Traveling is by far my favorite thing to do. Luckily, through the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many great clients in the hotel and travel industry. While things are constantly changing in social media and the world of travel, one thing remains the same. TripAdvisor is pretty much a dream network for the travel and hotel industry. In this article I’ll share some tips with you on how hotels, tour operators and others in the travel industry can leverage TripAdvisor to increase exposure, gain loyalty, and increase bookings.
3 Tips To Maximize Your TripAdvisor Profile
There are over 200 million unique monthly visitors on TripAdvisor. That’s a lot of people. And when a network is this big and this targeted it must be taken seriously. TripAdvisor, like most social networks, allows you to connect with your past, current and future customers. But beyond that, by leveraging TripAdvisor, you’re also able to gain valuable insight into what your customers like, dislike and want. Not to mention you’re also able to increase your positioning in the search engine results.
1. Leverage Your Past Customers
Your TripAdvisor profile is going to rely on the quality and number of reviews you receive. Getting people to post is going to the tricky part. The easiest way to go about this is to email your past customers. If they had a good experience with you, they’re likely to return the favor. Another way to increase the rate of reviews is to send a direct link in your email. This is so simple, yet it’s often overlooked. You’ll always get the best results when the barrier of entry is the simplest. So make it easy for them. You also want to encourage them to post photos from their trip.
According TripAdvisor, properties with 30 or more photos have 41% more engagement than those with 10 or fewer. When it comes to video, the same is true. North American properties with at least one video have about 34% more engagement than properties without a video.
2. Respond & Engage
Having a profile on TripAdvisor isn’t enough. This is true for most networks. It’s the amount of engagement that you put in that really counts. If you don’t do anything else, make sure you do this one thing – respond to people who write reviews, especially negative ones. Not only does this improve the impression of the hotel to future customers, but it also increases likelihood to book.
When brands are active, their customers are active and engaged. When customers are active and engaged, they are happy! A happy customer is a returning customer. 🙂
3. Connect With Destination Experts
Destination Experts are people who “have built a name for themselves within the TripAdvisor forums by knowing a specific city, responding to posts, and offering their sage advice.”
These are the people that you want to connect with because they’re the Influencers who have networks of trust within the TripAdvisor community. If you give them a good impression, they might just refer your brand to thousands of forum hoppers.
These three things are sure to increase your engagement through TripAdvisor. What tips can you offer?
