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ICYMI: How to Use Social Media to Travel, Top Tourist Destinations, Epic Fire-kayaking

7/13/2012

Photos by Gio Palatucci

In Case You Missed It (ICYMI): A weekly digest of interesting news stories about social media, travel, and tech.

Today's #FriFotos theme is "SUMMER." Search #FriFotos on Twitter to see users' submissions and retweet your favorites or share one of your own.

A new report ranks the top travel destinations of 2012. With no surprise, London made the number one slot. I've only visited six places on the list. I guess I have some traveling to do.

Top tourist destinations for 2012 named. Will you be there? via CNNGo

Top travel blogger Matt Long of Land Lopers is exploring Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada as part of the CTC and Travel + Leisure magazine's "Explore Like a Local" campaign. Follow along with Matt's trip on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and his blog:

Five things you didn't know about Saskatchewan via LandLopers.com

As I've, mentioned before (here, here, and here) social media is a useful travel-planning tool. Further evidence social media is changing the way we travel:

How to Use Social Media While Traveling via Viator Travel Blog
12 Tips to Talking Travel on Twitter via Radian6 Blog
How Facebook is Shaping Your 2012 Travel Decisions via Forbes

"I want to go to there" moment of the week:

Epic 'fire-kayaking' on giant wave by Ben Marr on Matador

For more social/travel/tech stories, follow me on Twitter: @giopalatucci

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Five ways to boost your social media following without logging on to Twitter or Facebook

7/11/2012

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AddThis.com is a popular social sharing platform

Posted by Gio Palatucci

If I say, “social media strategy,” what comes to mind? Writing a killer tweet? Designing a captivating Facebook cover photo? Maintaining the proper following to follower ratio? When it comes to growing your social media community, all of these things-- content, messaging, audience, design, etc.-- are important.

But the other half of a winning social media strategy actually happens when you log-off networks like Twitter and Facebook. Social tools and strategies incorporated on your website, blog, and even offline, are just as important as retweets, likes, and all the rest.

Here are five ways to grow your social media following without sending a single tweet or posting a single status update:

Email Signature
When trying to build a social media following, it's important to let anyone and everyone you know that they can follow you on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The easiest way-- a no-brainer to some, but not always implemented by all-- is to add social media links to the end of your email signature. Make this one-time addition and with every email you send, you'll be soliciting new followers without having to think about it.
Prominent Follow and Share Buttons
Social media never sleeps, but you sure do, which is why you need to give your readers the tools to proliferate your content on their own. Follow buttons (i.e. "Like us on Facebook,") and share tools (i.e. "Tweet this link to your followers,") should be prominently displayed on your website and blog. With digital attention spans waning, don't make readers go searching for these tools. Dangle them right in front of their noses.

Twitter and Facebook make these share plugins readily available to web developers-- or try social plug-in services like Tweet Meme, AddThis, or ShareThis. Adding prominent follow and share buttons to your website/blog is another "one-and-done strategy." Do it once and let your followers and readers do the rest.
Seamless Social Share
Two things to keep in mind when choosing social plugins is 1) ease of sharing and 2) appearance or design.

For Twitter, make sure the auto-tweet box contains a shortened URL and a strong headline. The cleaner the tweet, the better chance that person is going to click to share. Don’t make your readers do extra work to format the messaging to 140-characters or less.

On Facebook, meta-data is important. In layman terms, when you post a link to Facebook, certain data points are pulled from that URL to auto-populate the Facebook post. This includes the headline, description, and a photo. Work with your developer to code in all of these data points, so when a reader posts your content to Facebook, its appearance entices more people to click to read.
Print and e-Newsletters
It's simple: newsletter subscribers (whether print or email) have already acknowledged interest in your company or website's content. There's a good chance they'll want similar updates on Facebook and Twitter. Let them know you're out there. Add links and your followers will grow.
Signage, Business Cards, and Other Printed Material-- Get Creative!
Get creative with where you advertise links to your Twitter and Facebook pages. Try displaying “Follow Us on Facebook and Twitter” on the side of your food truck, print it up on business cards, or place a sign next to your register. I discovered and began to follow my favorite Greek restaurant in D.C. on Twitter when they printed their handle right on my receipt.

What did I miss? Tell me about another off-network social media strategy that's helped you grow your following.

GP

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ICYMI: How to Use Social Media to Travel, Top Tourist Destinations, Epic Fire-kayaking

Five ways to boost your social media following without logging on to Twitter or Facebook

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