Smart Vacation Rental Owner Tips for Promoting Your Property with Social Media

The social media surge is taking all business by storm with social networking sites, bookmarking sites and photo and video sharing sites. The smart vacation rental owner knows how to use a multitude of media platforms to maximize the exposure of their online listings.

Social Networks

Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are just three among the many sources for gathering "followers" or "fans" online. Those who elect to receive updates and messages regarding your property may, in turn, share those updates and messages with their networks. The key to having others share your information is to provide compelling and frequently updated content.

Bookmarking Sites

Sites like Digg and StumbleUpon provide several key elements to improve the success of your online promoting. These sites allow users to import favorite bookmarks and file the sites based on user-created tags. The user posting the bookmark may choose to share the link or keep it private. Shared links go into a searchable pool of tags and can be rated by other users. Like social networks, to make this a successful advertising tool, a vacation rental owner must provide timely and useful information, though just as important for advancing ratings is to use specific and popular tags to distiguish the property from the pack.

Photo/Video Sharing Sites

Flickr and YouTube, respectively, are excellent examples of third party sites where a vacation rental owner can display an extensive gallery of property images and virtual tours by which to direct potential customers. Many vacation rental listing portals have an area for displaying external links. Some homeowners prefer to give the link to photos and videos only to prospective customers who call.

Whichever way you choose and by whatever means, be sure the culture and business models of those mediums are in line with yours and your property's. Take your time, keep an open mind and the most comfortable fit will make itself known in due time.