Travel bloggers and influencers are among most envied and misunderstood groups of our time. On one hand, there are those who hardly consider either of these two qualifications as “professions” to be taken seriously, on the other the competition is ruthless and on the raise. Those who choose this path, therefore, might find it hard to stand out in their chosen marketplace. Pursuing a career as an influencer or travel blogger requires an approach closer to business than to art or personal expression. It requires a “corporate” mindset. If your goal is to become an influencer or travel blogger, you need to think of your identity as a brand. Here are a few tips to set yourself apart from the competition.
Learn from others by reading success stories
The first step in a successful strategy as a travel blogger or influencer, much like any other career, is to set goals and set out on the right path to reach them. The best way to do this is to study the choices of those who have already succeeded in the field you are interested in pursuing. You should therefore select the professionals you would like to model your career on and find out everything you can about their story: how did they start? What choices have proved to be decisive for them? What have been the turning points in their career? Learning from those who have done their job well will provide you with a solid basis to develop your own unique talents.
Find a niche
Terms like “influencer” and “travel blogger” are broad enough to lose meaning, unless they are associated with specific content and characteristics. Trying to place yourself on the market, starting from scratch within either of these two categories, will lead you to compete with household names with considerable financial resources and fanbases. Individual bloggers should not try to compete with multimedia companies. Not to mention that a non-specialised approach rarely generates real engagement: audiences tend to consume this kind of content in a passive way, which is no use to a young influencer or a newly-established blogger. Identifying your own niche will allow you to bring out your personality in a more effective and impactful way. Whether you are specialising in a certain type of destination or activity, or providing advice to the members of your community (e.g. specialising in solo travel advice for women and girls or travel tips for families with young children), the important thing is to place yourself in an identifiable niche. This will help you maximise your visibility with your target audience.
Find your “voice” (and embrace your flaws)
This is perhaps the most difficult step. The question you have to ask yourself is: why should the public choose you over the competition? Visibility is important, of course, but what you really need above all is loyalty. You need an attentive fanbase that follows you constantly, waiting for your every post, commenting and sharing. And you won’t get just by visiting interesting places and taking amazing pictures (although you will still need to do all that): you need to be unique. How does one become unique? The funny thing is that we already are, all of us, but not all of us know how to communicate our uniqueness to others effectively. To achieve this you will have to do what successful writers do: you will need to find your “voice”. It is not (just) a matter of writing correctly, providing information, and taking care of your SEO. Your writing needs to be instantly recognisable, so as to bring out the traits of your personality that can engage and fascinate your audience. Your style should be as close to your identity as possible. And what makes any style unique? Flaws. Imperfections. Quirks. Anything that deviates from the rule enough to be memorable, but not enough to constitute an actual drawback.
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No travel blogger can ignore sustainability
Sustainability doesn’t have to become your specific niche and your posts don’t have to review zero impact hotels or give advice on reducing emissions. What you will have to take into account, however, is that no travel blogger or influencer who wants to be relevant at all can afford to ignore sustainability. This will be one of the hottest topics of debate within the tourism industry in the years to come. Sustainable tourism, good habits, alternative destinations, low-impact travel: all these aspects of the travel experience should always be taken into account if you want to keep up with the times and help the whole industry thrive.