Social Media and PR
Social media is important for businesses and is an inexpensive way of increasing brand exposure, broadening customer reach and engaging past and potential customers. Depending on whether you want to build awareness for your business, drive sales or share experiences, there is a social media platform that can work for your business.
Social media no longer just sits in the awareness and advocacy stages of booking a holiday – it can act as an online travel agent. Consumers are finding destination inspiration, trip planning and even booking getaways on their platform of choice, based on content they’ve found on social media.
Be sure to include social media in your marketing plan and outline goals through your social platforms. The goal to using social media for marketing is to produce content that users will want to interact with or share across their social network.
Before you use social media platforms to market your product, it is important to understand the basics:
Audience - understanding your customers and their interests will help in creating relevant and interesting content. Your posts can inspire and inform new customers, as well as create engagement with existing customers.
Relevance - think carefully about the relevance of each social media platform to your business and target market. Consider how each platform fits into your business objectives.
Consistency - the key to gaining traction on your social media is consistency. Whether you post multiple times a day, once a day or once a week, building your brand on social media will take time. Use tools to help you schedule posts in advance to save time.
Community - encourage your customers to engage with your brand on social media – include your handles on marketing materials and online.
The below benchmarks formulate the social media and PR pillar, in order from developing to leading levels.
In 2021, there were approximately 20.5 million Australians who used social media. It is an effective and low-cost marketing tool which has some of the largest reach to consumers.
The two social media platforms predominantly used by Australians are Facebook and Instagram, and both are global. If you are a business that works with international markets you may come across different types of social media platforms used by overseas visitors.
Facebook is the biggest social media network with organic and paid channels. It is one of the best ways to connect with potential customers. Facebook is a content-rich platform where you can share images, videos, and destination or product related articles and information.
Instagram is the fourth largest social media network in the world (behind Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube). Instagram is a photo sharing app that lets you connect with consumers, other brands, influencers, celebrities and more. Almost 95% of Instagram users are on Facebook.
Establish a Facebook business page.
Establish an Instagram business page.
Check out Tourism NT’s top five tips for social media.
For assistance in setting up social media accounts consider the ASBAS Digital Solutions program. Contact the NT supplier of the program - Business Station.
Using hashtags correctly will increase engagement on your social posts, attract new followers, strengthen your brand image and help reach your target audience.
Hashtags help social media users to search for related businesses or upload posts to their topics of interest. A tag allows users to directly engage with an individual or business when mentioned in a photo, comment or post. They can also be used to jump onto trends and reach a wider audience than normal.
Be sure to use the following tags and hashtags in your posts.
- #NTAustralia and tag @NTAustralia
- for food and beverage related content, use #restaurantaustralia
- don’t forget to add Tourism Australia’s hashtag #seeaustralia and tag @australia
- #tourismtopend for Top End region
- #VisitKatherine for Katherine region
- #redcentrent for Central Australia and Barkly regions
For further information on using hashtags contact a tourism development representative at your RTO.
Posting regularly across your social media channels will ensure you keep your current audience engaged and help attract new audiences.
It can be difficult to find time to create content and post across several social media platforms, and the key is consistent, quality and up-to-date content. There are many apps and platforms to assist with scheduling posts in advance to save time, i.e. Facebook Pages/Business has a scheduling tool.
Ensure you keep updated with changing algorithms across the platforms as it will affect when, where and what you post.
How do I schedule a post and manage scheduled posts for my Facebook page?
For assistance in social media posting consider the ASBAS Digital Solutions program. Contact the NT supplier of the program - Business Station.
Ensure you post quality images and video content that is directed to your target market/s. Factor in the latest trends to reach more audiences.
You can also subscribe to a free account with Tourism NT’s image gallery and download photo and video content to use for your social media or website content.
Top photo tips:
- smartphones are sufficient and produce a high quality image or video
- vertical images perform better as opposed to landscape
- natural lighting works best, avoid heavy filtering
- sell the destination to sell your product.
Refer to Tourism NT’s social media factsheet for further information.
Ensure your social media pages have a call-to-action (CTA) button which is a link to your website or booking page for your product. This will help customers who land on your social media pages to find out more information, contact your business or purchase your product.
Add a CTA button to a Facebook page.
Add an action button to your Instagram business profile.
For assistance in adding booking links to your social media channels consider the ASBAS Digital Solutions program. Contact the NT supplier of the program - Business Station.
Advertising on social media is an efficient paid marketing channel as there is a low cost per conversion (CPC) rate in comparison to other traditional marketing methods (TV, radio etc.).
There are two types of paid advertising you can do on Facebook and Instagram:
Boosting content
A boosted post is when you pay money to ‘boost’ a post on your business page's timeline. Boosting posts are easy to do and you can decide which audiences to target, how much money you want to spend and how long you want to boost it for.
Boosting content is more beneficial for a burst of awareness and engagement, and can be used for upcoming events, special offers, and limited time experiences.
Facebook ads
Creating ads on both Facebook and Instagram can help with your brand and product exposure, and reach more targeted audiences, which increase sales.
Ads are beneficial over a longer period of time (and for always-on marketing) and work best by combining multiple advertisement goals together, such as awareness, consideration and conversion.
The difference between boosted posts and Facebook ads.
For assistance in running paid advertising on your social media channels consider the ASBAS Digital Solutions program. Contact the NT supplier of the program - Business Station.
When you have a story to share with the world, whether it be a new product, exciting business updates, or you’re just looking to run a new campaign, it is important to understand your audience and effectively communicate your message with them.
A communications plan outlines the key themes and messaging for your brand. The plan should include target markets, marketing channels, key activity and messaging, and contains dates and the responsible person (or marketing agency) to action.
For assistance in developing a communications plan consider the Business Growth Program; marketing, offered through your small business champion.
Pitching your business to media channels (such as journalists, TV shows, magazines etc.) can help gain exposure to your business across domestic and international markets.
Ensure you pitch to relevant media channels that attract your target audience. For example, a fishing tour operator would pitch to fishing specific shows or magazines and may be skewed towards an adventure audience.
Make sure you are pitching newsworthy stories or events. If you are unsure contact Tourism NT’s PR and media team on [email protected]
Hosting media groups on product familiarisations (famils) enables your business to be exposed to a large audience domestically and internationally. The return on investment for hosting journalists can be extremely beneficial, enabling you to reach your desired audience through editorial coverage off the back of famil opportunities.
What is a media familiarisation?
To be involved in Tourism NT’s media famils contact [email protected]