Agency Pins Marketing Strategy on Social Media

While many agencies are active on Facebook and some on Twitter, Valerie Wilson Travel International has gone a step further by embracing Pinterest, the image-based site where browsers can “pin” images under specific categories.

Managing social media is a priority for the New York-based, family-owned agency, which specializes in corporate travel, meetings and high-end leisure travel. It has even hired a full-time person to handle Pinterest and other social media platforms.

The investment in social media management is well worth it, according to Kimberly Wilson Wetty, co-president of Valerie Wilson Travel, who heads up the agency’s marketing operations. Travel Market Report talked to Wilson Wetty about her approach to social media.

The agency has a full-time social media manager who can take the time to understand and maximize a platform like Pinterest.

How do you decide which social media to focus on?
Wilson Wetty: We go through all kinds of lifestyle magazines looking for ads that attract our attention. We started to see Pinterest listed on more ads that we thought looked attractive. We registered with Pinterest and now have access to it so we can pin our photos to it.

Why is Pinterest a good choice for a travel agency?
Wilson Wetty: Travel is an easy category for Pinterest. You can go to the Honeymoon and Weddings category or Destination Weddings or a few others – but not too many that work for us.  

We like Pinterest because people don’t have to read anything, just look at pictures. There is a link to our page on every image. We try to have a diverse array of photos and we think a lot about what might inspire people to look at a photo.

How does Pinterest differ from other social media platforms?
Wilson Wetty: On Facebook, people are looking for content and conversation, and feedback from their peers. Pinterest is less verbal and more basic.

Where do you get the images?
Wilson Wetty: From suppliers. We try to repurpose every message we send out from three to five times – on social media, on emails and other channels including our blog, The Insider. We require that it be a great eye-catching image. If we put it on Facebook we will also Tweet it and pin it on Pinterest.

Does Pinterest allow you to track how much interest there is in your pins?
Wilson Wetty: They are starting to. Facebook is the best at giving us weekly statistics. We can find out from them how many people looked at the page, which posts were liked the most etc. Twitter does not provide that kind of information.

What is a typical image for Pinterest?
Wilson Wetty: We recently posted one of an adorable little girl smiling. Smiling translates in any language. I shared that image on my own personal page.

Do you post on Instagram, another image-based platform?
Wilson Wetty: We don’t; we don’t think those are our demographics. Instagram reaches a much younger audience.

What does your social media manager do?
Wilson Wetty: Her name is Carole Anne Hughs and she is on social media all day, more so at certain times.

For instance we recently had a Cruise Fair and she tweeted live from the event all day and had an amazing number of followers. That’s great because some of those go viral.

Once a month, she gives me a recap of new and upcoming websites and social media in case we want to get more active on one of them. I wanted somebody who has the pulse of all this and she does.

What are the benefits of social media?
Wilson Wetty: Suppliers love it. It’s a very efficient way of marketing, and it helps suppliers to communicate because when browsers land on our page from Pinterest they see where the image came from. Also, we believe that some of the people who click on those photos are new to us, while others are existing clients. What becomes interesting is this all shows the depth of where we want to go in the digital age.

Have you had trackable bookings from social media?
Wilson Wetty: We have had them from Facebook, though we don’t know yet on Pinterest. Since it’s not trackable yet it’s hard to tell for sure.

How do Pinterest and the other social media platforms fit into your overall marketing plan?
Wilson Wetty: It’s all of a piece. We use the social media as leverage. For instance, if I’m looking for sponsorship for a one-to-one consumer event, I will promise the supplier a certain number of pins or other posts, which can really increase their exposure to our clients and to other potential clients for them.

We also post supplier videos on our YouTube channel which provides even more exposure. We have individual videos for each of our preferred partners.

At a recent event, we had six executives from Morgans Hotel Group come in. We tweeted live from the event and had a photo album on Facebook. In addition, a reporter came in and did an article on it.

What’s ahead?
Wilson Wetty: Social media changes every day. That’s part of the excitement and part of the frustration of the digital age. If you want it to be part of a marketing plan you have to jump in with both feet. You have to dive in. The nice thing is that you can adjust quickly.