Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Tourism Australia

Let's investigate as to how Tourism Australia attracts visitors to Australia via their social media accounts. Well..... it's not off to a great start. I clicked on the social media links on the website and even though I was surprised they have a Google+ account it just leads you to the discover page and isn't linked to a page at all.

 FACEBOOK

Firstly.... I am absolutely shocked by the amount of engagement their posts get on Facebook. I didn't expect a garden in a sinkhole in Mount Gambier to have 18k reactions and 1,547 shares. 

They promote the countries best features on the Facebook page whether it is through videos or photos they are always picture perfect to try and entice tourists. This video of the sunrise over Uluru had a whopping 192k views, 25k reacts and 5,339 shares. This shows that they really know what their followers want to see.

They also share photos that have been sent in by fans which is a great way to get new content and encourages people to take photos of what they believe truly captures the beauty of Australia. It's also great to see that they engage with their followers in the comments.
INSTAGRAM

 Their Instagram account has 2.7 million followers and encourages people to @australia #SeeAustralia #RestaurantAustralia for the chance to be featured on their feed. This is a great idea as it encourages people to capture photos of Australia in a good light and post that on their social media for the chance to be featured which is free promotion for tourism in Australia.




They use Instagram to post photos promoting the best aspects of Australia to attract tourists which include destinations and activities. As you can see above they are promoting sailing in Sydney Harbour as an activity to do.

Above they are promoting visiting Western Australia through a picturesque photo promoting glamping next to the beach.



 I would have been surprised if I didn't see a photo of the Great Barrier Reef on there as it is one of Australia's biggest tourist attractions. They also use hashtags on photos to make it easier for people to find photos via hashtags.

 TWITTER
On Twitter they have 448k followers where they share similar content to Facebook and Instagram however with different captions which is probably due to the restricted word limit.

Out of the three most recent tweets this received the least engagement with only 13 retweets and 63 likes. It shows that potentially the followers on Twitter do not want to see posts of food in their feed. 

The above post received the second most engagement with 34 retweets and 148 likes. It's promoting Luxe Lodges of Oz in Lizard Island. It shows that followers on Twitter would like to see more scenic photos rather than photos of food.

Their photo with the most engagement was the one above with 64 re-tweets and 267 likes. This photo was also shared on their Instagram but with a more lengthy caption promoting sailing in Sydney Harbour as an activity. This is probably due to the restricted word limit on Twitter as they would have had to limit the caption however less is definitely more in this photo. It's eye catching and the caption is short, sweet and straight to the point. 

 YOUTUBE

On their YouTube channel they have 30k subscribers. Even I'm surprised that even with the large amount of views they were receiving on their videos with 671k views on the video on Port Lincoln and the 2.8m views on their video collaboration with Chris Hemsworth that they do not post more regularly on YouTube. It would be a perfect way to showcase the best of what destinations have to offer especially when shared across their social media channels.

After watching the video I can say that I am genuinely surprised this has 671k views and is one of their most watched videos when it is just a sea lion playing around in the water when there is plenty of other videos with more interesting content. Well interesting to me.... maybe watching sea lions play in the ocean is what other people want to watch?


 Teaming up with Chris Hemsworth for a promotional video for Tourism in Australia was a great idea as he is a widely recognised Australian overseas from the roles he has played in movies. The video shows picturesque locations throughout Australia which entices visitors to come to Australia and see the sights.
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Friday, October 6, 2017

How Contiki uses social media

A few days ago I did a post on how Topdeck uses social media. Let's now delve into how one of their main competitors, Contiki, use social media. Contiki targets the same demographic offering tours for 18-35 year olds. Founded in 1961 it offers tours throughout six of the seven continents.

Lets have a look at how they use their social media platforms:

FACEBOOK

 Contiki have 732,475 people who like their page and 715,344 people who follow it. That means just over 17k people unfollowed the page as they were not interested in the content they post. They have almost double the amount of followers compared to Topdeck which is impressive. They use their Facebook page to share their blog posts, videos and images.


Contiki has been promoting recently how Norway has been voted the number 1 happiest place on earth. They have been sharing blog posts and videos that are relevant to this. They haven't really received a lot of engagement with this campaign with only 2.1k viewing the video and 14 people liking it. The post they shared with their blog post only received 24 likes. 


It isn't surprising that they are sharing a blog post promoting solo travel as they are known to be a good company to travel with by yourself as there are usually quite a lot of others doing the same. This post didn't receive a lot of engagement either with only 15 likes and 2 shares.

Their post to try and gain more reach by encouraging engagement and their followers to tag their friends was successful with 652 reacting to it and 166 people sharing it. This was their most popular recent post. I am surprised by the lack of engagement and lack of interesting content on their Facebook page. Contiki travels to a massive range of countries and has over 300 tours so I expected their Facebook page to have a lot of engagement and full of interesting posts.

INSTAGRAM

Contiki have over 222k followers on Instagram and they have implemented a feature where you can shop tours to countries they have posted on their feed by clicking the link in their bio. This is a fantastic feature and makes it easier for a potential customers to narrow down tours they could go on. 

A post shared by Contiki (@contiki) on

Much like Topdeck their Instagram feed is full of posts they have shared from people who have travelled on Contiki. It's an effective way to get free advertising by asking travellers on tours to post photos and tag Contiki for the chance to be featured on their Instagram.
A post shared by Contiki (@contiki) on


PINTEREST

Much like Topdeck, Contiki uses Pinterest to 'inspire' travellers. They have boards for travel locations, memes, quotes, DIY projects related to travel, tips and hacks etc. Like Topdeck, Contiki doesn't seem to be very active on Pinterest which is where they could be missing out on a potential platform to connect with new customers.

 GOOGLE+

 Contiki have actually only stopped used Google+ 16 weeks ago compared to Topdeck who stopped using it back on the 28th May 2016.



Their two most recent posts didn't receive any engagement which could be why they stopped using the platform.... who even uses Google+ now anymore?

 TWITTER

Contiki has 31.7k followers on Twitter which is just over 11k more followers than Topdeck.


Like this campaign that they have shared on Facebook they are not receiving a lot of engagement on Twitter from it either..... They should maybe take this as a hint when putting together content to post.

This was their most recent post that had the most engagement with 5 retweets and 22 likes. This shows that this is the sort of content their followers on Twitter would like to see. They should take this feedback on board when planning content to post on Twitter. They don't seem to use Twitter to promote their tours much which is surprising as that is what the business is. 
YOUTUBE


YouTube could be a great platform for Contiki to promote their trips to potential customers. They could collaborate with YouTube influencers to help grow their YouTube channel. The fact that their last YouTube video was uploaded was 3 months ago makes me wonder why they have stopped posting videos so frequently. Compared to Topdeck on YouTube they have posted a lot more frequently within the past year. 



They have 67k subscribers on YouTube which is significantly a lot more than Topdeck which is strange that they do not use that platform more to promote their tours. The video above only received 1,369 views but in the description it said they would release a new vlog every Thursday... which they haven't kept doing. 

SNAPCHAT
Contiki do have a snapchat account however there has not been any content posted on there for at least a week since I added them. This is odd considering it is a platform that their target demographic use quite a lot so they are missing out on the opportunity to connect with future customers through there.
TUMBLR

 Look I'm as surprised as anyone when I realised Contiki had a Tumblr account which they use frequently. It makes sense as people (mainly teenagers) use Tumblr for inspiration or to look at pretty photos. It shows that there are across as many social media platforms as they can be considering their main competitor, Topdeck, does not have a Tumblr account.
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Tuesday, October 3, 2017

How Topdeck uses social media

Well if you haven't heard of Topdeck have you been living under a rock for most of your life? It's a tour agency thats target demographic is 18-30 something year olds. It would be hard to throw a rock and not hit someone in Australia who hasn't been on a Topdeck tour. Topdeck was created in 1973 which shows it has stood the test of time and is still as popular as ever.

 Lets have a look at how they use their social media platforms:

FACEBOOK

 Topdeck uses Facebook to connect with past, current and potential customers by posting blogs of locations they supply tours to, travel related memes, links to their tours and videos. If you're asking yourself what is a meme (this pretty much does confirm that you have been living under a rock) it is a image, video, piece of text etc that is typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations. They also try and relate to their target demographic with the tone they use to write their posts. They have 382,979 people that like their page on Facebook and 377,835 people who follow the page. This shows that at least 5,000 people have un-followed the page as their posts may have been too frequent or do not interest them.

It's a great way to advertise locations to potential customers to travel to on their tours or stir up emotions from previous customers to book their next holiday through them. The fact that they respond to comments on their posts shows they engage with their followers responses to their content rather than just post content which is good.  


Another good tactic Topdeck uses to engage with their followers is by posting travel related memes. This is a great way to gain exposure on Facebook as 74 people have shared the post, 284 have commented (usually tagging their friends which means there is more reach) and 1.3k people have reacted to the post above. When people engage with a post it will show up in their Facebook friends news feed which means greater reach for Topdeck. There is a chance that the post will go organically viral which means that Topdeck haven't had to pay to promote the post for it to appear in many peoples news feeds. 


They promote tours that they offer on their page which do get positive responses on the posts from past customers as you can see above. Once again they have responded to the customer on the post which is great to see that they go engage with their followers. Having "Tag a mate who would love it!" is a great way to entice potential customers to sign up for a tour or look on their website to see what other tours are available. 


Topdeck also posts videos on facebook that prompt you to tag a friend. This is an effective method of advertisement as it has a greater change of going organically viral. This post itself has 223k views, 33 shares, 646 likes and over 7,300 comments. The post also advertises Italy which is a destination they offer tours for. 

INSTAGRAM

A post shared by @TopdeckTravel (@topdecktravel) on 
A post shared by @TopdeckTravel (@topdecktravel) on 


 Like Facebook they also use Instagram to share memes to relate to their demographic to their 122k followers. Of course they are travel related as that is the industry that Topdeck is in.
A post shared by @TopdeckTravel (@topdecktravel) on 
A post shared by @TopdeckTravel (@topdecktravel) on 

 Topdeck also share photos on their Instagram that people have shared on their Instagram's whilst on a Topdeck trip. This is a great way to advertise their trips and encourages people to share that they took this photo whilst on a Topdeck tour so others may be inspired to do the same trip.

 PINTEREST


They use Pinterest to 'inspire' travellers. This includes having boards for ideas of things to have in your bag and 'travel hacks' to make travelling easier. They also have boards dedicated to countries they offer tours to. They don't seem to be that active on Pinterest which could be where they are missing out on a potential platform to connect with new customers.

 GOOGLE+



Okay let's be honest Google+ is pretty much a dead social media platform but I thought I'd include it on here anyway. They haven't made a post on there since May 28 2016 which even I'm surprised they used it for this long.  They didn't have a lot of engagement with the two most recent posts which could be a main reason they stopped using this platform.

 TWITTER



There doesn't seem to be much engagement on their posts on Twitter from their 19.2k followers. They use it the same as Facebook: share links to their tours, links to their blogposts or attempt to create viral tweets. Instead of using memes they either use a GIF or just post the text in the tweet rather than use it in photo form. 

Their tweet with the most engagement out of the five most recent tweets was their photo of the Trevi fountain where they were encouraging their followers to retweet it so they will return to Rome. The post didn't receive a lot of engagement which asks the question... What could they do better? It may just be that their target demographic of 18 - 30 somethings are not using Twitter as a social media platform which is why their posts are not having much engagement.

 YOUTUBE

Whilst Youtube could be a great platform for them to promote their tours and show how amazing their destinations are they don't seem to use Youtube that much. They have only posted six videos in the last six months promoting a new location each time. 


They have 1.6k subscribers and their most current video only received 204 views. They could potentially increase the amount of subscribers and viewers by promoting their Youtube channel more on their social media accounts (e.g. Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook as that's what their target demographic mainly use) or even collaborate with Youtube influencers to promote their brand to in turn potentially gain more subscribers. 

SNAPCHAT





Topdeck uses Snapchat to promote their tours by giving access to guides and social media influencers to 'take over' and show their tour and country from their perspective. This is a great idea if it is interesting content. Not going to lie I clicked through 10 snaps on their story and got bored so they should probably think about who they are giving the access to and what content they will post. As you can see above.... it wasn't riveting content.
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Friday, September 29, 2017

How travel brands can work with influencers

Whether you are a brand that has a travel related product (luggage, tech accessories etc), service, experience or an official tourism organisation you can benefit by using a social media influencer for marketing.

 1. LET THEM BE THE HOST

 Having an influencer join the team for a once-off special event, a set period of time or long-term arrangement is a great idea if your brand is a travel experience, service or location. You could use an influencer that you already have a good partnership with, someone you have worked with previously or someone you believe could be a really good fit for your brand. There are endless possibilities of what you could do however here are some ideas:

2. SEND THEM ON A FAMIL TRIP

 You may be wondering.. What's a famil trip? It's the industry term for an all expenses paid media trip in exchange for promotion. It was originally reserved for traditional media and travel journalism however it is increasingly popular for social media influencers. A famil trip could be anywhere from a complimentary hotel stay and travel expenses covered to a complete multi-day itinerary that is packed with "the best" of a particular region, city or location.

 It's a good way to promote a travel brand to a brand new audience or re-engage with an old one. It will help increase brand awareness and potentially increase your end goal whether it be ticket sales, international visitors or revenue.

 You can tailor a famil trip to your marketing budget and goals. Whether you want to just offer complimentary meals with overnight stays or go large with a big itinerary complete with flights, sightseeing trips and more. 



3. CONTENT CREATION

 Since influencers are expert content creators if you need content created about your brand using an influencer is a great way to get it done. Instead of hiring a freelance photographer or outsourcing writing you should work with an influencer to create the content you need for your brand whether it's new images for a new product, catalogue or service or even an e-product to share with your community. 

In addition to them creating the content you need you can discuss having them promote the content through their social media platforms so you can gain exposure to their audience.

 4. CREATE A BESPOKE PRODUCT OR SERVICE

 By offering a bespoke product or service designed by an influencer you can grow your brand. Whilst this sort of collaboration is mainly seen in the fashion industry where influencers are approached to design a capsule collection or even work with the design team in some capacity to develop products. This can be done in the travel industry as more of a long term collaboration process however it does have the potential to drive big results. 

 Some ideas of what to do include:
  • Luggage brand: engage with an influencer to design a new range of luggage and travel accessories. Whether the influencer is fashion orientated it could be a stylish new collection or if they are more eco-friendly then that could be reflected in the products. The closer the product aligns with the influencer the better the collaboration will turn out.
  • Tour company: engage with an influencer to put together a travel itinerary that becomes one of the brand's regular offerings.
  • Tourism board: engage with an influencer to make a new unique travel experience for tourists visiting the location.
5. PRODUCE VIDEO CONTENT OR OTHER PROMOTION

 Businesses can work with influencers to product their own media. They could use the influencer as an actor in a commercial, model in upcoming campaign images, host of a webinar series or for content creation on their social media channels. This idea is perfect for tourism board and big brands that have a large budget and resources to create multiple projects at once.

 6. MAKE THEM A PART OF YOUR TEAM

 Instead of just working with an influencer as a third party why not bring them into your team as an advisor and draw on their experience?

 A perfect example of this is Nicole Warne who has been appointed as the Digital Consultant for Qantas. Nicole Warne also known as Gary Pepper Girl has experience in a number of digital areas and since 2015 has used this wealth of knowledge for Qantas to provide creative and strategic expertise in the digital space and mould their future innovative digital campaigns.
A post shared by Nicole Warne (@garypeppergirl) on

7. OLD SCHOOL PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES

 Travel brands can approach influencers about sharing content about a particular destination to recommend a brand, product, service or experience to their followers. Keep in mind that consumers can tell when collaborations and promotional activities are not genuine and are blatantly pushing a sales agenda without any creativity or authenticity. The most successful posts are genuine and reflect the brand of an influencer so it connects with their followers.

 Traditional promotional activities include a sponsored blog or social media post or coverage that is secured via a press release with a newsworthy angle. This campaign strategy is relatively easy to implement when working with a small budget or limited resources and can be great brand awareness and exposure, especially for a new brand.

 8. GET THEM TO REVIEW YOU

 A humble product review is another good way to collaborate with a influencer on a small scale which is great for small budgets. You can provide them with a sample of your product or service offering to an influencer in exchange for a review on their platform/s. You will receive invaluable customer feedback and have an honest review shared with consumers that align with your brand. A content development fee may be required in addition to the product sample in some cases, product reviews are still a cost-effective way of collaborating with an influencer and they can start a conversation about your brand on social media in a positive way.

 9. LET THEM TAKE OVER

 A creative and fun way to work with influencers is to have them 'take over' one or all of your social media platforms for a period of time such as an Instagram or Snapchat takeover. This strategy is great as it builds hype and engagement, increases followers and gives your brand content that can be shared across other platforms. There is no need to give the influencer complete access to the accounts. They could simply just submit a image with a caption twice a day over the 'take over' period or you could put an arrangement in place to have all the content approved prior to it being published. You would need to figure out the logistics to ensure the collaboration suits both you and the influencer.

10. RECRUIT THEM AS AN AMBASSADOR

 By recruiting an influencer to be an ambassador or spokesperson for the brand you can get great brand awareness and exposure. It's almost like a celebrity endorsement of traditional media where a brand uses a high-profile public figure to gain traction and credibility. 

A perfect example of this is when tourism boards work with an influencer as the official ambassador of a location such as Chris Hemsworth who is an Australian actor who collaborated with Tourism Australia.

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Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Asia & Wild Collective

If you follow social media influencers on Instagram you've more than likely heard of the Asia Collective. The Asia Collective (and newly launched Wild Collective) curates dream holidays with collaborations between influencers (that have at least 50k followers) and a range of luxury hotels. This is a unique way of marketing that has evolved as social media has become such a large part of most peoples lives.

The Asia Collective collaborates with brands over a wide range of countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Maldives, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong. They also have a travel guide for each country on their website to give you some ideas for what to do.

If Asia isn't your thing they also have travel guides for Australia, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Oman and Turkey to give you some inspiration for your next trip.



They have recently branched off and launched the Wild Collective for influencers and brands to connect in places such as Morocco Africa. So if you've got at least 50k followers and want to get wild now is the perfect opportunity to get in contact with them.

If you're heading to Indonesia and want to book a villa but have no idea where to start they make it easy giving you the option to book a villa via the website in Ubud, Uluwatu, Canggu and Seminyak.

A post shared by THE ASIA COLLECTIVE (@theasia.collective) on

They have also taken the fuss out of deciding where to eat in Bali and launched their book 'Hungry in Bali'. It includes a stack of vouchers (2 for 1 main dishes or 25% off your bill, anyone?) and discounted spa treatments to help you make the most of your trip.

The inflencers they collaborate with always take the most stunning photos which is a perfect way for a brand to promote themselves.


A post shared by THE ASIA COLLECTIVE (@theasia.collective) on

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