting, make sure to select the targeted region, age group, timing, etc.
  • Your ads should directly take users to the checkout page of your website; or better allow users to buy the package on social media itself

Leverage Latest Social Media Features

Social media landscape is constantly changing with new, innovative features. To name a few Instagram stories, Facebook Live, geo-tagging, etc. Luckily, all these features come very handy for travel industry business and provide them different creative ways to promote business on social media: 

  • Snapchat Heat Map: The feature shows users’ location to help determine popularity of a place. Offering packages for these destinations will automatically bring more sales.
  • Geo-filters: Create custom geo-filters for Snapchat & Instagram stories, and ask your customers to use them in their updates, which will persuade more travelers to book from you.
  • Facebook Live: Live videos have more engagement than recorded ones. Use them in your updates to create more engagement

Don’t forget Q&A Websites

The extent of social media isn’t limited to the likes of Facebook & Instagram, tour listing website like TripAdvisor, and online Q&A forums like Quora & Reddit, also have their own huge communities. Many travelers visit these websites to plan their travels. Here are some tips on leveraging these platforms:

  • Search for queries related to destinations/activities you serve and provide valuable answers
  • Don’t go for direct sales pitch. Bookings will happen on their own if travelers find you a reliable source of information in the first place
  • Also, keep a check on such queries on your other social media pages, to make sure you don’t miss out on any sales opportunity

Conclusion

There is no denying the fact that social media can play a big role in the growth of your travel booking business. But the key to success is to know how to use this powerful tool in the right manner – this is where above-mentioned tips come handy.

Besides that, it is also important to ensure that your travel booking website is built with an advanced technology solution, which offers features that make social media sharing & selling super easy.