What is social media?

Social media is an umbrella term for a variety of digital platforms, websites, and apps that enable people to interact with each other in real-time. It enables users to not only share content and ideas, but also engage in conversations, build relationships, and create communities around shared interests. The most popular social media sites are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, TikTok, and Reddit. Facebook is the largest social media platform with over 2.7 billion active users worldwide and more, and continues to be the best social media site for business.

Who uses social media?

Understanding how to tailor your content for each social media channels audience can help grow your business. Facebook remains the primary social media platform for all ages around the world, with almost 3 billion monthly active users. Recent data suggests that the demographic with the highest usage is among 45-54 year olds however. YouTube follows Facebook as the second most popular social media channel to use. Instagram, which is also found to be used by most age groups, is especially popular among 18-29 year olds. More recently, TikTok has become a major player in the social media world. However, the platform has a slightly different audience to the other channels. Over 70% of TikTok users are under the age of 24, with very few being over the age of 35. Users are able to engage with short-form video content from users all over the world who you do not necessarily have to ‘connect’ with. Finally, another channel you may consider using as a vacation rental host is Pinterest. The platform is highly used by 25-34 year olds who use it for ‘visual discovery’ and inspiration from easy-to-use image boards. 

Advantages of social media

Billions of people all over the world use social media regularly. 35% of people in 2022 said that social media influenced their travel plans, therefore it is an invaluable tool for vacation rental hosts going in to 2023 . Not only does social media for business provides a simple, cost-effective way to reach and engage with a large audience – utilising social media channels can help establish trust and build a strong reputation for your brand. It enables vacation rental hosts to increase their visibility and presence online, helping them to build brand awareness, generate bookings.

Social media strategy

You can sign up for most social media platforms quickly and for free. Think about how you want your vacation rental ‘brand’ to come across to potential guests when you create a username, bio and when adding a profile photo. Make sure to include all the relevant information at this stage too, for example your property location and size. Once you have decided on the best social media channels to advertise your vacation rental on and how you want to present yourself, next up is creating a strategy for posting on social media. Decide how often you want to post content, and what you want to show. Lots of successful social media businesses create a schedule and have a plan in place before posting.