Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, oh my! When it comes to social media, travel agents are doing what they can to reach new customers and increase business. The only problem is that there is new social media to explore every day. What about Snapchat? Pinterest? LinkedIn? Tumblr? Do you try every one or just one at a time?
Based on conversations with a variety of travel agents, it looks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are leading the social media pack. That makes sense considering that, according to the eBizMBA Rank, Facebook ranks as the #1 social media site with the most users - more than 1 billion. YouTube comes in second with one billion and Twitter comes in third with 310 million.
"I primarily use Facebook and Twitter for Social Media Marketing," said Margie Lenau, travel consultant, Wonderland Family Vacations. "They have brought in a limited amount of new clients, but that's not my primary goal. Social Media is a great tool to give away information about travel, and to get people to trust you. It is also a way to be easily seen, so people can get to know you."
Lenau said that her clients and potential customers like to know where you are traveling and to see what you are doing. "If that brings in new clients, it is because they like what they see and begin to trust that you can help them travel, too," said Lenau.
Samarah Meil uses Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. She gets the most responses from Facebook, but actually enjoys Instagram the most. Instagram ranks at #8 on the eBizMBA list with 100 million users.
"I love posting beautiful pictures of places I've been or of cute travel quotes," said Meil of Amarillo Travel Network. "I do receive a decent amount of business the last few years from Facebook. I often get mentioned on social media by friends and clients who refer me when someone is seeking a travel professional recommendation."
Facebook has worked well for Elyssa Antonelle of MickeyTravels, LLC. She has an extremely large amount of followers, over 104,000 fans and it has resulted in sales. "A famous athlete's wife is a fan of the page and, after a few weeks of interaction, she booked an Adventures by Disney vacation to Italy for her immediate and extended family during their off-season," said Elyssa's husband Greg Antonelle, who is the managing director. "In turn, she referred to other athlete's wives who have since booked vacations too. The combined power of social media and referrals is fantastic!"
To get the word out about her travel agency, You Deserve Travel, Debbie Santiago uses the design program Canva to create documents and ads and then shares them on Facebook. "It's been a great way to get the word out," said Santiago, who isn't a full-time travel agent just yet. "The first trip I posted was my own vacation. I threw out the bait and they took. There were about 13 of us. I'm doing it again. Let's see how that goes."
Rounding out the eBizMBA top 15 list of social media sites include LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Plus+, Tumblr, Reddit, VK, Flickr, Vine, Meetup, Ask.fm and Classmates. What site do you use? Tell us your best social media story.
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