Share your worst and best travel experiences on social media

Saturday, August 19, 2017

When you’re on an exciting trip, you want to share your best travel experiences with your friends and family. Social media is great for many reasons - Knowing where your colleagues are, memes that make you laugh out loud, funny family videos of birthdays... But it’s also a great tool to share all of your worst and best travel memories with the world. Luckily, there are endless platforms to post your stories in an array of formats.

As amazing as social media is, it’s also insanely easy for people to make up fake stories, photoshop pictures, or wear a fake mask if they please to. You can be an authentic different in this superficial world, by consciously choosing your content and the platform you plan to utilize. This article will show you what the best choices are for you and your travel experiences!

Why should you use social media?   

Generally, social media is mostly used because people want to know what their contacts are doing. Users of social media platforms want to be constantly updated: They want to know where their family is, where their friends are dining, and whom their favorite movie stars are taking to a premiere. It’s a great medium to get inspired by others, as well as to exchange ideas. Perhaps the best part is that people can comment on your posts immediately after you posted, and give you tips if you need them. It’s also very easy to reach a broad audience on social media - in fact, it’s even easier than writing on a travel blog. Keep in mind, however, that you don’t only want to share your best travel memories. By adding your worst moments too, you’ll keep your audience engaged, interested, and hungry for a follow-up.

What’s the best platform for you?

All social media platforms have the same goals, but they work in different ways and have a varied reach. Here are some of the most popular ones, used globally, that are ideal for sharing your best travel memories:

  • Facebook is likely the most famous of all platforms, and it’s safe to assume that most of your friends have an account. Facebook offers many sharing possibilities; Therefore, it’s a great place to start, and you can reach a lot of people with little effort.
  • Twitter is known as the ‘lazy’-people’s social media. It’s super quick and efficient, all you need to do is take a snapshot, or type in a few words, and then tweet away.
  • Instagram is perfect for you if you prefer photos over words. You can filter and enhance pictures to your liking, although I recommend keeping your images pretty realistic.
  • Pinterest is a bit older and is a very visual approach. It provides an incredibly large audience so that you can be inspired, as well as inspire others through your short stories.
  • Snapchat is a younger application, that can be used in all kinds of fun ways! It allows you to publish quick videos and pictures in live time and lets you update constantly.
  • Youtube is of course also know worldwide. Making vlogs (video blogs) is a more sophisticated way to document your adventures.

screenshots of snapchat on ios

How to share your best travel experiences

If you’ve created a travel blog, you can easily share posts to all your social media content, or you can decide on publishing your story exclusively on one platform. There are many tools to assist you in automating the publishing process so that you don’t have to manually upload your posts. It’s important to remember though, that not all social media applications are meant for delayed publication. Instagram and Snapchat should be used for ‘in the moment’-posts.

My personal story in working with social media

I have mostly settled on Facebook since most of my friends have active accounts, and because it’s very easy to use. Even though I consider my personal travel blog the star, I like to share posts, so that social media users can access them. I had to experiment a bit, but now I’ve found a way to automate and schedule my posts. Because I prefer to enjoy the moment, I dislike instant-publishing. For that reason, I take my time to do some editing and then publish later in a quiet moment.

Sharing your worst and best travel experiences can seem simple, but it actually requires some research and planning. Find out what social media platform works for your style, the content you want to share, and where you will get an optimal reach. Share your story, inspire your audience, and show them the real world. Don’t focus on likes and don’t put on a fake mask - Stay authentic and true to who you are. There are tons of superficial profiles out there, and you make be the difference, by being a real, interesting account!