SAN DIEGO -- Travel Leaders Network (TLN) has developed a new type of training for travel advisors looking to expand their social media skills.
The educational program, Social Lab, was announced at the network's EDGE conference, held here this week.
Its launch comes as a result of a broader shift across the industry, where travel advisors are increasingly looked to as "storytellers, creators and trusted voices with growing audience," according to Lindsay Pearlman, president of TLN.
The training is multitiered: Advisors first enroll in "Social Spark," a webinar series that covers social media basics, before applying for Social Lab, which comes at an enrollment cost of $150. The training includes modules on analytics, strategy, photography, videography, short-form video editing, writing captions and using AI.
"Social media is the No. 1 ask of training and questions we get across the spectrum now," said Stephen McGillivray, chief marketing officer at Internova Travel Group, the parent company of TLN. "We have newbies in the social space, experts, everything in between. At the end of it, we want to advance advisors' social media skills [and explore] how to take some of the fear away."
Graduates of Social Lab are automatically eligible for "The Final Cut," a series of exclusive TLN fam trips where advisors can get on-the-ground practice capturing content with the aid of TLN's social media team. An earlier beta program, which took place in October 2025 at Sandals South Coast in Jamaica, resulted in more than 30 pieces of content and 20 short-form videos from participating advisors.