Are You Compromising Your Social Media Program? Common Travel Brand Mistakes

by Vicky Hastings, Aug 27, 2012, 7:13 AM

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Social media has given consumers a more intimate and direct opportunity to engage with your travel brand, but users’ expectations of your offerings and service levels are now higher than ever. And, as many hotels, attractions and destinations hurry to catch up with new communication platforms, they’re making costly social media blunders and missing the opportunity to impact lifelong brand affinity and purchase behavior. 

Here are the top ways travel brands are killing their own social media programs:

1. Add social media management to someone’s job description. It’s just another task and it takes little time or thought, so assign community management to someone with no training, experience or social media affinity. 

2. Sell, sell, and sell some more! In every post, encourage your loyal readers to make a reservation. Treat them as nothing more than a potential source of revenue.

3. Post as frequently as possible. Don’t leave room for your fans and followers to say anything. 

4. Talk only about your organization. People don’t want to know about what else there is to experience on their trip. 

5. Ignore customer questions. Rather than engaging in conversations, blast away with the message of the moment.

6. Remove negative comments. A sanitized page will surely be viewed as real and authentic, right?

7. Clam up about your crisis. Avoid the opportunity to set the record straight or let your community become your advocates. Just pretend it isn’t happening at all.

8. Create no original content. Reposting other people’s ideas and information is sufficient. There’s no point in investing in ways to showcase your brand’s personality and uniqueness.

9. Pay no attention to the numbers. It’s not important to know what type of posts resonate with your audience and what doesn’t. Social media is “free” so it’s not worth taking the time to measure it.

10. If you do monitor analytics, only track likes and followers. It doesn’t matter if people are engaging with the content or not, it’s all about fan acquisition.

There are better ways to manage social media! If you’re interested in creating word of mouth about your travel brand, check out “At Your Service: Facebook Takes On Role Of Travel Concierge” and “Hook 'Em With Feeling: 5 Tips For Building Tourism Brand Loyalty” for best practices.

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