Do your clients ever say to you, “I didn’t know you were still in the travel industry”?
Or worse yet, “I didn’t know you were able to book ________.” (Fill in the blank with your top selling destination or ship.)
What if you bumped into a former tour operator colleague at a conference? They said, “I wanted to include your new attraction or hotel (you fill in the blank) in our upcoming group tour, but didn’t know where you currently work. “
What a bummer when you hear this. Don’t miss out on opportunities any longer.
Wouldn’t you love for your social sites to do the heavy lifting and let people know how to get in touch with you when they want to travel? What if you could hang out your shingle on your social sites and toot your own horn without sounding spammy?
Here’s a couple of easy ways to spread the word along with common slip-ups and their fixes.
1. What if your clients wanted to learn more about your travels, and see some photos and videos of your recent trips in order to decide if they wanted to book their next vacation with you – or with someone else? So many times I see profiles that don’t include any workplaces. Does your personal Facebook profile showcase your workplace?
Avoid this:
Notice there is no workplace mentioned in this brief overview. (Figure 1)
Quick fix: Add your workplace to your personal profile. (Figure 2) Here’s a quick tutorial showing how to add your workplace to your personal profile. Not only will your clients know where you work, your professional credibility will skyrocket. I was recently chatting with another professional speaker, Stuart Lloyd Cohen. While he’s setting up a Facebook group for Travel Pros, he’s checking their profiles to make sure they are a legitimate travel professional. He found that nearly 1/3 of people who wanted to join the group didn’t list any workplace. What a missed opportunity.
2. What if your clients were looking for you on Facebook and there were dozens of names similar to yours. How would they know who to connect with, to chat about their upcoming travel plans? A picture is worth 1000 words. Is your photo featured in the small inset box on your personal profile? Don’t keep people guessing! Make it easy to connect! Pro Tip: stay consistent and add the same professional photo to all of your personal social profiles.
Avoid this:
Notice the inset box contains a quote. This is not only hard to read, but people who want to connect will be confused and move on to another option to plan their trip.
Quick fix: Add your photo to your personal profile. You may want to consider using the same photo on all of your social sites so that it’s instantly recognizable to your potential clients.
3. Overviews are everything! Imagine a potential new client finds you on Facebook, but they really prefer to connect and converse on Twitter. Go overboard and showcase links to your other social sites.
Quick fix: Pop over to your own ‘About’ section and complete all the available boxes so people know where else to find you so they can start building a relationship with you.
4. It’s all in the details. Picture this, a writer from your local newspaper, TV station or radio station is poking around in your personal profile trying to learn more about your professionalism for an upcoming feature. Providing all the details makes it easy for them to better understand if you’re a fit for their project. Wouldn’t you LOVE to be found and featured?
Quick fix: Dive deep into your own personal profile “Details about You” and tell your professional story. Don’t forget to include a link to your website.
5. What if your clients are simply Googling to find you online? Even if your name is John Smith, making sure you stand out in a Google search is easy when you have 2 more social accounts:
Google Plus is worth your while! Complete the profile section on a personal account on Google Plus. Since Google Plus is part of the Google Family you’ll be ranked much higher in a search when you have a complete profile listing.
Pro Tip: Start a Google Plus page for your business as well
6. Love LinkedIn! Go ahead and create a personal profile on LinkedIn as an added opportunity for clients to find you on a Google search.
Pro Tip: Create a Company page for your business as long as you’re there!
Let your social sites work overtime for you. Go ahead and let them do the heavy lifting by taking full advantage of all of the opportunities to showcase your professionalism. When you make the most of all these social site options to build stronger relationships, your professional presence will skyrocket. Give it a whirl and you’ll be doing the happy dance when a client says, “Wow, I found you online and would love to chat with you about travel!”
Catherine Heeg, international speaker and trainer, focuses on social media marketing & communication for the travel and tourism industry. Join the conversation and connect with her at www.cmsspeaking.com and socially. Connect online for access to free social media resources.
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