GUEST POST

This article was provided by My Destination – a network of online travel guides providing unrivalled levels of local information.

Neil & James of My Destination

The ever evolving social media world is integral to any businesses success, and it has been no different for My Destination, as it has helped us to successfully integrate ourselves into the travel community. Social media has been extremely important to help us expand, at a relatively low cost, which is extremely useful from the point of view of a start-up where budgets are small.

In relation to our franchise model, where each destination website is run by a local expert on the ground, we have provided each destination with their own Twitter and Facebook pages. This setup allows each individual destination to provide local knowledge or answer real time queries about their destination, thus providing customer service on a highly personable basis. These social platforms are great for brand exposure and the fact that each destination has their own accounts means that each of them can individually help to push the brand and tailor their page with the look and feel of their destination, posting any relevant locally based updates. A destination franchisee will be able to post about exciting events happening in their destination and discounted prices for restaurants and local businesses they have relationships with

Twitter has been particularly influential as we can reach out to travel influencers and vice versa, helping us to build meaningful relationships in a relaxed and informal platform. For example, we take part in the social media travel event #TTOT (Travel Talk on Twitter) every week, which is particularly effective in helping us to acquire relationships in the travel community. Cyber events like these are actually really helpful and do in fact help to establish working relationships. Added to by the fact we have personally met a lot of these influencers at tweet-ups (meet-ups), organised by people from the Twitter travel community. This illustrates how Twitter can go beyond just the boundaries of your computer screen to networking with people on a personal level.

The introduction of a new blog has given our site some social traction, as well as being the perfect tool to attribute a more informal voice to our brand – one our customers can really relate to on a more personal level. We have written posts about our travels from all over the world, and through the blog we have also tried to transmit the fun and vibrant atmosphere that exists in our office, providing the blog with more of a personal touch. We believe this provides the blog with a real feel of the true nature and ambiance of the company. Furthermore all our posts have a share ability element, which in turn helps for more people to visit our site. We have also provided travel influencers with an opportunity to write guest posts, which they can then help to promote on their blogs and social channels, and hence increase brand awareness.

All start-ups should take advantage of social platforms to help push their brand out to target markets and beyond. They are very accessible and low cost for one, but most significantly; if used correctly, they can also be very powerful tools for branding!