Stuck on What to Post? Stop Creating and Start Documenting.

Why do people in tourism businesses place so much importance on creating and tracking engagement on social posts, and so little attention on constantly refining the customer experience for a specific audience?

I've thought a lot about this. Working in tourism for a long time, with family and good friends running tourism businesses, it's hard not to.

It's not a lack of willingness, time or resources. You can find time for Facebook and Instagram.

Following the hype

It's because you're following the hype. Industry commentators and service providers romanticise social media as a silver bullet. You're constantly bombarded by messaging to be on it. You see accounts having apparent wild success, and you want it too. You're personally on social media, so you feel like you understand it. It feels like a tangible pathway to broad awareness.

But without absolute clarity of who your ideal customer is, you end up chasing likes so hard that you miss the chance to develop a genuine love of what you do among a small group of people.

Focus on love, and the likes will come.

Document, don't create

About five years ago I heard Gary Vaynerchuk say something along the lines of, if you find it difficult to create content for social media, stop trying to create content and start documenting.

What he meant is to tell the stories that already exist. Don't attempt to invent clever ideas that will get engagement. What's happening in your business? What experiences are your customers having? What content are they creating already?

Do that, and social media will almost look after itself.

Do that, and obsessing over posts instead of obsessing over creating a remarkable experience for a particular customer will start to look backwards.

While you've been worrying about how many likes you got on your last post, the best tourism businesses have been focused on building a remarkable experience for a tiny audience. Guess who's winning.

Know who you're talking to

Here's the kicker. You must know your ideal customer and describe their wants and problems better than they can, using the same language they'd use. Your job is then to design an experience that moves them towards what they want.

The job of marketing is to connect people with things that will improve their life. It's not to coerce an unwilling participant to part with money.

Pick a small audience. Design a remarkable experience that helps them achieve their desires and aspirations. Use the language they would use to attract them. That's the game.

Then, please, for the love of God, stop obsessing about social media likes and start obsessing about understanding your ideal customer.

The posts will take care of themselves.