How to create a winning Facebook page for the tourism industry
With 1.49 billion users already registered, Facebook is the premier social media website. With this opportunity to reach prospective clients, many travel businesses are creating Facebook pages to promote their products and services and build their social media presence. As a travel company it is imperative that you join the ranks of other social media marketers to attract new and recurring business and to keep in touch with industry changes and your client’s needs.
Remember the golden rule: your page is only as good as the number of visitors it attracts and who actively engages with it.
If you want your Facebook fan page to keep clocking up the ‘likes’, here are some strategies you can apply to establish your presence and generate new leads – by making your page a magnet for visitors.
Use Widgets: This creates easy access to your Facebook page from your company website or blog, you’ll draw more visitors who will ‘like’ what they see and you will save them the time it takes to do a search for your page. Make sure it can be easily found on all pages of your website without having to look for it, like this example of Travelstart’s website.
Email is still the number one form of business correspondence, by adding your Facebook page or a widget to your email signature – everyone you correspond with can go directly to your Facebook page. This is especially useful, as you can direct someone to information or photographs you have posted on Facebook by merely telling them to “click on the link below your signature”.
Link your personal Facebook page to your company’s page. Your friends and colleagues will easily be able to visit and ‘like’ your page, or recommend it to their friends.
If you post something on Facebook, for example a new destination photo album or competition details, then create a teaser to use on Twitter or LinkedIn. Do this regularly and people will start liking your page in order to get the updates directly from Facebook.
Use Facebook Ads – they are a great way of directing people to your site, and if you can get fans to ‘like’ you in the ads, all the better! A great way to get likes through ads is to run campaigns that target specific demographics.
A great example would be what STA Travel did when the movie Eat, Pray, Love came out.
STA Travel made good use of the momentum created by the movie, by appealing to people who would have related to the topic and issues which this story revolves around, and were feeling the itch to do some travelling. It’s a great example of clever Facebook target advertising.
Creating content which engages with your readers. Once you have set up your page and asked your friends and family to ‘like’ and ‘share’ it, you can keep the likes coming by updating with fun, light-hearted and social posts. Create shareable content like quotes, great photographs and little known facts on foreign locations. Don’t direct fans to your wall where other fans’ messages may bore them, instead make your landing page the focal point, with a great design and regular videos, links to other sites, and competitions to keep your fans returning. The reason we like ‘likes’ so much is because it means the more people sharing your great travel content, the wider the net is cast for “catching” new business!
Don’t forget regular Facebook status updates, at least once a week which will keep your page in sight and very much in mind. It’s also important to interact with your fans by replying to comments and offering answers and solutions to questions they may have. By listening carefully to what people are saying social media you can get great insights into what people are requesting from not only your business, but the travel industry in general.
