Is it time to start your own social media challenge?
Social media challenges are all the rage right now. Madeleine Barber investigates how agents can tap into this trend and use it to build a community during the Covid-19 crisis
Whether it’s “Run 5, Donate 5, Nominate 5”, posting your first photo as a couple or taking part in “Me at 20”, it’s likely you will have either seen or been nominated in one of the many challenges currently circulating on social media. They’re proving a simple and effective way of lightening moods around the UK in the midst of the coronavirus crisis and could be a useful tool for agents who want to keep in contact with their clients and build a community that will remain loyal to their agency post lockdown.
Nick Evans, social and digital director at PR and marketing agency MMGY Hills Balfour, oversees international social media for numerous travel industry clients including Brand USA and the Croatian National Tourist Board and he developed WTTC’s #TogetherInTravel campaign, which launched on 20 April.
“People are now moving from anxiety to acceptance and want to be distracted and entertained, so this is the perfect opportunity for them to reminisce on [holiday] content they’ve created in the past to keep them wanderlusting and thinking of travel,” he says.
PUTTING A PLAN INTO MOTION
DO
- Think carefully about your goal and ensure your challenge has a clear purpose
- Test your challenge with family and friends outside the travel industry
- Rally people together from your local community ahead of the launch
DON’T
- Overcomplicate the challenge
- Choose a challenge that restricts the number of potential participants
- Push your brand too much, as this will put the brakes on the campaign
If an agent wants to tap into this fast-moving trend there are a number of things to consider during the planning process, such as defining a goal. Evans says “catalysing future travel planning” could be a good choice of purpose.
Concept is the most important decision to be made when it comes to planning a successful social media challenge, and for this there are two areas to focus on: experience or people.
“It depends on what type of person or agency you are,” says Evans, suggesting agents could ask people to share travel experiences such as their most extreme holiday activity or best meal, or focus on people and ask them to tag five friends they’ve travelled with or even met through travel and are still close with today.
“The experience route allows self reflection and self promotion while the people route shines a light on the community we create through travel and allows us to connect with those we can’t currently connect with in person,” he adds.
A good concept must be accessible to all types of traveller, for example, asking people to share 30 photos from 30 holidays will exclude those who don’t have the means to travel frequently – the challenge shouldn’t be restrictive.
It’s worth thinking about which platform is best for your concept too, with Facebook and Instagram lending themselves well to photo and video challenges. Create something that works on any platform to start with, advises Evans.
MAKING A BIG SPLASH
Once a plan is in place it’s time to shift attention to testing the challenge with friends and family outside the travel industry – if it’s successful with them, it’ll likely be successful with clients.
Then, for the launch, Evans explains: “you need to create a ‘thunderclap moment’, so tell people this is happening in advance, rally the community, choose a moment and get as many people as possible to start sharing at the same time.”
Keeping momentum is also key, so ensure people’s efforts are liked, shared or commented on. It’s important to “reward the personal expression” and “make people feel something – this is about emotional storytelling”, says Evans.
It’s essential to not be precious about this either, so encourage clients to start their own chain and spark social conversations of their own.
“Don’t hold back, just do it,” says Evans. “Keep people excited and reminded why travel is undoubtedly the best thing in the world.”
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