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Social media has slowly become entwined with all our lives since its rise in the early aughts. And there are no signs that its integration into social life, business and travel is slowing down.
After MySpace’s eye-popping United States usership landed in the hundreds of millions at its prime, platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter) and TikTok have quite literally captured global attention.
On average, working age people are now spending up to two and a half hours on social media platforms each day. And it’s no secret that businesses have taken note, especially new ones that want to make a quick — and inexpensive — splash.
“For startups it is one of the most cost-effective ways to build brand awareness,” said Martin Stoll, CEO of Sparkloft Media, a creative agency that works with travel brands and has its roots as a social media agency. He calls social media a “must-do for any brand.”
Perhaps no one in travel has taken that more to heart than @hotel, a hotel booking platform that founder and CEO Konrad Waliszewski compared to an “OTA for Instagram and TikTok.” While @hotel doesn’t have the revenue streams of the big online travel agencies, its 60 million followers across social media accounts could make it a force if social media’s role in travel searches continues to grow.
“Social media is the new SEO, and travelers search on Instagram and TikTok before Google,” he said.
But after years of different social platforms taking center stage – some fading out (RIP Vine) and others skyrocketing – which platforms remain relevant for travel startups as they market their product to the masses? Is TikTok most important? Does X — formerly Twitter — still matter?
How do travel startups and businesses decide what platforms to use?
Put simply, different social media platforms serve different purposes.
The most important thing, savvy users say, is to keep in mind which sites are drawing the clientele they want for their businesses.
“We’ll go wherever our customers are – wherever they’re spending time,” said Kyle Tibbitts, chief marketing officer at Wander, a network of smart vacation homes. “[We’re] agnostic as to which platform wins or loses.”
Strategies have to keep up with whatever platform and content is capturing attention.
“Our playbooks evolve every single day based on new data insights,” Waliszewski said. “This data continues to unlock new ways to capture attention faster, maintain engagement longer and spark enough emotion or value to be worth a share, save or comment. While the tactics are constantly changing, nailing this dynamic is the key to unlocking viral growth.”
How are travel startups using social media?
Jared Alster, co-founder of Dune7, a digital-focused marketing agency for travel and tourism brands, said goals and intent matter when it comes to social media use.
“I think it depends heavily on which sector the company is in and who their target customers are,” Alster said.
“On the B2B or B2B2C side, brands like Fora do a great job of bringing their product to life by showcasing user stories via LinkedIn,” Alster continued. “Our client Battleface leverages LinkedIn as a distribution channel for their podcast.”
Alster added that brands Dune7 works with are taking a strategic approach when deciding what content to share and where.
How to decide what platforms to use, he said, depends on a few things.
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“I think it comes down to 1) identifying your audience; 2) testing quickly and broadly across platforms that make sense to your business; 3) doubling down on paid social as growth allows and once you can prove positive (return on investment)/unit economics for a specific platform,” Alster said.
Kim Bennett, CEO and founder of AtlasGuru, agreed that each platform comes with different uses and is perhaps motivated by different goals. At AtlasGuru, Bennett said the company uses social media in a secondary capacity to drive web traffic.
“Instagram is very visual-based and ideal for showcasing gorgeous and stunning travel destinations, and Pinterest, another great visually driven platform, has amazing search and discover capabilities that we’ve found to be a great web traffic driver,” Bennett said.
Customer acquisition is the toughest part of being in the travel business, according to Waliszewski, who compared the use of Google Ads to “an arms race.” And social has provided room for growth.
“We found our path around this by building an organic content marketing machine that creates over [1,000] pieces of social-first content per day,” Waliszewski said. “We also have built proprietary social data tools that unlock daily SEO optimization and algorithm breakthroughs on the platforms. As a result, we go viral an average of three times per day, have an organic reach of 2 billion every month and grow by approximately 3 million followers every single month.”
Meanwhile, Propellic, a B2B travel marketing agency, uses LinkedIn as its primary social media as that’s where its audience mostly resides.
“Our primary objective is to showcase marketing insights from companies that have achieved success, inspiring other enterprises in the travel and tourism sectors,” said Propellic brand marketing manager Soledad Rodriguez. “We regularly share case studies, webinars and podcasts featuring industry experts.”
What social media platform is most important for travel startups?
There’s not one platform that is most important.
Some platforms have seen more success than others, though. Instagram, for example, is the most downloaded app in the world followed by TikTok and then Facebook, according to Hootsuite, which published a report titled “Social Media Trends 2023.”
Waliszewski said that @hotel seeks to be an early innovator on all social platforms. But some have proven to be more useful than others.
“The two platforms we care most about – Instagram and TikTok – continue to grow and take an increasingly larger percentage of consumer attention,” Waliszewski said.
Social media is the new SEO, and travelers search on Instagram and TikTok before Google.
Konrad Waliszewski – @hotel
“Besides YouTube, we have not seen the same positive trends for Snap, Twitter (now X), etc. Of course new platforms come and go, and we’re always quick to experiment, but as for now, Instagram and TikTok remain the priority for us,” Waliszewski said.
Instagram is also a priority for Wander, as was YouTube in the earlier days. YouTube remains important for longer-form content for Wander. Instagram, he said, is still important for shorter-form content. And X, he added, matters too, for what he called “early adopter updates.”
For Wander, TikTok and Threads fall under what Tibbitts identified as “secondary” channels for “testing and learning.” LinkedIn is also of use in a “third” bucket.
But at the end of the day, a brand’s experience with social media marketing is individualistic. It’s about following your audience – in order to get them to follow you, in a way.
Propellic’s Rodriguez drove home a point her peers touched on: “There’s little value in spreading oneself thin across numerous platforms without ensuring the right message reaches the right audience at the opportune moment.”
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