From Scroll to Scroll – How Lowveld Tourism can Win on Social Media

Continuing with our Conference Topics…this one was presented by Ashleigh Pauls from The Hive Studio: “Your audience is already scrolling. The      question is whether you’re stopping them.”

Start by searching logical search phrases that should direct a person to your establishment and see what comes up.  Every result that appears before yours is a booking or a sale someone else got!

Travellers check social media before booking, not just Google—they do a “Vibe” Check.  Gen Z & Millennials use Instagram & TikTok as a search   engine for travel.

The old funnel was:  Google -> Booking.com -> Reserve

The new funnel is:  Social Media vibe check -> Trust -> Book

If your business is not showing up authentically on these platforms, you are invisible to an entire generation of guests.  The presentation guides you through the various platforms and their purposes and how ‘the algorithm’ works.  She also explains how you can create authentic and effective posts once a week or a month and schedule them to post daily.

Stop SELLING to humans, we scroll past ads before we’ve consciously    registered them. It’s biological.  Your content should be 80% aspirational (make people feel something) and 20% promotional (packages, specials, etc—now that they already love you).

Actively create 9 words which are the foundation of your content strategy.  Every post you create should live inside this space.  Build content pillars, choose 4-5 themes that anchor every piece of content you create.  Define your audience precisely!  How to create content that actually works—start with the most beautiful thing about your business you’ve never posted about!

Explore your most powerful free tools:  User-generated content, micro-influencer marketing and social listening.

She ended with some homework which really will guide you to create        effective campaigns.