In this article, Tour Operator Alan Rust shares his LinkedIn Tips for Tour Operators with us.
I recently joined a networking Zoom for tour operators and received the participant list after the event. I went to LinkedIn to connect with those tourpreneurs on a professional level. I was surprised to find that almost all of them were not on LinkedIn or had outdated profiles. I want to share my LinkedIn tips for tour operators and walk you through how I personally and corporately use LinkedIn to connect with professionals who may be looking for activities for their work teams.
LinkedIn for Tour Operators PRO TIP: Corporate activities are the largest segment of our business so activity on this platform is important to our success.
Let’s start with your personal Profile. You’re invited to follow along on my LinkedIn Profile. The top is obviously key and, next to your name, the most important part of the page is the Headline which needs to tell everyone that you are a tour operator / professional. I added “corporate activity expert” because that is the audience I am targeting on this platform. I selected Event Services for my industry type which helps getting noticed by the best people while searching. Next, craft a clear concise About statement which not only talks about tours but how you can work with corporate groups. PRO TIP: Take advantage of customers you have already worked with and ask them to support you in the Recommendations section. Don’t forget the pictures! Your profile pic should be well lit and smiling. Don’t skip the opportunity to showcase a tour in your 1584 x 396 pixel Background Photo.
Next, don’t hesitate to complete your Experience section with all of your work history including company names. You may end up booking with someone because you connected to the company page of a former workplace. Your current position will show in the top section so make sure you create a company page for your business (read below). Now, if you are working another job plus your tourpreneur passion project, you can edit the top section to make sure your tour business is featured.
You have the option to create Posts, Articles and now Stories on LinkedIn. Posts operate just like any other social platform with video becoming important. Articles don’t get much attention because they aren’t shown prominently. However, you can use the Featured section on your personal page to highlight articles that talk about local tours and corporate tours. PRO TIP: this is another way to share with the community that you create engaging experiences for work teams. So, it can be worth your time to publish a few articles about our industry.
You can increase the professional look of your business by creating a Company Page. To start, click on the Work icon in the top nav bar then select “Create Company Page +” from the dropdown. Follow along on our America Tour Company page. We selected ‘Leisure, Travel & Tourism’ as our industry. Of course, add your logo and a 1128 x 121 pixel cover image. Create an appropriate Tagline in your Page Info. Add a “Learn More” Button to connect viewers to your website. You are able to add up to 20 Specialties so make sure along with ‘Tours’ you also add ‘Team Building’ and ‘Business Events’ to help you getting displayed in search results. Use a similar strategy on your 3 hashtags.
Your Page also has the opportunity to share Company Posts to promote your activities. Curate the posts to be appropriate for a professional corporate audience. LinkedIn even gives you a Content link in the top nav that offers News for your industry that can easily be shared on your page. You also have the opportunity to create Events but we haven’t tried that since our corporate bookings are private.
You are all set up, now, it’s time to connect to expand the reach of your message about group activities. I’m sure at some point LinkedIn has already prompted you to connect with past coworkers or acquaintances. You can select the My Network in the top nav then search for people at companies your worked for plus import your contact book. Look to the right column on your Company Page and use the “Invite Connections to Follow” to get your company noticed by your personal connections. PRO TIP: don’t forget to send a message link to your team members to have them follow and engage with your Company Page.
Connect with me on LinkedIn and lets share ideas and successes to increase our tour sales.
Tour Operator Alan Rust of America Tour Company walks us through his tried and tested Google My Business for tour operators advice.
At this point, several operators in the chat which accompanied the AMA’sspeculated on whether this was the actual reason for the GYG policy change.