An Investigation into Social-Media Travel Influencers’ Content Strategies
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Abstract
The advancement of technology—especially social media—has brought new opportunities for brands to collaborate with social media influencers who, as key opinion leaders, can help them promote products and services in a cost-effective manner. This study aims to explore how Thai social-media travel influencers (SMTIs), travel endorsers who are passionate about travelling, produce travel-related content and share it on their social media platform, organize their organic content and sponsored posts as well as investigate their interactions with their followers. The purposive sampling and a qualitative approach using semi-structured online interviews with 19 influencers were employed in combination with observation of the informants’ social-media accounts. The findings reveal that the core elements of the organization of organic content are photographs or videos, travel information, and interaction with followers. When it comes to paid content, the key strategies for organizing sponsored content generated by the influencers include posting time, number of product photographs, tie-in strategies, useful and interesting content, and implicit advertising words. The practical implications for both SMTIs and digital marketers are discussed further.
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