Missed our Social Media Workshop for tour operators? Watch the replay to learn how to unlock social media's full potential for your business. In this 1-hour session, you'll discover essential strategies to elevate your online presence, boost customer engagement, and attract more clients.

Key Takeaways:

👉 Identify the top social media channels and best practices for tour operators.

👉 Learn to create, optimize, and schedule posts for maximum impact.

👉 Explore strategies to engage your audience, collaborate with influencers, and track your success effectively.

Don't miss out on actionable insights—watch the replay now!

Nikki's journey into the marketing world began at 19 with her own travel blog, where she monetized through affiliate marketing. During her time as a travel blogger, she also built and sold social media accounts, enjoying the challenge of growing channels across various niches.

After earning her MBA from Slippery Rock University, she honed her expertise in content marketing, focusing on driving organic growth and visibility for small businesses. Her success as a freelancer led to a role as a Marketing Manager for a small company, where she utilized her skills to generate leads through organic efforts, with social media being a key driver of success.

Now, at Resmark, Nikki's role extends beyond social media, but it remains a passion she continues to pursue. She still dedicates time to helping a few long-standing clients maintain consistent and impactful social media presences.

Outside of work, Nikki is an adventure enthusiast, enjoying activities like rafting, skydiving, and long-distance running. You can connect with her on Instagram @the.nikkidee or reach out email.

So, today, we are going to be talking about your social media strategy. This topic has come up a lot when we're speaking with tour operators, and I'll be honest, we don't even offer social media as a paid service, so I'm not here trying to sell you something. I'm really not. We just want to provide value where we can, and I figured I'd bundle all my expertise and everything I've learned over the years, and try to give it to you so that you can implement these strategies and take off with your social media. So let's go ahead to the meat of it.

What we're going to cover today. So from the channels you should be focusing on to post ideas, time management solutions, metrics, and so much more. If you're experienced in one area but not another. Stick around because I'm hoping that you're going to be able to at least grasp a few key points that you could take away from this training. Throughout the session, please feel free to unmute, ask questions, interrupt me, drop a message in the chat. Greg can ask it. Greg can answer it. We have Greg on here. He's also part of the Resmark team. He's my manager. But let's keep this a free-flowing conversation. I want to tailor this presentation to whatever you need in your tour operation, but hopefully, I have covered a lot in this presentation for the questions that you might already have.

So I put this slide together describing who I am because a lot of you probably have no idea, and I figured I'd introduce myself, and then you can decide whether or not you should take my advice or not. So after receiving my MBA, I set off to travel the world. Thomas, this one is for you. I grew an online teaching business where I taught Chinese students English, but through dance. So I was a dance teacher. I love teaching. I try to combine them both, but breaking into the Chinese market was really tough due to a lot of regulations and legalities, but I did learn a lot.

I eventually had to stop teaching Chinese students because of some serious laws trying to put in place for American teachers. But because I was living abroad, I was actually in Australia at the time, I was living there for about two years, I still needed income, right? So I decided to start blogging. I created a pretty decent-sized travel blog and earned money through affiliate links. Then, COVID hit, yay, so traveling had to stop. I had to go back to the home base, and I began actually growing and selling Instagram accounts. Who knew that was actually a thing, but it was.

I grew sobriety, coffee, coupon, pet channels, and I sold them. So I quickly learned what to do and what not to do. I still do have a coffee social media channel. I haven't been active in a while, but I sold some pet channels. That's one of them. We were over a hundred thousand followers when I sold it, and now, you can see, after years of not posting, it's gone down to 35K. So sad to see that when you're not active, there's a huge decrease.

But in 2021, I thought I should really settle down, so I found an incredible opportunity as a marketing manager for a marketing agency. We grew that business, and within about three years, we sold it to a larger corporation. But in my three years with my previous company, I really learned how to grow a brand and a legacy. All right? So that's what brought me to Resmark.

I've always enjoyed working with small to medium-sized businesses, so it's been truly an amazing opportunity to be the marketing director of such an incredible company, and it feels like it's meant to be because I'm so immersed in travel and tourism, and now I get to work with incredible tour operators who ultimately changed my life through the years.

So, the meat and potatoes. I have a question for you all. What is the hardest part about social media marketing? Right? Drop it in the chats. I want to hear your thoughts, or just think about it. What is the hardest part about social media marketing? I'm going to open up my chats and see if anybody says anything here. This is where we get to test who's active. Dawn, what do you think the hardest part about social media marketing is? You used to own a photography business, so I'm curious.

I would say being consistent, consistency, and staying on top of it is probably one of the hardest things.

Yep, consistency, trying to find my voice, my identity, enough time, and being consistent. So, Thomas, we cover all of that. We touch on it a little bit today. Awesome. All right. So, going back. This is somewhat of a trick question because let's be real. The basics of social media are not complicated. They really aren't. This isn't paid ads. This isn't SEO where things are starting to get really technical. It's simply social media. You don't need months or years of training to post or be active on social media. Yeah. Sure. There's more to it than that, but more often than not, it's not the challenge that gets-

Thank you for calling Sheri Griffith Expeditions. This is Crystal. Can I help you?

But I'm assuming we're all here on this training to overcome some of those obstacles whether it's the time, the consistency, or even the ignorance, not knowing the importance of social media. Right? So, now, let's go onto some stats here I want to dive in. So I'm going to convince you how important social media is. Hopefully, you already understand that. That's why you're here, but check out some of these crazy stats.

83% of travel companies report increased bookings due to social media marketing. That's crazy. 67% of travelers consult social media for travel tips and recommendations. I am totally one of those people. Instagram is the most popular platform for travel content with 45% of travelers using it. This is going to be an important stat to know when we start focusing on what channels we should be posting on.

48% of travelers have booked a trip based off of a social media post. Again, I'm definitely one of them, and I'll tell you some stories later. 65% of travelers prefer video content for travel inspiration. That's another important stat because where we're focusing on, we'll talk about it, video has a lot to do with it. So if these stats show anything, they show how much a positive impact social media can be on your business, and it should be taken pretty seriously.

So what's the overall purpose of social media? Well, she tells us right in the GIPHY. It's to increase brand awareness, right? So on our previous slide, we talked about increasing bookings and having all these other things in place, but the ultimate goal is to increase brand awareness. As this increases, as your brand awareness increases, so will your bookings as long as you're bringing attention to the right audience.

Social media is a long-term approach, but it is one of the most effective and affordable ways to reach your audience. The key is consistency. So, yes, social media can generate leads, it can drive bookings, you can get people to download guides, but the ultimate goal is to get your brand in front of people consistently. Show them who you are and what you do. The more you post to an extent, the more visible your brand becomes.

So to make this happen, you need to understand your audience and what content is going to resonate with them. We'll dive deeper into what kind of posts work best later, but for now, just know this. If you can share valuable content with your target audience across social media multiple times a week or preferably, a day, your brand awareness is going to increase. People are going to know who you are. You will be that go-to rafting company when it comes time to book because they've been following you on social media. You are their fan. They are your fans. So, super important.

You're going to hear me say this throughout this training. It doesn't have to be complicated. The most important thing is post often, post consistently, and post valuable content. We're going to say that again. Post often, post consistently, and post valuable content. Doing this is far better than not posting anything at all. If you do these basic things, you are going to increase your brand awareness. In a bit, we're going to talk later about how to measure that brand awareness. But now that you know the purpose of social media as a whole, let's go into the channels that you should be focusing on as tour operators.

I'm just going to check the chat real quick to make sure we don't have questions coming here. Okay. Cool. I only have two screens, so I'm trying to maneuver the chat and my slides. So just speak up if you do have a question. Where should we focus? There are so many social media channels, right? Now, all social channels do have a purpose and a place, and I'd love to say post on them all, and I'd love to encourage you to post on them all, but if I was consulting you one-on-one, I'd probably understand that you're extremely limited on time. So let's pick the best channels for you to focus on as a tour operator to make the most efficient use of your time.

As a tour operator, you probably have the ability to create beautiful content, whether that's through photos or videos. So I want you to focus on the visual-based channels like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok. Like I said, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, they all have a purpose too for your tour company. Pinterest is great if you want to post your blogs, your guides, that sort of thing. You will still increase your brand awareness, but visual-based content, specifically video, performs better than non-visual posts. Non-visual posts would be like posts with just text on them, no videos, no photos, and much of your audience are on those video-based platforms or visual-based platforms. I'm one of them, scrolling hours a day, watching people's videos.

So I'll be honest. Most tour operators we work with are not very active on YouTube and TikTok, right? They might have a few videos here and there, but nothing crazy. It's not consistent. However, it's another opportunity to get in front of people, so why not? Is your competitor active on YouTube, on TikTok? No? Great. That's a huge advantage. If they are, time to level up.

Real quick. Let me explain these four channels because I don't want to assume that you know these four channels inside and out. Instagram. On Instagram, you could post photos, videos, stories. Stories are like a quick 24-hour highlight that shows up at the top of your profile. So you have multiple ways that you could post content on Instagram. On Facebook, you could do the same thing that you can on Instagram. However, you can also just post text-based content, and you can include links on Facebook. YouTube. We have YouTube videos which are going to be that more quality production, few minutes long, several minutes long, and we also have YouTube Shorts. YouTube Shorts is that quick-form content. Somewhat like TikTok videos or Instagram Reels. Then, we have TikTok videos, only videos, only short form videos between a couple seconds to... Is it three minutes on TikTok now? Oh, no. 10 minutes on TikTok. 10 minutes on TikTok.

Going back to why you should be present on these four at least, at least. We're in an industry where people, whether they're in your neck of the woods or far, far away, and they're not even considering booking that, we'll say, bungee jump or skydive in that moment, yet, they still want to follow you because they see your clients having a blast, laughing, and you're answering entertaining questions. Right? Not all industries are like this. Trust me. I come from roofing, and roofing is great. We have some entertaining content in there. We're showcasing beautiful homes, funny videos, but let's be real. Tourism is so much more fun and entertaining, so we need to take advantage of that.

As we talked about earlier, we want to get in front of the right people, so convince them to book your trip because they've seen the smile on your client's faces and heard the life-changing stories from that five-day rafting trip. I've been following this bungee jumping company in Scotland for about two years now simply because they provide a lot of entertaining content. Well, guess what? I'm planning to go on a three-peaks expedition. That's through Scotland, England, and Wells. You better believe I am going to book the bungee Jumping tour in Scotland because I'm constantly seeing super fun videos on Instagram.

Now, I was super nervous to go bungee jumping. I would've never thought about bungee jumping in a million years. I love skydiving, I love doing crazy things, but bungee jumping is quite scary for me. But on this channel, they're answering a lot of common questions that I had that helped overcome my fears. Right? So now I have no objections. Now, I'm ready to go. Let's go. I hope to be that person on the video that makes other people laugh and convinces them to go bungee jumping, so.

Now that you know where the focus should be on, those visual-based channels, let's touch base on how often to post. I did include on this slide some other platforms that we didn't talk about previously because I don't discourage you to be present on them. It might be good for you to know. I'm going to start with this, and if you get anything out of this presentation, this is the most important.

Something is better than nothing. One post a week is better than zero posts. Yeah, you're not going to get in front of the people that you could, but it does show others that you have a presence and you're actively in business which is good also for future employees too. So I don't want these numbers to scare you off. However, I do want to encourage you to try to maximize your potential. These numbers are only a recommendation to maximize your potential while still being somewhat realistic, I think.

So on Instagram, three to five times per week on your feed. Your feed is your actual profile, and two times a day on your story. Your story is that 24-hour video or photo that shows up on your profile. Now, the reason we want to actively post on our story is because when somebody goes on Instagram, the first thing they see are those 24-hour highlights that people have posted. If you're constantly posting in those stories, you're going to show up every time that person goes onto Instagram. So super important you stay active on your stories, and then posting a few times a week on your actual feed.

TikTok, three to five times per week at least. You can do some repurposing, Thomas. So like a lot of your crowd wasn't on TikTok, but they were on Instagram or vice versa. You could use the same sort of video that you posted on Instagram and post it on TikTok. Right? Obviously, you can't post images on TikTok, but you can post videos. So you can repurpose that content, just switch up the actual written caption, the hashtag strategy which we talk about later, that sort of thing. You could definitely repurpose.

Facebook, one to two times per day. This can be a mix of just text-based content or videos, or you're cross-posting from Instagram. Instagram and Facebook share the same platform, so it's super easy to just post on Instagram and Facebook simultaneously. x, two to three times per day. LinkedIn, one to two times per day. Threads, two to three. Pinterest, at least one time a week. Now, if you have an active blog or you're doing guides, great place to create some infographics and put them up on Pinterest. YouTube, one to two times per month. The reason I say that is because YouTube usually is a higher production, takes more time, more effort. If I were to say YouTube Shorts on here too, I would say somewhat similar to Instagram Reels, three to five times per week. Again, you can use the same video content across those channels. Sure, TikTok has a little bit of a different format than Instagram and YouTube Shorts, but if we're trying to be the most efficient with our time, you could totally do that.

Okay. Have you ever thought, "I don't know what to post?" I know a few of you have because I've had this conversation just recently, and I want to tell you don't think much about it. You are the expert in what you do, and you can provide so much valuable content to your audience. A few months ago, I actually had to post a blog post called 19 Travel Social Media Tips or something along those lines, and I received a lot of good feedback. So if you want additional ideas, scan that QR code, and I'll send you over these slides too so that you have it, or it's on our website. You could go to resmarkweb.com and see that blog post, and it does describe 19. But let's go into the top nine that I put in there.

So, of course, the style of posts will depend on the platform, but hopefully, these topics will give you some sort of idea to start going through your brain, "Oh, I could do that," or, "Oh, let's get a bunch of content around that." A lot of times, you could get a lot of this out once. Right? So you're on a trip. You're doing something specific. You could get a library filled up in just this area and keep going to the different types of styles.

Travel tips and guides. You can create a static post or shoot a video explaining your trips... your tips, sorry. Your tips and guides don't have to be super professional infographics, so get that out of your head. Sure, if you can do that, fine, but we're thinking about efficiency here. Simply shooting a quick video and posting it will provide a lot of value, especially if it's a good tip, if it's a good travel tip that people want to know.

Visuals of your tours. This is probably the most obvious thing. Post images, videos of the tours themselves, but also, post people having fun, smiling, not just the landscapes and scenery. I actually encourage you to post more videos of people having fun, people smiling than just the landscapes or the tours themselves.

Client testimonials and reviews. I actually don't see this enough on people's social media channels. Whether someone posts a Tripadvisor review, a Google review, or sends a video testimonial, share it. If you get a chance, ask people after the tour how their experience was. Literally, they're done with the tour. They're done with their kayaking adventure, rafting adventure, or you just got back from an international trip with them, and you're on the plane. Literally, grab your phone, your smartphone and ask, "What was your experience with us? Would you recommend it to a friend or family member?" Record them. It's that simple. It doesn't need high production.

Promotions and deals. Share exciting discounts or deals, of course, related to your offerings and any announcements you might have, whether it's a new employee, or you have a closure for the day, or holiday hours, that sort of thing. Share it. Behind the scenes. This one's always fun that goes missed a lot. Capture the moments of your guides and customers preparing, getting ready, having fun behind the scenes. Share laughter, excitement, and even the challenges that they're facing. People absolutely love candid moments.

I've been following this one contracting company on YouTube for a few years now, and they have like 15,000 followers, right? But they do so many funny skits and bloopers. People just like investing in a company that they can connect with, and that is the great thing about social media. This is not the place where you have to be extremely professional, right? so keep that in mind.

Address your audience's frequently asked questions. Think about the questions your customers are commonly asking. Whether it's about your products, your services, your booking processes. You could either put it in a static post. The static post is just a standalone post. You could do it in a video, the owner answering these questions. You might even have an FAQ on your website that's already answered. You literally just have to answer them. They don't have to be in-depth. A short video can be 15 seconds long. On Instagram, you could only go up to 90 seconds anyway, so don't elaborate too much. Just answer a question. It could be really helpful.

Guide features. Feature your guides or other employees. Your audience wants to see the faces behind the company. Do a quick interview with your employees, "What's your favorite part about being here? What's your favorite destination?" or just post an image of them. Again, it helps people connect and see the faces behind the company.

This one is probably the easiest way to generate content. Share your customers' posts. You don't even have to take the photos or shoot the videos yourself. Tell your customers to tag you when they post something on social media. If they're using something like Instagram, you could ask them to invite you as a collaborator so that it appears directly on your profile. So they could actually tag you which you just get notified that your client has posted something about your company on their channel, or they can invite you as a collaborator.

If you accept that, that post now goes on to your profile, and you didn't even have to do anything. The caption is even already there. So most customers are happy to tag you if you ask, and if they didn't invite you as a collaborator or if they didn't tag you, shoot them a DM. Ask them, "Would you mind if I reshare this?" Screenshot it, edit it a little bit, and repost it. Create your own written caption. Usually, customers are thrilled about it. You won't ask, you won't get what you don't ask for, so just ask.

Remember, these videos don't need to be much production. Your smartphone will do an amazing job. I'm not saying get rid of your professional camera or anything like that. It has its place and purpose, right? But we're trying to be efficient. You're busy. We're trying to get the most out of what we got and the tools we have. So bring out that smartphone. Don't be afraid to use it.

You don't need top-notch editing skills either. I use a few apps to edit my posts. I use VN. Greg, if you can send the links to these that I'm saying, that would be great too to the audience. VN is a simple video editing app. It is completely free, and I absolutely love it. I've tried many video editing apps, paid ones, free ones. This is my favorite. It's called VN.

Canva. Canva is simple. You can use it on your phone. I like to use it on a computer, but it's a good way to create infographics or put some design behind a picture. Then, I use an app called Captions. Captions allows for me to put subtitles on my videos. They look a little flashy. They draw attention. Captions does cost though. Captions is $10 a month, but there are free caption apps that you can use.

I'm just going to check the chats here real quick. If anybody has questions, please let me know. I'm probably going fast, but there's a lot to cover here. Awesome. Thanks, Greg, for including that. Awesome. Oh, thanks, Henry. Okay, guys. Let's keep going on.

So now that we know where to post, how often to post, and what to post, let's talk about the posts themselves. Each platform has different formats that you should implement. Not so much with the photos and videos anymore, but like the captions, and links, and hashtags should be a little different. On X, an X post is going to be shorter than an Instagram post. X is the new version of Twitter. An Instagram post might have more emojis than a Facebook post. A Facebook post can have a link in it that you can actually click on, whereas on Instagram, you cannot put links in your actual posts. So just things to consider.

I want to make sure you do not cut off your photos. Don't crop it. So only half a head is showing on one of your photos. This happens sometimes when you post carousel photos, so double check. If you're posting something on Instagram specifically, a carousel photo allows you to select multiple photos, right? I did this the other day, actually, and I wasn't bothered to fix it. I was posting all the images of my summer, and they were all landscape which is perfect. But then, I had one photo that was vertical. It was me and my mom, and I was like, "I'm just going to put it up there." So I go on Facebook, and then I see it's just my mom and my smiles. It's just her teeth on the post, and I'm like, "Oh, well, I should have known that. I should have known better." I didn't care. It's still up there. So just be mindful of the format. That happens when you actually post it.

Make your videos immersive. On Instagram and TikTok, that is a 9:16 ratio. It's that vertical style video you're typically seeing as you're scrolling through your feeds. People want to watch videos as if they were with you, as if they were on that tour, right? Eye-to-eye level. They're actually speaking to you. Super important.

Shoot with a wider frame angle for more editing options. If you shoot with a wider frame angle, and then put your video in a vertical format, you could usually zoom in, and there is less of an issue because the content within that video is still within frame. If you go close up, and then put it in a 9:16 ratio, you're usually off of that frame. So wider angle is sometimes better.

Utilize captions when needed, and by captions here, I mean the actual closed captions that go on the videos. Somewhat like subtitles, right? Anytime they're speaking in your videos, use captions. So many videos I come across, I'm laying in bed at night, can't sleep, scrolling through social media. I can't have my sound on because I don't want to wake people up. Well, if there's no captions, I'm just going to keep scrolling through, right? So captions are really important. A lot of times, people don't have their sound on.

Hashtags still matter, sort of. We're going to talk about that in the next slide, but you do want to use optimal hashtags throughout your posts. A hashtag, if you don't know, is what... It's a keyword that goes after your written content, or your written description, or within it, helping describe it, and it looks like a number symbol and then a keyword. So just so you know what a hashtag is.

Utilize the different posting formats and features within the apps. If you're utilizing Instagram, don't just constantly post Reels. Don't just constantly post photos. Do a mix. Do a mix of videos. Do a mix of static photos. Do a mix of carousel photos, so you're selecting multiple photos and do... Also, in your stories. So use the different formats within the app and the features within the app.

Within TikTok, within YouTube Shorts, within Instagram, you actually have editing features that you can use. Use these. I'm not saying edit your full video on these apps. But if you do use a few of the features these apps have, these apps know, and it actually helps the algorithm a little bit because it will favor you for using their apps.

So social posts should be catered for the platform. For example, if you're posting on both Instagram and Facebook, on Instagram, do not include a link in your call to action. Instead, say, "Link is in our bio." For example, I do this all the time on ResmarkWeb, "Join our..." I'll post a static photo of myself saying, "We're having a workshop. I'd love for you to join. Register now. Link in bio," because I cannot put the link in my Instagram description. Do not put a link in your Instagram description. But on Facebook, you can. So I will cater that post. I will usually do a very similar written description for that post, but I will include the link on Facebook. So, yeah. Just make sure that it's catered towards the platform.

Let's go into hashtags. Hashtags do go along with post optimization and should be the least of your concern. But I talk with people, and they get caught up on this whole hashtag strategy, so let's dive in. Your concern is quality of content. Hashtags are not what they used to be. A few years back, people use hashtags excessively. But now, it's clear that moderation and quality in your hashtags is key. Hashtags, the purpose of them can help organize your content. It can potentially help guide the algorithm, give it a really small boost, and it can help people search for your content.

On Instagram, aim for three to five hashtags per post. Even though you can use up to 30, do not. Do not hashtag-stuff your post. It's like keyword stuffing. Facebook, be even more selective with the use of hashtags. One or two is enough. TikTok, you can possibly use three to four, but to be honest, hashtags are a bit irrelevant on TikTok, and that's because the algorithm is just different on TikTok. TikTok decides whose video to put in front of you.

Instagram is different. Instagram's algorithm works by the videos you follow or by the people you follow, by the people you've interacted with, and the people that have interacted with you. But on TikTok, like I said, they push the videos in front of you based off of the videos you previously watched, whether you've interacted or not. They're really good at it too. If you use too many hashtags, you can actually start to confuse the algorithm. Because they're so smart, this is the number one rule, do not confuse the algorithm. They know every detail about your video, where you're located, what you're offering, the images behind you, what your shirt says. It's kind of scary.

On YouTube, use about three tags, and within the description, three to five relevant hashtags. So on YouTube, you can actually categorize your videos a little bit using tags, and then hashtags are separate. Hashtags on YouTube though, they do improve discoverability, and you can link to other videos and similar topics.

Before I start working with a company on their social media, I always sit down and try to come up with 10 hashtags that I can possibly use. I never use them at once, but at least I have a poll to choose from. Here are some questions that I ask, and I'd like you to answer them as I'm going through them. Who is your target audience, and what keywords do they use to find your content? Is your target audience sober women who want to travel abroad? What keywords are they searching on Google to find more information? Is it "sober trips," "women's sober trips," "alcohol-free travel?" Good to know.

What are the trending topics or themes within the industry? Staying on the sober summer tours type thing, what are the alcohol-free go-to products that people are raving about? Who are the influencers in the industry? What challenges are people doing for sobriety? That could all help you do some keyword research. Then, lastly, what hashtags are your competitors using? Are they using three to five hashtags, the optimal amount they're supposed to do? See what they're using. I don't have an issue with copying a competitor's hashtag if I know it's a good hashtag to use, especially if it's a competitor that we look up to.

All right. Does anybody have questions? I'm going to check the chat again real quick. Cool. Okay. Just tell me if you have questions, or you need me to stop, or I'm doing something and you need me to answer it a little bit better. I'm going to grab some water real quick.

So, by now, you know the foundation. This is great. Well, now, it comes time to actually getting the job done, getting the post out there. Going back to the question in the beginning that I asked, what's the biggest challenge you're facing? The one I hear all the time is, "I don't have time. I don't have time to make the content. I don't have the capacity." Here are some ideas that I really do hope help.

Use internal people. Have your guides take photos and videos, and consider offering them an incentive for doing that. Allow employees to do a social media takeover for a bit, whether it's a week or a month. It really does empower them to post the content that they enjoy. The only thing I want to say. If you're going to use internal people, and especially if you're going to be switching off between employees, make sure they're very clear on your brand guidelines.

Now, on social media, you do have a little bit of leeway in terms of your brand consistency, the colors, and the fonts, and stuff. It's a little bit different than, we'll say, your website. It should be very consistent. It should really showcase your brand. I'm not saying this isn't your brand identity and your brand voice. That needs to stay consistent, but the actual aesthetic of it. So don't focus too much on that. What you need to focus on is, "Do they know your tone? Do they know your voice that you want to portray? Do they know how you speak to customers?" So that's really important.

Then, the other side of it is hiring a social media manager. You could hire an in-house person. An in-house person could be part-time or full-time, depending on your budget. They're usually responsible for actually getting the content, taking the photos, taking the videos. They're probably responsible for editing it, publishing it, engaging, all of that. So they're pretty much in charge of all things social media.

It's near impossible to do that with a remote person. So another option is hiring a remote person. They usually will just handle maybe the editing, creating the captions, doing the actual posting, but you are going to need to provide images and videos. Greg, would you mind sending over a link? Some places to find candidates are Upwork and Fiverr. Upwork is probably a little bit better if you're looking for more of a long-term person to help. But one thing to note with in-house versus remote. An in-house person is going to be a lot more expensive than a remote person.

Also, real quick. When you're hiring a remote person, if you're not giving them the content they need to be successful, you're not going to have content that resonates with your audience. They're probably going to be pulling from stock photos, creating many designs on Canva. This is not what you want. We're in an industry where we can post really good authentic photos and videos. So make sure that you stay organized and give that content to them. I've been in that position before where I've helped a company, and they gave me nothing to work off of. So it starts to get really challenging for them, and then what's the point? What's the point if you're not resonating with your audience?

So the next two slides, I want to talk about how to engage with people on social media and what metrics to look at. After you understand the importance of social media and you're actually doing the right things, I want you to start engaging with people. Gradually, this is going to help grow your account, build authentic relationships, and ultimately, increase your brand awareness. Here are seven ways that you can engage with people on social media.

Likes and comments. Of course, engage with posts from both people who you follow and people who follow you. Show genuine interest by liking and commenting. Now, the second point goes with that first point. Make the comments thoughtful. Don't just do an emoji or a "Awesome," or "Good job. Congrats." Make it meaningful. Put some effort behind it. That does take some time.

Send a direct message which is what we call a DM. Don't hesitate to send people a DM. Answer their questions, thank them for their support, or simply start a casual conversation. Respond to DMs quickly. Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, they all know how quick you're responding to these things. All part of the algorithm. Make it a priority to respond to all direct messages, even if they just simply liked your story because that then shows up in your DMs. It's a personal touch. It could build relationships with your audience.

One thing I wanted to say between this point and the next is make sure you're interacting with people's stories. So, remember, the stories are those 24-hour clips that show up at the top of people's profiles. If your followers or the people you're following have polls or asking a question, answer them because then it shows up in their DMs. Most likely, if you're following them, it's maybe because they're following you. So just consider that. Join relevant groups and communities. Participate in Facebook groups or forums related to your industry. Contribute valuable insights and engage with members to establish your presence and authority. I'm a part of several marketing communities on Facebook, and if I see something on Reddit or wherever, I try provide some sort of value. I'm not expecting much out of it. I'm not expecting anything out of it instantaneously. It's that long-term effect of building that authority and awareness.

Leverage social listening tools. Use social listening tools to track conversations and keywords, hashtags related to your brand. This allows you to get notified when your brand is mentioned so that you can take action. I don't necessarily recommend this, unless you're doing a lot of business. There's a lot of noise behind your name. People are talking about your name. That's when it starts to get a little bit more important to be listening to those cues. How are people talking about your brand? There's companies like Brandwatch, Mention. Hootsuite even does it. Sprout Social. There's a lot of social listening platforms out there, but they can get pretty pricey too. Respond to comments on ads. We talk a little bit later about paid ads, but I did want to just say this. Don't overlook any comments that people are posting on your actual ads because that is on your social media too.

Just check. Thanks, Greg, for sending those over. You're now doing all these things, but how do you keep track of it all? So when it comes to social media metrics, there is a lot to focus on, and before I even started in this whole social media industry, in this whole role years ago, I was nervous about the metrics, but don't stress too much about it. If this were paid ads, I would say something completely different. But if you're in a position where you're not posting regularly or utilizing social media to its full potential, just worry about posting. Then, worry about posting and engaging. Then, posting, engaging. All right. What kind of traffic are we getting here?

So once you get into that rhythm of consistency, that's when you can start looking at some key metrics. We'll talk briefly about them though so that you're aware of what should be focused on and what they mean. Impressions. Impressions count the total number of times your content has been displayed across people's feeds, regardless if they clicked it or not. A higher number of impressions with a low engagement rate can mean that your content is not resonating with your audience. So important metric to know. Engagement measures the interaction that your content receives, whether that's through likes, comments, shares, saves. It's a strong indicator of how compelling your content is to the audience.

Follower count is often a vanity metric here, but it counts to, obviously, the number of followers that your account has. It does have some value though. It's important to understand though that it does not always mean success. I would rather you focus on follower growth which I think is on the next slide here. But let's say your competitor has 12,000 followers. You have 150 followers. Don't be intimidated. The quality of your followers and their engagement with your content is what matters the most.

Video views tracks how many times your video content has been seen or watched. Depending on the platform, you might also be able to see a lot more detailed metric like how long the viewers are actually watching your videos. That becomes really important when we're starting to introduce paid ads. Every platform is different though. On YouTube, a view is counted as 30 seconds, and on Instagram, a view is counted as three seconds.

Follower growth measures the rate at which your follower count is increasing or decreasing over time. Typically, a 6% to 8% growth is considered pretty good. Click-through rate is the percentage of users who click on a link within your social media post. It's calculated clicks divided by impressions times 100. We'll also call this the CTR, indicates that your content is compelling enough to drive traffic to your desired destination. That destination could be a blog. It could be a website page. It could be a product page. You want to look for a click-through rate of about 2% or higher, of course, but that's actually considered good.

Conversion rate measures the percentage of people who take the desired action after... sorry, engaging with your social media content. So I'm going to start that one over. Conversion rate measures the percentage of people who take a desired action after engaging with your social media content. This action could be signing up for a newsletter, downloading the guidebook that you have, or actually booking the tour. This is a really important metric, and you could track your effectiveness if you set up something like Google Analytics and set up some UTM parameters so that you know where the source of traffic is actually coming from.

Brand mentions goes back to social listening tools. So brand mentions count the number of times your actual brand has been mentioned on social media. Referral traffic measures the amount of traffic your website receives from social media platforms, and follower demographics provide the insights into the age, gender, location, interest. You do want to make sure that your follower demographic is your ideal customer, right? You can see on the right, this is just a screenshot of the Insights Dashboard that Instagram has for Resmark's demographics. If you're targeting middle-aged woman, age 30 in North America, you don't want your demographics to be in India. In India, the men are 30s to 40s. So just make sure your demographic is who you want to get in front of ideally.

So time management solutions. We talked earlier about how to be efficient when it comes to social media posting. So this is probably the best way to do that. This is something we use for ResmarkWeb. It allows us to schedule out posts, post across multiple platforms at the same time. Actually, our clients do get access to this to schedule their posts, to post through this, and it's a great way to streamline things, especially if it's you, you're the one that's doing the posting.

There are other tools that you can use though that are paid. There's Sendible, and there's Sprout Social. Sendible is on the cheaper end, and Sprout Social is a little bit more expensive. I don't necessarily recommend a time management solution, unless you're doing three, four social media channels. If you're just posting on two, three, you could do it manually. But when we're starting to add in those other channels like X, like LinkedIn, definitely, worth having something like a time management solution.

Bonus content. I know we only have a few minutes left, guys, so I just will cover this as quick as possible. We get these questions quite often, how to find influencers in the industry, in the travel industry. There are so many influencers that can help promote your tours. It could be intimidating, right? I mean, reaching out to a famous person, the likelihood of them wanting to work with you is small, right? No, it's not. They want to do deals.

The first step is to list potential influencers that you might want to work with. Look for influencers whose followers match your target demographic. You can search using things like #travelinfluencer, #travelblogger to find influencers if you're not already aware of the influencers in your industry. Once you have a list, pay attention to their engagement rates, content style, and how well they align with your brand's values and image. Quality matters more than quantity, so don't focus so much on the follower count that they have.

Next, engage with their content, comment on their post, share their content, get on their radar, become their friend. When you're ready, send them a message outlining why you would think that they'd be a great fit for your brand, and be clear about what you're offering in return. Whether it's a complimentary tour or a payment, make sure to outline what you want them to do, whether it's going on your tours or them posting it on their social media. After that collaboration, track the progress of the influencer's content. Did it lead to increased followers, engagement, bookings? Go on their content and post that they did about you. What kind of noises are they bringing up? What are the comments like? Are they getting a lot of interactions compared to other posts?

I have worked with influencers in the past. I've never been an influencer, but I've worked with influencers, and the best DMs that I got when I was managing through it were voice DMs. So on social platforms, you could send your voice. Also, with a genuine message, send a voice message. So exercise for you. Whether you want to work with influencers or not, think about 10 influencers that you could possibly work with. Make sure that they align with your brand, and even if you don't work with them, even if you don't reach out, start following them. Start liking them. Create that rapport with them. You never know what it can lead to.

Okay. Bonus content number two. "Do my social media efforts efforts affect my rankings on Google?" We got this question a few times, so I figured I'd throw it in as a bonus. This isn't something that a lot of trainings cover in a social media training. Short answer is yes, but it's not as straightforward as you think. So social media signals like likes, shares, comments don't directly influence search engine rankings for your website, but engaging content on social media can drive traffic to your website, boost brand visibility, and generate valuable backlinks from other sites. These are all factors that impact your SEO, and strong social media presence will help establish your brand's authority and trustworthiness which are also considerations for search engine rankings.

It's also important to note that your social media profiles don't stay confined to social media platforms. Actually, you'll rank for brand-mentioned searches. So if somebody were to type in "ResmarkWeb," our website is going to pop up, so is our Instagram, our TikTok, our LinkedIn. So they do not stay confined to the actual profiles. Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, incorporating optimal hashtags and keywords in your captions can help guide the platform to the right audience, and real quick, not only provide the right keywords in your captions, provide it in the actual video. The algorithm will actually pick up what you're saying.

Last slide, guys. Thanks for sticking with me all this way. So much content. This training has just focused on organic social media, but there is a paid side as well. Of course, you have your ad platforms like Facebook Ads which do not show up on your actual profile or on your feed. However, you can set up ads for any images, videos through the ad platform. Now, these will pretty much go directly where you want them to. It's extremely targeted. The disadvantage is it's not going to show up on your actual feed, and it's expensive, and it's an investment, and it can be complex. It takes a lot of training to be able to run a Facebook ad successfully.

Now, not to confuse that with a boosted post, and that's why I added this in this training today. When you boost your post, you're basically putting a little money behind your actual already existing social media post. You're telling the social channels to show this to more people. Usually, this will cost a lot less than a paid ad, but it is not nearly as targeted or dialed-in as it is with a Facebook ad. Boosted posts are going to focus more on increasing engagement, followers, likes, comments, a lot of that brand awareness stuff. Whereas a paid ad is going to focus more on lead generation. Sure, you could still run brand awareness ads as well, but the ultimate goal is going to be lead-gen.

Then, reporting. If you're running a boosted report, you're going to get the basic of the basic insights. Whereas with a paid ad, you got lots of analytics to dive into. So do I recommend boosted posts for the channels or the social media accounts that I work with? It depends. I usually don't, to be honest. I'd rather see you put that money behind a Facebook ad or put that money towards a Facebook ad. But if you do just want to get more views on your guides, get more newsletter subscribes, that sort of thing, sure, throw $10, $15 into a boosted post, and see where it gets you.

Guys, thanks all. Thank you all for joining me. We covered so much today. I hope that I covered most of the things that you had on your mind. I would like to know what your top three things that you will implement from today's workshop or maybe something that you didn't think about before, and now you're like, "Oh, okay. Now, I have the confidence to do this," or just anything, any feedback. I'd love to hear it. Drop it in the comments. I'll pull that up in a second. Let's see here.

Also, while you guys are doing that, if I could leave you with one thing, it's to stop overthinking and just post. Make sure you're active on social media. More often than not, I see tour operators not doing much, or they're doing one post in June during their season, and then come next June, they're doing a few other posts. So it's not just that consistency. You could schedule these posts out, right? So be efficient with the resources you have, and try to be consistent, and just get out there. Don't overthink it. So if I could leave you with anything, it would be something along those lines.

Okay. Let's see here. "Important message for me is to not think too much and to just post and make videos that are not super high quality." Yes, Thomas. Absolutely. When you're on that plane to Japan, not in November, but in March with your clients, ask them, "Are you excited?" Get that story behind everything that you're doing. That emotion resonates to your audience, so super important.

Okay. "So please contact..." Okay. You got it, Henry. Awesome, guys. Okay. So I'll leave you with this. If you want a deeper dive at your social media plan, feel free to email me. I promise I won't sell you. I just love providing a value. If you'd like to talk about SEO, paid ads, your website, scan that QR code to schedule call with Greg. He'll walk you through everything we do as a service. Okay, guys. Thank you all for being here. If you have any questions, feel free.

"Do you have any other series coming up?" Yes, we have one once a month. Next month, we are actually going to be talking about ways to generate direct bookings both online and offline. The date is still to be determined, but it's going to be with Brandon Lake and Josh Oakes of The Sunshine Tribe. I'm going to be doing some more workshops on paid ads, SEO, that sort of thing. This was actually my first workshop I've done with Resmark, so hopefully, it went good. I'd love to hear your feedback, and I'll leave it at that. I'll give you guys the rest of your day back. Thanks for hanging out with me a few hours or a few minutes after we were done. So I appreciate you all. Have a good day, everyone.