The ABC’s of turning social media into trusted bookings for vacation rental home owners

There are a number of factors coming together that have vacation rental owners looking at the ways they promote their properties with the utmost scrutiny.  The soft economy is hitting owners on both the revenue and cost side of the VR---what ever locale it is in geographically---prompting careful evaluation of where to spend time and money in getting visibility.

In addition, the scam quotient is rising with owners now skeptical of the legitimacy of their rental inquiries and protective of their reputations on line.

This confluence of  all these concerns has VR owners looking at social media.  What is it? Does it work for a vacation rental?  What works best?

Social Media is simply just another form of communication that can take the form of a blog (think Blogger), a social network (think Facebook), a microblog (think  Twitter), and can include any number of online alternative vehicles such as YouTube or Flickr.  All of these social media outlets can help with promoting your VR.

Facebook alone added 100 million users in less than nine months, growing to over 300 million members now.  If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size.

Now, Facebook offers its members access to an application devoted to vacation rentals.  The new app, Second Porch, allows owners to post their property for rent or trade, allowing their pages to be public or private.    Facebook and Second Porch are low lying fruits, easy to join, easy to make friends, easy to use.

But like most social media, Facebook is not a set it and forget it vehicle.  It takes cultivation. You will get out what you put in.   With a little interaction, however, you will see your list of friends grow exponentially. And with each layer of growth, your vacation rental can get more and more exposure.  For example, Second Porch allows you to cultivate a community of future guests, past guests and folks who recommend your home.  All of this can greatly influence future inquiries, but you need to invite people to be part of this community

Twitter is a great way to get your message out in small bites.  The function only allows 140 characters per message, so you can’t really rave on about your VR.  It’s best used to promote your geo-area or your blog, but will be an unwieldy vehicle to do direct advertising of your property.  Again, it’s free to join, and if you have a blog, it’s easy to just get out a tweet on your most recent blog post.

All three of these functions, Facebook, Twitter and blogging, are best used together but any one of them alone can be effective.  All three are free, easy and high impact over time.  None will work overnight.

More challenging is creating a video for YouTube that will be engaging and effective.  Photo sharing with Flickr is an easier reach, and your great pix can be a powerful way to show off your VR’s location to an audience already eager to find the beautiful and unusual in the world.

Vacation rental owners willing to step out of the box and explore alternatives to traditional VR portals will find a world of assistance in social media.  It just takes the will to look for another way.