Creating Engaging Experiences With Social Bee

With social media at everyone’s reach nowadays, anyone can be an influencer. Documenting an experience to recommend to your followers has never been simpler with just a phone with a camera at your disposal.

People have never been so eager to go out and explore the world once more, now that we are living in post-pandemic times. After borders reopened and restrictions were lifted, 63% of polled followers were willing to engage with travel influencer content more than they did pre-covid.

And get this: after the pandemic, Gen Z are as likely to use social media as they are to use travel sites to get trip recommendations. Though millennials are more likely to rely on travel sites, they still lead compared to other generations when it comes to using social media to choose their next destination.

However, with much opportunity comes much competition. So, how can you become a tour guide that creates worthwhile and interactive experiences?

Well, we know a thing or two about being interactive at Social Bee. Augmented reality (AR) is our forte. With it, real-world environments are enhanced by digital features to amplify an experience, which can turn a regular tour into a more stimulating and fun adventure.

To squeeze out every last benefit from our features, let’s dive into some concepts, tips, and how-tos so you can craft the best immersive travel experience for your friends and followers.

Connect With Users Through Activities

After planning your tour and knowing exactly where you’d like to take the curious explorer, it’s time to think about how to show each stop. Your goal is to make the travelers feel like you’re right there with them and there are different ways to show your location depending on the type of experience you want to create.

Social Bee has three options to show locations:

• Point of Interest (POI): This leads users from one stop to the other by placing a pin on your tour’s map. POI is the most common type of location, as every activity or challenge originates from it. It’s also an essential one to use as travelers use it to check in and confirm they have visited the location to receive their points.
• A photo or video: Sometimes a place needs more than just a pin on the map. A photo or a video helps users immerse themselves in the location as if you were right there with them. This way, you can sway users to unique nooks and crannies within a place to create a more personalized tour.
• Audio: Instead of making videos, record your melodious voice as an audio description when there might be nothing in particular to show but lots to tell. This is also an opportunity to engage the audio learners: those who love podcasts or listening to audiobooks rather than just reading a text.

Design Challenges to Engage Audiences

Challenges help your experience become much more engaging. For example, you can choose to create a video activity and add a challenge to it so travelers actively explore each spot on the map with you through a different perspective, not just the usual tour guide approach.

You can choose from three different challenge formats:

• Photo: Take a picture at a location, and, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), the image you submit will return keywords associated with it. After choosing the keywords you see fit, the challenge will prompt users to take the same shot at the spot, and our AI technology will determine if it matches the words you chose.
• Video: Take a video in location and have users take one just like yours and submit it. If you go to the best subs in town and film yourself skimming through the menu to pick your favorite meal, have travelers do the same, so they can explore and fall in love with the restaurant too!
• Trivia: To get travelers asking questions and immersing themselves in locations, create a trivia. Pin a POI and add a question, like the date the place was founded, so that they can ask around, know more about the spot and get points.

Any of these challenges will be a fun way for users to have a hands-on approach to each adventure and enjoy it to the fullest.

Begin The Creation Journey

After downloading the app, signing up, and completing the onboarding process (and accepting the terms and conditions), you will see the Explore Screen immediately. This page consists of a map of your location and any nearby tours.

To start, you can click the Create button on the screen's lower end and give your new experience a name.

Each spot contains a POI with activities and challenges. Once you have clicked on the POI option, make sure to select if it’s outdoor or indoor, and then tap the screen where you want the pin to show up.

After placing and naming the pin, you can write a brief description of the place. In addition, you will see options to make a video, take a picture, insert a trivia, or a photo challenge. Of course, it all comes down to what you think is best for the location and what you would like users to do there.

Continue with as many locations as you wish, forming a well-rounded tour, and then finish it by clicking the Publish button on the lower left-hand side of the screen. To see more about this process, you can check out a short video. Now you’re ready to go with your first AR-travel experience tour!

Some Helpful Tips

Now that you know the elements of a tour and how to create it, let’s check out some tips to polish it to perfection.

Scavenger hunts: A tour can be turned into a scavenger hunt using multiple challenges for travelers to keep their eyes peeled and look out for clues and answers.

Location: To create an experience, an event, or a scavenger hunt, we recommend—although it isn’t mandatory—to be in the sites yourself so that you can set up activities right where you want users to go.

Offline mode: If you’re ever trying to create a POI at a spot with bad reception, the offline mode is a lifesaver. Toggle the offline option on the upper right-hand side of the screen, and everything you do will be saved until there’s enough signal to upload it to the cloud.

The duration: A tour usually lasts around 2-3 hours, like when taking a friend around your favorite spots in town.

Take the world by storm as an AR-tour guide and deliver the most entertaining experiences with Social Bee! Download the app here.