Enhance Your
Travel Writing Image
Using Facebook

This post is mainly about using Facebook to enhance your travel writing image. You can transfer this information to just about any social media platform. I'm most familiar with Facebook so it's my focus because of that.

Editors are beginning to set social media requirements for travel writers while they're on assignment. For example, one editor I know recently published these requirements:

1. at least 250 followers on a social media channel
2. at least 2 posts on all your platforms about the article you're writing

This is not a tall order - it's the minimum you should be doing to enhance your travel writing image on Facebook, or any other social media.

To keep confusion at bay for this post, I'll only refer to Facebook. It's the primary platform I use. But whatever I say about Facebook also applies to other platforms you can use to promote your work.

Facebook and social media in general have staggering power. Ten years ago, I actually thought Facebook and all social media were a waste of time. But I hadn't thought through the amazing marketing power they have.

In 2015 an important new social media record was set: Facebook attracted more than one billion users in one day.  One in seven people in the world had used the site on that day!  And although Facebook has had some problems, it is still going strong.

Social media still remains an ineffective way of getting direct assignments from editors.  But, savvy travel writers can use it in other ways, despite the fact that it doesn’t directly reap any writing assignments.  Social media sites have plenty of other uses that can enhance your image if you’re creative and have a strategy.

The two things I like most about Facebook are its’ simplicity and its flexibility—it’s very easy to use (and that’s high praise coming from a luddite like me) and it can be used in many ways.

Look through the list below to see how you can use Facebook for your professional image or brand.  Are you using Facebook to your best advantage - and to help your editors and hosts?

Enhancing your travel writing image means establishing credibility

The first way to enhance your travel writing image using Facebook is to establish credibility as a travel writer.  When one of your articles is published, let the world know - or at least tell all your friends and followers about it. 

For online articles, include a link to the article.  For print articles, post the magazine cover and give a brief summary of your story.  Sometime print magazines also post the article online.  If they do, include a link. These posts show you’re an active writer.

Facebook can be used to establish your bona fides with magazine editors and destination media reps.  Use social media to display your travel writing presence.  It helps show you’re on the level, and not a fly-by-night, wannabe travel writer.

I’ve discovered never to underestimate the power of our image in cementing articles with magazine editors or scoring those excellent press trips.  Facebook can help you do this.  It’s well suited to being your low-key travel writing portfolio or scrapbook.

Have a quick flip back through my Facebook site and you’ll see evidence of dozens of my published articles.  Editors who are checking me out for a possible assignment find incontrovertible proof here that I’m well published.

Many of you already proudly display links to your travel stories, but I know many beginners who hang back from posting their work.  There’s no room for false modesty in today’s writing arena.  Showing evidence of your work to enhance your travel writing image is essential in this hyperactive market.  And, as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, editors expect it.

If you can’t show evidence of your writing, how can you expect editors and destination media PR reps to take you seriously? Naturally your first priority should be to publish a professional writer's website.

Posting links to articles also drives traffic to the site that published your article so you’re doing your editors a favor, too.  You're also boosting readership for the destination or attraction so the CVB benefits as well.

Share Interesting Information

When you find well-written travel stories, educational articles and useful products, Facebook is a great way to share links with friends.

This isn’t any different than when you talk to friends in person. Your travel writing image is elevated when you share good information.  What’s great about social media is that you can share your experiences and information with a lot more people very efficiently.

Share Travel Writing Workshop and Conference Announcements

If you’re attending a workshop or a travel conference, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t announce this.

Attending workshops and conferences is good for your travel writing image. It shows that you’re continually looking to improve and to network — both of which are trademarks of a go-getter freelance travel writer.

Other travel writers will be interested because they might also be planning to attend. Or, it informs them of an event they will want to attend in the future.

Announcing Milestones Enhances Your Travel Writing Image

Did you just get your first online article published?  Or maybe you succeeded in getting into a glossy print publication. Did you just get back from a press trip? There are many important milestones in a travel writer's life.

When you reach different milestones, post them on your Facebook page.

Not long ago I posted a nice little story about how I was just about to depart on my 90th press trip.  Another post talked about how my 1,000th article was just published.

Keep track of your progress and let your friends know when you reach important markers. It doesn't just enhance your travel writing image - people are interested to know!

Send Followers to Your Website or Blog

If you have a travel blog or website, always post a link to your latest and greatest post.

Every Monday I link to the latest post on www.PitchTravelWrite.com.  It's one way for my Facebook friends to quickly access my article. And it's a way to encourage my followers to sign up for my weekly e-Zine.

I tell my readers a little bit about the article itself.  It's usually about some aspect of selling and marketing travel stories. I write about topics that are critical to your success, and information that is hard-to-find because no one else writes about it.  As a result, each week some of my Facebook followers become e-Zine subscribers.

Share Information About Press Trips and Destinations to Enhance Your Travel Writing Image

Travel writing often comes with travel perks.  You should help promote the places you visit by telling your friends about your press trips. Not only will it enhance your travel writing image with your friends, the CVBs will appreciate it, too.

I post day-by-day descriptions of my press trips on Facebook. These posts show fellow writers that I do indeed travel, and shows magazine editors that I’m well traveled. It helps the CVBs and hosts at destinations by sharing news about their place.

My Facebook friends follow my press trip antics with great interest.  Here's how I do it:

I’m a big believer in helping tourism agencies promote their destinations, hotels and resorts, restaurants and attraction to other travel writers.

If tourism media reps are kind enough to sponsor my trip, the least I can do is help them. My posts inform all my followers about what's hot at these locations, and it encourages other writers who might be interested in visiting their patch. 

Established writers also get frequent invitations to attend restaurant openings and promotional ‘foodie’ events.  I’m always happy to give them some of my Facebook space to help get the word out, while I'm letting my friends know what I'm doing.

Share Product Announcements 

Many of you have written books, travel guides or have off-line enterprises.  Letting people know what you have to offer is a very effective use of social media.

I regularly post announcements about my latest eBooks, and information about my one-on-one coaching and live workshops.  It’s a highly effective way of getting the word out to prospective customers, and telling them where they can find more information.

Have Some Fun with Your Friends

Facebook provides unlimited opportunities to show your followers that you have a personality and (hopefully) a sense of humor.

For example, every Saturday I host a ‘Where’s Roy’ post.  I share a travel photo from my archives and invite my followers to guess where I am.  Many of my friends participate, and leave some amusing comments. 

And, I’m always surprised by how quickly people guess where I am.  Sometimes I even give out prizes!

I have truly come to appreciate Facebook’s value as a promotional cornerstone for my writer’s platform.  It establishes my credibility as a well-traveled and well-published writer and enhances my travel writing image by letting all my followers know what I'm doing. 

That credibility will help an editor make up his or her mind when they are considering commissioning one of my stories.  It will also help a CVB decide whether or not to host you on a press trip.

Although Facebook will only rarely (if ever) directly snag you a writing assignment for a magazine, a lively and interesting Facebook site does present compelling evidence of your bona fides to editors and destination media reps. Although your professional writer's website has all your evergreen and primary content, Facebook and other social media provide an opportunity to showcase your latest endeavors.

Here are some more Facebook tips for travel writers.

For those of you active on other social media sites, most of these ideas should translate to other platforms.   You can read some related articles below including how Jan Ross, a travel blogger, uses Twitter to work with CVBs for press trips.

Related articles that will interest you:

Will Social Media Help You Get Published?
 
Why You Need a Professional Writer’s Website

Different Kinds of Press Trips for Travel Writers

Special Report:

How to Land Press Trips and Fam Tours

I've written a guide about how to land press trips.  It will tell you everything you want to know about how to get into the inner circle and get invited on regional, national and international press trips. 

Learn more here...

Roy Stevenson is a professional travel writer and the author of www.PitchTravelWrite.com.  Over the past ten years, he’s had more than 1000 articles published in 200 magazines, trade and specialty journals, in-flights, on-boards, blogs and websites and has traveled on assignment around the U.S. and to dozens of international destinations.