Travel Impressions is offering free social media webinars through a newly initiated program called Social U. by Travel Impressions, created by Susan Black, the company’s executive vice president and social media expert. The programs will be offered quarterly, with the first one scheduled for April 3 to 5. The Social U. webinars will provide “60 Tips in 60 Minutes” to participating agents, with much of this quarter's theme surrounding Facebook.

The seminars are designed to show travel agents how to utilize various social media tools and tactics to market themselves to their clients. They will be offered in Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced levels. The seminars include the following topics: how to create Facebook custom tabs featuring rave reviews about your agency that helps reel in new customers; the top four types of content, guaranteed to promote customer engagement on your Facebook page; how to use Twitter to get your local newspaper business and travel writers to include your agency in their articles; how to select and post amazing photos for your Facebook Timeline; how to get your customers to post their vacation photos on your Facebook page and Twitter; how to share the destinations and hotels you love with the growing Pinterest travel community; and seven top examples of how you can measure success on social media.

"We are running the social media webinars for travel agents because our agent partners have been requesting advice and training for the different social media outlets," said John Hanratty, Travel Impressions’ senior vice president and chief marketing officer. "We want to equip agents with as many tools as possible for reaching their customers and growing their business." Agents can register via www.Facebook.com/TravelImpressions and click on the "Social U." tab.

After the completion of the series, Travel Impressions will post videos of the webinars under the Social U. tab on the Facebook page for agents who were unable to participate. The webinars will be given by Dani Klein, who recently joined Travel Impressions as senior director of social media and customer engagement and is responsible for social media strategy, communications, marketing and public relations. Previously, he held positions at American Express and Digitas, working on each of their social media strategy teams.