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GROWING AN INSTAGRAM FOLLOWING:

for Hospitality + Travel Brands

LINDS

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R E A TED

lindsey createdLINDSEYCREATED.COM

@delanohotels

W H I L E A N Y O N E C A N U S E T H E S E A M A Z I N G

I N S T A G R A M T I P S A N D T R I C K S , T H I S O N E ’ S F O R

Y O U H O S P I T A L I T Y I N D U S T R Y !

Whether you’re a small boutique hotel or an international travel agency,

this guide will help you grow your following on Instagram and build a

genuine audience that converts!

READY? KEEP READING TO REVIEW 5 KEY POINTS !

W H O ’ S T H I S F O R ?

C U R A T E A V A R I E T Y

When it comes to your business’ Instagram feed, one of the most important things is to include a variety of post styles to create visual interest. There are many parts of your brand, and your social space is where you convey that. Your social should be used to tell your story, not simply be a catalog. Tapping into personality and emotion is what can set you apart from others in the industry.

I suggest choosing 4-5 categories and making sure that those are spread out, and that no one category is back to back.

For example, a hotel brand might choose: Room Interiors | Repost From Guest | Behind The Scenes / Staff Spotlight | Exterior / Common Spaces

A travel brand might choose: Beautiful Location | Traveler Repost | Travel Quote | Excursions

F E E D P H O T O C R E D I T

@ 1 1 _ H O W A R D

F E E D E X A M P L E S

@ 1 1 _ H o w a r d ( a b o v e ) h a s a m o d e r n

l u x e s t y l e t h a t v a r i e s f r o m r o o m s , t o

g u e s t r e p o s t s , t o d a i l y h a p p e n i n g s

a n d e v e n t s , w h i l e @ t h e s t a n d a r d

( t o p r i g h t ) f o c u s e s o n q u i r k y s t y l e d

p h o t o s , s t y l i s h e v e n t s , a n d c o o l

b u s i n e s s o w n e r h i g h l i g h t s .

@ s i x t y h o t e l s ( b o t t o m r i g h t ) h i g h l i g h t s

g u e s t l i f e , h o t e l e x t e r i o r s a n d

n e i g h b o r h o o d s c e n e s .

P R E V I E W A N D S C H E D U L E

Want to make sure that your feed looks amazing while also making sure that you keep up with it? My favorite apps to use for previewing and scheduling Instagram feeds are Later and Planoly. Both are available for mobile and web, and are super easy to use. While Instagram currently doesn’t allow apps to post to IG for you, these will send you a reminder, open the Instagram app with photo in place, and copy the caption to your clipboard.

You’ll start by uploading your images, or using each app’s search / discover feature to find relevant images to repost via hashtag or usernames. You can then go into preview mode, and drag and drop photos, making sure that your post type varieties are spread out. You’d be surprised how many images look great in general, but not great side-by-side.

PRO TIP: When typing in hashtags on either app, you’ll be able to see how popular the hashtag is, plus see suggestions for similar relevant hashtags.

F E E D P H O T O C R E D I T

@ S O H O H O U S E

P R E V I E W + S C H E D U L E

L a t e r A p p a l l o w s y o u t o u p l o a d , d r a g

+ d r o p t o r e a r r a n g e , a d d c a p t i o n s +

h a s h t a g s , a n d s c h e d u l e y o u r p o s t s .

A v a i l a b l e o n b o t h m o b i l e a n d w e b .

C R E A T E A C O M M U N I T Y

Instagram is about so much more than posting your pictures and going about your day. If you’re expecting authentic people to interact with your posts, then you need to be doing the same. It doesn’t have to take much time! Just spending 15 minutes a day, or setting aside an hour per week to interact with your followers or people who are using similar hashtags as you can make a big difference!

Interacting via “likes” is great, but taking the time to comment has been proven to up engagement. When commenting, don’t be bland. Take time to actually read the caption or review the profile. Something like “Pretty!” just seems like spam, while “This is such a gorgeous shot Angela! Safe Travels!” is much more genuine. Challenge yourself to support other local businesses, guests, travelers and even “competitors” in your industry. This can lead to social growth and even major collaborations.

F E E D P H O T O C R E D I T

@ D E P A R T U R E S M A G

T R A V E L + C O M M U N I T Y

T r a v e l + S t y l e p h o t o g r a p h e r K e v i n

L u ( @ s t e a m e n g i n e ) p o s t s b e a u t i f u l

t r a v e l p h o t o s a n d c o o l v i d e o e d i t s ,

a n d a l s o t a k e s t h e t i m e t o e n g a g e

v i a c o m m e n t s ! E v e n a q u i c k e m o j i

o r t h a n k s m e a n s a l o t t o p e o p l e w h o

i m a g i n e y o u h a v e t o o m a n y f o l l o w e r s

a n d c o m m e n t s t o c a r e .

K E E P Q U A L I T Y C O N S I S T E N T

Instagram is a visual platform, so the first thing to remember is to keep your images / graphics at a high-quality level. This is a public reflection of your brand, accessible worldwide, and aesthetics are key. Creating beautiful imagery will help you grow your audience quickly. Refer to your brand manual (yes, you should have one of those) for colors and imagery. Pick a consistent shooting and editing style.

Some great image enhancement apps are: VSCO, Snapseed, Afterlight and PicsArt .

Make sure that any reposts or photos from any other sources all meet your quality and brand standards as well as visual style. For example, a GQ-esque luxury hotel may have a darker imagery style than a pastel-loving hotel in Miami.

Some great sources for free imagery are: Unsplash, Death to Stock Photo, and Pixabay.

I N S T A G R A M F E E D C R E D I T

@ P A L I S O C I E T Y

Q U A L I T Y & E D I T S

T r a v e l p h o t o g r a p h e r @ b r a h m i n o ’ s

f e e d ( a b o v e ) w o w s f o l l o w e r s w i t h h i s

c o h e s i v e h u e s . @ a c e h o t e l ( t o p r i g h t )

p r o v e s t h a t y o u d o n ’ t n e e d p i x e l

p e r f e c t d i g i t a l p h o t o s t o c r e a t e a

q u a l i t y f e e d , u s i n g f i l m a n d v i n t a g e

s t y l e w h i l e @ b u r j a l a r a b ( b o t t o m

r i g h t ) h a s c l e a n , c r i s p i m a g e s .

E N G A G E M E N T > F O L L O W E R C O U N T

The last thing that I want to drive home, is the fact that actual engagement is way more important than follower counts. If Hotel Imaginary has 2,000 followers and 50 comments on a post about an event, while Hotel Spam has 400,000 followers, but only “likes” on a post about an event, who would you rather be? Engagement is what really matters for businesses in order to convert your social media followers into customers and brand champions. This is why Instagram is about so much more than simply posting any old pics.

PRO TIP: Instagram is now placing a “Shadow Ban” on accounts that buy followers or use spammy bots to auto-like or auto-follow photos. This is why genuine strategy and engagement is so important. If your account is shadow banned, your posts won’t show up in hashtags and your engagement will surely drop. Also, having 20K followers and only 52 likes on photos is obvious to most users as a businesses who paid for followers. Not good!

I N S T A G R A M F E E D C R E D I T

@ S M A L L L U X U R Y H O T E L S

E N G A G E M E N T M A T T E R S

I t ’ s a b o u t b e i n g m o r e t h a n j u s t a

p r e t t y p h o t o . S e e h o w t h i s b r a n d w i t h

e n g a g i n g f o l l o w e r s u s e d I n s t a g r a m t o

h e l p s u g g e s t a d d i t i o n a l h o t e l s t o a

t r a v e l e r ?

H I . I ’ M L I N D S E Y I D E S I G N H O S P I T A L I T Y E X P E R I E N C E S

V I A B R A N D I N G , W E B A N D S O C I A L .

I’m here to shake up the hospitality design industry and help small brands become big ones with modern design and strategy as my tools.

I’d love to become e-friends or assist you in taking your hospitality brand to the next level! Although I’ve worked with many of them, I’m no huge agency, so whether via your identity, website or social media, I specialize in a one-on-one approach (no matter if that “one” is just you, or an entire executive board) from which we create something awesome that tells a story and captures an audience.

Stay tuned. I plan to keep the free resources coming! Thanks for reading and engaging!

- Lindsey Morgan | lindseycreated.com

F O L L O W M E O N I N S T A G R A M + T W I T T E R !

@lindseycreated

W A N T T O C H A T ?

hello@lindseycreated.com

P R O J E C T

C A P A B I L I T I E S

Brand Identity, Web

Design, UX/UI, Social

Media Management, and

Hospitality Marketing