If you are a vacation rental owner
not on Facebook, please still read this. I bet you know 43 people who
are on Facebook, and some of them may owe you a favor. Perhaps they will hold your hand as you enter the overwhelming (and fun!) world of social media. If not, contact me, and I will hold your hand - and it will only cost you a free week at your rental. Only kidding, but really, email me.
Jump on the bandwagon
If you are on Facebook, you have undoubtedly struggled with whether you love it or hate it. Regardless, let it work for your rental business! There is no denying its power – faster than a speeding bullet, and perhaps the most popular thing since sliced bread.
If someone offered you a free opportunity to market your rental to 200 people, most of whom are trustworthy acquaintances, would you take two minutes to make that happen? How about if they told you that potentially 1000 people would see it?
Remember that Faberge shampoo commercial: “and she told one friend, and she told one friend, and so on and so on and so on…”
Now is when you log in to Facebook.
Here’s what you do:
1. "Like" your WeNeedaVacation.com property listing by clicking the Facebook thumbs-up “Like” button on your listing page. This will post a link and picture to your rental on your Facebook wall for all
of your friends to see.
2. Add a message that says “Invite your friends, come rent our fantastic house. Book by April 1st for $100 off!” For more details, click here.
3. Also on the icon on your property listing is a “share” option where you can choose from several other social media sites to share your listing. Read about sharing with social bookmarking sites. If you choose the Facebook option here, you can choose where on Facebook to post your property. Perhaps you belong to a group, or have a rich friend!
Share and share a "like”
Realize that each time you share something, your friends see it on their news feed. (Also keep in mind that you have “privacy settings” to control who sees what you post: friends, friends of friends, etc.) If your friends comment on or “Like” what you post, then their friends see that interaction in the ticker (feed to the right of main news feed). Now you have doubled the power of the post. If one of your friend’s friends "likes" or comments, then we’ve got a real party going, one that costs no money and took you two minutes to plan.
And so on, and so on, and so on...
Do you use Facebook to spread the word about your listing?