Become a Home Based Travel Agent

Social media and U…
Tips to get started in less than 5 minutes!
By Cory Andrichuk

How overwhelmed are you these days with the amount of social media (SM) information floating around our industry?A little… A lot… Or like many people I have spoken to in my recent travels, are totally overloaded and just trying to stay afloat.  The continuous barrage of SM information (500 Million on Facebook, 1 billion+ Tweets /month, & 2 billion YouTube video’s watched a day!), with the constant emphasis to grow your business online is never-ending!  There is no doubt that industry in general is changing and that we are all moving online.  Some of us in travel have been online since the early nineties with Netscape and AOL, and some of us are slowly moving online kicking and screaming. 

Knowledge is power, but only if you do something with it!  I believe that the key to understanding SM and making it work for you and your business, is putting it into practical application!  My personal recommendation to survive and thrive in this new economy is to begin taking the necessary baby-steps to change!  Since you cannot escape the amount of information surrounding SM, nor can you deny the positive results that so many people in our industry have achieved, coupled with the fact that every North American is online spending over an hour a day on such SM sites, it’s time for you to start!

Stop thinking about it and just do it!  The time you continue to spend on thinking about socializing online could be spent on your initial direction and strategy, and ultimately prospecting for new business.  I can relate if you are too overwhelmed to even know where to begin so with that said, I have some tips to get started…

1.  Attitude. You need to change your outlook to change your outcome!  Think of social media marketing as a strategy to just develop and maintain ongoing relationships, with more people, and more potential customers.  It’s literally the new prospecting tool…

2.  Reverse-mentoring!  Terry Dale of CLIA describes it as finding a millennial (born 1980+) and asking for help!Many of us are already doing it with our own children, grandchildren, families and friends of friends.  Stay the course on this path as most everyone loves to share their knowledge.  Just get more disciplined and set a schedule with your new mentor. 

3.  Set SMART goals.  SMART goals help you accomplish your priorities sooner than without setting.  Here is an example to get going:  Goal:  Collect 100 friends on Facebook by December 1, 2010.  Why Facebook you ask?  It is the easiest social media marketing platform to get started on, because your customers are there, and because it’s free!  It literally takes 5 minutes to get started, and your mentee is probably quite versed on Facebook – so it makes sense! 

So there you have it – 3 tips to help get U and your social media strategy moving… in the right direction!  I want to, again, relate that everyone procrastinates to a certain extent!  I personally procrastinated for 6 months before launching my own video blog www.cory.andrichuk.com  I have felt so much better, call it relief, since taking those first baby steps with an attitude that it won’t be perfect from the start and that I just need to start at the beginning like everyone else did.  I plan to grow it over time, along with my other social media sites like my www.facebook.com/brandUcoaching and Twitter account www.twitter.com/brandUcoach.  The key here is over time…

Let me know how I can further by emailing me at cory@brandUcoaching.com