Travelocity’s most recent poll shows more than half of all travelers share vacation information through social media sites. With summer vacations in full swing, many travelers are looking forward to sharing the details of their trips with friends and family. In today’s world, the easiest way to share is through social media, but people should be conscious of when and what they share to avoid giving away too much information about when they’ll be away from home.
Nearly 30 percent of travelers have either never thought about precautions or do not take any precautions when posting about vacation on social media web sites. Twenty-seven percent post limited vacation information; the rest do not allow any vacation posts.
Travelocity’s tips for safe sharing on social media sites:
• Establish rules about how much you’ll share and make sure everyone in your household is on the same page.
• Never share details about dates you’ll be away or children who will be left home alone.
• Switch off the ‘add location to your tweets’ function if you’re tweeting from vacation.
• Deactivate Foursquare from your Twitter and Facebook accounts so it doesn’t update those sites when you check in.
Tips for sharing upon your return from vacation:
• Upon return – post away! Travel sites like IgoUgo.com make it very easy to share photos and reviews of your travels with the world.
• Upload your vacation videos to YouTube and post the link on Twitter or embed on Facebook so friends and family can watch.
• Use the geotag function on photo sharing sites like Flickr to show the world where you’ve been.
Comments
Jul 14, 2010
I don´t think showing the world where you’ve been is a good idea, better show only to family and close friends.
Jul 16, 2010
Rather than be bombarded by the twittertwatterings of social media I would prefer to have a trusted feedback system on individual travel sites. Surely prospective customers considering booking a long haul flight to India would appreciate genuine customer feedback from other passengers experiences of their recent flights to Mumbai?
Jul 16, 2010
Those constant 4square tweets are a real irritation anyway. When someone starts going mad with updating their Twitter with every stupid place they go, I unfollow them. I don't care if you did get to be 'Mayor' of the local coffee shop!
Jul 19, 2010
As a person who doesn't rely too much on twitter or facebook to send out updates on my life, I never realized that this was even a real concern. I'll forward this blog post to my younger family members though, thanks!