Instagram is one of the most visual social media channels and when used correctly, it can be one of the most engaging, which is why its no surprise that most travel industry businesses have an account set up already, but gaining and keeping followers can prove tricky!
One of the hardest things about having a company instagram account is keeping it alive with differing and regularly updated content, if this content all comes from one angle (aka one person) it can get boring… FAST. Not only will you then lose followers but you’ll become irrelevant in your particular industry.
User generated content is becoming increasingly popular in the travel industry, especially with content driven channels like instagram. This amazing article by Buffer gives their experience with user generated content.
UGC comes in a huge variety, here are some examples:
Sharing a users photo- photo contests
- reviews
What most businesses normally do is take the absolute best user content from the web and use it on their own social media channels, obviously giving credit to the creator of this content. Many travel industry businesses are already doing this, as Air New Zealand shows above, this photo received 2.1k likes! Yet the business didn’t have to fork out money for a photographer to shoot this, and it was a travellers real life experience which gains trust from other users.
Chances are, you’ve probably seen and been inspired by user content before without even being aware! The variation and quality you can find with UGC is incredible. UGC provides top quality content for your customers, takes the stress away from social media marketers from having to generate their own content, and still keeps you in control of what your putting on your social channels.
There’s also a huge amount of engagement generated from UGC, your followers will increase significantly with the right content and you will see more interaction between users compared to posting the businesses own photos. UGC allows your brand to connect to its audiences in a whole new way, interact with them, give them credit for telling their own story!
Some research by Crowdtap indicates that some trust UGC 50% more than other types of content and buffer was able to increase their instagram following by 60% when they started using UGC.
You also can’t be everywhere at once, yet this form of marketing enables you to share content from all over the world from a users perspective, making it perfect for customers thinking about booking their travel with you to see what a particular destination is really like!
FYI: Its important to set some objectives when experimenting with this type of content, making sure that your brands message is consistent across all content. These three articles listed below explain the do’s and don’ts of using UGC, have a read if your still not convinced.
https://econsultancy.com/blog/66739-how-user-generated-content-is-changing-content-marketing/
ites that lots of businesses have overlooked or rushed past when setting up, yet have a direct impact on reaching your audience and could potentially give your brand a bad rep.
business you must ensure consistency across all platforms, keep them up to date and relevant to ensure a good brand image is maintained.
somewhere more than an incredible picture that you’ve seen where you mentally add the place to your ever growing bucket list!
There are many different platforms off which to live stream but choosing one will depend on your target audience and your goals you wish to achieve whilst streaming. Some quite popular ones being periscope (owned by twitter), Meerkat, Facebook live and snapchat. For example, snapchats main audience is aged under 25.
years with the changes in technology, the introduction of social media and the masses of information all available online. Power is now in the customers hands, anything and everything is one google search away! HURRAH for the customer who can now spend their Saturdays in their PJ’s (as it was always meant to be) rather than getting up and going in to a travel agency to ask a few questions about their dream vacation.
As Tooley’s article says:
Therefore by leveraging off these influencers you will gain more traffic and become relevant in the travel industry once more.
A good travel blog post can be your hallelujah chorus at 3am in the morning when your STILL tossing up about whether the place to “find yourself” (in a two week annual leave limit) will be in Laos or Vietnam. Decisions, decisions. Some how this blog post AKA god, has answered every single question you can think of, provided the real life experience you just needed to read UNTIL…right at the bottom of the post you see those dreaded words 
kathleenmcblog 