Which Review Platform Should Safari and Tour Operators Focus On?
- Marketing
- |
- 31/01/2023
Do you find yourself constantly fumbling to decide on fresh content to post on your social media channels?
Do you also struggle to post regularly and lose track of your posting strategy?
Feeling disappointed that your social media approach isn’t bringing in the engagement and inquiries you were hoping for?
If this sounds like you, then you need to keep reading this blog to start planning a social media calendar to drive engagement and inquiry for your African safari business.
To start your journey towards successful safari & tour content, you need to first understand the importance of utilizing social media for your African safari business.
Why do you need social media for your safari business?
Social Media is the Ornament of your safari website.
It can build your online presence in many ways; as it allows you to connect with your customers and potential customers, share your tour packages, or even share information about the destinations and itineraries you provide.
It gives you a platform to talk with your safari clients before they even decide to travel, share their experiences while they are traveling, and even after they have returned back home. As you share some great content to a broad audience that has no bounds, you can engage more with the customers that are interested in your safari & tour business.
However, managing multiple social media channels, and planning and publishing content regularly can become a tedious task when you are trying to balance it with all the operations work that goes behind.
And that is where a social media calendar comes to the rescue!
Well, what is a social media calendar?
A social media calendar is a detailed plan for your upcoming posts organized by the date, time, and format of the content. This can be maintained in a spreadsheet or a digital calendar that regulates the process of creating and publishing content by offering you a structured schedule to work with.
This will help you prepare content in advance which targets the right set of potential customers that is relevant to your safari brand.
A social media calendar typically has a combination of below attributes:
- The date and time when you want to make your content live
- Social channels where you want to publish
- Format of the creatives along with copies of images and videos
- Tags and links that are to be included while posting
- Other related information, such as story content
Now let’s understand the steps to create a great social media calendar for your safari business!
- Define your social media goals
Everything you post on social channels should support your safari business goals, even though it does so indirectly!
You should always keep your business goals in mind and then prepare your content that would go live to stand by them. Let’s understand what you want to achieve through your social media presence. Is it to increase brand awareness, drive more bookings, or increase engagement with potential customers? Have a clear vision of your target first, then tailor your social media strategy accordingly.
- Identify your target audience
Now that you are clear about your objective, you need to decide on your target audience. Who are the people you want to reach with your social media posts?
Know more about their interests, problems, demographics, behaviors, and what kind of safari & tour information are they looking for on social media. Understanding your potential audience will help you create content that resonates with them and encourages them to engage with your content. If they like the content, you produce and address their issues, then they might even turn into successful leads.
- Choose social media platforms
Once you have your goals and audience, choose the social media platform you want to focus on.
Do brief research on where your target potential customers spend most of their time online and which platforms would cater the best to your safari business goals. For example, Instagram may be a great platform to share your images and videos regarding your safari and tours, while Twitter may be more suitable to share quick updates and engage with your customers in real time.
- Determine the frequency of posts
Knowing how frequently should you post on your social channels can be a game changer to nailing your social media strategy without being spammy.
In some platforms, the more you post the more visibility you get in turn gaining more trust of your followers. In other cases, posting high-quality content that is relevant to your safari audience will give you more engagement and reach. Also, don’t forget to post on the important events or special days that target your safari audience and their region.
- Develop a content strategy
Here you need to prepare a plan on which type of content you need to produce and where you need to distribute them in order to for it to better reach your safari audience.
Plan which types of content will reach best to your audience, whether is it an image, video, or blog. Curate the creatives that would align with your business goals which will make you stand out from the competitors and will help your visitors in making informed decisions.
- Schedule posts and track progress
To make managing social media accounts and maintain consistency of posting, consider using a scheduling tool. This will allow you to schedule your posts in advance, monitor your account’s engagement, and social mentions, and track your performance over time.
Not only does it save a lot of time, but you would also get to know which type of content your audience interacts more with and what type of information they expect from you – do they want to know about safari packages offered by you, destinations or what are the wildlife they are going to encounter.
Now let’s see some content Ideas for your African Safari Business social media Calendar
- Share safari photos and videos
Allow your safari audience to have a deeper understanding of the kind of work you do in your safari & tour business. It would create interest among your potential customers to inquire about your business more and check if they will explore the incredible wildlife if they choose you.
- Promote special offers and packages
Posting about your latest special offers or packages can be an amazing way to attract new customers and get them excited to inquire with you and book a trip.
- Share educational content about African wildlife
This will show a positive attitude towards wildlife and can help spread awareness, and education and let your followers know about the many species present in Africa that can be found nowhere else. Sharing such type of content can highly grow people’s inclination towards wildlife conservation.
- Highlight customer testimonials and reviews
72% of customers say positive reviews make them trust a safari business more. This will help build credibility among your social customers, leading to more inquiries.
- Share behind-the-scenes stories and experiences
By this, you can showcase the authentic side of your safari & tour business and gives a reason to people to engage and ask more questions about the experiences they are going to have if they choose you as their tour operator. You can even showcase the activities and wildlife encounters to attract more potential customers.
- Partner with influencers and travel bloggers
As travel influencers have a broader audience to reach, partnering with them can be a great way to spread awareness about your brand. As 90% of people have shown positive sentiments about trusting travel bloggers, you must give them a space in your social media calendar.
Best Practices for Social Media Calendar Management
- Keep the calendar flexible
It may sometimes happen you would want to change the frequency of the posts or change the way you post them. If you notice your safari package information is performing better than showing different safari destinations, you might want to create the former kind of posts more. So, keep it flexible and change it as and when needed.
- Stay on brand
Prevent content gaps and missing any areas of service that you offer to showcase in your social channels. Keep your brand’s vision in mind and work accordingly.
- Monitor engagement and adjust strategy accordingly
Now that there are various formats for posting content, you need to adjust the publishing strategy accordingly which would reach a broader audience. For example, if you notice video content is performing better for your brand, incorporate more of that in your social media calendar.
- Use analytics to measure success
Determine what percentage of leads come from social media, how many followers you gain, and which kind of post is being more beneficial for your social account. Track and compare various pages and determine where you are being the most successful and effective. Everything can be measured here like reach, engagement, impressions, post shares, video views, and many other aspects.
Wrapping up a perfect social media calendar
A well-structured social media calendar can allow you to spend your time wisely and focus on the elements that perform the best for your safari and tour audience.
By setting clear goals, understanding your audience, and creating a content plan, you can connect with your visitors and grow your safari business through social media. Remember to evaluate your performance regularly and adjust your strategy as needed to ensure that you are meeting your goals and staying relevant to your brand and audience.
Start planning your social media calendar with us and implement the above tactics to take your safari business to the next level while attracting more potential customers.
