Influencer Session with Christine Tran

Socially Powerful interviewed Christine Tran (@tourdelust) who is a travel and lifestyle influencer based in San Francisco with over 180K followers on Instagram. She began her social media journey while balancing a corporate job and later transitioned to full-time travel blogging in 2017. Christine creates content centered on travel, fashion, and lifestyle to inspire her audience to explore new destinations. She prefers Instagram to share creative images and engage with her community. She values authenticity by maintaining a consistent editing style and highlighting unique travel experiences. Christine has partnered with brands like Sandals Resorts and Uber, and sees influencer marketing evolving with more long-term collaborations and video content.

Christine Tran @tourdelust

Today we caught up with Christine Tran, a social media influencer, based in San Francisco. Christine creates content around travel, lifestyle, fashion and many more, she has over 180K followers on Instagram.

Tell us about you, your background and how you came to start on social media?

I grew up in Los Angeles, worked for a few years in New York and currently in San Francisco where I started my blog part time. My social and blog following began to grow quickly, I decided to leave my corporate job to travel full time in April 2017

Tell us about what you do on your social channels? 

I mostly create travel & lifestyle content. I travel constantly to new destinations, cities to capture images to help inspire others to travel to that destination. I always incorporate fashion brands in my images and share products I enjoy using and share it with my audience.

What social channel are you most passionate about and why?

Instagram – I love the community it provides. Connecting with my audience where I’m able to share my experience and inspire others to travel to new destinations they never thought of visiting, trying new products, clothing, food, etc. Instagram is a platform that allows me to share my creativity through images.

How often do you post and update your audience? What content works best for you?

I post daily on Instagram and every other week on my blog. I focus on travel related content which my audience enjoys the most.

When did you first start seeing you were building a following? How quickly have you grown your following?

Within 6 months I started to see my growth on Instagram take off and people were following my journey. I gained 100k followers in exactly one year.

How do you stand out on social media? What makes you different?

Going to unique and different travel destinations that most people don’t typically go to can make any image stand out. Keeping a consistent editing style is key to making any content stand out.

What does your typical day look like?

When I’m traveling, the days are long and busy with early mornings for sunrise shots and photo shoots throughout the day. When I’m not traveling and taking images most of my days is catching up on emails, writing blog posts, editing photos and occasionally meeting up with friends for lunch.

Are you friends with other influencers?

Of course! That’s why I love the Instagram community, I’ve met so many amazing friends!

Which influencers do you admire? Why?

I really admire https://www.instagram.com/taramilktea/ Her images are always so stunning and very unique!

What are your ambitions with social media? Where do you want to take it?

I love helping others and I hope I’m able to use my platform to help others who are inspired to do what I currently do.

What do you enjoy most about social media?

Inspiration in finding new ideas, places, restaurants, products, and fitness inspiration.

How do you think brands are working with influencers at the moment?

There are so many ways brands are working with influencers. From collaborating on social posts to build awareness on the brand, video/photo content for brands own marketing purposes and to help increase sales.

What brands have you worked with?

I’ve recently worked with Sandals Resorts, Visit the Bahamas, Uber

http://tourdelust.com/overwater-bungalows-sandals-south-coast-jamaica/

http://tourdelust.com/bucket-list-experiences-in-the-exumas/

http://tourdelust.com/uber-whereto-outdoor-ice-skating/

Do you use any tools to help you with your content?

I mostly only use lightroom for desktop to edit my photos and occasionally use apps like VSCO or snapseed. I use UNUM to help plan my feed.

What’s the piece of content you’ve created you’re most proud of? Why?

This is the first time I’ve ever used my drone and it was not easy! I’ve realized how hard it is to actually use a drone and I’m so proud of myself for being able to learn how to use it and take an awesome image for the first time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcsVN3qHA-D/?taken-by=tourdelust

What do you see as the future for Influencer Marketing? How will it evolve?

It’s continuously growing but I think a lot more brands are now starting work on long term projects with influencers. I can see videos becoming a high demand in the next few years.

Where can people follow you?

www.tourdelust.com

www.instagram.com/tourdelust

www.facebook.com/tourdelust

www.twitter.com/tourdelust

www.pinterest.com/tourdelust