Best Practices for Facebook from #tourismchat

#tourismchat is a twitter chat focused on social media in the tourism industry. Our Nov 3 (2011) chat featured Facebook as the topic.

Even though Facebook is constantly changing (and I’m way behind in my blog), I wanted to share these #tourismchat highlights here. I think a lot of the tweets in this chat can help you build a solid strategy or inspire you to try new things on Facebook.

Q1: Is your page geared towards leisure tourism only? Do you have separate niche pages?

  • jennrush03 We just have the one page for our CVA that’s mainly leisure travel. Our other 2 facebook pages are for events we run.
  • scullyano We have one FB page for all leisure, meetings, groups, weddings, etc.
  • thefrontrowe Our page is predominantly leisure tourism, but also aimed at growing local advocacy.
  • maddenmedia A1: Facebook works best with B2C markets. Might be best to create a custom B2B app/tab dedicated to a specific niche on 1 page.

Q2: How often do you update your Facebook page? What time? Evenings/weekends too?

  • emilyforsha Plan is to move toward twice daily, morning and evening.
  • maddenmedia No more than three times a day, but we strive for one to two posts per day on pages we administer.
  • bobf_vstpgh We generally update no more than 2-3 times per day and try to keep several hours between posts.

Q3: What tabs do you have on your page? Welcome tab, booking engine, etc. Are you tracking links to these tabs?

  • oregonkat we do some seasonal tabs for specific events or lodging promotions, gives us an opp to help partners out.
  • jccjhiggins Online Travel Guide, Merchandise, Fall in Virginia, and VA Wine Month are our most recent. Yes, tracking them!
  • thefrontrowe Welcome, email sign up, guide request, booking engine, Harbor Pass, temporary promotional tabs depending.

Q4: Do you have a booking engine tab on your page? Do you promote or track booking/sales on your page?

  • katiecook We do have a booking tab that was provided from ARES. Not seen many bookings yet. But, nice as awareness tool.
  • thefrontrowe We have a booking engine. I don’t believe we’ve had many bookings. My hope is that it kickstarts the search.

Q5: What types of posts get the most interactions on your page?

Q6: Are you producing content to live on Facebook (tabs, apps) or do you send users to your/other websites?

  • jccjhiggins For the most part, our tabs are a shorter replication of existing site content.
  • ELearningU A little bit of both! Good to provide fans with what they want on FB, but also give additional info on site.
  • maddenmedia FB is so dynamic u don’t need to send them anywhere really. It’s best to focus on hitting targets where ever they may be

Q7: How often are you posting photos? Are you using them uniquely?

  • Joe_ExpCols I do photo essay blogs, & post the same photos on FB. Gets better interaction than posting a link to blog post.
  • jccjhiggins Typically, 2 out of 3 posts include a photo. Could be tied to a Q or a link or a fill in the blank. Peeps love photos!
  • maddenmedia We post photos at least 1-2 times per week. It’s never a specific formula, but we strive to create engagement

Q8: Do you use FB Questions, Events or upload videos directly to your page?

  • maddenmedia We use FB questions here and there, I like the viral component and advantage it carries.
  • carannmcc Have found that FB questions don’t get a lot of feedback, but we use lots of videos.

Want to learn more? Check out the entire chat transcript.

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