How to Use Social Media to Boost Your Vacation Rental Business
Social Media Doesn't Have to be Confusing
No matter if you’re an avid fan of social media and you’re always up-to-date on the latest trends or you’re more of a late adopter who only browses social media occasionally, there’s one thing we can all agree on: a social media presence is important in just about any business nowadays, and that’s also true when it comes to the vacation rental industry.
But although social media can be a valuable asset to your short-term rental business, especially when it comes to short-form video platforms like TikTok and Facebook Reels, it can also be annoying and oftentimes downright frustrating to deal with. That’s why today, we’ve created a step-by-step guide to help you establish yourself on social media as a short-term rental owner.
Step 1: Create a Social Media Regimen
First and foremost, before you get overwhelmed with information about social media, it’s best to start simple. In order to create a consistent presence on social media, it’s important to set yourself up for success by establishing a social media regimen to keep you on track. Nothing hurts you more than being inconsistent–successful content creators know that the algorithm is picky, and favors creators that post more often than those who only post every once in a while.
To create your social media routine, it’s important to know what your goals are. Are you just trying to get more exposure to your short-term rental or are you hoping to target influencers who may want to come stay at your property in exchange for sponsored content?
Once you’ve figured out your goals, it’s time to decide how often you’d like to post. Posting once a day or a few times a week is best, but if you can’t handle that volume as a busy vacation rental owner, it’s okay to decide upon posting once or twice a week. As long as it’s something you can keep up with and become consistent with, it’ll bring you results over the long term.
Step 2: Figure Out Your Vacation Rental Niche and Plan Your Strategy and Platforms
The second step towards using social media to boost your short-term rental business is to determine what your niche is and plan out your content strategy accordingly. Is your rental small and cozy, perfect for single travelers or couples? Or is your vacation rental big and luxurious, meant for larger groups?
Determine what type of audience you would like to target with your social media posts and choose your social media platforms of choice with this information in mind. Look into which age ranges are popular with different platforms–the younger generation tends to hang out on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok quite a bit, for instance. If your short-term rental is small and won’t fit larger families and groups, you might want to consider choosing these three platforms to market yourself on.
Step 3: Utilize Features like Facebook Reels and Instagram Stories for Short-Form Content
One of the newest and most popular forms of content is short-form content, whether that’s a Facebook Reel, a Youtube Short, or the original, a TikTok video.
Recording footage of the unique features of your home and crafting together short videos can help you to reach a larger audience than you’ve ever dreamed, especially if you decide to utilize the variety of short-form content possibilities out there to market your short-term rental in different formats. It’s also easy to reuse content across platforms, so you don’t need to create a new video each and every time you want to post.
Step 4: Check In With Your Analytics Regularly and Audit Your Business
Once you’ve determined exactly when you’ll post, where you’ll post, and what you’ll post, it’s actually quite easy to plan out your social media strategy for the month and for the year. In the meantime, check in with your analytics on each platform regularly and audit your social media presence to see where you can improve.
Are certain types of posts popular or gaining a large organic audience? Perhaps it’s time to change your strategy to include more content that will help you to create brand awareness for your short-term rental business. Or are some types of posts gaining no traction at all? Maybe you should think about scrapping those posts from your schedule. Checking in with how your posts are doing can help you improve your overall strategy and elevate your presence on social media, because you’re constantly examining what is working and what isn’t.
Let Your Property Manager Deal With Bad Reviews For You
Social media can be a blessing for your short-term rental if you know how to use it, and this guide should help you to get started with establishing a social media strategy and schedule for the future. However, if you don’t have the time or energy to spend on social media marketing and marketing in general, think about hiring a property management company that can do all that work for you.
When you Go Local, for instance, you’ll find yourself able to just sit back and relax while our team of marketing experts takes care of every detail for you. To learn more about how our program works, take a look at our Program page for more information.