#SnapChart: Social media provides a platform to brag about your next holiday

Social media provides the perfect platform to brag about your next holiday destination. Pulsar's travel dataset (used in our previous SnapChart) reveals which platforms people are sharing their holidays on and how they're talking about them.

Using Pulsar's URL treemap (below) we discovered that, unsurprisingly, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are the main platforms used to broadcast holidaymakers' next trips.

To back up their holiday post, holidaymakers also use social media platforms to share images of where they're staying. More than ever before we are seeing people reusing official hotel resort photos to give their followers and friends a glimpse of their holiday before they've even gone.

The dataset also reveals when people choose to post about their holiday. Holiday confirmation posts are usually shared well in advance of the actual holiday. We can see from the two examples below that people are posting up to six months prior to the plane taking off - and are usually posting immediately after the holiday's been booked.

Not only are people posting about their holidays, but they're sharing a lot of travel related content - revealing even more about consumers' attitudes and behaviours.

A screenshot of Pulsar's content tab (above), which shows the most shared content online, reveals that consumers have a forward looking attitude when talking about, and researching, holidays. Money saving, tops tips, and hotel horror stories are the main types of articles shared by holidaymakers. Essentially, consumers at the research stage of the booking process want to know 1) how they can save money, and 2) the best way to book.

If you're working for a travel operator or organisation these behavioural insight graphs put emphasis on where you need to locate yourself on social media. It also shines light on the type of content which travels and resonates well with consumers.

Social media is swamped with people talking about and sharing their holidays. It's clear that these platforms have an important role to play in the booking process, which is why travel companies need to target consumers at the initial stages.

You can read more about when people book their holidays in my previous blog post here.

Want to know more about how you can get audience intelligence from social insights, or you’re interested in delving further into the travel sector? Send an email to: [email protected].