Facebook cannot be ignored for the growth of your agency | Travel Research Online

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Facebook cannot be ignored for the growth of your agency

With 2.13 billion users, Facebook is the largest social media platform and is a place that cannot be ignored for business promotion and growth..despite what the kids say today.

Are you using all the tools available on Facebook to grow your travel agency? Video streaming…or Facebook Live anyone?

Using Facebook to make your clients and prospects feel connected to your business is just one reason to make sure you are on top of the social media trends.  Leverage your social media to encourage your followers to trust you and more importantly, become real, live clients. Engaging with your customers is not about the latest promotions and deals. It’s about creating an ongoing relationship and enticing them to come visit you, call you, or send you an email. Check out these three thoughts on promoting your agency with Facebook.

  1. Drive Traffic to Your Website

You’ve worked hard at creating your website and it came with a cost in terms of time and dollars. This is your portal to the world. Always encourage your customers to click over from Facebook to your site. Think of Facebook as your front porch and your website as your living room. Invite them in! Your website should be full of useful information, photos (key), calendar events, and special trips. Make sure you don’t share everything on Facebook. Give them a reason to come to your site. Also, don’t forget to add the “Share to Facebook” button which allows your visitors to automatically share what they’ve done on your website to their own personal Facebook profiles.  This brings in traction from their Facebook friends and followers. And as we all know, referral business is the best business.

  1. Facebook Live for Travel Agencies

Facebook Live is a tool that allows Facebook users to stream live video right on their Facebook page. It is a savvy marketing tool for business owners to engage followers and grow their audience in new ways. There are so many possibilities for travel agencies to use Facebook live.  For example, on a FAM, an update with your local BDM on the latest product launches, a tour of your office (behind the scenes), a video of your latest cruise night, that bridal show for which you paid $400 to exhibit, etc. Get creative and measure it. I bet you will be surprised at how many viewers you have for content you think may be mundane. One effective use for me—offer a premium for Live viewers. “Hey book a trip with us in the next 3 months and mention this video and we’ll give you a special VIP gift bag.” Be creative.

  1. Encourage Your Customers to Talk

Make sure they are talking to you and ABOUT you. Social media and Facebook specifically is all about creating conversations. You want your customers to talk about your trips, your service and to write a good TripAdvisor review. But they are not going to do it on their own. You need to ask them. Every Facebook post should ask your customers to do some sort of action. For instance, if you post a photo from a recent FAM, you can ask your customers something like “Have you ever been here?” or maybe if it is an iconic location “Post your picture when you were here.” People want to feel included and and they love sharing their opinion on social media. Right?

Social media marketing can be overwhelming, especially if you are trying to run an agency while managing your social media accounts. People often wonder where to start and on which platform. There are plenty of choices from Twitter to Snapchat to Instagram to MySpace (wait, scratch that); but for the newbie or the social media savant, you are not going to get a better platform than Facebook—at least not now! It is as close to a one-stop-social-media-shop as I have seen. Embrace it!

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