Tourism marketing: Social media is not a mouthpiece!
By Gregg McLachlan
One of the common mistakes that tourism organizations and small business tourism operators make on social media is using channels as if they were megaphones. They flick a switch. Shout out their destination marketing message. Turn off the switch. And then carry on with the day.
You know a tourism business has a problem when it makes a post on Facebook and then someone asks a question -- "What are your hours?" -- and the comment goes unanswered for days, if answered at all.
You've already read plenty of articles saying social media is about conversations and relationships. But what does that really mean? Well, for starters, it means you have to look at content creation from this point of view: What is it that your audience wants to see? Why are they following you? Audiences want to be entertained, educated or inspired. They want to interact with you too.
Too often, organizations and small businesses look at social media through their own lens of this is what we want our audience to have. Usually that means flooding audiences with photos of event flyers, special deals, etc.
Social media is not a broadcast tool. It's not about just transferring what you do or have done in the past in newspaper ads or brochures and posting it on social media. Sadly, that's exactly what many businesses and organizations still do with social media.
Being a mouthpiece can appear spammy
There's a reason that Facebook now aggressively throttles the reach of posts with cheesy clipart graphics shouting SALE! 50% OFF! These posts are annoying and add noise to our feeds. Facebook now provides easy-to-use tools attached to every post we see so we can quicky mark such business posts as spam, or even block them. That's right! Your business may already be on block lists if you've annoyed users.
Imagine if Facebook didn't fight this spam and all of our newsfeeds were filled with these push marketing ads? Facebook would cease to be a social platform and instead become a 100% spammy ad platform.
If businesses actually took the time to look at how posts perform on social media, they'd see that spammy push-marketing posts perform poorly. There's little engagement or likes. It's ironic that one of the BIGGEST excuses businesses have for not using social media enough is "We don't have the time!" Yet businesses will waste their precious time creating crappy push-marketing posts on Facebook that are a waste of effort (and time!) because very few people even care to engage with those posts.
But the opposite tends to happen when posts give audience a deeper look at you, what you do, and behind the scenes of your business.
Audiences want to see + hear + experience
To be successful, your business or organization has to embrace the behavioural change that is social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., are all about audiences wanting to See + Hear + Experience you.
So, the marketing question to you is: What are you doing to enable audiences to see + hear + experience you? What are you doing that turns your social media into a behind-the-scenes access pass?
Start putting your content through a filter. Ask these questions before you post: Does this engage the eyes? Does it feed the ears? There's a reason that some outdoors brands frequently post 10 second clips from the woods. Why? Because each clip is a feast for the senses. Rain drops can be heard on leaves. Birds can be heard calling in the canopy. Wind can be literally felt swooshing through the trees. Bugs can be heard buzzing. Audiences are left with a feeling that they are actually in the woods with you. That's a powerful pull for people to get outside and be in the woods. Perhaps with you and your outdoor adventure tourism business!