You’ve spent a long time working on your listing. The photos are great; the text sounds good and you have priced your rental periods competitively. You’ve chosen where to market your property wisely and know there is traffic coming to see your listing, but what you really want to do is stand out from your competition and create a relationship with your potential guests. Getting that connection used to be the most difficult part of marketing a holidayrental property, but social networks have brought new ways of making a buzz, and it’s easy too.
With your listing as the foundation of your marketing strategy you can now use free or low-cost methods to drive more people to it and build a following of people who will share it with their networks. So where should you start? Here are three social media sites you can sign up for today:
This is great for sharing small snippets of information – up to 140 characters – such as special offers; activities and events in your area; links to articles of interest about your location and even comments on the weather conditions for an upcoming weekend if you have a last minute vacancy. It takes some time to develop a Twitter following but it’s a lot of fun and can drive traffic to your listing very effectively.
Twitter Tip:
Once you sign up to Twitter, use a site such as Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to manage your account. You can set these up to show any Tweet that mentions specific keywords, such as “holiday home galway“. This will put you in touch with people who are looking for rentals in your area.
www.twitter.com
Learn more about using Twitter to promote your holiday home
There is rarely a day that goes by without Facebook being mentioned in the news. Facebook’s phenomenal growth has allowed corporations to show their human face and invite relationships with their customers. For holiday home owners, it’s a wonderful forum to showcase specific aspects of a listing or a location, to share recent testimonials and encourage contributions from past guests. Like Twitter, signing up to Facebook is free.
Facebook Tip:
Separate your holiday home business from your personal Facebook profile by using the Facebook Page option for writing about your property. You can then focus your Page on specific marketing rather than sharing information that is directed to your personal friends.
www.facebook.com