How to be social: expert tips

It’s not easy to sell on social media, your virtual ‘followers’ or ‘friends’ will quickly leave or fall out with you if you try to ram products down their throats with every tweet or post, the key is to get them to sell you.

But how?

Social media expert Simon Kemp of London-based agency We Are Social, gave several tips at the firm’s recent Travel Social Summit, which he said could easily be adopted by tour operators, visitor attractions, hotels and airlines.

These include providing a professional photographer at events, signposting the best spots in your location for a ‘selfie’ and setting up a photo booth with branded props, and getting staff – such as chefs or pilots – to photobomb their shots.

His idea is that as travellers are keen – possibly even obsessed – to get the best photos of themselves while on holiday to post on Facebook and Instagram, travel companies need to make it easier and to encourage them to share those images, promoting the business as they do.

"People get really stressed trying to get the best pictures," said Kemp. "One lady actually took 40 versions of the same photo to get the right one. You’ve got an opportunity to help them – and to promote your brand."

Companies can also take advantage of the rise of the ‘non-selfie selfie’, he said.

"The trend of the non-selfie is a real thing. People want to show they’re there, but they know selfies are ridiculous, so they take photos of the back of their heads. Venues can bring out the chef or an airline can get the pilot to pose with customers instead."

Theme parks should consider uploading photos they’ve taken on rides and get visitors to share online and comment.

Companies should also think about how they can use the trend for sharing images of food, of which there are apparently 180 million on Instagram. "We take photos of food because it’s a talking point, we can show we’re critics and it allows us to show off that we’re doing something special.

"It’s a great opportunity (for the industry) because food is a great travel motivator. If you say you’re going to Bangkok, I’m already thinking about food and a travel brand can harness that."

As holidaymakers crave ‘local experiences’ and want to tell ‘authentic stories’, travel brands can help by giving local tips, such as the best places for certain food, shops or culture.

Will Weeks, social engagement strategist for youth travel brand Contiki, said the company manages to get 7,000 pieces of user-generated content across all of its online media channels every week, which it uses as testimonials to help sell its trips. "It pushes people over the line to make the sale," he said.

Part of its strategy is to push trip-specific hashtags to clients and to encourage them to use them in their online posts. He described the hashtags as ‘extremely successful’.

However, Tanase Rivers, marketing communications manager of online travel agent On the Beach, pointed out the importance of having someone assigned to managing social media content to make sure the company message is consistent.

She said On the Beach has a social media executive on social at all times when the business is open so that ‘they can fix things’.

Rivers said all On the Beach’s agents who work on social are trained in crisis management, the importance of which was highlighted in the aftermath of the Tunisia terrorist attack when the OTA used Facebook to communicate with guests and worried family and friends back home.

"Via Facebook we were able to talk to customers one on one but en masse," she said. "We could keep everyone up to date with what was happening and keep calls to our calls centre down.

"We had a lot of worried people and a lot of people to repatriate as fast as possible and we found it was incredible how much Facebook helped us to do that."

Douglas Cook,senior marketing manager of Skyscanner, one of the first travel brands to use chatbots to communicate in real time with customers on Facebook, said the technology was moving so fast that soon customers might be able to book directly from FB.

"We’ve had it for about four weeks now and it’s going well, we’re getting enquiries. These things will progress in the future. We might be able to link from Skyscanner to a chatbot on Virgin to book flights and then to a chatbot on Visa to take payment.

"People are starting to see how these things will evolve."