Do you feel that you’re “doing” Twitter because you feel you should?
You spend time on Twitter talking about your holiday rental but you feel that no-one is really listening?
Twitter is so busy and fast moving that you’re struggling to be heard above the noise?
You’re not alone. It’s true that there is a lot of activity and a lot of noise on Twitter. It can be likened to everyone in a room all shouting at the top of their voices, hoping their voice will be heard above others’. Or birds all twittering together from a tree top!
Your voice and your marketing message can be heard on Twitter, you just need to adopt effective habits.
It’s not enough just to be “doing” Twitter. You need a strategy #vro
— Holiday Rental Biz (@holrentalbiz) April 26, 2015
Effective Habit no 1 – Set up
If you’re yet to set up an account, chose your username wisely as it’ll stick with you. Twitter only allows you 15 characters so it can be tricky. I would have loved @thebusinessofholidayrental but had to settle for @holrentalbiz ! Ensure your header image, profile picture and colour theme match that of your brand or your website (click Home, then Edit Profile). It’s important to have consistency across your social media channels and website. Online image editing tools such as www.canva.com are great to help you create a Twitter header as they have free, ready-made templates for you to edit. Your bio must always be kept up to date and used wisely to get your key message across. Use keywords in your bio, that your holiday rental guests would search on, for example “holiday cottage near Malton”. It all helps!
Effective Habit no 2 – Content
Write new content your guests will want to read, your guests will be interested in, your guests will want to know more about. Write as if you’re writing to one person; your ideal client. This comes from an understanding of your guests and knowing their likes, habits and interests which can take time to learn and perfect but it’s worth it. Likewise retweet or share content your guests (not you) will be interested in. Mix your posts to include some with images as images grab follower’s attention better than words.
Effective Habit no 3 – Etiquette
Follow the right people. Look for experts in the holiday rental market, follow them and absorb their advice and tips. If there’s a local journalist or local tourist board who you know could help your business, follow them (but not in a stalker way!) retweet them and respond to them. If they reciprocate then a retweet from them ensures your tweet reaches a lot more followers! Also follow other holiday rental owners. See what they are doing, learn from them and if you like what you see, copy them (their style not their exact content). Also retweet their Tweets or comment on their lovely pictures. They will then do the same for you and help to spread your reach. If someone follows you, the etiquette used to be to follow back but I would use this wisely. If this person is an obvious mis-match with your brand then don’t feel obliged to follow back. Do remember though that behind every Twitter account is a real person and real people book holiday homes! Remember behind every Twitter account is a real person and real people book holiday homes! Click To Tweet Use hashtags eg #malton #northyorkshire. Don’t overuse as it can sometimes make your tweet difficult to read and uses up valuable character space but used correctly they help your tweets be found by others searching for this topic. Create lists to organise your followers; by followers you want to see. Lists such as “accomodation”, “industry experts”, “local businesses” are useful to have. Lists mean that their tweets won’t be lost to you in your busy Twitter feed. Remember though that your follower gets a notification that you’ve added them to a list, so choose your list names carefully!
Effective Habit no 4 – Types of Post
Twitter is not about me, me, me, to be effective it has to be about about building relationships, sharing and just being there to help others. So if you post 6 times a day, ensure that no more than 1 of these posts is a direct promotion for your holiday rental. Mix the other tweets up with: retweeting others’, posting pictures of your local area, local events, quotes from inspirational people, asking questions, solving problems, sharing what you’re up to, joining in conversations. For example for me, here’s a fab image of North Yorkshire’s coastline – just waiting to be retweeted and these guys followed!
North Yorkshire coastal silhouette. pic.twitter.com/7VZcSX9yZ0 — We are YorkshireFolk (@DSand1947) April 24, 2015
Effective Habit no 5 – Schedule
Do not issue your tweets all in one go. Don’t dip into Twitter one day and leave it another week. You need to maintain a prescence on Twitter. Hootesuite (www.hootesuite.com) and Buffer (www.bufferapp.com) and two scheduling tools. Scheduling tweets in advance ensures you have a presence on Twitter, but you can plan a week or a month in advance on exactly what you want to say. It saves you time. You still need to pop into Twitter regularly to respond to followers, and reply to Tweets but scheduling takes away the daily thinking.
Both Hootesuite and Buffer have free accounts. Set up an account with each and see which one you feel most comfortable with.
Effective Habit no 6 – Join In
Generally join in the conversation. But in particular, participate in Twitter hours. These are set hours, once a week which anyone can join for example 8-9 pm on a Wednesday is Yorkshire Hour. You join in the conversation by adding #yorkshirehour into each tweet. Use these hours not just to promote your holiday rental but to interact, to meet local businesses and position yourself as a business owner in your area.
Look further afield too. If you know your ideal guests lives two hour’s drive away, or in a particular region, join Twitter hours there, so people get to know, like and trust you. But remember it’s not about me, me, me, it’s about building relationships with the real people behind those Twitter accounts. Twitter is just the medium you’re using do that.
These 6 habits to an effective campaign on Twitter do work but not overnight. They take time and commitment and tweaking regularly to find out what works best for you and your holiday rental business. Like all marketing you must be persistent and consistent.
Get Tweeting!
Do follow me @holrentalbiz and I’ll follow you back. Let’s share our love for this business!
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I look foward to hearing from you.
Karen
