Showing posts with label audience engagement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audience engagement. 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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Tuesday, March 27, 2018

YOUR Social Media Consumer Communication?


3 Rules for speaking with consumers on social media, not at them..

Opinion: Followers can still comment, but the essence of the conversation is lost.



We Know That Conversation is a Lost Art

And regardless of whether consumers’ attention spans are in fact shorter than that of a goldfish, we know they are pretty damn short.

Consumers use a variety of social applications for quick chats and sharing content. From ephemeral content to influencers, brands have invested tons of time and money trying to capture their attention at every turn. However, many brands are having an increasingly difficult time connecting with consumers on these platforms.

So, what has caused the decline of social impact for brands? It’s not just the changes to news feeds or separation of social and media content that is driving the decrease, although a 20 percent engagement drop for brands and publishers and 83 percent negative reviews on a redesign sure doesn’t help.



The Crux of The Issue is Pretty Simple: Social Media Has Lost its Identity and its Impact

Some of you may be thinking, “What on earth am I talking about? Social media is everything.” Well, yes and no.

Social platforms still have plenty of followers, but they have made many shifts in how brands interact with those followers. They went from encouraging collaboration and conversation to nothing more than an extension of TV. Brands, influencers and individuals now simply broadcast information at their audience, in the same fashion that TV viewers have seen for decades. Sure, followers can still comment, but the essence of the conversation is lost. This leads to less discussion and a disengaged audience—not a good fit for brands.

Rather than brands sticking with the current approach and continually banging their heads against the wall in frustration, they must adapt. Speaking with consumers, and not at them, will revive the connection.

Following three simple rules will set brands up for success in changing and improving the dialog with consumers.



Use Content That Makes Consumers Feel Like a Part of The Conversation

Creating great content is hard enough, but developing content that actually garners response and conversation is even tougher. Focus on content that is not only visual, emotive and shareable, but that will make consumers feel like they are a part of discussion rather than being just a content receptacle.

Generating that organic virality of your content is the holy grail, and it will increase awareness, reach and user-acquisition efforts.

In tandem with the captivating content you produce, be sure to have a plan in place for how to respond to consumer feedback. Content like this will inherently create chatter, and it positions you in a place of commodity, not hindrance, so be prepared to reply with authenticity and value. Don’t end up scrambling to formulate responses—otherwise the content is wasted and your audience is likely gone.



Don’t Rely Solely on Bots to Communicate With Your Audience

Bots are amazing and are one of the hottest things in advertising today. Yes, they have the potential to improve your business, but they are not the lone solution to all of your problems.

Like most technology, human touch is still essential to consumer interaction. It’s a matter of time before consumers adapt to bot responses and expect more than what artificial intelligence is currently offering, so dedicating someone to speak with your audience is pivotal.

If you and your team deem a bot strategy key to your key performance indicators, then deploy the bots, but make sure that you have some humans interacting with your consumers, too.



Use Technology That is Inherently Conversational

Now that we’ve emphasized the importance of human elements for most of this piece, let’s discuss how tech plugs into it all.

When looking at any digital solution for your marketing efforts, it’s paramount that the tech is a place where consumers are already spending time communicating with one another. Why complicate things when you can deliver on awareness, consideration and conversion on a platform where people are spending a considerable amount of time?

Leveraging tech like messaging apps, which streamline content curation and management, while giving brands the tools to have one-on-one or one-on-many messages will improve your KPIs. Consumers are spending a tremendous amount of time on messaging apps, 20 percent more than on social apps.

Guest Authored By Cristina Constandache. Christina is vice president of global partnerships at messaging and voice calling app Viber. Follow Christina on Twitter.





"Social media may be experiencing an identity crisis, but this doesn’t mean that your brand should suffer in the process.

In a society where attention spans are minimal, it is time that brands get back to the basics.

Take the time to speak with consumers, listen to them and, in turn, reap the benefits of dedicating time and attention to the customer.." -CristinaConstandache


    • 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

    Tuesday, January 30, 2018

    Putting The "Media" In YOUR Social Media?


    There's been a lot of debate lately about whether social platforms should be called media companies and what their responsibilities are when it comes to policing content..



    But these discussions miss the point for marketers. Organic content is not relevant for brands..

    To achieve meaningful reach on these platforms, you have to buy ads. And, for advertisers, the only thing that matters is performance.

    So the big question going forward is: can these platforms keep their audiences engaged?

    Before we answer that, though, let's look more closely at the issues that currently have the industry up in arms.



    Putting The "Media" In Social Media

    Speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrel stated Facebook and Google are now making moves that contradict their long-established stance that they are not media companies such as hiring people to monitor editorial content.

    Similarly, Rupert Murdoch, the media billionaire who controls the Wall Street Journal, called on Facebook to begin paying publishers fees to carry the news that its users post and share online in a sign of the print industry's growing frustration with (and disruption by) social media.

    Despite what these moguls might argue, for brands, the truth is organic social has been dead for years, ever since tweaks to algorithmic feeds made it nearly impossible for them to reach their audiences without paying for it.



    Rifts In The News Feed

    The first wave of social media was simply called user-generated content (UGC). Advertisers largely avoided it because so much of the content was objectionable. Over time though, the introduction of authentic identity and algorithmic curation mixed UGC with professional content and turned social media properties into something more akin to news publishers.

    Recently, Facebook and Snap have made decisions to unbundle their content streams and adjust the placement and priority of news and other content. Evan Spiegel of Snap called it separating social from media. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook said it's about bringing people closer together.

    Clearly, some of this is a direct response to fake news and the influence it's had over recent elections. But it's also an attempt to create safe havens for advertisers who have become reliant on social media to drive key business outcomes.



    Pay To Play

    In truth, content (UGC and professional alike) is just the means of attracting initial eyeballs. As consumer engagement with brands becomes part of the platform, the shift to advertising accelerates rapidly.

    For evidence of just how important social advertising now is for marketers, look no further than the $25bn in advertising spent on social last year -- a figure that will climb to $70 billion in 2021 per Forrester.

    4C's Q4 State of Media report revealed spend across social platforms in the final quarter of 2017 was up 28% over the third quarter. LinkedIn saw the most growth with an 85% increase. Pinterest was next with 76%. Facebook was up 38%. Snapchat was up 29%. Instagram was up 27%. And Twitter was up 25%.



    Sunny Outlook For Walled Gardens

    So are these all media companies? Who cares? It truly doesn't matter what you call them. For marketers, what's more important is the value they deliver in reaching key audiences with great experiences.

    Indeed, each of these "walled gardens" provides the benefit of scaled audiences with precision targeting. They are also safe from the rampant fraud and lack of ad viewability that plagues the "open web."

    With the updates to the Facebook news feed, redesign of Snap to silo UGC, re-emergence of Twitter as an always-on channel, pivot of Pinterest to visual search, relentless innovation (and, yes sometimes cloning) by Instagram, and video adoption on LinkedIn, the traditional "social media" platforms have emerged as unique advertising vehicles with highly-engaged audiences.

    Against this backdrop, the imperative for marketers is to adopt all the tools available to manage advertising at scale across these channels whilst also connecting the chasm to the original "walled garden" of television and the true media companies therein.

    Guest Authored By Aaron Goldman. Aaron is chief marketing officer of 4C Insights. Follow Aaron on Twitter.





    "With 85% of consumers second-screening, the battle for attention has never been harder and, with $134 billion going to TV ad budgets, the stakes have never been higher.

    To win, brands must put audiences at the center of their strategies rather than focusing on the debate over what to call the platforms delivering the experiences.." -AaronGoldman


      • Authored by:
        Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBr@nd.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO  where 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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