What Tour and Activity Operators Need to Know About WhatsApp Business

What Tour and Activity Operators Need to Know About WhatsApp Business

It seems there’s always a new social platform for tour and activity operators, and the latest and greatest to consider is WhatsApp Business. Bought by Facebook in 2014, WhatsApp Business is a new communication portal that allows businesses to display vital information and interact with their customers.

What Exactly is WhatsApp Business?

WhatsApp Business is an Android app that was designed specifically for small business owners, such as tour and activity operators. On the app, tour and activity operators can create a profile page for their business and provide basic contact information, product descriptions and website addresses. In addition, the app can be used as a messaging service to connect business owners with their customers.

 

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What Do Tour and Activity Providers Need to Know About It?

  • It is an Android app that is currently only available in select countries. At this time, tour and activity operators who are based out of the United States, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Mexico and Italy can create profiles on WhatsApp Business. While the destinations are limited at this time, the app providers have said that they intend to do a global roll-out within several weeks. Noting this, tour and activity operators across the globe should begin to prepare to implement this platform into their social media strategy.
  • WhatsApp Business pages will be verified so that they can be designated as an official business page. Similar to Facebook business pages, tour and activity operators who create a WhatsApp Business profile will need to be verified by app managers. The verification process requires a WhatsApp manager to confirm that the business phone number provided matches the actual phone number for the business. Once it is verified, the page will be designated as a verified business in order to allow users to be aware of the fact that they are interacting with a business rather than an individual.
  • WhatsApp users must choose to interact and connect with a particular business. For example, a tour and activity company cannot contact WhatsApp users whenever they want to, rather, the user has to decide to receive messages from the business over this platform. This will require businesses to have an effective social media strategy that allows them to take full advantage of the opportunities that are available via WhatsApp Business.
  • In the future, there will be paid features to improve the experience for businesses on WhatsApp Business. WhatsApp Business, however, has not released details about what types of paid features might be launched in the future.
  • WhatsApp Business will provide business users with analytic data about the activity on their WhatsApp page. Social media managers can use this data to tweak their outreach efforts moving forward in order to encourage more interaction and engagement.

There’s always something new to consider for your social media strategy. To stay on top of the latest social networking tools that can help you improve your tour and activity business, be sure to download the Rezdy online marketing ebook today.

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