Top 10 Ways to Grow Your Twitter Following
Hatching a winning strategy for growing your Twitter following isn't rocket science. Follow a few simple guidelines, and you'll be on the path to success.
Want to get more Twitter followers? Here’s 10 quick ways to spur the growth of your Twitter following.
1. Follow Strategically – Many people will tell you to follow as many people as you can on Twitter because they’re more likely to follow you back. This is partially true, but Twitter has limited how many people you can follow, so you don’t want to waste your time following people you’re not interested in. Besides, if you’re using Twitter correctly, you’ll be using it as much for listening to conversations as spreading the word about your business. I suggest following people key to your industry: journalists, brands, thought-leaders, etc. You’re going to want to listen to them anyways. And, although they’re less likely to follow you back, they have a larger network of followers, and you’re more likely to be put in Twitter’s “Who to Follow” suggestions for the people following them. It’s just like networking in real life; you want to connect yourself with people who share your interests and who are prominent.
2. Share Killer Content – Twitter is all about sharing content. The better content you create and share, the more people will take notice. But, don’t just share your own content. Share content from others, whether it’s through a retweet or just something cool you came across on the Web.
VRBOs Not Paying Taxes Creates Competitive Disadvantage for VRMs
When VRBOs don't pay transient occupancy taxes on their vacation rentals, they can often rent their vacation home out for a lower price, which often creates a competitive disadvantage for professional vacation rental managers and even other VRBOs who follow the law.
Last Friday, The Desert Sun newspaper of Palm Springs released the latest in what seems like a string of articles nationwide about local governments cracking down on individuals operating vacation rentals and not paying taxes. Similar issues have already been raised in Colorado, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina and more.
But this issue goes much farther than cities collecting the taxes due to them; it goes straight to the heart of a competitive advantage these tax evaders have over vacation rental managers that pay taxes.
Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet told the Desert Sun that the effort wasn’t just about raising revenue from TOT (transient occupancy tax) funds.
“It levels the playing field for rental agencies and hotels,” he said. “It gives the city oversight over who is renting the property and how it's being managed.”
Professional vacation rental managers (VRMs) in the area know this situation all too well.
Sun Palace Vacations: Turning Early Adversity into Long-Term Success
So far this year, Sun Palace Vacations has seen a 220 percent year-over-year increase in sales during the months of August, September and October.
Sun Palace Vacations
Location: Fort Myers Beach, FL
Website: SunPalaceVacationHomes.com
Quick Quote: “Choosing LiveRez was huge to our success.”
When Ron Hemstreet and Judith Lee-Hemstreet decided to move from Toronto, Canada to Fort Myers Beach, FL in early 2004, the idea was to leave the stress of their high-profile jobs producing live events and move into the less-stressful gig of managing vacation rentals.
That was the idea, at least. Then, the hurricanes came.
First Charley. Then Frances. Then Jeanne. Then Wilma the following year.
“Imagine moving here and then 10 days later you get evacuated,” Judith said. “And, three of your four properties are damaged, and they won’t let you back on the island.”
But, what started out as a rocky endeavor has now blossomed into a very successful business.
Their company, Sun Palace Vacations, now manages 32 properties and just this month moved into its new offices at 1750 Estero Blvd. So far this year, the company has seen a 220 percent year-over-year increase in sales during the months of August, September and October.
Twitter Explained for Vacation Rental Managers
Learning how to use Twitter isn't complicated. A simple overview can put you on the fast track to social media success.
Twitter is a strange bird (pun intended). Many people, especially those used to Facebook, can have a hard time picking up Twitter and utilizing it to their fullest. But, it doesn’t have to be confusing. In fact, once you learn a few basic concepts, Twitter is actually really easy to use.
It’s a great place for sharing content, getting advice and giving advice, and following the news. If used correctly, it can be a great tool in your marketing arsenal, both for disseminating your messages and for listening. In the following blog, I will attempt to briefly describe Twitter and how to use it.
The main distinguishing feature of Twitter is brevity. On Twitter, you can only post in 140 characters or less. Because of this people mostly use their Twitter posts (called tweets) for short one-line updates, or use their posts as a headline and then insert a link that people can click to learn more. This makes Twitter a great place to get a breakdown of the “news” you care about. Now while many journalists are now breaking stories online, I use news in a more general sense. If you want to see what’s going on in the world as it relates to some topic, Twitter is one of the best places you can go…if you set it up correctly.
LiveRez Dynamic Websites: Take Control of Your Content
LiveRez offers its partners dynamic websites with stunning designs. These websites allow vacation rental managers near complete control to change their website's content -- no HTML or CSS skill required.
One of the things that makes LiveRez unique among vacation rental software platforms is that its back office and its dynamic websites are one piece of software. That means that when you log into the system you can handle all of your reservations, your cleaning and maintenance requests, view a number of reports AND make changes to your website in real time.
LiveRez lets you change virtually any text or image on your website, and even allows you to change some things, like alt tags and meta data, that only search engines see.
Here’s a brief list of the things you can change on your website:
- Text on nearly any page and in every property listing
- Images on nearly any page and in every property listing
- Formatting of text
- Headers
- Links
- Meta data
- Alt tags
- Embed videos
- Embed Google Maps
- Add social media plug-ins
- Organize properties into categories and communities
- Set up specials
- Select featured properties
- And more!
How to Attract More Owners and Grow Properties Under Management
LiveRez helps professional vacation rental managers grow the number of properties they manage by offering them solutions they can use to meet home owners' needs.
One way for professional vacation rental managers to grow their business is to attract new properties. And, the best way to do this is to show vacation home owners that you have all the tools needed to meet their needs. First, let’s consider what vacation home owners are looking for:
- They want travelers to book their property
- They, too, want to be able to stay at their property
- They want reports on how their property is performing
- They want to know their property is safe and secure
- They want good communication from the person or company managing their property
Professional vacation rental managers using LiveRez can easily make a strong argument to these vacation home owners because their partnership with LiveRez allows them to meet many of these owners’ key needs. Here’s how:
- LiveRez websites help professional vacation rental managers get more bookings for their owners, through a combination of high search engine placement, elevated conversion rates, the ability to take online bookings and additional exposure through affiliated marketing programs
- Because of their beautiful design, LiveRez websites look extremely professional, which increases a management company’s credibility with the owner
- LiveRez’s Owner Logons allow owners the ability to make their own reservations online and see reports about how their property is performing
- LiveRez offers the ability to automate e-mails to owners upon a number of events
- LiveRez’s robust back office also helps reduce a management company’s labor hours, which means managers and their staff have more time to focus on owner relations
Many LiveRez partners have already experienced a dynamic growth in the amount of properties they manage. You can read some of their stories at LiveRez.com/success.
How to Put Your Properties on the Map…Literally
As a professional vacation rental manager, you may have fielded this question once or twice: “Where is the property located?” Sound familiar? By embedding a Google map of each property on its respective property listing, you can give your guests exactly what they are looking for. We’ve outlined the steps for doing this below.
Step 1: Go to Google.com and type in the property’s full address (i.e. 6206 N. Discovery Way, Boise, ID 83713). This should bring up a map.
Step 2: Click on the map. This should pull up a new page.
Step 3: Just under the search bar, to the right of “Get directions” and “My places,” will be a small box with a link icon (see the picture below). Click on that link icon.
Barefeet Rentals: Vacation Rentals “In, On or Around the Water” in Key Largo
Barefeet Rentals' LiveRez-powered website quickly conveys the company's focus on Key Largo rentals that are "in, on or around the water."
Barefeet Rentals
Website: BareFeetRentals.com
Location: Key Largo, FL
Quick Quote: “For New Year’s week we booked out in October – the earliest I’ve ever done that, and I’ve been in this business, in this area for 22 years. I really attribute that to LiveRez.”
If you’re looking for a vacation focused on warm weather and water, look no further than Key Largo.
And if you’re looking for a vacation rental in Key Largo, look no further than Barefeet Rentals.
You see, Annie Mathews and her staff at Barefeet Rentals specializes in anything “in, on or around the water.” And, when it comes to staying on a beautiful Island off the southern tip of Florida, who wouldn’t want to be close to the water?
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How Commenting on Blogs and News Articles Can Help with SEO
Most blogs and news articles have a place at bottom where you can comment. This USA Today article uses a social plugin from Facebook that actually lets you comment on the article from your Facebook account. Make sure to include a link back to your website when you comment on blogs and news articles. It can help your SEO efforts.
Adding comments to news articles (and blogs) related to your industry is a quick and easy way to give a boost to your SEO strategy and create awareness about your company. Commenting on these articles will help you create back links (links back to your website) for both SEO and marketing purposes.
You can find these articles through searches or just keep tabs on them through a comprehensive Web monitoring strategy. Once you find the article, scroll down to the bottom. Many news articles will have a place where readers can leave comments. They might request that you sign in and create an account. Once you’re approved, draft a comment that is related to the story and make sure to include a link back to your website.
But make sure your comment is adding value to the conversation or else your post might come across as comment spam (and the moderator might not approve your comment).
This strategy works equally well for commenting in a forum. Just make sure you include a link back to your website in your signature.