Podcast: Using Social Media To Win More Bookings

Podcast: Using Social Media To Win More Bookings

Welcome to the fifth episode of the Boost Hospitality Podcast!

I have released this new six-part series to go explain the easiest ways you can boost your direct bookings. Each episode is under 10 minutes long, so you can easily consume as you're getting on with your busy day. You can download all six episodes right now via iTunes. CLICK HERE to listen!

This episode, I am going to talk about Social Media and social media marketing for your vacation rental property.

 

 

The use of social media is rising phenomenally across the board. At the moment, small businesses use social media for only 18% of their marketing efforts. However, by the end of 2017, this number will be up to 72%!

This means that you need to get on board with social media now. Otherwise, you'll miss out on those bookings! If you're not sure how to do this, here are some tips on what you can do to increase your social media use.

1. Get your current guests to interact with you on social media

If you are present when your guests check in, give them a welcome letter or card with information about for example, breakfast, check-in, and check-out times. Put your social media links as a marketing strategy in that letter and encourage them to like you for real-time updates.

Another good way to get interaction is through rewards. For example, you can include a line on this letter or card saying, “Like us on Facebook and you'll get a free drink at the bar”. Make sure to provide a link to make it easy for them to follow through. You will get interaction through this, and it will work as a word-of-mouth recommendation to all your guests' friends on Facebook. Who knows? Maybe they'll come and stay with you too!

2. Make sure you're on social media

If you're not on Facebook, stop reading right now, go and open an account, and then come back!

Podcast: Using Social Media To Win More Bookings

If you want any help or advice about how to accomplish this, you can check out some of the other how-tos on the blog. For example, I have some complete instructions posted on how to set up your Facebook profile, your Twitter profile, and your Instagram profile.

Your use of your social media accounts should be a mixture of social interaction and selling. Your social media followers don't want to see only advertising! A good ratio of social interaction to selling is 80/20. This means that 80%of what you post should be social and 20% should be trying to sell your rooms.

Social posts could be pictures from the local town or anything unique about your property. Make sure you make it interactive and ask for “likes” and comments! Selling posts can be anything from information about a new room to special offers or events.

Learn how to boost your bookings!

3. Get people to like and share your content

There are two ways to do this. The first is investing in Facebook ads. You can look up more information about this online.

But another easy and cheap way to market is by running competitions! You can get a lot of interaction this way simply by asking people to share, like, and comment on your post. You could get very wide distribution for a very cheap price.

Finally, social media is social! If you put a face to your brand, you will get more interaction.

Right now, go stand in front of your property and take a selfie. Post it on your social media and say something like “Lovely day at ‘X'. Hope you're having a great day! Tell us what you're doing!”

I would love to see the responses, likes and comments on that post! Email [email protected] to let me know, or get in contact on Twitter @BoostlyUK!

Learn how to boost your bookings!

Check out my training videos for hospitality marketers here.

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