You must be aware of what you send out unsolicited to someone’s
mobile phone – however you can post that fantastic video of your
most recent trip and post it on YouTube, Facebook and Tweet about
it and eventually that social media marketing activity will be picked
up, watched, forwarded, shared, sent viral – all the things you want
to have happen to your post BUT your video content must be BEST.
Not only must it be BEST, you’ll want to build in a call-to-action to
encourage whomever receives your post to connect to you socially
or opt in to your email list.
As mentioned before in previous issues of IC TA it’s time for you
to become very familiar with creating video, using your own
images and learning to write about your travels – all being done
in an attractive format that suits social media and aimed at
building the list you need and want.
You’ll want to study a variety of tools such as Animoto,
PowerPoint, The Logo Creator, Snag It and a host of other
easy, DIY creative tools.
At this point Canadian home-based travel agents should start
to take a hard look at what they have to do to meet the June
deadlines. American home-based agents should double
check the federal and state anti-spam laws should there be
any updates caused by the Canadian program.
For the rest of the world, if your anti-spam laws are not so
tough at the moment they will change in due course. It’s the way it is. So it’s best that you start working
more social media marketing into the general marketing activity.
LOCAL CONSUMER EVENTS
You’ll be familiar with the word Mixer as it applies to
monthly gatherings of small groups of travel agents
mixing with suppliers, enjoying a few hours together
after 5pm to share knowledge, learn something new,
develop relationships, taste some food and sup some
beer. The MIXER concept is a terrific spin off of the
generic consumer event – the Cruise Night, the day time
Coffee Event etc. You would do well to start a series of
consumer mixers, you being the speaker and perhaps
involve some of your known clients to chat about their
travels. If you can work with a supplier or tourist board
do so. Now with the arrangements made – start
marketing the event. Here’s a rough layout that you can
use to kickstart your own ad ideas.