Amongst holiday home and vacation rental owners social media can be a scary phrase and one that’s sometimes easier to walk away from than to tackle.
But I want you to tackle it and to embrace it and learn how it can help you to
- increase awareness of your property
- build relationships with potential guests
- generate enquiries and bookings.
So I’ve written this blog for any beginner, for anyone about to, or wanting to, get started with social media. If that’s you, then read on.
So what is social media?
The Wikipedia definition says “Social Media is the social interaction among people in which they create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks.”
Now tell me which holiday rental wouldn’t benefit from their information, pictures and videos being shared?
Love it or hate it it’s here to stay and to bury your head in the sand, is to miss out on a great opportunity to get your holiday rental in front of potential guests.
So what’s been stopping you from using social media or using it piecemeal?
My guess is:
- you haven’t got the time
- you don’t know what you’re going to say
- you don’t understand the point of it
- you don’t know your Twitter, from your Facebook and don’t know which one to use.
Let’s tackle those stumbling blocks
Time
If I was to say 10 minutes a day is all you need, how does that sound? Like any marketing it’s about being persistent and consistent. So 10 minutes a day will do so much more good than a blast of 70 minutes every now and again. The more often you post and interact the more chance you have of getting noticed – consistency is key. And persistence is needed as it takes time to build a following and a fan base so you have to keep going and keep going some more. There are many scheduling tools available so if you can’t find 10 minutes every day, you could find larger chunks of time throughout the week and schedule posts and tweets. But aim for every day if you can.
What to say?
You write content your ideal guest wants to read and write content to resonate with them. So think about which guests you are wanting to attract. What will they be interested in? What can you offer them to make their life better? For example your holiday rental provides a cot, highchair and other baby equipment – great if you have young children, but so what if you’re a child-free couple? That information is meaningless and will not resonate with them. So if you’re wanting to attract couples talk about the romantic nature of the cottage or the friendly village pub – content they’d be interested in.
Depending on which platform you’re using you post a variety of messages – images, links, questions, solve problems. It’s all about creating engagement and getting people responding whether by liking an image you put on Facebook or retweeting your Tweet (more of that later).
Social by name social by nature
It’s called Social media for reason; it’s not sell, sell, sell. It’s about being social and building relationships. For every 6 pieces of content you put out 4 should be sharing others’ content, 1 piece should be an entertaining piece and 1 your sales message. For example, “our next availability is Monday 9 March, 4 nights of luxury for only £440”. Imagine if you were talking to someone face to face you wouldn’t sell, sell, sell, but you’d mention what you do in the course of the conversation. Think of social media like this. It’s about building and nurturing relationships and although done remotely it’s ultimately real people you’re interacting with.
Have a purpose
Setting up your accounts and “doing social media” is not enough. You need to have a purpose. Very often it’s to drive traffic to your website as your website showcases your holiday rental at it’s best Or it might be that your objective is to raise awareness of your holiday rental, or to get people to sign up to your e-newsletter so you can capture email addresses to market to them at a later point in time. Whatever result you want from your social media you need to keep this objective in mind when posting and monitor and measure your progress against this objective.
Pick your platform(s)
There are so many; from Tumbler to Instagram, from Flickr to Google+ the list goes on.
When first starting out you can’t possibly master them all. It’s much better to do 2-3 well than to spread yourself too thinly and master none. For holiday rentals, I’d recommend you start with Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
Facebook Overview
Individuals connect with their friends and share news, pictures and updates via their Facebook personal profile. Businesses (or your holiday rental) have to have a Facebook page which is linked to a personal profile. Just like personal profiles, Pages are where businesses share their stories and connect with people. Once someone likes your page these people will receive updates about your business in their news feed and their friends will see that they’ve liked your page.
Benefits of Facebook:
It’s a popular platform (over 1 billion users worldwide) so chances are your future guests will already be familiar with Facebook and be there just waiting to engage with you! You just need to get your message to them. Photos look great in the newsfeed. Facebook should also be used to ask questions, share quotes and quandries as you want to encourage interaction and engagement. Also adverts are a cost effective way to get your message to a targeted groups within Facebook. You choose the demographic and location for example and set a daily budget, which can be as low as £3. Facebook then gets to work to boost your page or post, within your budget.
Twitter Overview
Twitter allows users to send short messages (called a Tweet) of 140 characters, to their followers. It’s fast moving and happens in real time. It has a focus on sharing information and engaging in conversation.
Benefits of Twitter:
A quick, free and easy way to get your message across. Great for interacting and building relationships. It’s a positive platform and the etiquette is to follow someone back who follows you. You can grow followers by:
- following others
- joining in discussions
- by retweeting others’ content (a retweet is just like forwarding an email).
Start by following other holiday rentals not just in your area but in your country and globally, to see how they do it. But remember anyone with a Twitter account may be looking for a holiday in your property, so any follower could be a future guest.
Pinterest Overview
Pinterest allows users to visually share by posting an image (or a “pin”) to their boards. A board is a collection of ‘pins’ with a common theme. It also allows you to browsing what other users have pinned and “repin” to your boards.
Benefits of Pinterest:
The visual nature of Pinterest serves the holiday rental owner very well. It’s where you can put images of your holiday rental and the local area. But also think outside the box and think about what topics relate to your holiday rental. For example you could have a board for luxury items. My boards include ”Spring Cottage”, “Uniquely Yorkshire”, “Country Living”, “Log Fires,” “Cottage Gardens”, “Time for Tea”. Images pinned from your website contain a link to your website so each time these are pinned it increases the reach of your website.
To summarise
Go for it!
Be persistent and consistent
Write for your ideal guest
Vary your content
Choose 2-3 platforms to do well
YOU CAN DO IT!
Social Media and how to use it to boost your bookings, is covered in the marketing module of my online program – Holiday Rental Money Makeover. Click here for more information.
