As social media marketing has exploded most of us have seen the web become more personal. It’s often about niche nowadays than mass. As a vacation rental owner, you have a huge advantage over hotels since you are a niche. Renters know that they are tapping directly into something personal which is the point of accommodations – they often attract people who want something more personal than the usual large corporate hotel chain.
So if you’re attempting to market your rental online then getting to grips with social networking is a must. The exact numbers of people actively using social networking vary widely but what exactly is certain is that it’s huge – Facebook alone is generally inside a huge selection of million users. But how do accommodations fit into this and just how would you take advantage of the trend? It’s probably safer to start in reverse and think about what you can tell people by engaging with social networking. That will naturally lead you to the best choice which forms to use.
The Virtual Travel Guide
If you’ve ever stayed at a vacation rental, or perhaps you own one, you’ll know that somewhere inside the living room there’s a drawer filled with restaurant menus, theme park flyers, maps and more. That’s a great resource if you’re a renter who has just arrived on the first day of your trip. But think how much more valuable that information might be as an advertising tool for your rental listing, designed for renters to find out during their search process. What is the best local diner, the nearest grocery store and also the best offshore fishing charter? Why not input it on-line and grow a virtual travel guide to your area?
Facebook has become the best tool with this because it permits you to build a “Page” you could spend on your vacation rental. If you haven’t tried Facebook, it isn’t difficult – simply visit the site, register as being a user after which build a page. You must register to be a person first before you produce a page.
Video
If you might have designed video chances are you’ve it online already with others like YouTube or TripFilms. If you haven’t put it online, what’s stopping you? It’s liberal to upload and then you can share it with other people in some clicks. If you haven’t yet considered a relevant video for your holiday rental then this is the time. The figures for YouTube are incredible, with estimates to 2 billion viewers per day. But in truth, that’s secondary – the good thing is it is liberal to host your video on YouTube, meaning you will get someone else to fund all the streaming costs. Costs to produce a relevant video very truly start in a few hundred dollars. If you’re holding a rental long-term this is a small marketing investment.
Photos
Restricted to your certain quantity of photos by your getaway rental site? Why not join Flickr which you could display photos for free. This vacation rental site in San Diego shows how Flickr enables you to accomplish that.
Last Minute Specials
If you’re struggling to fill certain off-peak weeks, as well as possess a couple of days in peak season, then Twitter is usually a good and straightforward approach to promote last-minute special offers. Most people consider Twitter like a place where people “follow” you and they only see what you write should they be “following” you. But more and much more Twitter will be utilized by people to search. So, someone not following you could simply be looking for “Vacation Rentals” or “Last Minute Vacation Rentals”. A little like Google in that respect. So you could post a tweet saying “Last minute special for two bed Sanibel Vacation Rental, only $100 a night” and also this would get grabbed by people looking for phrases like “Vacation Rental” and “Sanibel Vacation Rental”. On top of this Google is now indexing Twitter posts.
Sites that Offer Twitter and Facebook Integration
What’s also great about these varieties of social networking is their capacity to be utilized on other sites. For example, new vacation rental websites like Getaway Earth let your Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, YouTube videos plus more to get integrated along with your listing. And that will help create trust in you from the renter’s perspective – to see you as a real person. This is one of the biggest strengths of social websites – information might be shared in an open and fast way.
