It’s not every day that we manage to reach 100 000 followers on one of our social media accounts, but when we do, we like to shout it from the rooftops.
Last week the Google+ page that we manage for South African Tourism – Love South Africa – hit 100 000 followers and is still going strong.
Love South Africa went live in April 2013 and by December had already reached 50 000 "Plus 1s", which are similar to Facebook’s "Likes".
"There has been great interaction on the page, with many followers commenting on posts of their favourite destinations," says Thabs Royds, a project manager at Flow.
Followers are engaging in the form of comments, adding friends, endorsing the destinations in certain posts, and sending travel suggestions to their friends and family.
"Google+ is growing fast in popularity, and the proof is in followers on our Love South Africa page," says William Price, the global manager of digital at South African Tourism.
"Our first 50 000 followers came in eight months, and the next 50 000 took less than seven. We hope to see more engagement and more inspiration being shared here in the future, as we push our #MeetSouthAfrica campaign forward."
Thabs adds: "The trick is to keep the content interesting, relevant and visually appealing. This is what gets conversations started and ultimately grows your follower base.
"People are sharing their experiences and giving travel recommendations," she says.
"Love South Africa is a consumer-facing page directed at our followers, the people interested in travelling to the destinations we post about."
The page is not only directed at tourists, however; travel trade-related posts directed at tour industry operators are also posted daily.
The Love South Africa page currently sits in first place on the list of Google+’s fastest-growing profiles in South Africa, according to Socialbakers.
Here’s a list of the top 10 fastest-growing Google+ profiles in South Africa:
- Love South Africa: 105 902 followers
- 567 CapeTalk: 100 008 followers
- Where2Stay-SouthAfrica.com: 95 290 followers
- Kaizer Chiefs: 85 579 followers
- Virgin Active SA: 71 661 followers
- Ogilvy & Mather South Africa: 67 458 followers
- Avis Rent a Car South Africa: 63 580 followers
- Zando.co.za: 30 141 followers
- Soccer-Laduma: 28 349 followers
- FlySAA: 20 745 followers