During peak holiday and vacation times, your Instagram feed is often flooded with an extra dose of friends’ travel adventures – family vacations, weekend getaways, and day trips. But there’s an important lesson for brands: users are more likely to trust their friends’ vacation photos over those from a business. According to a statistic from Social Media Today , 48% of users trust Instagram to find a new travel destination, and 35% use the platform to discover new places. Here are a few tips for travel brands to learn from to better connect with their audience and gain credibility.
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Tag a Location in Each Destination Photo
Tagging the destination on your Instagram photos is an essential tool for travel brands. This will fill up your map on your Instagram profile and show that you’ve featured destinations across the globe, as well as help users learn where on the world map each location can be found.
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Seek to Inspire, not to Advertise
Instagram is all about inspiring images, and travel photos are the most eye-catching photos on the social media platform. Users shy away from content that comes across as pushing sales, so try a subtle method of catching their attention. With better photos, your Instagram account will build your brand’s credibility and garner more engagement. Building fans comes first; selling to those interested fans comes second.
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Tailor Content to Your Audience
Study the demographics of your audience and use it to give them content that fits their interests and price range for vacation planning. For example, if your audience includes luxury jetsetters, feature international destinations and resorts that inspire and allure them. Feature lifestyle shots of luxury travelers, like a private jet or a private cabana on a remote island. If your audience is middle-class and family-based, feature beautiful and practical destinations for family getaways.
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Interact with Fans
Repost audience-generated content, such as photos taken by your fans tagged with a hashtag for your brand, to interact with those fans. Tagging others in your posts and giving them a spotlight will get their attention and they will share the love for your brand publicly. This is also a great way to find travel photos with people in them – for example, a photo of a hiker smiling atop Macchu Pichu or a photo of a nondescript pair of legs near an infinity pool in the Maldives. For a good example, take a look at Airbnb’s Instagram.
Your goal as a travel brand should be to inform your audience about inspiring travel destinations and tips, not to sell yourself. Instagram is a visual platform, and users like brands with both stimulating and useful content. For travel marketing ideas on Instagram around the holidays, see Holiday Marketing Tips for Instagram.
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