You can listen directly here. 

Do you have a love and hate relationship with social media?

Social media is really just one component of our marketing strategy however, it can sometimes be overwhelming. Posting consistently, thinking of what content to post and where to find the details that we can share.  This is just the tip of the iceberg and it can be overwhelming. I feel you.

In my experience, some of the overwhelm from social media comes with WHAT to actually post and WHERE to find it. These are key things obviously as you need to know both of these to have a presence on social media. 

In this episode, I’ll give you 4 places that we find content for our travel business and how we use these. Finding appropriate content that works with and resonates with your audience is key. 

Social Media isn’t just Facebook and Instagram. These are 2 platforms that are the most popular for travel agents to use, however there are many more. Social Media isn’t also the only tool to use in promoting your business. We have a number of offline and online marketing strategies that help keep our clients informed, loved upon and also educated. 

We recommend putting together a content calendar for your marketing campaign and business. This will help you stay focused on the end goal and also alleviate any fogginess with what to post and when. In our 6 Week Rebuild Your travel Business Program, we walk step by step through creating a content calendar specific to your business. 

Know that wherever you are on your business or Social Media Journey you can always learn more things. If you want to build engagement and grow your following and email list, check out our upcoming 5 Days to more engagement on Social Media FREE Challenge. 

If you want to know more about our 6 Week Build or Rebuild your Travel business program, go to https://www.travelagentachievers.com/rebuildrunway

And on that note… thank you for listening and being part of such a supportive and awesome community. You are AMAZING! 

Much love

Ros

If you need a little help to stay on track and work on your business at anytime, make sure to join our Achievers in Travel - Accountability group. 

Show Transcription: 

Announcer: Welcome to Travel Agent Achievers! The place to learn how to grow your travel business and have fun with it. Join Roslyn and her guests as they walk you through proven steps to a fulfilling and profitable business. 

Ros:  Welcome back to Episode 30 of the Travel Agent Achievers Podcast. I'm Ros, your guide and host for this podcast and all things at Travel Agent Achievers.

Hey guys. It's a new financial year here in Australia. And I bet that if you are also here that you'll be glad to see that the year has finished. I know for me, I certainly have and I do hope that as we kick off a new financial year, you are hopeful and also positive about this because we can charge forward and we can make a difference in the travel industry.

Now I know it isn't an ideal start. However, I hope that over the next few months, you will be able to make some changes in your business that see you come through stronger. And I also hope that over the last few months you've been following along and you've been putting some cash flow forecasting into play.

And we're now going to look at what we can do in the future. Right now. I know that things are tough and my heart is absolutely with you. We are all navigating this incredibly tough time during COVID. Not only in business, but also in our own health and emotional wellbeing so please take care of yourself and also your loved ones.

Know that here in business. I am here with you. And I will be there to support and guide you wherever I can as the travel market moves.

So don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platform wherever you are. And also here, hit us up with a review. I love hearing from you. If you know of anyone that would benefit also from the podcast or they need some motivation or some exercises to get things moving in their business.

Please share this podcast with them as well. I want you to know that we are all in this together and by sharing the podcasts or sharing the resources, we are able to make a bigger impact for everyone in the travel industry.

So today's topic is social media. I know how you also have a love hate relationship with it. Trust me, I get it and from the conversations that I have with you There are just so many things to learn and understand. There are so many complexities with social media, every platform has its own nuances, the algorithms change, I get it.

However, today, we're just talking about content planning, and where to find the content that you should actually be posting. Now, social media does cover so many areas, we've got so many platforms out there, you know, in all honesty, and in fairness, every platform isn't for everyone. You do need to be careful. And when looking at which platform you use, make sure that it's the right platform for yourself.

But more importantly, that it's the right platform for your audience and your ideal clients. So your audience, your clients, your ideal customer, I want you to ask yourself, are they on the platform that you choose?

And if they aren't, then you probably need to move. Do you even know who your ideal client is? We'll discuss this in another podcast in a couple of weeks. And it's a huge question.

It's one that I spend quite a bit of time on and I have in the past. And one that we also learn about inside out Six Weeks to Build or Rebuild your Travel Business, really narrowing down on who it is you want to serve in the future. Who are your favorite clients, who have shown you over the last six months, you know, the people that you really want to work with.

Now, if this is something that you want to know more about, go to travelagentachievers.com/6weekrebuild, we will be opening up the program again mid-August, so we'll be able to talk to you about it then.

Now your clients could be anywhere. And when I talk about social media, I talk about it as a whole. There are a ton of platforms, and I don't just want you to think that you have to be on Facebook, if you have corporate clients, you may need to be on LinkedIn, because that's where corporate people hang out, right?

It's one of one of the areas but when we niche down and when we actually look at who our ideal clients are, you'll be able to see where they hang out. In Episode 15 of the Travel Agent Achievers Podcast, I talk about the three different platforms. So if this is something that you want to know about, then please go back and listen to it. I'll have the link in the show notes as well so that you can do that.

But today, I want to give you some ideas and tips on how to find the content to post.

Sometimes the overwhelm from social media comes with what to actually post and where to find it. And I have a content plan myself, and my team has it as well and we are constantly reviewing it and tweaking it and really looking at it and inside out Six Weeks program we dive into this quite in depth breaking things down from a month by month basis right down into a daily plan.

And it's not as scary as you think. But there is some work to it. When I also talk about social media, it's just one component of our marketing strategies. We have a lot of offline methods as well in order to connect with our clients. And I say this to you as it's just a component. Because I don't want you to feel as though social media is the only way to connect with your clients.

I don't want you to feel as though it's the only way to get new clients because there is the bigger picture as well. It is part of a plan that helps build you as the expert and also the authority in the travel industry and in your niche.

Social media is not the only thing that you need to do in order to build your profile in the travel and tourism industry. There are many things.

Now only the other day I had a question. And a colleague in travel said to me that they didn't feel as though they were really the expert in their field. Now, I thought that was a little odd as I love her social media and I would definitely see her as the expert. I would even go to her if I had questions about her niche, and I swear impostor syndrome, it gets to all of us. It's a topic for another day impostor syndrome, but gee that little annoying talker that can sit on your shoulder and tell you that you're no good at something or that you want the expert or you know, you shouldn't even be doing it. It can be really hard to shake, and I get it and I know like guys, I'm like you.

I have my days too that I don't feel as though I could share something with my clients.

Now that is a little bit off track. We will come back to imposter syndrome in another episode. And I want to get back to what we actually were talking about. So I had this call with her when, after I'd had a look at her social media. I was impressed. I reviewed it. And I'm like, what is she actually talking about the images were great.

It was just the content and the words that needed a little tweaking. Now there you can use the tools and information and ideas to build engagement. And there, there is so much out there to learn. I really understand that. And I know that, and I don't want you to feel as though you are all alone when you feel nobody's liking my posts.

There is nothing wrong with what she was posting, the imaging that she had chosen was excellent for her market. It was purely in the information and the content being delivered. And I asked you the same thing.

If you aren't getting the engagement, the likes or the follows, or it may not be in the content that you're actually putting out but it could be in the words and the engagement behind it and how people are actually finding you.

So this is just a little bit off track. On this note, and the feedback that I've also received in the last few weeks, I want you to know that I am putting together a social media challenge, one that will help you grow your social media channels, but also get you seen more on Instagram and on Facebook.

This will be a live five-day challenge starting on the third of August 2020 in just a couple of weeks. So to join it, simply go to travelagentachievers.com/5DaySocialChallenge I will have a link to that in the show notes so you don't need to forget about it. But it's just travelagentachievers.com/5DaySocialChallenge.

I will be talking about it as well in the Achievers in Travel Facebook group. So make sure you join that it is free, but it'll really help you kickstart your content and social media journey as we plan for the future. And as we come through this time, I want to give you the tips and the tools to really get out there and be seen.

For now, oh my goodness, sorry, guys, I really can't get off track slightly at times. But right now, we are talking about my top four places to get content for social media and your social media channels.

Now, when I looked at this, I was thinking there are so many things, and places that we can get imagery from, and we can get text from and links to there really are so many different places. But when we are preparing social media to go on these channels, we can often get stuck because we don't necessarily have a plan. Now we talk about the plan in our Six Week Rebuild Program. But today we're talking about the top four places just to get the content and these places are:

Let's look at your travel newsletters publication. And daily news articles. There really are so many different avenues out there.

Here in Australia we can be looking at places like Travel Daily, HM magazine, Karry On, Travel Talk Mag, Travel Bulletin, Travel Weekly, news.com, or the Huffington Post. There are so many places with regards to travel newsletters and publications that we can get articles, we can get imagery, we can get the story.

And if you're like me, sometimes I need the inspiration to look at what's going on in the world and what's going on in the marketplace, to come up with some different ideas and different angles to then talk about on social media.

Now using these publications and newsletters and resources, you don't have to copy things word for word, and I would suggest that you don't for copyright laws, but you could come up with your own angle. Or you can come up with a different idea, something that is similar to what they're talking about in these publications, and use that on your own social media channels.

Now these come out daily, you might be overwhelmed with them. For me, I'm able to see them come into my inbox, I can scroll through them in two minutes. If there's a story that catches my idea, I will click into that link. And I will have a read of it before I move on. But I'll also take a mental note of it, I will add a link into my social media calendar, and really take stock of it, and also use that as a resource for the future.

I might see something now that doesn't necessarily relate to my clients right now. So I could use that in a week's time or a month's time, a story idea, but that will then help me create the content to go into my social media channels.

So that's just one area that travel newsletters publications, you know what I'm talking about because they come into your inbox daily. The second tip that I have for you the top four places to get your content is your own experience.

I say this is my about me or my personal experience. Now you are in the travel industry and I know that you will have traveled. So I want you to share your favorite experience. Share your favorite destinations. And when I say this, it doesn't have to be all in one thing.

You can be more than just a destination and if you are choosing a destination, so for instance, you may have been on a holiday to Fiji. Awesome. I love Fiji. I got married in Fiji, but you could use Fiji as a whole week.

And I want you to think about a week's worth of content because I see this a lot. I see that as travel agents, we know so many different things, but we put everything into one post. So you can break this down with your own experience and about yourself.

When you're posting about your personal travel experiences, have a think about places to stay in the destination, where to eat, your favorite things to see and do. Your knowledge and expertise is what your clients are banking on.

They want to know what you've done and what you've loved because in the majority of cases, people are looking for inspiration. And your experience really helps them with that inspiration to lead into their own personal trips.

Now the other thing that I've mentioned in this tip is a little bit about you. So you don't have to share what you had for dinner that night and I get really frustrated when I see people using their business pages. Things like that, unless it's Taco Tuesday and you're talking about Mexico for instance, then that's cool or a margarita or whatever it might be.

But when I say about you, I am talking about sharing pieces of you that you are comfortable to share on social media with in your business aspects. So when you're talking about a destination for instance, are you talking about Fiji or a tropical destination? You might post an image of yourself drinking a pina colada and say, on my favorite holiday or my favorite, and my favorite drink when I go to a tropical destination is a pina colada.

And then ask the question, What's yours? Because you are sharing a little piece of yourself, your personal experience, but a little piece of yourself. But you're also asking for the engagement from the end user and you are asking them a question so that you can learn a little bit more about them as well.

There is so much that can come from your own personal experience that others don't know. So just remember, you can share yourself, share your personal travel experiences and that's okay. And make sure though that it is what your clients would want.

My third tip is sharing your favorite places, hotels and supplies and tourism boards. Now you can get a ton of content and again, this is something that comes into your inbox, day in and day out. You will have hotels and suppliers ground operators. You will have tourism boards, you will have cruise lines, you will have destinations and cities and you know; you name it.

It all comes into your inbox you see these things you are learning these things you are doing the training So if you get, or let's say I'll come back to Fiji if you're specializing in Fiji for instance, you have a multitude of areas to get resources.

And you can use tourism boards for the Fiji Tourism Board for imagery. You can speak to any number of hotels in Fiji and I am sure that they will share with you some imagery and information on their property that you can use. Different suppliers, what about some of the activities to do there? You can share these as well.

What about some of your favorite places? I know for me when I go to Fiji, one of my favorite cafes, and even to get specialty cakes and things for events is Taste. So Taste Fiji and I will share the information about them because they're one of my favorite places.

But it's also not a place that my clients would necessarily know that nor would they necessarily just go there. It's not somewhere that is right in a hotel, they have to make this special trip to visit this cafe and restaurant.

So you can share and come up with content from your favorite places to visit in a destination for hotels and suppliers and of course tourism boards. They are there as a resource for you. And you can prepare all of this well in advance.

The fourth top place to get content for my social media channels is to ask my clients a question or if they are consistently asking me questions.

The reason why I say this is a top area to get content is because this information and the questions that your clients ask you, or your questions to a client, they will be useful for somebody else as well. Things like my top five destinations around the world or my top five places that I feel like I'm at home. Or it could be a question around travel insurance.

It could be a question around visas, it could be a question around immigration or vaccinations, or something that they need to get into a country. This provides us content that you can use across multiple platforms.

And this information and resource not only does it make you the expert in your field, but it is helpful for other people as well.

So these are the top four areas that I find content from my social media channels, travel newsletters, about me my personal experience, favorite places, tourism boards, hotels and suppliers and also asking my clients a question or the questions that they come to me.

One of the biggest things I see when travel agents are putting content out there to share is that we often overshare there are so many things that you know, that you see, and that you do that we can often just want to jam pack everything into one place.

Now remember, on social media, we might only have point three of a second or one second to grab somebody's attention. So if you're thinking of posting one thing, but talking about a whole lot of things in one post, it may get missed.

So remember to come back to one thing, which is keep it simple. One topic, one story, one image, one tiny little thing that you can share. It doesn't have to be everything.

Now I have to admit that I am also guilty of this I know just listening to this podcast, as I'm sure you've also said to yourself right now, whoa, hang on a second Ros. You're talking about what to post, where to post it. But you've also added extra things into this podcast as well. And I'm sorry, guys, I absolutely can't help it.

There is so much that I want to share with you that a lot of times, okay, so not just sometimes I get caught up in the moment that I want to share everything with you. And I know realistically, this isn't possible in one sitting. However, over time, I will cover many different things.

So I say this to you from a place of learning when it comes to your social media and I have learned this. I'm guilty of it in other places like this podcast, but I have learned this on social media that I only need to share one thing.

We have 365 days in a year. So I need to be able to come up with a lot of topics right and I say that to you because I want you to do the same thing, you might have a theme that you have for a particular month, then you can break that down into 20 posts, if you want 30 posts, depending on how much you actually share on your social media channels and how regular you do it.

But it's what to post and where to find it. And these are just four tips that I can share with you today. That finding content doesn't have to be hard. You just need to know where to look, what resonates with your audience, and what really connects with them, showing them that you're the travel expert.

You know your stuff. You can help your clients navigate through the travel booking process because of who you are. And I want you to look at what content you're putting out there to make sure that you are attracting the right audience.

And as I said, we'll be talking about this in a couple of weeks’ time. But it's about right now. What to post and where to post it. How to find it.

And in our five day challenge, make sure that you sign up for it, because I want you to be a part of it. In the five-day challenge, we will really take action, looking step by step into what you need to do on social media to really boost and build that engagement, how to ask the right questions, what to post and you know when to post it.

Looking at our analytics, did you guys even know that you can look inside your own insights and analytics and see when people are looking at your post who's looking at it. This will help you navigate the whole social media scene a lot more because testing and measuring is just one component.

So where to find all the information, this is a really big deal. I also recommend that you grab or make up a folder on your computer or in your Google Drive if that's what you use and start storing away. All these stories, all of these images, because you will spend the time and I know over time, we will come up with a plan together on how to get this information out there in a way that makes sense.

Right now, remember, finding content doesn't have to be hard. You can grab this from information that comes into your inbox every single day. Be aware of copyright laws. I say that as a side note, but I want you to join the five-day challenge. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to help you get engagement on your social media channels. Now, for you guys if you feel as though I've touched on a topic or there's something else you want to learn about? Then please hit me up on social media channels on Instagram, on Facebook, you can direct message me or just by checking out the website and sending me an email.

I love hearing from you and seeing the reviews on iTunes. So make sure you subscribe, hit review to this podcast is for you. And I want to continue to share with you and help you as you grow your travel business over time. This isn't a one, one-time only thing I talk about today, just my top four places to get content for social media channels, you might have others and if you do, I'd love you to share them with me.

Because we are all in this together. We have a long journey ahead of us. I don't want to lose any of you as we come through this time. I know it's tough, but we are going to work towards making our businesses stronger, more easily accessible, finding the right clients getting out there to the world, because we have such an incredible planet.

I don't want people to stop exploring, and I'm sure you don't want them to stop dreaming and exploring as well.

Guys, thanks for your time today. I really appreciate it. I do love hearing from you. So please review the podcast and hit me up as well on socials. Let me know how you go about finding the content. If you are struggling with places or what to post or where to find things, then just hit me up on socials.

I love to be able to help you. And I love hearing from you. So have an awesome weekend ahead. And please, you will come through this time. I can already see it. Those that are working on their businesses right now.

We'll be able to help more people in the future. I know it's tough, it is a rocky road. And just let me know where I can be to support you.

If there are things that you want to learn. Just let me know. I can't wait to watch you as you start to gather your new content for your social media and your other marketing avenues because remember, social media is one part of your marketing arsenal. Stay safe. Keep smiling, keep in touch. Have a great week and a weekend ahead. Bye for now.