Imagery is incredibly important in the travel industry and is one of the best ways of driving traffic and audiences from social media channels. So far this year, in social media, there has been a significant shift to focus on imagery across major social media websites including Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. In this presentation, Digital Visitor’s CEO and Founder, Anthony Rawlins, will explore some of the changes to the most popular social channels and he’ll share some tips and ideas on how you can capitalise on these to maximise your social media presence and capture new audiences. To find out more about how Digital Visitor, call +44(0)1179 055 195, email info@digitalvisitor.com or visit www.digitalvisitor.com

1. The impact of imagery in social media
What does it means for travel marketers?

2. What we’ll look at
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3. About us
• Social media agency.
• Specialists in Travel and
Tourism.
• Award winning technology &
campaigns.
• Writers for Tnooz, Eye For
Travel, Travolution and Travel
Technology Initiative.
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4. Some of our clients
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5. WHY IS IMAGERY DOMINATING
SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2012?
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6. Why imagery?
.
• More information - people don’t have
time to read a thousand words.
• Inspirational.
• Easy to
capture, store, share, display, and reuse.
• Travel is special. Unique, experiential.
• Perfect for imagery.
• I hope to show you some of the many
opportunities through using customer
images.
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7. 3 reasons for imagery on your social channels
1. Inspires Bookings
Travel is visual. Skyscanner found
that Facebook has a powerful
influence over people’s holiday
plans with over half of users
saying photos on the site inspire
them to travel.
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8. 3 reasons for imagery on your social channels
2. Greater Visibility
On Facebook, photos have a higher EdgeRank score than links
so posting images means better visibility in your fan’s News
Feed.
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9. 3 reasons for imagery on your social channels
3. Increases traffic to your website
• According to research by Eloqua, Pinterest sends more referral
traffic than Twitter, despite having a user base that’s only 7% of
Twitter.
• We found up to 2.5x your fans return to your website by posting
an engaging customer review and image each day.
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10. HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA DEVELOPED
TO INCLUDE IMAGERY?
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11. Imagery in social channels
Facebook
• New Timeline format - focus on
imagery.
• Highlighting feature - small star
icon in the corner of each post
allows you to expand it
(including any images or videos
attached) to its full width.
• Pioneers in showing an image
with URLs – increase CTRs.
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12. Imagery in social channels
Pinterest
• Fastest growing social network
- 3rd largest behind FB and
Twitter.
• Platform based solely on using
imagery to create colourful
‘Pinboards’ of your favourite
links.
• Pins can be repinned with
ease, allowing decent content
to spread virally and quickly.
• Very high CTRS from images.
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13. Imagery in social channels
Instagram
• One of the fastest-growing
social networks ever, launched
Oct 2010 and reaching 30m
users solely through its iPhone
app in less than 18 months.
• Instagram is about showing –
for images, not big walls of text.
• Enables variety of different
filters over your image, with
tools to focus in on a certain
part of the picture.
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14. HOW CAN YOU USE IMAGERY IN
YOUR OWN SOCIAL MEDIA?
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15. How can you use imagery?
Champneys on Facebook
• Image upload competitions.
• Champneys fans were asked to
submit a photos of themselves
in a face mask.
• Make your photo upload
competition simple, unique and
fun.
• Reward.
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16. How can you use imagery?
Cruiseminded on Pinterest
• Sharing content and
experiences about cruises.
• Create boards about cruise
destinations - focus on
attractions and local cuisine
delicacies.
• Click on photos takes directly to
website.
• Create your own boards and be
original.
• Repin others.
• Pin to other boards.
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17. How can you use imagery?
National Geographic on Instagram
• Competition on Instagram to
promote new series – The
Untamed Americas.
• Ask fellow travellers and
explorers to upload their own
photos of what “Untamed
Americas” means to them.
• What translates well for your
business? New
products, events, office
fun, customer feedback, user
generated content?
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18. HOW CAN YOU USE CUSTOMER
IMAGERY ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE?
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19. Imagery on your own website
.
• We have focussed on using
imagery on your social media
channels.
• More channels = more
imagery needed!
• Engage your customers to add
their images to your own
website.
• Share this content to drive
your social media channels.
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20. Imagery on your own website
.
• Our experience is in
facilitating customers to
capture customer imagery on
their own websites.
• Sharing reviews with images
on Facebook drives 2.5x your
fans per month.
• Customers add on average 3
images of their trips per
experience.
• Increases browsing time on
website by 100%.
• Drives one new organic visitor
per month per upload.
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21. 4 ways to maximise imagery on your own website
1. Ask for it
• Emailing customers should give 5-10%
response. Incentives can help.
2. Make it simple
• Easy to upload.
3. Easy navigation
• Don’t put it all on one page of your site.
Think of where the customer wants to see this.
4. Slick sharing
• Make it really easy for the customer to share to
multiple social websites and for viewers to share.
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22. Contact details
Anthony Rawlins
CEO and Founder
01179 055 195
anthony@digitalvisitor.com
www.digitalvisitor.com
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