How to Prep for the Future of Your Social Marketing

Are you adaptable and uniquely capable of dealing with unexpected problems? Do you thrive on chaos and hurdling obstacles? As an industry, we can persevere and get ourselves and our clients through the COVID-19 crisis.

In the meantime, let's chat about a couple different ways we could use this transition time effectively and start prepping for the future. These strategies will help you hit the ground running when the world is open to travel again.

Check Behind the Scenes

Unfortunately, you've been busy cancelling all your hard work from the past months. Once that's finished, what can you do to prepare for the future? Now is a great time to work on all those projects that have been sitting on the back burner. If you're like many of us, there's a whole group of things that you've tossed into that "one day when I have time" file. Well, the time is now! Here are some valuable thing you could do now to help you find success when things turn around:

Update your custom ad audiences.
Ensure you have all your latest client lists segmented and uploaded. Pull your pixel audiences and add them to relevant existing audiences. Create audiences using the "Facebook Page" option that puts together an audience of all people who have taken action on your page.

Update your social profiles.
Maybe it's been awhile since you revised your "About" and "Bio" sections. Does the text match your website? Is it really what you want to project about you and your company?

Do you have some past blog posts that feel a bit dated now, yet the content is evergreen? Go ahead and freshen them up. Remember to add a "Related Articles" section at the end so that your readers will stay on your site longer and build a stronger relationship with you. Study your social analytics to better understand your audience and what resonates with them.

Plan for Post-Crisis

Once the world starts changing back, there will be so much pent-up travel demand that we'll be inundated with new bookings. Get ready now with these tactics:

• Create new pixel audiences that reflect those people most likely to travel right away—those who have frequently visited your web and social sites.

• Write a collection of new blog posts for future launch dates. You can work on creating a library of new posts that reflect your niche market and top selling destinations. This way, you could launch them at your leisure when the time is right.

• Flip on your webcam and shoot a collection of videos for the future! Consider shooting a short video of each of your top travel tips. How about a quick series of videos about why your top selling destinations are so special? Interview a BDM or industry expert to provide inspiration. Here's how to do this from your desktop. Take it up a notch and include a guest, using these tools.

Here's the (not so secret) secret: We're in a resilient industry that will get better. This really is only temporary!

The key to our success is to plan for the future and give our clients and social fans a light at the end of the tunnel. By staying in touch with your people and giving them the opportunity to dream NOW and digging into your own business behind the scenes, we'll all come out stronger! We'll be better able to deal with the upcoming demand.

Written by Catherine Heeg, an international speaker and trainer who focuses on social media marketing strategies for the tourism and hospitality industry. Join the conversation and connect with her at www.cmsspeaking.com and socially.