5 Travel Brands Winning on Social Media for the Week Ending June 6, 2014

The first week of June is coming to a close and the summer travel season for much of the Northern Hemisphere has begun, and people are looking for deals and rewards for sharing their adventures.

In addition to brands exceeding their performance on social media with tremendously steep one-day increases in followers or Likes, some outpaced their averages across platforms and maintained notable growth rates for more than five days in a row.

Each Friday we call out travel brands that have seen stronger than usual activity on social media. Using SkiftIQ, we’re able to track current performance versus past (60-day averages, unless otherwise noted) as well as notice spikes in activity that demonstrate a brand has either a viral hit on its hands, or a public relations mess to clean up.

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The latest social activity on SkiftIQ for the week ending June 6, 2014:

1. Southwest Airlines on Facebook

Typically, posts about sales and internal company announcements don't do as well in comparison to general engagement content types. This week, Southwest Airlines successfully posted about their summer fares twice and gained 7,000 Likes on June 3 and 9,000 the next day. Then, on June 5, the airline acknowledged their flight attendant Dianne Keeney -- who was also recognized as a #Fortune500 hero -- and garnered 15,000 Facebook page Likes. For three days, they soared above their average of 861 likes/day and grew their Follower base by 1,200%.

Photo: Southwest Airlines

2. Johnny Jet on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

Talk about a triple-play. John is one of the handful of travel bloggers with an audience, posted about an awesome giveaway to Hawaii on all three social media channels on June 4. On Twitter and Facebook, he gained 144 and 112 new Page Likes, which is roughly 3x more than his daily average. And, although he didn't post about this contest on Instagram, people still followed him there too. His followers grew 8x more, outperforming his account's 5.7 follower/day.

Win 140,000 @HawaiianAir miles & 2-night stay at @ModernHonolulu! Enter here: http://t.co/5yfuMmXthN pic.twitter.com/NndlUC94Ua

— JohnnyJet (@JohnnyJet) June 4, 2014

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3. National Geographic Travel on Facebook

For six days straight, this travel media giant grew their Facebook audience by 45% daily, above its 118 Likes/day average. National Geographic Travel promoted its photo contest twice this week with awe-inspiring photos of Mirador Torres in Torres Del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile by Michael Marquand and of Bagan, Myanmar by Zay Yar Lynn. These two posts were shared the most along with a Nat Geo Trip of the Week promotion to wine country in Italy, Emilia-Romagna, and Tuscany.

4. Tourism and Events Queensland on Instagram

Who doesn't love animals, especially ones who make a guest appearance for a group "selfie" in the Great Barrier Reef? Quite a photogenic subject, for a sea turtle. This photo, taken by Amanda Cotton, was Liked over 2,000 times and it grew their followers by 250% over their daily growth of 169 Followers/day.

3. Sandals Resorts on Twitter

Caribbean Week is wrapping up in New York City and the Sandals Resorts team is in full force. We interviewed their CEO, Adam "Danger" Stewart this week and so did CNN. The social media team posted about an image of the chief and star of their spring campaign on the cable news network and attracted 2.75x more Followers from their 118 Follower daily average on June 4 and June 5.

CEO @AdamStewart appeared on @CNNI w/ @maggielake to talk about @SandalsFDN & #CWNY14. Bringing
The Caribbean to NYC! pic.twitter.com/QIWEWxIgnC

— Sandals Resorts (@SandalsResorts) June 4, 2014

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