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To help make this busy season your best season, we've teamed up with Julia Asselin from The Itinerary Girls, an expert in social media for travel advisors (and a TravelJoy user!).
In this post, Julia answers your most pressing questions about starting your social media presence, strategies to attract new clients, keeping your audience engaged, and using tools for creating and scheduling content.
Whether you're looking to improve your Instagram stories or boost the impact of your Facebook posts, Julia's practical advice tailored for travel advisors will help you upgrade your social media strategy in 2025 and beyond.
Let's dive into Julia’s tips and get your social channels ready for the season!
Yes! And it’s probably the best time to start - potential clients are ready to book, they just need to find you. Kick it off with an “About Me” post, “How We Work” post, and “The Benefits of Using a TA” post so that when someone finds your page, they can immediately figure out who you are/what you do. Then, work on your strategy (how many posts/week, what will you be sharing/etc).
The key is to STAY CONSISTENT. During busy season, social media can often fall to the side - come up with a plan so that doesn’t happen. Clients need to see that you are consistently showing up to build that trust with them!
Figure out your branding! I can’t stress this enough: having clear brand guidelines (think fonts, colors, brand voice, etc.) will make social media 10x easier AND more effective for hooking new business/reaffirming your brand to existing business. If you are using a mix of random Canva templates, not sticking to the same font every time, etc., only using ChatGPT to write your posts - you might as well be wasting your time (which we both know is precious).
The value in social media comes from consistency over time, so clients learn to trust you. And having consistent branding is one of the best ways to do that. Branding doesn’t need to be thousands of dollars; there are great free branding resources on Canva, AI, and more.
Where is your audience that you want to sell to? (Not necessarily who you are currently selling to). Are you looking to sell to Gen Z? Get on TikTok or Instagram. Millennials are spending the most time on Instagram and Facebook. Gen X and Baby Boomers are likely on Facebook. Find your ideal target audience and see what their social media habits are.
Posting every day…while this may work for some brands and products, as a small team (usually of only one or two people), this is a terribly unrealistic goal for most. While there are pros of this (higher chance of “going viral”, your content being pushed to the top since you’re considered an “active” community member of Instagram), I don’t think it is necessary to have success finding clients on social media.
If we can take off the pressure of posting daily just posting to post something and you can do 2-3 high quality posts, you’ll find that you want to show up on social media more often and you won’t get burnt out. Again, consistency is key. It’s a long game. And for most people, posting daily without a team is not sustainable.
I think a lot of the time we think we need to “rework the wheel” every time we do a post, make it super unique and interesting because we, as TAs, see all the other TA posts every day. But we forget that many of our clients only follow likely less than 5 TAs (hopefully just one, you!).
So ideally, you aren’t competing with that many other TAs on social media for your current/past clients. For catching new business, this is where you’d want to “stand out”, but base your content strategically. What do you want to sell? What client are you looking to attract? Where are they going, what things are they looking for? Feature those things/what you’re working on and proposing so the right client finds you.
This balance is so important…typical industry advice is to figure out your content pillars (a lot of information on what these are on the internet). Sharing the fun destinations, hotels, and your travels should definitely be part of your content strategy, but you are also running a business so promoting your services, how you work, about you is also fair game (and equally if not more, important).
“Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” is a book by Gary Vaynerchuk which shares this “give, give, give, then ask” mentality. Give your followers inspiration, information, education, then ask for the sale. They’ll feel more confident giving you the sale after you’ve already “given” them so much.
My go to tools:
I track likes/comments/shares/saves. You also want to track how many followers vs non-followers are seeing your content. Typically, reels receive more “non-follower” views, so reels are a great way to get your business out there. But once someone does land on your page, you’ll want them to be engaged with your other content too (think informative posts and inspiration) and that’s where they might save a post to come back to when they’re ready to plan a trip, or send to a friend that might be interested!
It’s really challenging to “ensure” that your social media efforts translate into bookings. Travel advising is a long game, likely, no one is impulse buying a $10,000 vacation. So this is where consistency comes in again to build trust with your followers. And ALWAYS have a CTA (call to action). I use stories to link my inquiry form or email marketing newsletter signup. Each post has a CTA at the bottom encouraging them to reach out for any trips they have coming up. Make it easy for someone to get in touch!
@sociallyybri has taught me everything I know about social strategy. I’ve been inspired by her to show up authentically, be a little silly, show who I am as a person (not just a business), because our businesses are not just businesses, they’re personal. Her posts are entertaining and beautiful, I never feel aggressively sold to but if I ever wanted social media help I would go right to her because I feel like I can trust her, simply from her Instagram (wild, right?).
TravelJoy has been instrumental while growing my business. When I first started, my CRM was a Google Sheet (don’t hate me), because my client list was small and I didn’t have the need (or the funds) to bring in a CRM. As I began to grow, I knew I needed something 1.) more organized and 2.) more secure.
First and foremost, I use it as a CRM to track inquiries (my inquiry form on my website is made through here!), track where clients are in the booking process, and arguably my favorite feature - task management. For all those “little” tasks that need to happen before a trip, the Task Lists are LIFE CHANGING.
I also use it for credit card authorizations, contract signings, and travel insurance waivers to protect myself legally. Regardless, I couldn’t picture my business without it. It streamlined my processes, gave me back endless amounts of time, and probably saved me from a lot of headaches.
I was born and raised on the East Coast in Pennsylvania, but I currently live in Los Angeles, CA. I've also been lucky enough to live in Boston, MA & Sydney, Australia. Family trips growing up were New Jersey beaches or camping, but my true love for travel came from my time I spent living & studying abroad in Sydney. While there, I was fortunate enough to travel to Fiji and Bali as well as around Australia (Melbourne & Great Barrier Reef). After that, to say I was bitten by the travel bug was an understatement. On weekends you'll find me doing something outside (total beach bum) or trying a new restaurant (no shortage of those in LA). I also love working out, spending time with friends, and of course…traveling (for fun & now for “work”!). Fun fact: My first job was at an ice cream shop and it left me with an ice cream addiction. Flavor of choice: Cookies & Cream.
