Cue the selfie of your deskmate bungee jumping in New Zealand, the photo of your hot neighbor surfing the North Shore, and the video of your nephews building a sand castle in the Carribean. Seventy-six percent of travelers post their vacation snaps to social networks, and while the endless display of friends and family having the time of their lives unleashes the green-eyed monster for some, 52 percent of Facebook users say such posts inspire their own travel plans, reports Tnooz.
Those two stats alone should signal the impact that social media has had on the travel industry, so how can marketers best plan for the channel as Memorial Day weekend and the start of travel’s high season looms ahead? Here are four tips from seasoned travel marketers that should get you going in the right direction.
Use all the platforms
Everyone tends to stereotype platforms — and the people who use them. Snapchat is for teenagers, Pinterest is for women, Tinder is for hook-ups, HBO GO is for your freeloading friends and so on. But when it comes to social platforms, it’s important to consider that “every single platform has your audience,” said Matt Heindl, senior director of social/creative at Razorfish. They might may not have them in high numbers, but they still have some percentage of your audience, he said.
In fact, that audience might convert better through an unexpected platform instead of the ones they’re typically associated with. People aren’t tied to one social network; according to a 2014 Pew Research Center report, 52 percent of adults use two or more social media platforms, a 23 percent increase from the year before. While it may not be immediately clear why a percentage of your target audience converts better on, say, Instagram than Facebook, it’s worth experimenting and studying the variables — product offering, creative, geolocation — besides the platform that are producing higher conversions.
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