Member Article

How to use national calendar days to promote your travel business

With an industry as competitive as travel, many independent agents and agencies are looking for an edge to get their names in front of more people. A great way to do that is by riding the waves of social media trends. In this post, we’ll explore the national calendar days that often take over platforms like Twitter and Instagram, and how you can use those days to spread the word about your company in a way that feels authentic, not sleazy — er, I mean salesy.

What are national calendar days? Before we go any further, you might be wondering what the heck national calendar days even are. National calendar days are the days already on the calendar like Christmas and New Year’s, but they are also those non-government holidays that groups, businesses and other organizations have created or established as nationally celebrated or remembered days.

Believe it or not, each month there are between 30 and 60 national calendar days for awareness, remembrance or celebration!

A few national calendar days you could leverage January National Peanut Butter Day National Spouses Day (Ahem, destination wedding agents, this could be perfect for you.) National Hot Chocolate Day February National Bagel Day (Who’s bagels are better? New York City or Montreal, Canada?) National Pizza Day Galentine’s Day March National Oreo Cookie Day International Women’s Day National Napping Day (Naps on the beach for family travel agents? Yes, please!) April National Student Athlete Day (Maybe parents need to see their kids at an out-of-state college.) New Beer’s Eve (There are plenty of beer destinations. Think, the breweries of the Pacific Northwest and Dublin, Ireland.) World Health Day May National Nurses Day International Day of Families National Wine Day (Wine cruises for cruise agents for the wine … I mean win!) June National Yo-Yo Day World Oceans Day (Who doesn’t love a beach vacation?!) National Doughnut Day July International Joke Day World UFO Day (Perhaps a trip to Roswell, New Mexico is in order.) National Kitten Day August Spider-Man Day National Sisters Day (Can we say sister travel or girlfriend getaway plugs?) Work Like a Dog Day September International Talk Like a Pirate Day (Key West, anyone?) National Pepperoni Pizza Day (NOT to be confused with February’s National Pizza Day.) National Ice Cream Cone Day October International Coffee Day (This just screams coffee tours in Hawaii, Colombia or even Costa Rica. Am I right?) World Vegetarian Day National Crunchy Taco Day November National Nachos Day National Candy Day (Which country has the most unique candy? I’m betting Japan.) National Vanilla Cupcake Day December National Mutt Day International Mountain Day (This begs for a travel post!) National Bacon Day

Let’s learn how to put these days to use!

How can you use national calendar days to help your travel agency? Inevitably, on the more popular national calendar days, the names of each day begins trending on Instagram and Twitter. People and businesses that want to celebrate the days, or at least have their social media posts show up in those hashtag searches, start posting things that are relevant.

You can use these days to post something related to your travel business, and most likely enjoy some extra exposure for your company.

Here’s a great example of a travel-related company that used #nationalmargaritaday to show up in the hashtags for the day:

There are a couple of interesting things to note about this Instagram post. First, it wasn’t actually even posted on the correct day! They posted it about five days later, but the page still enjoyed a nice number of likes on the post. This means that you could post in the days leading up to your chosen national calendar day, or even a couple of days after it’s over, and still get exposure for your social profile.

Another great thing about this post? It’s not overtly salesy. It’s just a nice picture with the location tag of Anna Maria Island. But, because the photo was intriguing, and they weren’t pitching me their business right off the bat, I had to know more about what Vacation Florida is. So, I clicked the link in their bio and learned they are a vacation rental property manager. I can either rent properties through them or pay them to list my own.

Inspiring ideas Still lost on how you could use the national calendar days to boost the exposure of your company’s social media profiles. Here are some ideas that might help inspire you:

• On January’s National Bloody Mary Day, post a photo of a bloody mary. But, don’t just post a boring picture of the drink. Instead post a photo of a bloody mary being served in first class on a plane.
• On National Kite Flying Day in February, post a photo of someone flying a kite in an exotic location.
• For April’s National Find a Rainbow Day, post a rainbow photo at an all-inclusive resort you’re trying to sell.
• On June’s National Rocky Road Day, snap and share a picture of the trendy rolled ice cream, rocky road style of course. Bonus points if you can share a picture of the goods in Thailand where the global phenomenon really started to take off.
• In September, on National Rum Day, share a post like the one below in a fun place like Kingston, Jamaica.

Are you beginning to see the potential of using national calendar days to come up with social media content, and use it to spread the word about your travel business?

Remember that adorable photo of the dog on National Doughnut Day closer to the beginning of this post? Did you notice that it wasn’t a real doughnut, but that it was still relevant to share with the hashtag #nationaldoughnutday?

**Therein lies the secret to how you can combine travel with the calendar day themes. ** The point is, you want your post to make sense for you to be using the day’s hashtags. To do otherwise would be inauthentic, and make you seem like a spammy agent — and nobody wants that.

How do you know when the national calendar days are? Two fabulous websites I have found to keep track of national calendar days are National Day Calendar and National Today. The wonderful thing about these two websites is that they let you see all the national calendar days for the entire year. This allows you to plan out your social media content well in advance so you don’t find yourself scrambling to find a relevant photo.

When we scramble at the last minute we end up with lackluster shots and status updates that might not make complete sense to use the hashtag of the day.

Take a look at each of the national calendar days, and start brainstorming ways you can craft relevant social media updates. You might realize you already have loads of photos from your own travels.

Another great way to get killer photos for your posts? Ask your clients to share photos with you from their travels. Be sure to get permission before sharing them on social media, though. Then, if you get a shot that would be perfect for a national calendar day, add it to a file and make a note about how you could use it.

For example, for July’s National Self-Care Day, you could share a photo of one of your clients at that fancy spa inside the five-star luxury resort in Maldives. How awesome would that be to combine a testimonial with the celebratory day, and include the way the people who view the photo can enjoy that same spa day? Hello, self-care! And, hello, more potential sales!

The beauty of travel is that so many things can fit into the “travel category“ on social media.

Those special cookies served after hours on that river cruise line are just right for National Cookie Day. The one-of-a-kind souvenirs created by the locals in many countries are perfect for National Handmade Day. I could go on all day, but I think you get the idea.

Sit down with the calendar, and think about the travel you’re trying to sell. I’d be willing to bet, that there are several national calendar days just waiting for you to come up with an awesome photo for. Remember, the more you can get your travel business out there, the more likely you are to get more sales. And, having awesome social media content never hurt anyone.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by eCoupon.io .