Visit Scotland | Alba

Having your content shared on our social media channels need not be difficult.

Our consumer social media activity aims to make Scotland one of the most desired destinations in the world. So, we’re always on the lookout for fantastic, relevant content to share with our audience to inspire people on where they can visit in Scotland.

An effective way for us to do this is to showcase content produced by industry, influencers and visitors alike.

In this article:

1. Content that works on our social media channels

Our consumer social media activity aims to make Scotland one of the most desired destinations in the world. We do so by reaching new audiences with engaging content they will want to share to help spread the message.

  • Keep it authentic

    Our audience wants to see something that motivates them to explore Scotland for themselves. So, our content must be high quality, genuine and accessible to visit.

    We’re not so keen on staged, publicity-styled commercial posts, or heavily branded or digitally altered photos.

  • Use gripping content

    We want to showcase the real Scotland through imagery and video content that evokes powerful and positive emotions.

    Imagery and videos in a square (1:1) or portrait (4:5 / 9:16) format work best for us, rather than landscape or cropped images / videos.

    It’s also good practice to stay on top of trends on social media and keep an eye out for what competitors and similar creators are producing. We always strive to put our own spin on content to help stand out from the crowd.

  • Include practical information

    We’re always on the lookout for posts that are high in quality, have a location mentioned and have some further information provided in the caption. For example:

    • including tips on how to get to the location featured
    • including an interesting or historical fact about the location featured
    • mentioning why you think the location is special

2. Our top tips for Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and TikTok

On our social media channels, we want to show the real Scotland. In doing so, we also want to try to reach new audiences by sharing engaging content that they create to help spread this message.

Images and video that are square or portrait work best for us. We also want to focus on the destination and not any sales or promotional messaging.

Please browse the following social media channels to find out how we might pick up and share your social content.

Facebook

Our consumer Facebook page has a global audience with high levels of engagement. It mainly uses user generated content to show beautiful and inspiring images from all over Scotland.

Would you like to make a chance for us to pick up your post? Then we encourage you to:

You can also tag or mention us in a post on your own public Facebook page so we can engage and interact.

View our Facebook account

Instagram

Make sure you use our hashtags (#VisitScotland and #ScotlandIsCalling). We monitor these daily to keep an eye out for new content.

You can also tag us in your photo which allows the post to show up under the "tagged" section of our profile, as well as making it easier for us to find the content.

Make sure your caption also includes key information (location, region, facts, tips) so we can easily find what we’re looking for.

View our Instagram account

X (Twitter)

Add our handle @VisitScotland to your tweets for us to see and engage with them. We also check #VisitScotland and #ScotlandIsCalling on X (Twitter), so feel free to include these hashtags as well.

We like to retweet your posts to make sure we're giving our audience a variety of content. To be eligible to be retweeted, your post must:

  • be relevant for our global audience
  • be high quality
  • mention the location
  • give proper credit to the owner of the image / video
  • not have too many hashtags and handles (this can look like spam and put people off)
View our X (Twitter) account

TikTok

Over the past few years, TikTok has been the fastest growing social media platform. It has a greater chance of reaching new and varied audiences through its unique algorithm. Serving interest-based content, there are huge opportunities for smaller accounts to achieve success. This is especially true when compared to other traditional social channels.

As TikTok is a mobile-first platform, content therefore needs to be captured in a raw and authentic way to align with the platform’s trends.

We launched our TikTok in early June 2022, where we regularly post a variety of content. This includes:

  • user-generated content

  • content from trusted creators

  • content produced by our social and multimedia teams

We have amassed almost 50,000 followers and almost 500,000 likes across our content.

We regularly monitor the hashtag #VisitScotland on TikTok. We also spend time interacting and engaging with relevant Scotland content from other creators on a daily basis.

View our TikTok account

Related links