How the travel industry uses Instagram to maximize engagement and drive website visitors

How the travel industry
uses Instagram to
maximize engagement
and drive website visitors
REPORT PERIOD: MAY 01 - JUL 31, 2016
Hawaii, Michigan, New York, Florida, California,
Colorado, Texas and Georgia. What are these DMOs
doing to maximize the impact of their social media
properties? This report covers it.
10 Oct 2016
ZuumSocial.com

Outline
Instagram is exploding. Projected 15%
growth this year, compared to 3% for
social media overall.
In hitting 400 million users, it just
surpassed Twitter and is growing faster
than Facebook did after 5 years. For
many brands, Instagram is now their 2nd
most important network.
For the travel industry -- which relies
heavily on beautiful imagery of unique
places -- the impact of Instagram is even
greater.
So let’s take a closer look at the
activities, and what brands are doing to
drive engagement and site visitors.
How the travel industry uses Instagram to maximize engagement and drive website visitors
1. Industry benchmarks
a. Fan growth, posting volume, engagement
rates and levels.
2. Top posting themes
a. Leading topics used by industry overall, as
well as top brands.
3. Top campaigns and posts
a. Breakdown of top content with performance
overview, posting calendars, and key topics.
4. Driving website traffic
a. Challenges and solutions.
5. Summary of Trends

Industry Benchmarks
Leaderboard comparisons of all brands across a series of benchmark metrics

Global Fan Leaderboard
Instagram is the second
largest network based on
average number of fans per
account.
Top Instagram account
PureMichigan has more
followers than 2 of the
Facebook accounts.
Facebook is by far the leading
network for fans and
followers.

Global Fan Growth Rate Leaderboard
This is one of the big stories
behind Instagram: It’s
continuing rapid growth.
Average Instagram follower
growth for this group of
brands is 20%, while only
2.4% for Facebook, and 6.3%
for Twitter.
No Instagram account is
below 7% fan growth for
these three months.
Peak is I Love NY, at over
37%.

Global Engagements Leaderboard
Combine the rapid fan growth
on the previous slide with this
level of engagement and you
can see why marketers are
excited about Instagram.
7 of the 8 states featured
have more engagement on
Instagram than on Facebook.
That’s despite the average
Facebook page having over 5
times the fan count as the
average Instagram page.

Global Posts Leaderboard
Instagram posting volume is
rivaling that of Facebook.
Twitter is still the ‘high
volume’ network in this
industry.
Average of around 40 posts
per month. 1.3 times per
day.

Instagram Leaderboard - 2016
Pure Michigan has gained
more new followers during
this period than I Love NY has
total followers.
There’s a wide range in
posting volumes and follower
count, while the
engagement/fans ratio is
fairly consistent between
1.8% and 3.5%.

Instagram Leaderboard - 2015
Year over year change in
account averages
Followers: +122%
New Fans: +53%
Follower Growth Rate: -43%
Posting Volume: +11%
Total Engagements: +41%

Video on Instagram
For this reporting period of May -
July 2016, we’re not seeing large
amounts of video on Instagram.
Only 40 of 927 posts, which is just
over 4%.
Of course, video typically has
higher production costs, which will
naturally hamper its use.
Colorado, on the other hand,
posted 19 videos over these three
months. Far more than any other
brand -- over 8% of their total
posting volume.
All Brands
Colorado

Top Posting Themes
Comparison of the most common topics the brands are posting

Top Themes - All Brands
Showing topics mentioned at
least 10 times by all brands in
this analysis.
Hashtags often represent
campaigns. #ColoradoGram
and #PureMichiganLakeEffect
are examples of posts based
on a common theme.
Many brands will have a
universal hashtag, as well. One
applied to virtually every post,
as with #TexasTodo and
#ExploreGeorgia. Here,
hashtags are used as a type of
brand tagline.
Topics, hashtags and URLs are
good identifiers for analyzing
your competitor’s activities.

Top Themes - Hawaii
Prominently featuring
photographer Pete Halvorsen,
a leading travel photographer,
is a good way to generate
high quality content.
Beyond that, there’s a lack of
hashtag use, which indicates
there could be more
campaign opportunities.
Campaign themes tend to
work for brands by building
up a familiarity and sense of
expectation among readers.
They also help keep a brand’s
messaging along strategic
themes.

Top Themes - Michigan
Compared to Hawaii, Pure
Michigan is posting a broader
range of topics.
Part of this is due to a higher
posting volume.
However, the use of hashtags
communicates the nature of
different posts, and gives the
user an easy way to access
more of the same.
Here, PureMichigan uses
hashtags to introduce new
destinations (#findyourpark),
announce activities
(#michigangolfmonth), and
identify community-generated
content (#photooftheday).

Top Campaigns
Four of the more strategically interesting campaigns by these brands

New York’s #WaterfallWednesday
#WaterfallWednesday is a
clever way to draw attention
to a beautiful and distinct
feature of the state. It’s a
fresh take on the Day of Week
theme, a common but
effective approach.

Day of Week posting
generates a recurring
theme. Something the
audience can enjoy and
ideally look forward to.
New York’s #WaterfallWednesday

Michigan’s #findyourpark
Highlights various state
treasures with a sense of
discovery.
The posts demonstrate the
campaign’s capacity for
establishing an identity for
the different state parks.
Note how the images are in
both portrait and landscape
orientations. Instagram
moved outside the square
format in August 2015.

Michigan’s #findyourpark
Not enormous posting
volume (6), and seems like
they could get more out of
the direction.
The Related Terms word
cloud chart features the
campaign’s leading topics.

New York’s ISpyNY
A photo contest.
User generated content
creates a stronger sense of
community, and also
provides an ongoing stream
of nice images.
Periodically in posts, they
mention the contest and
how to compete.

New York’s ISpyNY
This is a recurring theme
posted like clockwork every
week.
Creates a consistent content
calendar slot and the weekly
contest is something
followers can participate in
and look forward to.

Hawaii’s “PeteHalvorsen”
An Account Takeover.
Handed Instagram account
over to a professional
photographer.
Opportunity to generate
appealing images that give a
new angle on a destination
besides natural beauty.
Brings a more culturally rich
sensibility.

3 day posting spree
generated a lot of content
in a short period of time.
Every account post during
the 3 days was from Pete.
Hawaii’s “PeteHalvorsen”

Post Types
Categorizations of the different posting tactics taken by these brands

Individual Recognition
Recognize and acknowledge top
influencers, key employees and
community members.

Photo Contest
Common tactic, but suits this
industry and social platform
extremely well.

Day of Week
Creates a recurring theme.
Something the audience can enjoy
and ideally look forward to. Also
provides structure to a content
calendar.

Poll
Often used casually, but can be
used for gaining insights and
preferences.

Quiz
Nice how once the question is
answered (theoretically ending the
discussion), the conversation
shoots off into different
directions.

Account Takeover
Most commonly used with
photographers and celebrities.

Awards
Builds local pride and boosts
team morale.

Destination
Building awareness of lesser
known destinations adds depth
and diversity.

Seasonal
Identifying the image as last
year’s event makes it more
specific and relatable.

Sunset
It needs its own
category.

Driving Website Traffic
Some of the leading tactics being used

Paste link into post
Currently not possible to insert
clickable links in an Instagram post.
Can paste in URLs, like the post to the
left. However, they won’t be clickable
or selectable.
So keep URLs to a manageable length.

Profile link to website
Can include a link on the account home
page.

Profile link forwarding
Post references the link in the brand’s
profile. That link is specific to the post topic,
and directs to the right URL.
Good way to add more direct action
capabilities to a post.
URL can be changed with each post, daily,
weekly, or with campaigns.

Referencing website content
Used for referencing off-
Instagram destinations. Users
then access the content via direct
link to website, or search.

Posts about promos, sales and offers
Most brands aren’t
approaching Instagram
as a direct response
platform.
Instagram is not set up
for linking, and it’s a key
part of the site
experience.

It’s pay-to-play if you want direct links
Instagram paid
advertising does offer a
clickable link which can
be used to drive visitors
to specific actions.

Summary
❖ Instagram continues to provide strong levels of growth and
engagement.
❖ Video is not used to a large degree. Opportunity for content
distinction.
❖ Hashtags can provide impact and clarity to your messaging.
They’re also good for analyzing competitor activities.
❖ Instagram is more of a branding and engagement platform
than direct response. That should drive how brands
approach their content.

How the travel industry
uses Instagram to
maximize engagement
and drive website visitors
This Google Slide is downloadable in either PDF or PPT.
Zuum is a powerful social media analysis and reporting
tool that will help you maximize the value of your social
media properties.
We have a free demo you should check out. It’s a free
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Just visit:
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ZuumSocial.com

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