Showing posts with label Content Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Content Marketing. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Building YOUR Brand With Social Media?


We are sorry to say that if you aren’t using social media in your marketing plan, you are behind the times..

And if you are using social media, we are sorry to say that you are probably doing it wrong.



Although social media use is an extremely powerful tool in a marketing arsenal, it is not a cure-all and won’t be a viable source for direct bookings that you can measure. But it is vital to your brand and your online reputation.

For some reason, over the past several years social media has morphed from a fun, interactive tool to a trendy sales tool in the eyes of page owners and businesses—this is where the danger begins.



First, let’s think back to the birthplace of modern social media, Facebook.

Facebook was spawned from an invention of Mark Zuckerberg called Facemash, which was originally designed to rate fellow college students on their physical attractiveness (Yes, really). 

Over the years, Facebook has become an extremely engaging platform, even with the ability to market to users. But let’s not forget why Facebook was made in the first place—so people could engage online with one another on a personal level.

If you aren’t engaging your audience, you’re doing it wrong.

Think about this for a moment. You probably have 150 to 700 “friends” on Facebook. (Don’t worry about the business side, I’m speaking merely about your personal friends.) You’re popular, right?!?



However, do you have friends who hardly ever post? Maybe someone you didn’t really know, but who hit that “accept” button anyway? It’s not that they aren’t posting anything. It’s that you don’t hit their like button or comment on their stuff—ever. Facebook realizes this (through its algorithm) and filters out their content from your wall because you are clearly not interested in it.

Now apply that to your business page. If you have fans who never click “like” or comment on your posts, Facebook is going to show less and less of your content to them. It’s the algorithm!

If you post only promotional stuff and do not understand the algorithm, you’re doing it wrong.

People engage in social media for several reasons, and one of those is to maintain relationships. When we approach our fans with the mind-set of a relationship rather than a sale or a booking, we see more engagement, better reviews, and overall happier fans, both now and long term.



Here Is The ROI Issue

What kind of ROI can you expect from social media? That is a question that really should not exist. Yes, you can see the ROI in your social platforms; it does exist. However, asking this question means that you are expecting all your social touchpoints to result in bookings; it just doesn’t work that way. Social media bookings come from good branding, and good branding comes from patience and a well-organized plan.



If you are wondering where to start, ask yourself the following: “What sort of content do my fans like?”

You can publish various types of content and measure the results—count your likes and engagement. Facebook lays it all out for you in your admin panel. By promoting your brand in that fun, non-salesman way, you are giving your fans what they like. This leads to more engagement, which leads to much better brand recognition in the long run!

If you post more content about your company and products than destination-related info, you’re doing it wrong.

The Visual Experience

A popular saying is, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Actually, Fred R. Barnard said, “A picture is worth ten thousand words.” Either way, social media is a visual experience and visual content is forty times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content (HubSpot). When you think about it, every social platform centers on visual content.

This is your opportunity to publish the funniest, coolest visual content you can, whether that’s photos, videos, GIFs, memes, and so on. Start producing content that amuses your audience, but remember, there might be a difference between what you like and what your audience likes. Again, test and measure.



If you don’t support your message with a nice visual, you’re doing it wrong.

Opinions Matter

One of the most overlooked aspects of social media is reviews. If there is one thing we know about the Internet, it’s that everyone has a loud virtual mouth. Reviews are a powerful tool and have the potential to help or hurt your brand image in a heartbeat!

So how do we use reviews? Actually, republishing reviews could have a great impact on your audience and makes for some fantastic content. This is what we call user-generated content and is considered by some to be the holy grail of the content world because, well, it’s real and from a trusted source—a reviewer.



There is no better way to build trust than to let your audience tell others how much they love you. A great strategy is to post reviews about a rental AND photos of that rental. You could even use this as a remarketing tactic with paid campaigns.

Speaking of Paid Campaigns

Yes, Facebook is a business. It enjoys collecting our money, too. But do the ads work in the vacation rental industry? Of course they do, but again, more for brand recognition than anything else. We won’t get into the differences in “like” campaigns and “audience” campaigns here, but your ads normally get many more impressions than they do clicks, which is why they’re great for promoting your brand.

Remarketing is probably the best tactic you can use on paid Facebook. It’s simple but effective. Remarketing ads on Facebook are ads that display on their Facebook feed after they have visited your website, attempting to hook them again. Again, think of engaging information here as well, such as reviews, or bringing them back to a page they may have missed.



Does Social Media Help with SEO?

To make a long story short, yes. A strong social media presence with interactions from users does help with search engine optimization. Search engines use “social signals” in their algorithms—yet another reason to have a good audience following. Of course, it’s difficult and time-consuming to be present on ALL social media channels, so at least make sure you keep up with the competition. If you and a competitor are running from a bear, you don’t have to be faster than the bear, just faster than your competitor.

What Now?

So now you know that social media for the vacation rental industry, whether on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram, is about building a trusted brand, not making a sale. It’s about winning over an audience, not pushing them to book. We admit, there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to planning and executing content through your social channels. Writing all those steps down would turn this article into a book.

And don’t get us wrong—there is a place on social media for promoting your rental units, but do it in the paid channel portions, not the regular wall posts.

Just remember, if you use social media as a tool to build your brand as a whole instead of booking units, you’re doing it right.



What You Should Be Doing For Social Media -- TheBare Minimum

*Post three to four times a week to your Facebook Page.
*Post something fun 80 percent of the time and post something promotional 20 percent of the time to increase engagement and reach.
*Respond to your reviews (good and bad) and private messages on Facebook within an hour (a badge on your page displays your response time).
Spend money either remarketing on Facebook or boosting posts.

Great Ideas For Facebook ReMarketing Ads

*Drive users to a page on your website that they may not have seen before, or one that is normally hidden, such as “New Rentals” or “Why we rock as a rental company.
*Use a special Facebook-only coupon code and tease it in the ad to get visitors back to a page that has the coupon (you could also ask them to enter their email address to get the coupon code). Track the code so you know how many bookings you get.

Guest Authored By David Thompson & Paul Hanak. David Thompson is Social Media Director for Intercoastal NE Designs, Paul Hanak is Digital Marketing Director for Intercoastal NE Designs. Follow David Paul on Twitter.




Although social media use is an extremely powerful tool in a marketing arsenal, it is not a cure-all and won’t be a viable source for direct bookings that you can measure.

But it is vital to your brand and your online reputation..
  • Post Crafted By Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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Saturday, April 12, 2025

YOUR Social Media Content Creation Career?


The popularity of social media as an effective marketing channel has created opportunities for many to turn content channels into full-time careers..



Building a large following of loyal and highly engaged followers presents you with two monetization avenues -- working with companies to build their brand awareness and promoting your own products or service. It's fun and can be extremely lucrative.

Sounds like a dream job, right?

It is, but starting a career creating content on social media is difficult. The type of viral growth that leads to monetization opportunities requires high-quality content and something unique -- with millions of social media profiles competing for the same attention, you need to stand out.

Over the past few months, I've gotten to know Mariam Ezzeddine (@CookinWithMima), and I learned that, when she started her Instagram account, Ezzeddine had no social media experience or professional cooking background. Fast forward to today, and she is now one of the top food-related Instagram accounts in the world with more than 2.6 million followers. For those looking to duplicate her success, here are four tips to help you turn social media content creation into a full-time career.



1. Create content in a niche that you are both passionate about and active in.

Ezzeddine graduated college with a degree in criminal justice and never had any cooking experience until she and her husband moved to start a family.

While living in Missouri, though, she couldn't find the selection of European desserts she used to enjoy, which led her to make her own cakes and tarts. Throughout this process, she started to experiment, developing her own recipes.

Building a successful content channel requires you to be actively involved within the niche on a day-to-day basis. This way, you know what content is going to be best for your audience.

You might not have experience in your niche right away, and that is fine. Spend time networking within your niche and focus on self-education -- it can be incredibly rewarding down the line.



2. Focus on what receives the highest engagement rates.

As Ezzeddine grew her account, she made sure to offer a wide variety of content, paying close attention to what posts received higher engagement. She then adjusted her strategy to feature more variety of the post-types that had the highest engagement rates.

Furthermore, when Ezzeddine first started the account, she focused more on the recipes and less on photo quality. She soon realized that the more time she spent on presentation and photo quality, the higher the engagement rate was. Remember, social media content, especially Instagram, is highly visual.

While you must create high-quality content, it's ultimately your audience that determines what they deem to be high-quality. You can't let personal opinions or speculation dictate your content direction. There is only one thing you should be taking into consideration, and that is engagement rate.


You should always be experimenting with different post-types and subtle changes. Little changes, like uploading a video if the majority of your content is images or incorporating emojis, can result in huge engagement spikes.

3. Treat content creation like a full-time job from the beginning.

From the beginning, @CookinWithMima was a full-time job for Ezzeddine.

When she isn't taking care of her children and family, she is working on further developing her account. Regardless of the niche, treating your content creation as a full-time job is the only way you are going to create high-quality content on a consistent basis.

Additionally, when she was just starting out, Ezzeddine purchased a number of books and enrolled in various courses. All careers require skill development, and content creation is no different. Knowing how to take good pictures, have the best lighting and stage shoots can all be self-taught if you are willing to invest in yourself.



4. Don't focus on the money.

It can be easy to focus on the monetary aspect of having a successful social media channel, however, concentrating on monetizing your following can ruin the relationship. Ezzeddine began working with brands after her following was well established and doesn't let collaborations or sponsored posts interfere with her main content.

If you focus on providing value, the money will follow, as monetization opportunities will never arise unless you build up a large highly-engaged following.

Guest Authored By Jonathan Long. Jonathan is the founder of Market Domination Media, a performance-based online marketing agency, blerrp, an influencer marketing agency and co-founder of consumer product Sexy Smile Kit. Follow Jonathan on X.





Building a large following of loyal and highly engaged followers presents you with two monetization avenues.

Working with companies to build their brand awareness and promoting your own products or service.

It's fun and can be extremely lucrative..

  • Authored by:
    Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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Thursday, July 26, 2018

Drive Traffic And Grow YOUR Blog?


How to use social media to drive traffic and grow your blog on the side..
It's easy to become enamored with stories of people who manage to make a successful living through blogging revenue. After all, what could be better than creating content about something you love and earning money while you do it?



Of course, not many bloggers are going to become an overnight success. Many blogs struggle to gain an audience, even when they put out high-quality content.

The problem? Well, most new bloggers don’t fully understand how to drive a meaningful amount of traffic to their blogs.

Fortunately, I recently had the chance to interview Selena and Jacob Taylor, the husband and wife duo behind Find Us Lost, their wildly successful travel blog and Instagram account that's accrued over 157,000 followers to date.




During our conversation, I learned how social media has played a significant role in helping them achieve their incredible success.

With that in mind, here’s a closer look at some of the ways you can use social media to drive traffic to your own blog.



Find Your Unique Selling Proposition

As with your blog itself, being able to find a unique voice on the right social media channels for the type of audience you want to build, is essential for driving growth.

“Ask yourself, how soon can I figure out exactly who I am and who I want to portray with this brand?” Selena recommends. “Then once you’ve established that and paved your way, people will start to see it. Whether they have 1,000 followers, 100,000 or 1 million, they’ll still honestly be interested in you and the aesthetic you're conveying.”

Identifying the needs, challenges and desires of your target audience—which often align with your own interests—should play a central role in fine-tuning your unique voice. Selena and Jacob aren't the only ones who've identified the importance of this, either.



According to fellow podcast guest Nazim Agabekov, the founder of Lead Gen Black Belt , asking questions like, “What keeps your customers up at night? What’s their number one struggle in life and business?

What would make their lives easier? What are their biggest aspirations and dreams in life?” are key to defining this strategy.

Using these types of questions to guide your social media presence (and blog content) will help you craft posts that don’t just look nice—they’ll also be relevant to your audience's interests, ensuring that they’ll actually drive engagement.



Don’t Ignore The Hashtags

Great content is key, but it must be paired with the right strategy for blog growth—and on social media, this means using hashtags. “When we were in Venice I posted a photo in the Venice canals, and I hadn’t been using hashtags at the time—which if you're big on Instagram, you know that was probably silly,” Selena recalls.

“I wasn’t really leveraging people who could see the posts. That was the first time I thought, 'Oh, I need to start using hashtags.’ That post happened to be reposted within two minutes by an account that was really large at the time… and right away started bringing us a couple hundred new followers.”

This experience led Selena to begin researching the analytics and latest trends related to hashtag usage, which then fueled a more strategic approach to how they developed future posts. For those just starting a blog, Selena notes that large Instagram accounts tend to look for smaller accounts when curating content—and consistently using the right hashtags will put you in the perfect place to get discovered.



The Power Of Partnerships

It can be tempting to approach blogging as a completely solo endeavor, but it’s called social media for a reason. “It’s a very collaborative space,” Jacob advises new bloggers. He continues, "Develop relationships early on. Don’t assume someone’s not going to give you time, input or help you out just because they’ve been doing it for longer. Most people are very friendly and welcoming.”

New bloggers shouldn’t be afraid of reaching out to other bloggers for advice. But keep in mind, you should focus on investing time building relationships with those in your niche.

As Tamar Weinberg explains, “You can ask and ask and ask, but unless you research the writer and know exactly what it is that they cover, you’re wasting your time. For example, if you’re marketing a healthy food product, don’t just reach out to food bloggers in general, but find those that focus on healthy food, home cooking, cooking healthy for kids, and such.”

Organically reaching out to others and building these relationships has helped Selena and Jacob get their content shared on other bloggers’ Instagram Stories, resulting in new traffic. Whether you want to ask for advice or share your thoughts on another blogger’s latest social media post, reaching out can quickly lead to organic growth for your own blog.



Achieving Social Success

Now that Selena and Jacob have built a sizable community around their blog, whenever they release a new city guide, sponsored post, or other project, they already have a massive, dependable source of traffic to rely on. That's the real power of building an engaged social following.

Yes, you should always emphasize the creation of beautiful, high-quality content when promoting your blog through social media. But as these tips make abundantly clear, it’s far from the only thing you should be doing.

Guest Authored By Ryan Robinson. Ryan is an entrepreneur and content marketing consultant to the world's top experts and growing startups. He works with NY Times Bestselling authors, CEO's, startup founders, and has grown his business to over $160,000 in less than one year while keeping a full-time job. He reach over 150,000 monthly readers with his blog, ryrob.com and online courses designed to teach you how to start a profitable business while keeping your day job. Follow Ryan on Twitter.





"While fully leveraging the power of social media will require a fair amount of work, it’s well worth your time and energy.

As you use these tips to generate traffic for your blog, you’ll be better positioned to turn it into a revenue-generating machine and create the lifestyle you desire. -RyanRobinson

  • Post Crafted By:
    Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA
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