17 January 2018

Social media has become a central part of the marketing mix for tourism businesses, including Tourism Australia which has 7.9 million Facebook fans, more than any other tourism body in the world.

Images of Australia’s iconic attractions, gorgeous animals and vivid landscapes have mass appeal to potential travellers and content Tourism Australia posts regularly makes it into millions of newsfeeds globally.

However, on 12 January Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced “a major change to how we build Facebook” to help users have “more meaningful social interactions.” 

As Facebook roll out these changes over the next few months, users will start to see more content from friends and family in their newsfeed and less from brands, publishers and celebrities.

While it's not yet known just how significant the drop in organic reach will be for pages, Tourism Australia’s Global Manager of Social Media, Nick Henderson, has six pieces of advice for travel brands. 

1. Create Facebook posts that drive ‘meaningful interactions’. That is, posts that promote conversation between Facebook users and their friends. Never has the cliché quality over quantity been so relevant when it comes to Facebook. 
2. Do not explicitly ask people to comment on your posts. Facebook has also said your post will be deprioritised in newsfeeds for doing this.
3. Consider a paid strategy - if you don’t already have one - to boost posts into newsfeeds. Paid activity is largely unaffected by this change. 
4. Encourage your customers to post about your business or destination. With Facebook set to prioritise content from friends and family you should focus more of your efforts on encouraging your customers to share their experience on their own social channels.
5. Trial live video. Facebook has singled out live video on the platform as a format that will drive conversation and, in turn, newsfeed distribution.
6. If, once the changes have been made, your posts aren’t being seen don’t just continue doing what you’ve always been doing. Test different ways to engage your audience.

Find out more about Tourism Australia’s approach to social media at www.tourism.australia.com/socialmedia.

Visit Tourism Australia’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/SeeAustralia.