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:
The least important considerations for the surveyed content and marketing managers were:
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.
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.
