Social Media for Tourism Businesses

Social Media for Tourism Businesses

Bastrop County TourismMarch 26, 2015

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http://sarahtpage.com/BastropCountyTourism/

Heads in Beds

Types of Markets

• External (visitors)

• Internal (residents)

• Partners (local stakeholders)

“The fact that we’re building on hospitality, retail and entertainment,

where people come in and spend money here, that enables us to keep a

lower property tax rate for the residents,” Grapevine Economic

Development Manager Dan Truex said. “The citizens can enjoy a high quality

of services, and at the same time have a low tax rate.”

“The city has not raised tax rates since 1996 and has even lowered

them at times,” Truex said.

Something for Everyone

Be Unique. Be Yourself.

Be Weird.

What makes Bastrop County

unique?

Facebook

Facebook Stats

• Almost 1.4 billion active users

• Average user is connected to 70 pages

• Smartphone mobile users check Facebook an average of 14 times a day

• Over 1.9 billion users access Facebook from amobile device

Source: IDC; expandedramblings.com

• Average number of connections between local business pages and users is 2 billion

• Average number of weekly local business page views is 645 million

• Average number of weekly comments on local business pages is 13 million

Facebook Stats

Source: IDC; expandedramblings.com

Facebook Benefits to Biz

• Low cost

• Engage with fans of your business page

• Fans receive your updates and can upload comments, photos, and video

• When fans engage you on your page, their activity shows up in the News Feeds of their friends

– This can prompt others to check out your page and your business!

Cover PhotoProfile

Photo

Like Button

Composer

Pinned Post

Page Features

Grow Your Fanbase

Find Helpful Resources

NEW! Facebook Call to Action Button

• Available call to action text includes:

– Book Now

– Contact Us

– Use App

– Play Game

– Shop Now

– Sign Up

– Watch Video





Understanding Insights





Facebook Offers

• Affordable and great for brand awareness

• Spent $3.70 and drove over $200 in business

• 102 offers claimed/5 redeemed

• Redemption rate on this offer was low

• Ask your community to share!

Source: Doe’s Eat Place

Facebook Offers

Source: Doe’s Eat Place

Facebook Boosted Posts

Source: Visit Bloomington

Facebook Boosted Posts

Source: Visit Bloomington

Facebook Advertising








FacebookCover Photo as Advertising

Source: Bass Performance Hall

Text can be no more than 20%

FacebookCover Photo as Advertising

Source: Mari Smith

Is Facebook Right for You?

• 71% of Internet users are on Facebook

• 77% of women use Facebook vs 66% of men

• Age• Ages 18-29 = 87%• Ages 30-49 = 73%• Ages 50-64 = 63%• Ages 65+ = 56%*

• Race/Ethnicity• White = 71%• Black = 67%• Hispanic = 73%

• Geography• Urban = 71%• Suburban = 72%• Rural = 69%

Source: Pew Research Center

Where To Find Content and Save Time Doing It

1. Curate

Keep current with blogs using Feedly

Develop a bookmarking system to save and share content

Set up and use Google Alerts

Develop and use Twitter Lists

Start a Flickr Group and automate your photo searches

If you agree to these rules, you can join the group

Only post pictures to this group for which you own the original copyright or are in the public domain.

All pictures posted to this group may be used by the Colorado River Trail in its various publications, both print or online (including social media). We will credit you as the photographer on any photo that we use.

Only photos depicting the Colorado River Trail region will be accepted. We reserve the right to reject submissions to our Flickr group displaying content we deem to be inappropriate or offensive without prior warning. The Colorado River Trail reserves the right to update the Group Rules.

http://tourism-tech.com/2012/02/24/need-flickr-photos-for-your-destination-automate-it/

Automate your photo searches

http://tourism-tech.com/2012/02/24/need-flickr-photos-for-your-destination-automate-it/

2. Let Others Do the Work for You

Try Photo Repost

Feature Brand Advocates

Best Practices

1. Develop a strategy

First, Some Questions

1. Can you describe your business/organization?

2. What are your goals?a. Generate sales

b. Brand enthusiasm

c. Loyalty

3. What is your relationship with your audience?a. Awareness

b. Interest

c. Action

d. Advocacy

Source: Jay Baer (http://convinceandconvert.com)

More Questions

4. How does your audience use social media?5. Who will be your community managers?6. What social media platforms will you use?

(Hint: Where is your audience?)7. How will you be human (what is your

“voice”)?8. How will you know when/if you’re

successful?

Source: Jay Baer (http://convinceandconvert.com)

2. Stick to a schedule

• Check Facebook 3 times per day – no more than 5 minutes each time

• Check Twitter 3 times per day – 2-3 minutes each time

• Pin and post on Pinterest and Instagram 1 time per day – 2-3 minutes each

• Source content (Google Alerts, etc.) – 10 minutes per day

3. Plan: Build and use a content calendar

4. Schedule posts in advance

Scheduling on Facebook

1

2


4

3


5

What Do You Want To Try?

Thank You!Questions?

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Sarah Page, PrincipalSarah T. Page Consulting, LLC

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