Many of us have packed up the van, headed off to some mind-blowingly stunning park, pristinely breakingbreaking surf spot, or climbed a formidable mountain and thought, Wow, wouldn’t it be nice if I could turn this into more than just a hobby? Make today the day you get started with some of the killer tips and tricks in this blog post.
With the launch of podcasts by Outside Magazine and Apple selecting female-centric podcast She Explores as well as American hiking-focused podcast Sounds of the Trail for the frontpage of their all-important iTunes Store, it’s clear there is a strong desire for audio content about travelling. And you only have to spend five seconds on Instagram to see how this is even more true when it comes to pictures and video.
So, how can you turn your personal voyages of discovery into social media gold? Let me give you a couple of tips.
When you think of ways to build a social media following, paying Google for ads and blogging come to mind.
But paying for Google ads can be expensive, while blogging… Well, do I have to even go into how time-consuming that can be??
But don’t worry. If you are like me: Love to travel and want to actually build a solid following on social media around your traveling adventures, there are some hacks I can teach you guys on how to get to the million followers you have been dreaming about.
- Identify your target audience and target platform to reach that audience.
You need to first figure out where your audience is hanging out. Are they all on Instagram or Snapchat? Do they spend most of their time scrolling through Facebook, or are they hash tagging away on Twitter?
Until and unless you can identify who you are targeting on social media, you won’t know where to post your content.
To do this, simply pay attention to your audience in real life and see what platform they spend most of their time on.
You can also look at other travel bloggers and social media experts who post about traveling and see where they have accounts and tend to post most often.
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For example, a few months ago I went to the Oscar’s After party and met World Traveler, Alyssa Ramos.
I was very fascinated by her because she writes for The Huffington Post, has been to more than three dozen countries, and is super cute, too!
Of course, when I got home, I began stalking her on social media. I realized very quickly that she was famous on Instagram.
Her Instagram account has some of the coolest travel pictures I have ever seen, period!
So, to her, Instagram is of great value because she knows her audience is active on there, so thats where she posts the most and is the most active.
She also has a decent following on Twitter and Facebook. However, she isn’t very active on Pinterest or LinkedIn. Why not?
She doesn’t need to be! After all, her followers are all on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
So, before you invest any serious efforts into getting your travel photos and videos out there, you have to first consider which platform you need to be on.
Not every social media network is worth fighting with to figure out. Figure out what makes the most sense for you.
- Start adding your audience to your chosen social networks and start growing!
This one might seem obvious, but it sometimes surprises me to see how few people take advantage of this simple and obvious tactic!
If you want to get your followers to see your content, why spend thousands of dollars to advertise to them? Why blog for days and days and hope it ranks in Google and they MIGHT see it.
Instead, just start to add them on your social media accounts!
Like seriously, step outside of your comfort zone for once!
It’s okay to add a random person on Facebook if you think you might be able to benefit from networking with them. After all, you probably have something of value to offer them. That’s why you’re pursuing your online marketing. You believe what you do could be meaningful to others. I mean, let be honest, if you didn’t you’d probably be out at the beach right now or grabbing a drink with your homies.
The tech revolution has brought a lot of headaches, that’s for sure. But, don’t forget, it’s also added the freedom to connect with people you probably never would have met in person otherwise. Use it.
- On Facebook, find a couple of competitor’s personal accounts or find a couple of people who already have a large following from the group you want to target.
- Then, log into your Facebook from your mobile phone.
- Go to your selected competitor’s Facebook friend’s list.
- Facebook will show people that person is friends with who have a lot of mutual friends with you
- Start adding all of these people to your account
- You will soon have a very targeted network of people who are in your niche
These are just a few tips I have for you today. But I will be back soon to share more! Happy posting!
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