In my first column I went through a number of trends expected to affect tourism in South Africa in 2015. One of those trends centred around mobile technology transforming the tourism landscape and online influencers being just about anyone with a smart phone.

This month I’ve decided to expand on this all-important trend by sharing some digital marketing do’s and don’ts with you, as well as how to use these tools to stand out.

Why go digital?

2014 was the year in which the travel industry finally sat up and took note of the digital revolution. It was the year in which tourism boards, PR companies and destination marketers collectively agreed that we cannot hope to effectively market a destination or offering without an online presence; and the travel sector is in the ideal space to harness the power of digital marketing and social media.

In a world where travel plans are being researched and booked online more than ever, destinations have the opportunity to tell their own story to travellers through the combination of a user-friendly website, powerful visuals and engaging content.

Working with online influencers

Working with influencers such as travel bloggers includes inviting them to experience destinations and offerings in exchange for coverage on their blogs and social platforms. Top international bloggers and influencers are professional and honest about their work with destinations, which in turn creates a level of trust in their followers. In addition, they come to the party with a unique and engaged following that brands often would not be able to reach without these partnerships. Through the use of social media and Google Statistics, destinations are able to identify bloggers who speak to the audience the brand is trying to reach.

When working with bloggers in the tourism marketing space, it’s important to remember these three things:

1. You are not ‘giving them freebies’

Working with bloggers means that you are tapping into an audience that they have spent years forming a bond with. They do not need your free bed night in order to have something to write about, so see working with them as a mutually beneficial trade exchange.

2. You can ask for stats

Statistics on reader numbers and demographics will help you create a picture of who you will be speaking to by working with a blogger. They should be able to give you stats like number of monthly unique readers, age of readers and their location. But don’t be too cautious to work with bloggers with small numbers - some bloggers have a smaller readership but a massive following on social media. Of course, if their numbers are big but their content is of a low standard you might want to re-evaluate.

3. Should you pay bloggers?

The short answer is, yes. Professional bloggers spend their lives creating great quality content, so when working with bloggers on a campaign, they should be paid for their time. The long answer is that there are many variables - some bloggers don’t work for pay while others don’t work free. It’s important to discuss this upfront and be open to the idea of paying professional bloggers for their work.

Don’t:

• Offer trade exchanges to everyone who asks. Be sure to do your research before you agree to a hosting.
• Be vague about what you expect in return for a hosting. Traditional media are not obligated to give you coverage if you host them free, and blogging is no different.
• Expect that all coverage from a hosting will be positive because they’ve had a free experience. You get out what you put in.

Social media

Each social media channel has its own unique audience who engage and digest content in different ways. The key to a successful social media strategy is tailoring content and messaging to resonate with these audiences in their native tone.

Speaker, blogger and consultant, Frederic Gonzalo, says in a blog post “23% of the social sharing we can track actually takes place through Facebook, with only 8% for all other channels.”

These are the three things to keep in mind when planning a social media strategy:

1. Content is still king

Thankfully it seems as though we have seen the last of SEO-fuelled website content and empty social media posts like “Happy Monday!”. Content remains king as more and more users start researching travel online. While millennials were the front-runners of the digital revolution, their parents are now starting to follow suit, which means that a variety of long-form, short-form and visual content should remain integral in a digital content strategy.

2. Visual content will grow your reach

We know that Facebook is limiting the organic reach of pages, which means that it is up to us to create engagement and thus organic reach on our pages ourselves. Since highly visual content like images and videos are still seeing the most interaction, we can use these pieces of content to grow the organic reach of pages by engaging fans and keeping our content in their newsfeeds.

3. Facebook values variety

Mix up your content posts to ensure that Facebook keeps it in users’ newsfeeds. A good mix of images and video, text posts and Facebook links is more likely to keep your organic reach up than links to off-Facebook websites. Implementing an advertising campaign every few months will also increase your reach, so think about including campaign messaging or a competition into your content strategy.

Don’t:

• Use your company’s social media channels as your own personal storyboard.
• Neglect to spell and grammar check your social media posts before publishing.
• Create a multitude of hashtags that will just confuse the social world. Stick to one or two catchy hashtags that you can use to track conversations about your offering.