What’s the value of Facebook for Vacation Rental Owners?

viral_marketing I was watching the ‘tech expert’ on Canada TV AM this morning and was interested with this statistic:

“The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is women over 55”

This struck me, as it doesn’t seem that long since Facebook was regarded as the haunt of the 16 – 25 age group, and of no interest whatsoever to anyone who might wish to promote their vacation home. Well, things have changed, and that change is reflected in the use of social media by professional players on the vacation rental field. These are the owners who take active advantage of the free marketing benefits of using Facebook, Twitter, Linked In & YouTube, and write articles that are published on Ezine Articles and other article syndicate sites.

Why are they doing this?

Well, you only have to follow people like Sylvia Guarino, owner of Florida vacation homes, or Stu Bradley who has been posting every detail of a renovation project at his French gite & camp ground, to realize they are drawing the attention of their target market. It’s about creating a buzz and generating a loyal following of people who spread the message to their friends through their social networks.

There’s even Facebook applications to allow you to take advantage of your friend’s social networks and share information about your property across a wider spectrum. Garnering a lot of media attention, Second Porch is probably going to be around for a while. Check it out and list your property for free.

Social networking is not going to go away any time soon, and jumping on the bandwagon now seems a no-brainer. It’s free networking folks!

I’d love to know how it’s working for you. Jump in and tell us. Stu & Sylvia – would love to hear from you both about your experiences.

About the author

Heather Bayer

  • Social networking, for me, is more about quality than quantity. I like having some interaction with rental guests or rental owners before pursuing the business objective. I still get the majority of my bookings through traditional vacation rental portals, but they are bookings, not relationships. With social networking, the relationship comes first and, I think, will have more sustainability going into the future.

  • I agree with everything you wrote but please note that “The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is women over 55” means just “the fastest growing” not “the most represented”. Another explanation of this statistic might be that, after reaching a sort of “plateau” with other demographic portions, the only demographic portion that can have a certain growth (steep curve) is women over 55! 🙂
    I agree with you that social media might be a good promotion tool, by the way!