It reads like a dream job for many travel lovers: GetYourGuide is hiring a full-time TikTok content creator.
“We’re on the hunt for a [United States]-based, TikTok-savvy content creator,” the Berlin-based company’s LinkedIn post said. “Someone who’s just as comfortable in front of the camera as they are behind the scenes producing on-brand, TikTok-first content that entertains, inspires and maybe goes a lil bit viral.”
The job listing received so much interest, the digital travel experience marketplace removed it from the professional platform. Who wouldn’t want to be paid to travel around the world capturing fun, exciting travel content?
Yet as a U.S. House committee unanimously approved a bill last week that could ban TikTok in the U.S. from all electronic devices, the questions don't have such clear-cut answers for companies weighing whether to market themselves on the platform.
Even if
the efforts to ban it don't succeed, can TikTok do enough to make it a
worthwhile investment? Why would a brand choose to hire a full-time creator
dedicated to this platform?
GetYourGuide didn’t respond to questions about the proposed legislation, which will be taken up by the full House of Representatives
this week. The company’s plan, according to Emil Martinsek, chief marketing officer for GetYourGuide, is for the new role to be part of a multifaceted approach to social media marketing — an approach that requires a guiding force with an eye trained on TikTok.
“TikTok is very much [an] entertainment channel,” said Martinsek. “You need someone who really understands that [to be] working with you very closely, both to help guide your creator community but also [to help] guide you internally on how to think about that and leverage that.”
A TikTok content creator as part of long-term strategy
GetYourGuide is far from unique in its pursuit to prioritize social media as part of its marketing strategy and community growth efforts.
Countless hotels, airlines and cruise lines, among other brands, have been partnering with social media influencers to market their products. And companies like Jerne, one of PhocusWire’s Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2024, have popped up specifically to foster connections between influencers and brands.
Yet it remains to be seen whether the investments are worth it. Brennen Bliss, CEO of travel-focused digital marketing agency Propellic, told PhocusWire last month it’s “incredibly hard, if not impossible to track” the return on investment of influencer marketing. Yet he added it can have a big impact for brands long term given how much of a “visual purchasing journey” travel is.
The decision to hire a full-time creator has the potential to turn out well, said Madeline List, senior research analyst for Phocuswright. But its success won’t likely be immediately evident.
"I think it might be a good long-term move for positioning themselves on a platform with a young and active user base, assuming TikTok sticks around in the U.S.,” said List.
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Phocuswright research found 35% of travelers ages 18 to 34 use TikTok to help decide what activities to partake in while traveling, List said. Focusing on the platform could help with GetYourGuide’s brand recognition with an audience that has a lot more travel and spending time in its future.
“A TikTok specialist on a content creation team is likely expected to have a close ear to the ground on understanding content tastes of Gen Z or younger millennials,” said List. “In addition to the younger base, TikTok algorithms also favor discoverability of new accounts, so the platform is ideal for companies that want to reach new users outside of their immediate followings or who are even trying to go viral.”
But on the flip side, the listed $84,000 to $93,000 salary for the new role might not provide immediate payoffs.
"In the near term, do I think the ROI of the TikTok content will justify the salary of the role?” List asked. “Probably not … but the company is likely viewing it in the context of a broader marketing strategy.”
Given that GetYourGuide already has an impressive social media presence with a whopping 444,000-plus followers on Instagram, and a TikTok following with 35,800-plus followers, it makes sense that a company with this sophisticated social media approach would post a job listing like this, List said.
And while Phocuswright’s 2023 U.S. Consumer Travel Report found user generated content [UGC] posted by family and friends are travelers’ most-cited source for inspiration, influencer-created content has a different kind of value, List said.
“That user-generated content is incredibly important for brands to leverage, but its weakness is that it has limited reach – acquaintances only travel, use or mention specific travel brands so often,” she said. “More sophisticated social media strategies balance both UGC with brand content or even influencer collaborations to maximize both trust and reach.”
GetYourGuide’s social strategy goes beyond one person
The GetYourGuide job opening is new and shiny. But it’s just one element of the company’s overarching social strategy.
One part of the social strategy involves a creator community management team that has built and recruited its 8,000-member community of proprietary creators and works with them on creating content as members travel around the world taking tours with GetYourGuide’s experience operators, Martinsek said.
GetYourGuide has taken those efforts further through influencer campaigns with well known names on Instagram and TikTok, including Corporate Natalie and Matt James of “The Bachelor” fame, among others. It’s also begun linking its listed experiences with corresponding TikToks.
Meanwhile, another three team members manage organic social media. The new hire is meant to bridge the two teams by being a “phenomenal storyteller” who has social media intuition, Martinsek said. And the expectation goes beyond content creation; GetYourGuide also expects the new hire to help manage GetYourGuide’s TikTok community.
“The way that I look at it is less about this individual position, and it's more about the team and the capability they're joining,” said Martinsek.
With a dedicated creator, Martinsek believes GetYourGuide’s social media marketing strategy may become more effective.
“It's hard for an agency to represent you as a brand effectively. … They don't know our customer and our experience operators as well as we do,” said Martinsek, reiterating the company “really, really” believes in social media.
GetYourGuide currently produces “almost everything in-house” in a way that aligns with their understanding of how TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have evolved, Martinsek said, though that approach has its limits — which make clear the need for a new hire.
“What do we know about creating TikTok videos?” he said. “We know a little bit, but we figured there are a lot of really creative people out there who know more.”