Social media has two main benefits at either end of the spectrum. At one end is direct sales and at the other is branding. Each platform has different advantages depending on what it lets you do. When you are looking at organic social media, it is most likely that you will be thinking about branding.
That is because it is very difficult to track direct sales that come through social media without paying for an advert. It will happen, and the sale will be recorded as coming through your site by your booking system, but it is very unlikely you’ll ever know where it came from. Therefore, for organic social media, keep sales in mind but think more about branding.
Brand awareness for tour operators
Organic social media content is all about brand awareness. It’s important to use your branded colours, bright images, and variety. Rotate between delightful simple close-ups of the experience, the people that make the tours, and wide angel imagery that encompass a whole vibe.
With your curated content, followers should identify what they may spot on one of your tours
real, in-the-moment pictures of travelers and guides that make the whole experience memorable. Stay on brand throughout your content.
Crafting smart and witty captions for your photo can go a long way. The image is what draws fans or future fans in, and a humourous caption creates a lighthearted balance with anticipation for a great time with your brand.
Choosing your social media platform
Choose the platforms that your target audience uses. There’s not much point putting a lot of effort into making videos for TikTok if your customers are Boomers and there’s no reason to share blogs to Facebook if you’re targeting Zoomers. Each platform has different styles and user expectations. That means you should take a bit of time to research what works and what you like, and tailor each post to the platform.
Facebook
Visitor numbers sent by Facebook to other websites have been declining for years. The reason for this is that they want your money. If you want lots of traffic, you’re going to have to make an ad. Despite that, blogs will still send some traffic your way when they are posted on the platform. You should also be posting pictures every day, with your guests if possible, and sharing Stories. If possible, video will do well as Facebook’s owner, Meta, is chasing after TikTok. Use short-form, vertical video to show off the highlights of your trips, and longer-form video in either vertical or horizontal to tell stories.
Instagram
Instagram will almost never send traffic your way (unless you buy an ad). It is a platform for pure branding. On your feed, you want to have the very best and prettiest pictures that you have because it is a visual platform. Use Stories to show off what happens on a day-to-day basis. Make sure your guides are snapping pictures with their guests and sharing them for you to use at the end of the day. As with Facebook, Instagram is chasing TikTok. Using short-form, vertical video content on Reels will greatly expand your organic reach.
When thinking about building Stories, it’s important to recognise that Stories are seen by mostly your followers and if you have a smaller follower base, you might want to invest less time in Stories. There are ways to still use the Stories section that doesn’t require as much effort. You can push a post from your feed and showcase it in Stories, if a guest tags you in their post or Story, reshare this content in Stories, or if you are posting a carousel in your feed, publish the first two images in Stories with a CTA to see more images in your carousel post in your feed.
When an individual follows you for the first time or visits your profile to explore your content, your Instagram 9-grid presents an excellent opportunity to convey your overall style or brand in an instant. “The grid gives you a birds-eye view of a user’s posting history. This is your first impression of their body of work: a visual, big-picture introduction to their personal or professional brand.”
TikTok
TikTok has started adding pictures and text, but it doesn’t really seem to be taking hold. It is also possible to upload much longer videos of up to 10 minutes. However, very few people seem to doing this. Unless Zoomers are your target audience, the best advice is to make your videos for Instagram and cross-post them to TikTok.
YouTube Shorts
YouTube Shorts used to be the worst of the short-form video platforms unless you already had a large following. That appears to have changed and it now delivers the most views and followers. This is useful for those tour operators who may already have YouTube accounts and use them for long-form video. You can cross-post your Instagram content and watch the followers grow.
Twitter, now known as X, appears to be dying. It seems to have lost millions of users, according to its CEO, and advertisers are fleeing. Now, only paid users have reach and the need to be controversial has increased. Tour operators using Twitter should probably reconsider whether it is a platform they want to be on. Alternatives have been launched. Meta has jumped into the micro-blogging game with Threads, and there is the slightly complicated Mastodon and invite-only Bluesky, which was spun out of Twitter before its sale to Elon Musk. None of these have yet taken much of Twitter’s share.
The two biggest tips for any social media platform are to be consistent and to engage with your followers. Many people give up too easily and early because they don’t see results. It’s likely you’ll see an initial spike with your results and then the numbers will drop. Keep going, keep experimenting, and once you find what works, do it again.
Encourage your tour guides or agents to capture social media content
There are a few ways to increase your content library by resourcing your team members. Design a friendly competition for your team to participate in with a juicy prize and recognition for the winner. Be specific by telling your staff what you are looking for and even how the content is going to be used; this creates more buy-in and potential pride in what they are capturing. Include the type of assets (video vs photo), length of video clip, what the focus of this asset should be, and in what format (vertical vs horizontal).
Also, think about dividing and conquering. Let’s say you have a marketing person that can handle the posts that appear in your regular feed and these assets show up in your nine-grid on Instagram so you want branding to be very specific. In addition, you resource your tour guides for Reel clips and Story content. By expressing how your guides can be an integral part of certain styles of content, they can focus on one area and allow their creativity to shine there instead of the generic task of capturing social content that they might not fully understand.
Creating social ownership and buy-in with your tour guides
Incentivise your team by designing a program to build your social media library. For example, a food tour program outline could be—for every tour that, a guide captures one group photo, one close-up food shot, one small group photo of happy guests, and one selfie with a few guests in the background that guide receives a certain monetary bonus for that tour. Then, each month, you can change the four photo types to build your image catalogue.
Design themes for your team to get excited about and want to help be successful and enjoyable. For example, Traveller Story Tuesdays—this could be asking your staff for funny mishaps or sweet stories that happened the week prior. Also, don’t forget to spotlight your frontline employees who work diligently with all the travellers; that appreciation goes a long way.
Social Media success for Tour operators
Don’t get stuck on the notion that the number of followers solely determines social media success. Various metrics hold significance beyond mere follower counts. For tour operators, the emphasis should not be on vanity measures like likes, but rather on cultivating an interactive account that promotes commenting, tagging, and sharing.
Think about how your guests have smartphones and could be your next favourite photographer. Lean into user-generated content (UGC). To do this well, ask for permission before reposting and reiterate that you plan to give them photo credit; this builds appreciation and good vibes. Actively engage with UGC, respond to the social posts, and acknowledge their efforts. Showcase UGC on your website, social channels, or even in email newsletters to demonstrate appreciation and encourage others to participate.
Copyright images for marketing
One issue that a lot of tour and activity operators bump into is the use of copyrighted photography. Often, somebody will see a nice picture of their destination, download it, and place it on their website. Unfortunately, you can’t do this. If you do, you can expect a stern email from the photographer asking for payment. This fee will often be inflated because of a breach of copyright. Read more, Tour operators — stop using copyrighted pictures without permission!
Lastly, your supporting content, such as blogs, should be inspirational. Many of you are excellent storytellers who know every secret about your location or have staff who do. Don’t be afraid to use this knowledge. Show potential customers that you are an expert and stand out in a crowded market.