This article was originally posted on Improv Worker.
Three years ago, after Zach Glassman came back from a 9-month long trip traveling around the world, he felt inspired. This newfound energy motivated him to create a website for sharing experiences like his with other worldly travelers. He wanted a way to tell meaningful stories instead of just listing bucket list items to see while abroad. The thing he set out to make became known as Passion Passport. Today he sports a small and mighty team of marketing, design, and social media professionals to curate online and offline travel experiences. In fact, they just celebrated their three-year anniversary last week with exquisite views at Chicago360.
Much of the platform revolves around their Instagram account, which is filled with inspiring travel photos with short stories to match. In a world of hashtags, what makes them different is that their brand encourages traveling with purpose. With purpose, one can have deeper experiences and tell a much more compelling story about your trip. The quotes on each photo offers a glimpse into the lives of their community members, from whom they source most of the images and stories on the feed.
If members want something more than just sharing their stories online, they can also participate in weekly community initiatives like their Twitter Chats & Instagram Challenges which revolve around different travel related themes and were created to start conversations. As their community has grown, so has the opportunity for partnerships with brands like Cathay Pacific, Amtrak and Adobe where Passion Passport created customized experiential campaigns to give their community members opportunities to have travel experiences of their own instead of talking about it.
When they’re not busy getting partnerships for their exquisite travel opportunities, they’re back on the social media grind. Passion Passport’s social media team goes beyond simple captions when constructing an Instagram post. They aim to tell a story behind the photo, and put the viewer into your shoes. A slice of life anecdote really brings out the emotional aspect of the experience, which can make the post much more compelling.
You can find the Passion Passport team traveling around New York City with Croissant at spaces like Grind 39th and Grind 30th. Follow them online at Facebook, Google+, Instagram, or Twitter all with the handle PassionPassport.