How to Engage With Travel Bloggers on Social Media: Guide for Hospitality Brands

Sharing gorgeous photos of your hotel property and videos of your destination attracts tourists and drives bookings … but what if your hospitality business needs an extra boost? Consider partnering with travel bloggers.

More than just great writers, many travel bloggers are influential content creators with highly engaged social media audiences. Followers trust them to share tips on everything from travel planning to bucket list getaways, making their influence crucial for hospitality brands.

If you aren’t partnering with travel bloggers, you could be missing out on big opportunities to do more to reach your audience.

In this article, we’ll cover how to engage with travel bloggers and how to use Agorapulse to find influencers and manage interactions.

Want to dive right in and try Agorapulse for yourself? Sign up for a free trial of our social media engagement, listening, and reporting tool and test Agorapulse for 30 days.

1. Identify the Right Travel Bloggers for Your Brand

Finding the right travel blogger for your brand means seeking out influencers who fit your niche and your engagement requirements.

Seek out travel bloggers in your niche

The most important step in finding the right travel influencers may be partnering with creators who specialize in your niche. In other words, travel bloggers who focus on your brand’s destination or travel style.

After all, influencers typically attract followers who have an interest in a certain region or approach to travel. By partnering with brands that align with these elements, travel bloggers can create content that appeals to their audience and achieves real results.

Examples of travel bloggers

Luxury travel blogger

Oneika Raymond focuses on luxury travel to destinations across the globe. Her trips include a mix of both family travel and solo travel, making her a potential partner for a range of luxury brands.

Adventure travel blogger

As the name suggests, The Adventure Addicts specialize in adventure travel in the Lake Tahoe area and beyond. This travel couple is a potential partner for destinations that offer backpacking, camping, and climbing.

Family travel blogger

The Traveling Child focuses on family travel—but the destinations are way beyond classic trips like Disneyland. Instead, this creator showcases a much wider range of international trips and activities for adventurous families.

2. Check Engagement Metrics

When you invest in a collaboration with a travel blogger, you want to pay for real influence. You certainly don’t want to pay for minuscule reach or fake engagement.

So, how do you know if a travel blogger or influencer is worth the investment? Checking audience size is a good start. However, this metric can only tell you so much.

Creators can have hundreds of thousands of followers. But if they have low engagement rates, their audience isn’t responding to their content. In that case, a partnership may not be worthwhile.

While there are tools you can use to check the authenticity of an influencer’s profile, I’m not convinced they’re accurate. Instead, I recommend checking influencer metrics manually or with a simpler tool.

I plug influencers into Agorapulse’s competitor benchmarking tool, which creates a simple chart showing their audience size, total engagement, and average engagement. It gives me a basic sense of engagement levels.

I also recommend reading through the comments on some of their recent posts. You’ll quickly see how in-depth the comments are, whether the creator responds, and how engaged the audience is.

3. Prioritize Bloggers on Relevant Social Channels

Not every social media channel is the right fit for every travel blogger or content type. As you research, pay attention to the channels where the creator has the biggest audience and the type of content they create.

While Omar Nok has a presence on several social channels, his largest following is on Instagram. This highly visual platform is ideal for the travel blogger’s bite-sized stories about his trek from Egypt to Japan.

Haley at Ready Set Jetset uses TikTok to share her adventures traveling in Texas and beyond. This channel is also where the blogger promotes her group trips.

Long-form video content from travel bloggers

For long-form video content, YouTube is by far the best platform. It’s the ideal place for travel bloggers Flora and Note to share weekly vlogs featuring destinations like Bangkok, Hanoi, and Kathmandu.

For travel bloggers who share a lot of links to website content, Facebook is a good choice. It’s where Amanda, the blogger behind A Dangerous Business, posts links to her newest travel blog posts.

4. Search for the Right Brand Partners

In my experience, the easiest way to find travel bloggers is to use search tools. One option is searching directly on relevant social media platforms.

For example, you can use Instagram to search for relevant travel hashtags. Or you can use YouTube’s search tool to find travelers with certain styles or in specific locations.

But using Agorapulse is much faster and easier. With our social media listening tool, you can create searches for relevant keywords and hashtags across social media and the web.

Then, you’ll automatically get a feed of the latest travel content with those keywords and hashtags. You can even track search volume and engagement trends over time to see if interest in the topic is rising or falling.

5. Engage Travel Bloggers Strategically

Once you’ve found travel bloggers who look like potentially great brand partners, it’s time to reach out and connect. Use the suggestions below to approach this step strategically.

Build a relationship before making a pitch

Technically, you can reach out to any blogger completely cold. But in doing so, you risk being ignored or setting the stage for a transactional relationship.

Ideally, you want to build a deeper relationship so brand partners develop a genuine interest in your property or destination.

You can do this by taking the first step and showing a genuine interest in their content. Like and comment on their posts, and start meaningful conversations with them.

In many cases, the travel bloggers you seek out will have large audiences and generate tons of engagement. If you leave one comment here or there, it probably won’t stand out. Instead, plan to engage for weeks or months.

Personalize your outreach and offer unique value

After developing a rapport with a travel blogger, you’re ready to reach out and make a pitch. Avoid generic pitches with no personality. Instead, maintain the genuine foundation you’ve already built.

Create a personalized pitch that speaks directly to the creator. Highlight exactly why they’re the right fit for your brand and why you’d love to partner with them. When relevant, mention their values or past partnerships.

Want to learn more about hospitality social media? Check out the Social Pulse Podcast: Hospitality Edition and learn all about tourism marketing.

It’s okay to leave some details open-ended. After all, you aren’t sending a contract (at least not yet). But it’s a good idea to include at least some specifics in your outreach message.

For example, clarify what kind of content you’d like to collaborate on and the scale of the partnership you’re envisioning. Do you want a few short-form videos or a series of long-form videos?

Be clear about the compensation you plan to offer, especially if you have something in mind other than a flat fee. For example, you might offer a free travel experience, an invitation to an exclusive event, or free travel products.

Not sure where to send your pitch? Check their profile for details. In some cases, you’ll need to send an email or connect via an agent. But in other cases, a DM will do the trick.

To manage DMs as a team, use Agorapulse. Using our social inbox, your team can respond to DMs in a timely manner, flag messages for follow-up, and even assign items to certain team members for personalized replies.

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6. Choose the Right Types of Collaboration Opportunities

Think all travel partnerships look the same? Take a look at the many different kinds of collaborative content creation your brand can consider.

Sponsored posts

Sponsored posts are lifestyle posts that feature a brand. For hospitality brands, these posts might look like a walkthrough of your hotel property or a sample itinerary for your tourist destination.

For example, this Instagram reel by Kara and Nate is a paid partnership with Viator. It shows viewers how to plan the perfect excursion in Iceland using Viator.

Product reviews

Product reviews offer in-depth looks at how products work and typically include a recommendation (or a tip to avoid). For travel brands, these reviews can center on physical items or experiences.

For example, this Instagram reel by The Adventure Addicts is a paid partnership with Epic Pass. It shares how the travel couple tested out the product independently before partnering with the brand, which adds credibility to the review.

Social media takeovers

Social media takeovers involve inviting a creator to post their own content to your brand’s social profiles for a day or longer. For travel brands, takeovers can also involve longer term partnerships with influencers.

For example, this YouTube playlist by Marriott Bonvoy features a series of travel interviews hosted by blogger Oneika Raymond. Each episode shares travel tips from a guest blogger’s point of view.

Giveaways

Giveaways are contests that encourage followers to enter for a chance to win. For hospitality brands, the prize might be free products, a complimentary upgrade, or even a free trip.

For example, this Instagram reel by The Global Wanderess features a giveaway with Guess Where Trips. The giveaway prize is a road trip adventure to celebrate the blogger reaching an audience growth milestone.

Affiliate partnerships

Affiliate partnerships can be a great way to drive sales of travel products. The travel blogger receives a commission for every sale they make, which incentivizes them to create content for participating brands.

For example, this Facebook post by A Dangerous Business features a travel-themed holiday gift guide. Many items in the guide are affiliate products, benefiting the blogger and the brands.

7. Follow Best Practices for Managing Collaborations

While every collaboration has its own nuances, each one should stick to a few common standards. Keep the best practices below in mind as you develop collaborations.

Aim for clear communication

When one or both parties are unclear on what goes into the collaboration or what to expect from it, the partnership doesn’t have a great chance of being successful.

To increase the chances, share media kits and brand guidelines with travel influencers to provide helpful context. Set clear expectations for important elements like:

• Content: Specify content format, number of pieces, video lengths, and general topics.
• Timelines: Decide when the travel blogger will post each piece, including date and time.
• Goals: Clarify what you want to achieve from the content, such as reach, clicks, or giveaway entries.

Always outline the deliverables, timelines, and compensation in a contract. This way, expectations are crystal clear for everyone.

Allow creative freedom

Your team likely has a few elements you want travel bloggers to include or leave out of any collaborative content. For example, you may want them to mention a promo code or highlight an amenity.

However, giving creators too many guidelines is a common influencer marketing mistake. Engaging content requires creative freedom.

When influencers create sponsored content, it should never look or sound like branded content. Instead, it should retain the creator’s personal style and tone. Otherwise, it may not resonate with the audience.

Track and analyze campaign results

Work closely with travel influencers to track the results of each campaign. The social platforms you use and the goals you set determine how you’ll measure campaign metrics.

When brand awareness or audience growth are your main goals, you can typically monitor the results directly on the social platform. For example, you can track paid partnership results directly in the Instagram app.

When website traffic or sales are your main goals, you’ll need to use a tool like Google Analytics. To make measurement easier, consider setting up a Bitly link or giving the creator a custom promo code.

No matter which website or social media metrics you measure, pay attention to what worked and what didn’t. These insights can help you develop more successful collaborations with the same influencer or others in the future.

8. Create Deeper Relationships With Brand Partners

To develop more meaningful relationships with travel influencers, think beyond the partnership. Here are a few other ideas for engaging with bloggers.

Amplify travel bloggers’ content

When travel influencers publish content about your brand, share it (with their permission). For example, share a reel to your Instagram story or post a link to their travel blog post on your Facebook page.

Consider amplifying some of their other content, too, even if it doesn’t directly mention your brand. For example, share their post about your region or comment on their post about another attraction in your town.

Engage with comments on their collaborative posts

Whenever travel bloggers publish sponsored content, take time to engage with as many audience comments as possible. After all, it’s your opportunity to connect with the blogger’s followers, build trust, and reach your goals.

Host interactive events

Rather than asking bloggers to post static content only, invite them to participate in interactive content. For example, host live Q&A sessions with a blogger or have them answer questions submitted via Instagram stories.

Collaborating on interactive content is a great way to get to know bloggers better and create more meaningful relationships. This kind of content can also be more engaging for followers, which can lead to better results.

9. Build Long-Term Relationships With Travel Bloggers

Establishing relationships with travel bloggers requires a fair amount of upfront work. To get more value from the collaboration, focus on building long-term relationships.

Pitch multiple pieces of content

Instead of collaborating on a single piece of content, pitch a series. For example, partner with a travel blogger to create several short-form videos that each highlight a different aspect of your hotel property.

Or partner on a long-form vlog. Then, work together to repurpose the video into multiple short-form pieces.

10. Re-engage Past Collaborators

When a campaign concludes, your brand’s relationship with the travel blogger doesn’t have to end. Instead, make a point of continuing to engage them over time.

As your team plans upcoming influencer campaigns, prioritize bloggers who have already created successful campaigns for your brand. Keep them updated on future promotions and exclusive opportunities.

10. Develop Ambassador Programs

For select travel bloggers who align with your brand values, take the relationship beyond a basic influencer partnership. Instead, develop an ambassador program.

An ambassador program typically involves an ongoing partnership with exclusive access for the blogger and more frequent content for your brand. While the compensation may be comparatively higher, it’s worth considering for bloggers who consistently deliver successful sponsored content.

Wrapping Up Our Guide on How to Engage With Travel Bloggers

Partnering with the right travel bloggers can boost awareness, drive engagement, and generate sales for your hospitality brand. By building genuine relationships, your brand can work with influencers to develop authentic and mutually beneficial collaborations.

Curious how Agorapulse can help you find and engage travel bloggers? Sign up for a free trial of Agorapulse and test our social media management solution for 30 days.