Tips and tricks from Tourism Australia’s Social & Content team
We are regularly asked about how to contribute to Tourism Australia’s social media profiles so we’ve posted a series of tips and tricks here. We’ll also include updates about some of the latest developments in technology, to help you keep your own social media presence up to speed.
If you have a burning question about any of the topics we’ve covered below, you can simply ask it here by highlighting any part of the text and leaving us a comment. Make sure you bookmark this page, as we’ll be updating it regularly for your reading pleasure.
TA’s consumer profiles
Let’s start from scratch and break down what our key online channels of communication with consumers are…
Australia.com — This extensive website is TA’s main channel and the call to action for all of our consumer-facing campaigns.
@Australia (Instagram) — TA’s @Australia account has an extensive fan base and is extremely popular. The team feature three eye-catching photos or videos per day on here, with longer-form captions containing a bit more detail.
Australia.com (Facebook) — TA’s Facebook profile features the best fan content daily, from albums and show-stopping single images through to engaging short videos. Regular album features include the ‘This Week’s Favourite Fan Photos’ and ‘What Australia Ate This Weekend’.
@Australia — (Twitter) — TA’s consumer facing Twitter account tweets out up-to-date news and the best daily fan content, and also answers questions from fans.
How to be part of our social media presence
We understand that you want to be part of our social media platforms too! It really is as easy as making sure you include our tags and handles in your own daily social media activity. If you’re posting something on Instagram, link in #SeeAustralia in your caption (for your best aquatic and coastal content, or any general destination related content) or #RestaurantAustralia (if it’s food & wine related), on Facebook post any of your great images or videos directly onto our Facebook wall, and on Twitter and don’t forget to include @Australia on any tweets that you want us to see.
What the team are looking for
In a nutshell, we’re looking for the most inspiring, engaging, spectacular, funny or eye-catching content to share with our fans. Most people look at their social newsfeed to get updates from family and friends, so the content that we post needs to be able to compete with that, and also not appear to be too commercial. Tip: The more information you provide about the photo you share with us, the easier it is for us to tell a deeper story about that destination or experience. So we recommend including as much info as possible in your caption ie. when and where the photo was taken, how to get to the place in the photo and what you think is particularly special about it.
Videos on social media
Over the past year we have seen the power of video on social media continue to rise, and we now find that short, engaging videos perform exceptionally well on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Natively posting your videos within these platforms is the best way to see results, and don’t forget about Twitter - you can easily post videos on this platform and because they automatically play when you scroll through the feed they attract a strong engagement rate.
What we’re looking for in a video
We regularly feature videos on our social channels, and to help you understand what we’re looking for, here are some specifications for the kind of videos we tend to feature. Bear in mind that this may be different to what works for your own channels, but for ours we prefer:
- Length: Our optimum video length is 15–30 seconds long, and generally no longer than 1 minute.
- Orientation: Square or portrait format preferable
- Format: MP4 preferable
- Background music: Suitable copyright-free background music, or no music. Check out www.premiumbeat.com or www.jukedeck.com, or there’s a range of other royalty-free music sites available on the web.
- Overlay text or logos: None if possible please (we will always credit and link to your business via our caption)
- Fade in and out at the start or end: None preferable
- Talking heads: None preferable
- Voiceovers: None preferable
Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories lets you share more moments, more frequently — and not just the ones you want to keep on your profile. As you share multiple photos and videos they appear together in a slideshow format, which forms your story. You can bring your story to life with text and emojis, and the photos and videos you share will disappear after 24 hours — so they don’t appear permanently on your profile or in the newsfeed in general.
Find out more about how to create your own Instagram Story.
Examples of great ‘Aquatic & Coastal’ social posts
A snapshot of who we think is doing great work in social in the Australian tourism industry
Facebook Live
Facebook Live is a great tool for the tourism industry, allowing operators and tourism organisations to showcase their region and product offering via live video. This gives fans a taste of what it would actually be like to experience what’s being filmed, as well as the chance to interact and share their thoughts or questions.
Starting a Facebook Live video is simple from within your Facebook app on your mobile. Here is a great how to guide on how to get the most from your Facebook Live.
Websites
Here’s a good example of how an operator, Pennicott Wilderness Journeys, incorporates short videos and user generated images from their customers into their website. The result is an up-to-date, fresh looking website that gives potential customers an insight into what the product experience will really be like.
iPhone
You don’t need all of the latest high tech equipment to capture great content, some of our most popular posts have been simple and unedited short clips that were filmed on a phone! The quality of images that can be captured on an iPhone is also excellent, and there are a number of apps you can use to edit your shots to make them social media ready.
GoPro
We’re a big fan of the GoPro4 Session camera. It’s small, lightweight and very easy to carry around. Unlike the previous model, it doesn’t have an LCD screen in the back but it connects through your smartphone app for easy viewing, editing and publishing onto social media. As you can see below, some of our most engaging recent posts have been captured using a GoPro.
Drones
We’ve all seen how incredible drone footage can be. Many people think this format of video is out of reach, however there’s no need to be able to fly your own drone as there are a huge number of certified operators out there who capture amazing content for a reasonable price. You can find local certified operators in your area via http://www.acuo.org.au/
Podcasts
We’re fans of Tourism Tweetup the Podcast By Holly Galbraith. It’s a great resource for tourism managers, destination marketers, tourism and marketing professionals which provides interviews about what is happening in the world of social media marketing, blogger outreach, campaigns and tourism marketing.
Here’s some of our favourite episodes:
1) Developing a culture for embracing user reviews
2) Periscope and ideas for travel and tourism
3) Themes and takeaways from Social Media Tourism Symposium
4) Effective tourism marketing with limited time and resources
