Fred Olsen Cruise Lines head of sales Geoff Ridgeon underlines the importance of social media in building business.

Standing out in a crowd is by no means an easy feat on social media. A quick look on Instagram reveals that the hashtag #travel has been used more than 694 million times.

Therefore, having a social media presence is a vital tool for you to build your businesses. As an agent, one of your most important responsibilities is instilling a desire to travel.

Social media can help to create a personal connection with current customers as well as prospective customers, and there are many creative ways in which this can be achieved.

From sharing customer holidays and glowing testimonials to promoting top 10 facts about destinations, travel polls, quizzes and giveaways, the list is endless.

Key to this is ensuring that a call to action on your posts is to follow your social media accounts.

One way that you can curate content is during visits to any number of cruise ships available to you when in port.

Cruise lines invest a great deal in providing the opportunities to invite you on board for the day, so this is just one way you can say thanks.

For example, with us, you can experience a ship tour with a difference, a delicious lunch and meet some of our wonderful crew.

All of this provides an insight into what a guest or fellow agent would experience by sailing with us as we visit breathtaking destinations around the world.

Ask yourself, ‘what would guests and fellow trade experts like to see?’ They’ll want to know if you were wowed by the team, if the dishes really tickled your taste buds or whether you were amazed by the beauty of the ships you experienced.

Make social media fun

As a business, one thing we live and breathe at Fred Olsen Cruise Lines is the spirit of going the extra mile. We do it for our guests, we do it for our team and we do it for you, too.

There are a number of ways cruise lines wants to work with you to enhance your social media coverage. With us, our fabulous Posts for Prizes competition, designed just for agents, is on offer on social media until the end of the year.

There are a host of amazing prizes up for grabs, including the chance to win a cruise holiday for yourself, vouchers, hampers, wine and beer.

It’s simple. All you need to do is get posting on our trade Facebook group – and this is where the more creative you are the better.

Bring your cruise experiences to life for your customers, prospective customers, your colleagues and the wider travel community. Don’t forget, have a bit of fun with it as you do.