4 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Social Media Efforts

Following is the latest in a series of guest columns on achieving social media success.

Despite every best intention, many travel businesses start their social media marketing journey with missteps that add to their workload and send them in vague, unknown directions.

Want to avoid that pitfall? Here are four common mistakes that travel businesses make with their social media presence.

1. Flying by the seat of your pants
You’ve heard that social media is a great marketing tool and you’ve felt the pressure to get social, so you decide to jump in and see what happens.

If you’re lucky, you’ve had some successes – bookings, new business contacts, or maybe a raving success. While overnight successes do happen, they’re unfortunately the exception, not the rule. The odds for social success get much greater if you take time in the beginning to plot a course for your efforts.

2. Not knowing your target
This is a basic marketing fact: A 40-something mom of two has vastly different interests and needs than a 30-year-old young professional. Which one do you prefer to target? Is it one over the other or a mix of both?  

Nail your ideal client profile down from the beginning and you’ll cut your workload down significantly. It will give you clues as to what to talk about, where to be, how to connect and much, much more.

If you don’t already have a good grip on your target customer, clever observation can help you gather information. Use tools like Google, a social network’s search tool or questions to your existing clients to get in touch with their habits, preferences and hot issues. Start taking notes and building a profile and give yourself time. Good observation takes time.

3. Leaving your team out of it
Your social media presence is supposed to represent you as a business. If part of that business involves a team, don’t let your efforts live in a bubble.

I’ve written before about ways in which your team can contribute to your efforts without becoming social media experts themselves, but the participation needs to go both ways.

In order for your social media presence to thrive and become an integral part of your business, your team needs to hear you talk about it, celebrate successes and give clear direction as to how they can help it grow and thrive. If they don’t feel like they contributions matter, their enthusiasm will wane and so will your chance for success.

4. Biting off more than you can chew
With social media, this self-sabotaging habit usually translates to registering a large number of social network profiles, posting to them for a while, getting overwhelmed and then abandoning most – if not all – of them within a short while. Sound familiar?

Before throwing yourself onto every network out there, consider how each one will help you achieve your business goals. If you can’t express why it deserves to be on your roster, it may not need to be there. If you’ve done your planning and research, this will be the easiest habit to correct.

Got these missteps covered, but still wondering how you can get everything on your social media plan done? Here are 3 ways to manage your online presence.

Sophie Bujold is a social media strategist and speaker. Sophie’s passion is helping travel professionals make sense of social media and use these technologies to achieve greater business success. For social media tips and content ideas, grab your copy of her Giant List of Post Ideas. (It’s free.)