Social Media Management

SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS

Research by Social Media Today reveals that people can spend up to 30% of their time online browsing social media, and most of that is on mobile devices – 60%. What’s more, 34% of millennials (aged 26-40) have booked a holiday or break because of specific content they’ve seen on social media. When it comes to deciding what to actually book, 49% of leisure travellers in the UK (aged 18-34) rely on Facebook and its associated apps (Instagram, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp) for inspiration before making their decision. For holiday rental owners, taking advantage of the power of social media can significantly boost your online presence and allow you to tap into potential guests at key points in their buying journey.

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA CHALL SHOULD I USE?

When it comes to promoting your holiday property online, there are many different social media channels to choose from. While they all follow the same approach of posting content such as photos, written posts/updates, and videos, each has its own unique audience. Of course, Facebook and Instagram are the most popular channels, so if you are just starting, it makes sense to begin with those and add others like Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube later.

IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE

Before you start posting content, take some time to identify who your target audience is. Who is your property best suited to, and who would you most like to come and stay? That’s your target audience. Are you ideally looking for families, couples, larger groups, pet owners, or people with specific interests (e.g. walkers, golfers) to book your property? Finding your niche and tapping into this specific audience through your social media channels will help you stand out and increase the potential of your holiday property.

POST SPECIFIC CONTENT

Once you have identified your target audience, you can then begin promoting your property’s specific features and the surrounding area that appeals to them. For example, if your property is family-friendly (with familyfriendly amenities like a high chair, cot, stair gates, an enclosed garden, toys and children’s play equipment etc.), be sure to post about all these features. Likewise, if you allow dogs at the property (making this change could boost bookings by up to 17%, according to Classic Cottages), be sure to make this clear in your social media posts.

– For families, think of local attractions that are suitable for families, child-friendly days out, amusement parks, plus child-friendly cafes and restaurants nearby.

– For dog-loving guests, you could recommend local walks as well as dog-friendly pubs and restaurants.

– For couples, think restaurants, spas, and local attractions as well as outdoor activities and walks

– Feature selected ‘hidden gems’ in your area that people might not necessarily know about, e.g. the best beaches, parks, cafes and restaurants from a local, will help ensure a loyal following.

– Feature local businesses that your guests could visit, e.g. farm shops, spas, local pubs, activity centres – they’ll appreciate the gesture and will hopefully return the favour!

GETTING STARTED ON FACEBOOK

With over 2.6 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the world’s most popular social media platform. According to Omnicore, the average Facebook user has 155 friends, so tapping into these networks is a great way to promote your holiday property for free. In addition, when people ‘like’ and ‘share’ your content on Facebook, it can be seen by all of their friends, who may in turn like and share again, dramatically increasing the number of people you can reach with a single post. When it comes to deciding which holiday property to book, people will often choose based on somewhere that’s been recommended. So developing a base of loyal fans from your Facebook page who can promote your property by word of mouth is super valuable.

To get started, set up a dedicated Facebook business page for your property. Check out the recommended tips in Facebook and Hootsuite guides – both are really helpful. As well as helping things look more professional, you can also begin gathering reviews for your property on Facebook to boost credibility. From your business page, Facebook offers the ability to ‘boost’ specific posts for a fee – you choose how much you want to spend over what period of time, and Facebook will ensure your post reaches a much wider audience than just posting organically. When you boost a post, you choose who will see it based on a wide range of demographics, interests and behaviours; e.g. parents, people interested in pets etc. Your aim should be to match the post content to your target audience. This handy infographic from Wordstream shows you all of Facebook’s targeting options.

GETTING STARTED ON INSTAGRAM

Instagram is a photo-based social media channel that’s an ideal platform for holiday homeowners to show off their properties at their very best. You can also re-post content from other Instagram accounts, as long as you provide the appropriate credit. With Instagram, people want to see beautiful images, so use the best possible photos you can of your property and the garden/grounds. Professional photos and videos of your property are an absolute must! As well as posting to your Instagram grid, it is also a good idea to share content via Instagram Stories. Stories are online videos that last for 24 hours, so the content can be a bit more rough and ready than what you’d post to your grid, and it is an ideal way to share content when you are out and about around your property or the local area.

Don’t forget to use relevant hashtags when you post to Instagram to attract people to your posts. For example, if you have a cottage in Cornwall that is perfect for surfers and dog lovers, you could add the hashtags #Devon #holidayhome #dogfriendly #surfing to your post. Then, if someone were searching for #Devon, they would see your post in their results. Next, look at the hashtags your competitors use and do some additional research to see which ones have the biggest following, and then start using them on your posts.

ENGAGE WITH PEOPLE

One of the most important things to encourage via your social media channels is audience engagement. When someone engages with your content, it means that they choose to respond to your posts by hitting like or share, commenting on the post, checking in at your specific location or tagging you in their own posts. This kind of engagement is super useful as it brings you lots of additional exposure at no extra cost! Good engagement isn’t just responding to the comments you receive; it’s also about posting the type of content that people want to respond to. Get creative, ask your followers for their opinions, ask them questions and share beautiful, inspiring, useful and informative content every time you post. Keep an eye on your most engaging posts and the type of content you’ve shared. What do people really like? Remember that video posts tend to get higher engagement than photos, so experiment with videos; perhaps a walk-around of your property or the grounds so show it off is a good place to start.

SHARE LATE DEALS AND AVAILABILITY

Deals and special offers can keep followers interested. However, you mustn’t overload your followers with too many sales pitches. If your social feed read like one long advertisement as people scroll through it, this can easily come across to your audience as spam and cause most people to click away. More effective are those ‘spontaneous’ deals offering what appears to be a lucrative incentive. Not only does this content instantly become more shareable between others on social, but it intrigues current followers and entices new ones too!

To that end, it’s worth considering creating a deal for ‘out of season stays. Many people enjoy the prospect of a short break when occasions like Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day are on the horizon. So, you might want to publish posts about special offers to entice early bookings and fill cancellations. This will add variety to your social content whilst also giving those looking for deals a reason to follow you.

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH LOCAL BUSINESSES

Not only is it important to build relationships with holidaymakers, but it’s also important to engage with local businesses that complement your rental offering. Anyone who goes on a holiday will undoubtedly visit at least some of the local shops, cafés, restaurants and attractions. It means that setting up mutually beneficial collaborations with local businesses for guest discounts can create yet another incentive for potential guests to book. Discounts for the places where they’ll inevitably be spending money can be a great selling point, especially for families looking for a more affordable getaway. As an added treat, you could welcome guests with a basket filled with locally produced items. It’s another enticing social media post idea that also advertises those local businesses. In turn, these local ‘partners’ will likely share and comment on these posts, meaning your content will be seen by even more people.

CONNECT AND RECEIVE FEEDBACK FROM GUESTS

A happy guest can be a brilliant future advocate of your business on social media. So once a booker has stayed at your property, please encourage them to leave a review, share their holiday images (tagging your business name, of course!), and write about their experience on your page. Prompt your guests to do this by sending an email the same day as they leave or the day after while their experiences are still fresh in their minds. You could also encourage user-generated content by running a contest for the best guest holiday photo that showcases the location.

Interact with your audience by asking simple questions; for example, “what essential items would you like to see in your next welcome basket”? Not only will you get new ideas, but you’ll also prove to your customers that you care about their opinion and truly value what they have to say. Use these methods to build a two-way conversation with guests. And, when people leave comments on your posts, always acknowledge and engage with them. For example, if they’re asking for some quick advice, respond promptly to try and help them out. This shows a personal and friendly interest that guests appreciate.

SHARE YOUR LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

The beauty of social media is that it enables you to convey your knowledge and insight to others. Still, as you’ve probably noticed, social media can easily become ‘clogged up’ with posts that fail to convey any useful, relevant information. Although images and videos of your property may be eye-catching, your guests might want to know more about the local area and what there is to do. So, try to think beyond your immediate property and its offering and focus on other aspects which might entice and tempt potential guests to consider booking with you seriously. Promote the town – not just the property.

This could be a post (linking to your blog) about a nearby landmark. For example, you might live in an area surrounded by amazing pubs or interesting attractions, or perhaps you could highlight the wonderful country walks and scenery on offer? There might also be some hidden gems that you could be sharing with potential guests, such as a secluded beach or a restaurant that the locals don’t want tourists to know about (because it gets booked up quickly!).

FACEBOOK MARKETING TIPS FOR HOLIDAY RENTALS

Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world, with around 2.7 billion users globally. It’s, therefore, a huge market to tap into to promote your holiday home. As long as you keep posting genuinely useful and engaging content, it can be a great platform for attracting future bookers and delighting existing guests. As well as posting content about your property, Facebook can be a great place to deal with incoming enquiries, too – due to its native messenger feature. So rather than a guest or potential booker needing to go to your website to send an enquiry, it’s a far easier, quicker way for them to drop you a message.

Facebook’s business pages have several useful features too. For example, guests can rate your property and leave you a review directly on the page, which in turn acts as ‘social proof’ to others who may be researching their next holiday. You can also set up special offer posts and events, as well as posting photos into their galleries and listing your services.

In general, your Facebook posts could include a mixture of content focused on the following:

Picturesque images of the local beaches, countryside views or perhaps even a photo of a tasty-looking meal from a local restaurant
Short and snappy videos which showcase highlights from your town (you can create one on your iPhone using this simple guide)
Information about local things to do – for example, the best pub that’s within a short walk of the property, when the next farmer’s market is happening, local attractions and the best days out
Travel and/or covid-related updates
Competitions and promotions

Notice that none of the above focus on your actual property. It is wise to mix up different topics so that you’re continually offering your audience that ‘all-round’ view of what they can expect. And if you have the budget, you should consider trying some Facebook advertising – it can create extra brand awareness and may even prove effective in providing a boost to your bookings – especially during low season periods. Facebook Ads allows you to target potential customers by their demographics and interests, so you could, for example, set an ad up to promote your lake district dogfriendly cottage aimed specifically at people aged 40+, who are located in the UK and interested in walking with their dog.

DOES ALL THIS SOUND DAUNTING AND A LOT OF WORK?

Social Media can be fun, whether you are a food snapper or someone who likes to take selfies from different locations. Maybe you like taking and sharing photos of your family and friends, or hide in the background, occasionally liking posts from those for which you’re connected. As you will have seen, business lead Social Media Management is completely different. We appreciate that it can be hard getting the right post to promote your brand, not posting things that could potentially ruin your brand or image.

Here at South Devonshire Holidays, we are pleased to have a ‘Social Media Influencer working with us. He single handled built up his brand, gaining over 200,000- followers in just over six months. Following his success, he partnered with an after school education partner, helping them boost their social media brand with great success. South Devonshire Holidays can offer different options to assist Holiday Property Owners.

Pay Per Post

We can prepare single video or picture posts, aimed at promoting your holiday property. The photos can either be supplied by you, or we can use our extensive range of licenced stock photos. We charge £6.50 for a single professional Facebook or Instagram story or grid post. If you would like more than one post, we can offer ten single story or grid posts for £50.00. All posts will be prepared by our companies own Social Influencer

Social Media Managed Service

Are you looking for someone to take the hassle out maintaining your Social Media presence? South Devonshire Holidays Social Influencer can fully manage your Instagram and/or Facebook page for you. Increasing your followers, will ultimately increase the visibility of your property home, raising its potential saleability. Prices for this service are available upon application, as it is very much dependant on your requirements, and current following base.