If you work in the travel industry, you know the importance of using social media to advertise your business, get your name out there and gain new clients.
Whether you’re a travel agent, travel insurance associate or you simply are a full-time traveler, having a blog and a social media presence are essential to your business’ marketing efforts.
Think about the last time you planned a vacation. What inspired you to plan one?
Most likely, it was seeing photos of family and friends’ vacations on social media in addition to needing a break from work.
When it came time to actually plan the trip, you probably searched online for the best deals and vacation packages. You might have visited travel websites and travel blogs to learn even more about your destination of choice.
Travelers all over the world plan vacations online.
That is why you absolutely need a blog and a social media following.
How to Start a Travel Blog
The idea of starting a travel blog might seem a bit confusing, but once you dive in it’s really not that difficult at all.
In fact, you can probably have one up and running within an hour. You may need some help getting followers. If so, read about Social Fuse here.
As the following article looks at, here are the steps needed on how to start a travel blog:
Step 1: Purchase a Domain Name
A domain name is your blog’s URL. You’ll want it to be easy to remember and to fully encompass what it is you do.
If you’re a travel agent, for example, you may want “Traveling with (insert your name)” as your domain name. If you already own a travel agency, you should be able to use your website’s existing domain name and add a “Blog” section to the site.
Step 2: Find a Host
A host is the company that your blog will run on. Bluehost is an affordable option chosen by many.
Here, you can pick your domain name and purchase your hosting all on one site.
Once that’s taken care of, download WordPress or another self-hosted blogging platform.
Step 3: Choose a Theme
A theme is what viewers will see when they visit your blog. You want to pick a theme that’s easy to read and that can be navigated easily.
Simple, clean themes usually attract the most viewers because the viewer isn’t distracted with ads or bright colors.
Step 4: Create Engaging Content
When creating content for your travel blog, think about what people are searching for.
If you specialize in tropical vacations, you might want to do a series of posts on “affordable vacations in the Caribbean” or “how to save money on tropical vacations.”
By writing about what people are searching for, you’ll bring more readers to your site. These readers could easily wind up using your services to book their next vacation.
To get your blog exposure, create social media pages to go alongside your blog.
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are the platforms you should start with, as those three have millions of users and growing.
When you post a new blog, share the post with your followers on your social media sites.
Hopefully your followers will also share your post and your blog will slowly increase in traffic.
Travel agents and those working in the travel industry need to have both a blog and social media profiles in order to market their companies and see continued success in the travel business.
About the Author: Sarah Brooks is a freelance writer living in Charlotte, NC. She writes on a variety of topics including social media, small businesses and travel.
