When we talk about the mobile media revolution, about social media “on the go,” about device and website “responsiveness,” we picture the human body in motion.
Travelers, perhaps uniquely, rely on mobile media for much more than opinion. Millions have come to depend on the global brand known as TripIt for timely data, pinpoint accuracy and travel logistics. When does my flight leave? From what gate? Where? If the flight is delayed or cancelled TripIt will let you know. TripIt Pro will go even further by telling you what other flights may be available.
How does TripIt manage social media with this incredibly mobile and dynamic group of end-users? We turned to Colleen Fogerty, Social Media Marketing & Content Coordinator at TripIt, from Bellevue-based Concur.
Here’s how Colleen has onboarded the social media process at TripIt and reached cruising altitude.
Seattle24x7: Welcome, Colleen. Please tell us a bit about your background in the Puget Sound.
Colleen: I grew up in Tacoma and then moved to the other side of Washington state. I went to school at Gonzaga and graduated in 2014. After school, I got started in an internship with TripIt and then came on here full-time.
Seattle24x7: What were you studying at Gonzaga?
Colleen: I studied journalism and minored in both business and Spanish.
Seattle24x7: You’ve taken on a lot of responsibility in your first job as a Social Media & Content Coordinator.
Colleen: My managers have been great in trusting me with a lot of responsibility. I’m able to get my hands on a lot of different things focusing on content and strategy, and finding out what works.
Seattle24x7: The TripIt blog appears to be the nerve center of the site’s content?
Colleen: Yes, our blog features tons of original content. It contains a variety of travel tips, videos, and pictures, and it gives users a glimpse into our company culture.
Seattle24x7: How did you get involved in travel at such a young age?
Colleen: I was bitten by the travel bug when I was a People-to-People Student Ambassador and had the opportunity to travel through five European countries during the summer before my sophomore year of high school. I yearned to travel abroad in college, but the full semester programs in Europe didn’t fit my family’s budget. So instead, I convinced my parents to let me go to an intensive, Spanish-language program which took me to Cuernavaca, Mexico for a month. Now I’m working for TripIt and getting to venture out on a lot of amazing work trips to places like Austin, Texas to Costa Brava, Spain.
Seattle24x7: How would you describe your position at TripIt? What’s an average day like?
Colleen Fogerty: My title is Social Media and Content Coordinator. I’m currently managing all of our social media channels, posting and socializing our original content as well as handling curated content that is relevant to our industry. I also manage our blog. So that’s a lot of my day-to-day activities. I’m currently working on building up our video assets and creating a video strategy. I think that’s a very compelling way to tell our brand story and communicate with our users. Out of the office, I enjoy the opportunity to go to events and talk to a number of our users as well as some big travel bloggers who have become key influencers. We have set up a formal influencer program and have a lot of fun developing content with them and sharing it with our followers.
Seattle24x7: How do you coordinate an Influencer program?
Colleen: My manager, Jess Skelton, has done a great job building out this program for us. Our preference is to work with people who have been using and talking about TripIt for a while. They’ve helped us spread the word about TripIt as they go off on their travels. People are truly interested in what these experts have to say. The content they give us and the promotion they provide is amazing and very genuine.
Seattle24x7: So is there a stipend or something they receive in exchange for their contributions?
Colleen: Yes, we do compensate our influencers for the content they create and share for us.
Seattle24x7: Can you run down your social media channel lineup?
Colleen: So we have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, YouTube, and then we have our TripIt blog.
Seattle24x7: That’s quite a roster, are you handling all of that alone?
Colleen: Both myself and my manager. We are a small team managing a good deal of content. We have our hands on everything.
Seattle24x7: Are you actually authoring all of the posts between the two of you?
Colleen: Yes, I do that on a daily basis. Whenever we have new content, I’m socializing that. I also curate a lot of content from popular blogs and travel news sites. I’m constantly sharing and authoring all of that content, scheduling, posting, a mix of many things. But all done internally, yes.
Seattle24x7: How do you manage to find the time to cover those bases?
Colleen: It’s funny. You may think that all you will be doing all day is posting, but it’s so much more. I will start out in the morning and try to get a lot scheduled. There are scheduling tools for Facebook, Twitter and other sites. So we’re constantly feeding out content. But then there are other times when I’m posting live, interacting with our followers in real time. Whoever tweets us, we want to make sure they’re getting the response they need relatively quickly.
Seattle24x7: Do you have to run posts through your manager or legal department? Or is it mostly a solo flight?
Colleen: There’s no formal approval process I have to go through. I’m also not dealing with the customer service side. We may favorite a tweet and that files a ticket for our Customer Service team to address. I am mostly responding to positive comments and am able to interact on more general terms. I get the easy part on that end.
Seattle24x7: What tools do you use?
Colleen: We’re in the middle of conducting research into a few other programs that will help us with scheduling and management. For now, Hootsuite is our main scheduling platform among other analytics tools that help us as well.
Seattle24x7: Are you tracking sentiment analysis or monitoring conversations about your brand?
Colleen: We are definitely tracking sentiment because that’s very important to us. We listen closely to our customers to gain feedback. I think everyone in social media has the problem of tracking social media across several different platforms — Facebook has theirs, Twitter has theirs, LinkedIn has theirs. It’s really scattered and I think there are some really good tools coming out that can help track these sentiments across multiple platforms, so that’s exciting for us.
Seattle24x7: We particularly enjoyed one of your posts, “2 Hours in SFO.” That’s a really nifty guide on how to handle downtime or a layover in an airport. Have you been doing that with other airports too?
Colleen: As of now, we only have one “2 Hours in…” post, but definitely have plans for more in the future. Currently, we have similar posts, like our “Stranded in…” series where we give you great tips on what you can do in different places if your flight gets canceled or you’re there for an extra long layover. Places we’ve covered include Austin, Phoenix and Las Vegas. With these posts, like all of our blog content, we’re trying to provide tips that aren ’t easy to find and put them in one, accessible place for travelers. TripIt’s mission is to make life easier for the traveler, to help travel go smoothly. How many times do you find your flight has been delayed, canceled, or you’re there early and seem to be sitting forever? These tips can help you pass the time and navigate the amenities at airports.
Seattle24x7: With channels like Twitter and Facebook are you doing promoted or premium posts for getting the word out?
Colleen: We have an acquisition marketing team which handles a lot of the paid social. They do a great job of handling the Twitter and Facebook campaigns.
Seattle24x7: Facebook allows you to target custom audiences where you can do some exclusive targeting?
Colleen: I personally haven’t used that tool much. It’s kind of crazy how specific you can get with your targeting. There are many tiers to it.
Seattle24x7: Your blog’s new design showcases popular posts up front which is different than a traditional blog which sees posts fade into the pack?
Colleen: I think if you’re not constantly socializing your older posts your missing out on a big opportunity. I’m always trying to take popular past content and socialize those posts out, especially on a platform like Twitter. Not everyone with a lot of followers is seeing half the content you post because there’s so much noise. So there’s definitely nothing wrong with reposting a piece of content. Especially when you’ve worked hard to have it produced. You want to show it off because the more it’s out there, being shared and consumed, the higher it’ll rank in a Google search. It’s important to have strong SEO, and be able to socialize your content continuously. The goal is to keep a lot of your content evergreen.
Seattle24x7: What other social media channels are you engaged in?
Colleen: I’d say most of our interaction with users is via Twitter. Our #TripItChat has been going on for two years. That’s a great way to connect with us and talk travel. I’m also super excited about our Instagram channel where people can use our hashtag #TripItPic for a chance to be featured on our account. It’s so interesting to see where our users are traveling. Going forward, we’re really excited about ramping up our video strategy, and we’re excited about the newly designed blog. We’re always trying to reach more potential users as well as truly engage with our users and the travel community. Everyone loves to talk about travel!
Seattle24x7: You are doing so many things right — what would you say is the greatest challenge facing social media marketers today?
Colleen: It’s easy to get overwhelmed and resort to copying and pasting for the sake of posting. But that’s not what’s going to get your brand’s story across. Coming up with lots of fresh, genuine and innovative ways to tell our story and connect with people is always a welcome challenge for me. [24×7]
Visit the TripIt Blog at http://www.tripit.com/blog/
