Valerie Merut Social Media Consulting

22/07/2024

👆 Some interesting new features from Instagram, and some ideas on how travel businesses and hotels can leverage them👇

➡️ Text on carousels.
Love love love this update for those of you who don’t necessarily want to do full-on graphics!
💡 Take viewers on a journey through your hotel with a carousel using text labels to identify each space.
💡 Create a carousel with stunning photos of destinations, hotels, restaurants, and activities. Use text to provide concise details.
💡 Recap an experience with photos and use text to guide viewers through the narrative (like you would on story).

➡️ Music on carousels.
Just like regular photo carousels, choose music that complements the visuals and evokes the desired atmosphere.
💡 Create a carousel with videos showcasing a specific destination and layer music that reflects that destination.
💡 Showcase a spa experience with calming music and serene visuals.

➡️ Notes on feed posts and stories
These seem to be like regular comments but shorter and more public as visible to followers you have in common with the account you’re leaving a note on. You can also choose to have notes visible to close friends only if you want to test it out with just your team for the time being.
💡 Attending a travel fair or industry event? Leave a note on the event’s post to share mutual connections you’ll be there
💡 Publicly show your collaborations / partnerships with local guides, activity providers, hotels or influencers by “hyping” them up.
💡 If your teams have strong network of their own, encourage them to leave notes on your posts for the followers who follow both your business page and theirs to see.

Excited to be playing with those. We’ll report back and keep you posted on those extra updates we mentioned on slide 5.

What about you? Do you have access to these features? Which ones are you most excited to test out?

08/07/2024

Have you heard about the anti-tourist protests in Mallorca or the short-term rental ban in Barcelona? Overtourism isn’t exactly breaking news, but these headlines show we still have a long way to go in managing tourist flow.

That’s why at Cerita, we’re passionate about partnering with travel businesses that embrace a more mindful approach to exploration. We believe in slower adventures, exploring with respect, venturing off the beaten path, and making a positive impact along the way.

As marketers, we:

➡️ consciously avoid promoting over-touristed destinations. When we do feature them, we focus on the best times to visit outside of peak season, showcase lesser-known yet equally beautiful and interesting neighbourhoods, or suggest pairing that popular spot with a lesser-known part of the country that’s craving (and wanting) some tourist love.

➡️ actively try to inspire people to explore new places they may not have considered, through beautiful, insightful content and partnerships with responsible influencers who share our values.

➡️ incorporate educational content into what we post for our clients. It’s a bit different from the pandemic days when everyone was wanting to learn. People prefer personal perspectives over straight-up information right now. So, we feature personal insights from our clients and their teams on why they recommend certain destinations, what’s happening locally, where to base yourself, and what to do. Think transparency with a sprinkle of education.

But we’re always thinking about what else we should / could be doing ? Either as marketers or travel businesses? We’d love to hear your thoughts or what you’re doing. All opinions are welcome. Let’s chat in the comments!

21/05/2024

“How can we inspire people to travel to popular destinations outside of peak season?”

As sustainability-minded marketers working alongside like-minded travel businesses, this is a question that we think about a lot as we create content for our clients. Though social media isn’t solely to blame for overtourism, it’s certainly been a contributing factor, and so we feel a strong sense of responsibility to change the narrative.

In our experience, the typical “why travel off-season” approach often falls flat.

💡 What we find more impactful is when we showcase destinations outside of the peak months and highlight what’s so special about them when you visit at that time of year, without focusing too much on the “it’s cheaper, you’ll get fewer crowds, but you might have to compromise on the weather and potentially some of the shops/restaurants will be closed” (depending on where you’re going). People don’t want to hear about the trade-offs; that’s just not very inspiring.

But if you can show them something they can only see or do during that one month in that destination or even just what a great experience it is to be there in [month], then you’re building interest in the destination for that particular experience rather than the trade-offs.

So, for example:

October is the one month of the year in Costa Rica when you can catch turtle season in Tortuguero, spot the Southern Hemisphere humpback whales on the Pacific side, and see monkeys, sloths, coatis, and all sorts of exotic birds in Arenal. It’s also one of the rainiest months in the country, which, of course, you’ll need to prep your travellers for - we’re not trying to deceive anybody - but you’re leading with the amazing wildlife-centric experience you can have if you go then and doesn’t it sound amazing? 💚

➡️ Or if you take the education route, we find it works best when you make it more personal. For example, “Everybody goes to [destination] in [time] for [reason], but this may be our personal favourite [season] to go, and here’s why: [experience]”

What has been your strategy for inspiring off/shoulder-season travel? We’d love to hear your approach!

13/09/2022

💡 Forget about the term “sustainable” for a second

Yes, some travellers are actively looking for the keyword to help them consider who they may want to book their next trip with but for many people, this still doesn't really mean much and, as many of you will know, these claims of sustainability are also tied to a lot of greenwashing.

So, let’s leave the word to the side and re-focus on the how and the why behind what makes you a sustainable tourism business or property. That’s what people ultimately need to know.

Tell me you’re a sustainable tourism business without telling me you’re a sustainable tourism business ⤵️

--

04/05/2022

"Where do I find sustainable travellers on social media?!"🤔

My answer is almost always 👉 think about your target audience.

What magazines do they read? What podcasts do they listen to? Who are their favourite bloggers? What accounts do they like to follow?

➡️ That’s where they are and these are the accounts you want to be partnering with so you can get in front of them.

💡 Influencers in particular are extremely powerful because of the relationships and trust they have developed with their followers over the years. It's modern-day word of mouth.

So, how do you go about partnering with them?

1️⃣ Make sure they’re the “right” fit
Are they focused on promoting sustainable travel? Ask to see a media kit so you can check they’re the right demographic. Talk to them about their followers’ attitude to sustainability and buying power (i.e. do they have the disposable income that would be needed for them to consider working with a company like yours)

2️⃣ Set a brief but allow creative freedom
Explain the aim of the partnership, how you see it working, key messaging, specific words or stories if any you would like to incorporate and any ideas that you have and then give creative freedom to the influencer. There is a reason their social media performs well and that’s because they know exactly how to present them and make them appealing to their audience. Let them reconcile your messaging with what will get the attention of their followers.

3️⃣ Track, track, track and learn, learn, learn
Track how the campaign performed and what people’s reactions were. What kind of comments did they leave? What kind of questions did they ask? How many new followers did you get? Were the posts saved? How did they react to the stories? How many people tapped the link sticker…etc. -> there is lots to learn in both the quantitative and qualitative data of a campaign, which you can use for future campaigns as well as your own marketing.

💬 Have you worked with influencers before? What lessons have you learned from these partnerships?

17/01/2022