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What to look for when working with travel bloggers
There are plenty of ways to find relevant bloggers, but the most important step when working with bloggers, is to choose the right ones to work with in the first place.
Recent research conducted with 26 companies in South Africa's travel industry aimed to uncover the main characteristics that travel companies look for when hiring travel bloggers or writers.
The research revealed that the people responsible for hiring travel bloggers and writers look for people that:
Meet deadlines
Understand the travel brand's objectives
Respond well to critique
Are punctual with emails and correspondence
Have excellent grammar and spelling
Have a unique voice
Have first-hand experience of the destinations that they are writing about
Have a portfolio of their previous work
The least important considerations for the surveyed content and marketing managers were:
Some form of marketing experience
Basic HTML skills
Photoshop or similar photo editing skills
Relevant writing course or qualification
One survey respondent, Darren Hailstones from Johannesburg boutique hotel 54 on Bath said: "The quality of the blogger needs to be an extension of my brand with regards to their personality, presentation and their own promotion".
The ability to write for search engines did not feature as an important criterion. "I'll avoid hiring somebody who has SEO copywriting ingrained in them - I want people writing for the topic, not for SEO" said Rob Baker of SouthAfrica.to.
Bottom line
The bottom line when it comes to hiring travel bloggers and writers for your travel business is that travel bloggers can play an important role in your travel company's content strategy.
But before diving headfirst into this strategy, make sure you identify bloggers that meet deadlines, understand your brand's objectives, respond well to critique, and are prompt with emails and correspondence.
The bloggers you work with should also have excellent grammar and spelling, have a unique voice, have first-hand experience of the destinations they're writing about, and have a portfolio of their previous work.