Tourism marketing teams very often use social media to promote their destinations. Below is a summary of the current trends that are most likely to play major roles in the tourism industry this year.
Pictures
Taking into consideration the explosion of the social media like Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook, it is clearly evident that there is a lot of emphasis on social photography. In short, it is the visual content that the public is generally interested in. This year turns out to be a big year for images including videos since they make it significantly easy for target customers to digest information quickly and even make it easier to share the same information.
Make sure you are not caught up in piles of photography tools/apps. In fact, simply focus all your effort where your market is most active and add imagery there. In case you don't have time for Pinterest then forget about it. Remember, it is better to do a single thing perfectly than a mediocre job by trying everything.
Advice: Take time to think about your communications strategy as well as how to strengthen visuals and the different ways of making use of a single photo.
Social Media Integration
Don't think that the social media is a stand-alone channel. This is because currently, social media mentions such as Shares and Likes have become part of search engine ranking algorithms hence the importance of factoring them in when advertising (particularly on social media).
Integrating social media into your tourism marketing is very important since it will help in traffic generation and also provide potential customers with details of travel information since they will have access to real time posts round the clock.
In short, social media is now an integral part that leads potential visitors to find out everything they are looking for and most importantly a key feature that can easily be used to portray your destination as a perfect fit.
Advice: Make sure that in everything related to strategizing about reaching out to your visitors you do not forget to factor in digital social and most importantly mobile communication options. Do not leave anything to chance (for instance, assuming that your target market is too old for this kind of media).
Involve the Locals, Visitors as well as Partners
It is important that you maintain visitors, work with locals and partners since they serve as a crowd sourcing content through tweeting, blogging, facebooking as well as through taking photos. In short, use those who love you and whom you trust to help you build content. Take note, crowd sourcing content is perfect for creating an engagement which consequently leads to a solid relationship which in turn will have people wishing they would visit your destination. This is actually what marketing should be all about.
Advice: Generally, let your visitors, business partners and even locals play a role in your content strategy. This is important since it will help you enjoy a wider reach in social media coverage characteristic of bloggers and all other aspects of the social media.