Do you own or work for a tour, activity, or rental company? If so, there’s no doubt that you have found that it’s critical to create stunning videos to accompany your posts on social media channels like TikTok and Instagram to stand out from the crowd. It’s safe to say that nothing drives more people to your website or convinces them to make a booking faster than a well-produced video. The problem is that making these videos can seem impossible if you’ve never done it before.  Below are some tips on how to create videos and improve your social media.

Great Ideas for Social Media - Creating Stunning TikTok or Instagram Videos for Tour Companies

Shoot Videos in 4K

Shoot your video in 4K or 1080p HD. The higher resolution will create a better viewing experience on a large-screen TV. Remember not to move the camera too much, as that can cause blurring in the video. Avoid shooting in low light conditions or at night, as this may result in poor image quality. Stick with natural light instead of artificial lighting to maintain great quality. You should also try not to shoot your video when it is raining, as water droplets could potentially damage the lens. Make sure you have enough storage space before recording, so you don't run out of memory during filming. 

Don’t have a high-resolution video camera? No sweat, most modern smartphones shoot 4k video, so just use your phone to get started!

Invest in Good Lighting

You'll need to invest in good lighting. Lighting is an essential element of your video production. It can make or break the final product. The best way to avoid blowing out your subject's face with too much light is by shooting in natural sunlight. But if you're inside a building, you'll need artificial lighting that mimics natural light as closely as possible. Be sure not to use harsh overhead light bulbs or fluorescent lights, which will cast a bluish hue on your subject's skin tone. Using natural sunlight indoors is needed to avoid variations in color temperature; therefore, it's important to work with professional equipment like LEDs, CFLs, or even tungsten fixtures designed specifically for film sets. 

A simple search on Amazon will give you many affordable lighting options to choose from. Even an inexpensive lighting setup can make a huge difference in video quality.

When choosing a camera set-up and lens length, it may be helpful to consider what type of environment you are filming in. If you're filming outside at night, then maybe a wide-angle lens would work better than a telephoto lens so that you capture more depth of field detail from near to far objects. However, if you are recording people speaking indoors with little ambient light coming through windows and doors, then a telephoto lens might help focus attention on the speaker. Make sure you have a remote control device to turn off distracting light sources when they enter the frame - this includes shutting off room lights when someone is sitting in front of them!

Edit Your Videos

Video editing doesn't have to be intimidating. Suppose you don't have the time or budget for a professional editor. In that case, plenty of affordable video editing apps can help you produce amazing videos without breaking the bank. Many computers come with Quicktime, which has video editing features. You may already have the tools on your machine!

Here are some basic tips on how to edit your videos with your phone: 

1) Turn off the gridlines in your camera app so you can zoom and crop freely. 

2) Use stabilization features when filming in low-light situations. 

3) Take advantage of video filters like tilt-shift, vintage, and thermal camera filters by following tutorials on YouTube. 

4) Slow down or speed up parts of your clip by using slo-mo (requires iPhone 5S+) or timelapse (requires iPhone 6+). 

5) Give each scene its color tone by switching between black & white, sepia tone, and adding a filter.

6) Add text with shapes or symbols around it over your video clips. 

7) Include subtitles over scenes if you want viewers to know what's happening but stay focused on the content of your video. 

8) Experiment with different types of transitions to see what best fits your content and brand.

9) Incorporate song lyrics into your video, even if they're not sung in the song playing as background music - this is a great way to match visuals with audio!

10) Save different versions of your video as draft files before exporting them to ensure all edits were successfully applied. 11) Edit more than one clip at once by copying and pasting clips into the same project file.

Use Hashtags

When posting on social media, be sure to use hashtags that are relevant to your business. The more people you can connect with, the more people will see your post. Be sure to include the city or town where you are located in order to attract customers who might be looking for a place near them. It is important also to use tags related to tourism, attractions, and other industries when posting. Using these tags, will give you an opportunity to connect with others like yourself. One hashtag I like is #tourism, as it gives me an opportunity to share some amazing shots of iconic landmarks around my area!

Collaborate With Other Creators

Collaborating with other creators can be a wonderful way to improve your content and grow your audience. Whether it's working on a video together or teaming up for an event, collaboration can help you gain traction in the market. You may even make new friends along the way! Consider how collaborating might work well with your company goals and if it would be worth pursuing.

Post Consistently

Consistently posting to your company's social media channels is an important step to increasing visibility on the internet. You'll be able to get more followers if you post daily or a few times a week. If you need help coming up with new ideas of what to post about, take some time to think about the services that your business offers. For example: 

• What are some of the activities that people like most at your establishment? 
• What tours do you offer? 
• What are some local attractions that people might want to visit? 
• What other events happen in your area during this time of year? 
• Is there a big concert nearby?  
• Are there any upcoming festivals in town that people would enjoy attending? 
• Do you have any special sales going on right now? 
• Find out the answers to these questions and use them as inspiration for posts when you're having trouble coming up with something to share.

When you have visitors looking for things to do, tell them where they can find information online!

Engage With Your Audience

The most important part of producing great videos is engaging with your audience. The best way to do this is by posting about what they're talking about. For example, if people are talking about their favorite places in the city or the best new attractions, you should be posting about these things too! You can also comment on other people's posts or post a video response as an answer to a question.

Summary

Amazing videos have the power to create a substantial ROI for tour, rental, and activity companies. In this post, we'll give you step-by-step instructions for what it takes to produce a quality video for TikTok and Instagram so that your business can reach new heights. 

Now that you know how to drive interest, you'll need an effective way to convert interest into bookings. Discover how Indexic can boost your sales and streamline operations with our industry-leading online booking software.