Founder of the Great Aussie Road Trip, Rachel Power, shares her story of how social media helped to transform and grow her passion for travel and adventure, into a small business venture.
I live and work in a world heritage listed National Park. From one staff member we have grown to a team of 25 this season – not bad for a little rural cafe located more than an hour from Hobart. Social media has been, and continues to be, key to our success. To share my lessons with you, I need to take you back to my business beginnings.
All adventures start somewhere…
In 2008 we embarked on our very first Great Aussie Road Trip. Not only were we camping novices, we had only set up our camper once and we had two daughters aged five and three. Those four months on the road were the best time of our lives- we were one of Australia’s first family travel bloggers and our adventures (or more accurately mis-adventures) resonated with so many people. We loved being on the road, but the adventure was over when we returned to Canberra. Two weeks after we got back I realised I was pregnant.
My third pregnancy was rough. I was too drained to work on my blog while I was pregnant and chasing after two other children. I didn’t get to revisit until I announced the birth of my son to our followers. I was blown away to realise we had twice as many followers of the blog almost 12 months after our road trip ended than we did while we were travelling. I had found my niche!
Nursing my son one evening in 2010 we watched ABC documentary Lake Eyre. My photographer husband said to me “if Lake Eyre ever fills again I need to see it.” 2009 was the first time in 70 years the stunning sight occurred so little did we think that a few short months later we would be witnessing it ourselves.
With our son Teddy just turned one, Jemma five and Jasmine seven we witnessed something most people will never see, Lake Eyre in flood. Teddy, ever the performer, took his first steps in our campsite on the edge of Lake Eyre.
Sharing the experience through words
Blogging was such a great way to get out my inner thoughts, I found I was putting words to the feelings that so many other people had expressed through their emails that I would read and receive. I wanted to share our story and inspire others to take a leap of faith and it was during this time we launched a Facebook Page.
Learning Facebook quickly was so much fun (I love stats and insights), but it gave people the chance to interact with us and ask questions – the blog, even though it had comments never seemed to gain much conversational traction. All of a sudden I was answering questions and reaching people like I could never have imagined.
With Greg’s amazing imagery Facebook hit it’s strides! I felt like I had mastered this new fangled social media thing, then Facebook changed. I knew how to stay on top of the changes though, with my background in customer service and mystery shopping I created the first digital customer experience monitoring program. I spoke at conferences and shared my knowledge for small businesses everywhere – but I really wanted to be back on the road again.
The big move
Our last Australian state was in our sights – Tasmania. In 2011 this was our first trip almost solely on Facebook, and what a success. During our 9 week adventure we averaged daily posts with 2-3 images. After two days however we had fallen in love. We had always thought about moving when we were on the road, but never were we this certain.
In 2012 we took the leap. We bought a cafe in what was our favourite National Park, Mt Field. Everything we had done before fell by the wayside as we prepared for the next chapter of our life – cafe owners. Again, I turned to Facebook to share my story.
It’s always my story, it’s personal and sometimes raw. I’ve shared our adventures from the creation of new products to the discovery of a secret winter fairyland that emerges in our park. It has always been in my voice sharing my passion and discovery of my backyard – yep, I live IN the National Park.
When I was on the road Facebook was about reaching out and inspiring people to experience Australia with their family. As a business owner my Facebook needs to show me a return on my time, but my story hasn’t changed much, I now inspire people to experience my patch of paradise.
So what have I learnt about social media?
- Imagery – Words are great but images and video cut through a loud world. Professional imagery is easy for me with a photographer husband, but some of my most successful posts have been a quick snapshot on my mobile phone.Personal – It’s me telling the story, not a business, not a marketing person. No one sells your business like you, through your passion and your knowledge. My consistent style and consistent “voice” of my posts has grown a following of people who are so connected to us, they act like long lost friends when they first set foot in our cafe.
- Don’t sell – People will tell you the 80/20 rule it’s a good guide! 80% story and 20% selling. You don’t like being “sold” so don’t make that mistake on your page. If you don’t like it nor will your followers.
- Find your niche – Some of the important questions to ask yourself are:What is important to you or about you and your business? What story can you tell no one else can? What story are your customers looking for?
Social media isn’t scary, treat it as an extension of yourself. Share your passion and your love for what you do. Create a connection with your customers before they even walk through your doors.
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