Vacation Rental Owners Can Easily Use Facebook Pages As Their Website
Some Owners are reluctant to create their own website for lack of technical ability or cost if they choose to use a web designer. I've previously written here about the importance of your own website, and here and here on how using WordPress and the thousand's of free or premium templates available allows non-techie Owners to create a low-cost site - and to be in simple point-and-click control of editing it.
But if you still aren't convinced here's another alternative, and it's Facebook: don't think Facebook friends, think Facebook pages. Facebook has a huge audience, and according to industry data has now almost reached the popularity of Google in the number of searches being made on it by web users.
And designing a website is a big deal, even if WordPress's simplicity puts creation in the hands of non-techies. It takes time - it's hard to get something up and running in, say, just 2 weeks Facebook pages saves that time.
If you want a site that can engage people by letting them discuss the property, post pictures and video, and take contests then Facebook does it very cheaply - websites can do all this too, but it comes at a price. The biggest challenge to a website is the most important: you need to get people to visit it. Yes, you can put Facebook or Twitter social buttons on your site on it, and then blog the hell out of it, or write articles for it, but the building of traffic is still a black art and dirty work almost akin to one-armed wrestling.
With a Facebook fan page you get:
It's instant gratification (and I'm all for that).
You get 25 friends, a Facebook username (a unique-to-you-URL such as facebook.com/tuscanyvilla), and hey presto, you're in business. It's still easier to get a Facebook URL than a good domain name.
Functionality is Built-In.
The social networking functionality you want on a website is already built into Facebook: there's commentary, discussion, visitor posting of photos and videos, and reviews. This means you don't have to figure out how to add this functionality to a website or pay someone to add it for you.
Limited flexibility.
Facebook fan pages don't provide the total flexibility of a website, but that is an advantage for some Owners - it stops them from going nuts with features and design. Basically, there are tabs and sub-tabs to play with. A side benefit is that people don't expect a unique/cool/whatever website because they see that all Facebook fan pages have a similar look and feel.
Flexibility.
Within the limited flexibility of Facebook, however, there is substantial flexibility. You can choose from hundreds of Facebook apps to add functionality.
Controlled environment.
Facebook is a more controlled environment than the wide-open world wide web. People have to join Facebook, and most people do care about their identities and reputation. You can also block troublemakers and complain to Facebook about them. On the web it's hard to get rid of people who send trashy comments, spam you, try and upload horrible photos and so on.
Size and Spread.
The best part of Facebook is that depending on what source you read and who you believe there are about 400 million members. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world-behind China and India but ahead of the US. Every time people do something on your fan page, they spread the word about it to their social contacts. This is the holy grail of marketing: unconscious word-of-mouth advertising! There's power to this - much more so than hoping a visitor will click on a "Like" or "Tweet" button on a website or forward a website's URL in an email to a friend
Free.
It's hard to argue with free. You pay nothing to Facebook. Though they do drop ad placements on your page to make ad revenue
What are the pro's and con's of a Facebook fan page strategy vis-a-vis your own website? There are some:
Some say you are supporting Facebook's climb to achieving worldwide domination. Do you care? You probably already use Windows. (Something I don't do.) You've probably thought of buying an iAnything from Apple. (Something I often do, but then I'm a shallow person.) I'm also selfish - and think if Facebook helps my bookings and business succeed, let it have worldwide domination, I don't care. What I do I care about is whether Facebook helps my business. It's not personal. It's just business.
You're putting all your bets on Facebook. This is true. If Facebook falls, so will your page (Facebook URL). It's more likely your property will have fallen down in decay before that happens. In other words, don't worry about it for a few decades.
Experts will tell you that won't get the SEO 'juice', brand awareness or inbound links, of a website and it's true. But then again you won't get much from just your website either. I doubt that failure of getting bookings to your holiday home will be using Facebook instead of a website.
But if you still aren't convinced here's another alternative, and it's Facebook: don't think Facebook friends, think Facebook pages. Facebook has a huge audience, and according to industry data has now almost reached the popularity of Google in the number of searches being made on it by web users.
And designing a website is a big deal, even if WordPress's simplicity puts creation in the hands of non-techies. It takes time - it's hard to get something up and running in, say, just 2 weeks Facebook pages saves that time.
If you want a site that can engage people by letting them discuss the property, post pictures and video, and take contests then Facebook does it very cheaply - websites can do all this too, but it comes at a price. The biggest challenge to a website is the most important: you need to get people to visit it. Yes, you can put Facebook or Twitter social buttons on your site on it, and then blog the hell out of it, or write articles for it, but the building of traffic is still a black art and dirty work almost akin to one-armed wrestling.
With a Facebook fan page you get:
It's instant gratification (and I'm all for that).
You get 25 friends, a Facebook username (a unique-to-you-URL such as facebook.com/tuscanyvilla), and hey presto, you're in business. It's still easier to get a Facebook URL than a good domain name.
Functionality is Built-In.
The social networking functionality you want on a website is already built into Facebook: there's commentary, discussion, visitor posting of photos and videos, and reviews. This means you don't have to figure out how to add this functionality to a website or pay someone to add it for you.
Limited flexibility.
Facebook fan pages don't provide the total flexibility of a website, but that is an advantage for some Owners - it stops them from going nuts with features and design. Basically, there are tabs and sub-tabs to play with. A side benefit is that people don't expect a unique/cool/whatever website because they see that all Facebook fan pages have a similar look and feel.
Flexibility.
Within the limited flexibility of Facebook, however, there is substantial flexibility. You can choose from hundreds of Facebook apps to add functionality.
Controlled environment.
Facebook is a more controlled environment than the wide-open world wide web. People have to join Facebook, and most people do care about their identities and reputation. You can also block troublemakers and complain to Facebook about them. On the web it's hard to get rid of people who send trashy comments, spam you, try and upload horrible photos and so on.
Size and Spread.
The best part of Facebook is that depending on what source you read and who you believe there are about 400 million members. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest in the world-behind China and India but ahead of the US. Every time people do something on your fan page, they spread the word about it to their social contacts. This is the holy grail of marketing: unconscious word-of-mouth advertising! There's power to this - much more so than hoping a visitor will click on a "Like" or "Tweet" button on a website or forward a website's URL in an email to a friend
Free.
It's hard to argue with free. You pay nothing to Facebook. Though they do drop ad placements on your page to make ad revenue
What are the pro's and con's of a Facebook fan page strategy vis-a-vis your own website? There are some:
Some say you are supporting Facebook's climb to achieving worldwide domination. Do you care? You probably already use Windows. (Something I don't do.) You've probably thought of buying an iAnything from Apple. (Something I often do, but then I'm a shallow person.) I'm also selfish - and think if Facebook helps my bookings and business succeed, let it have worldwide domination, I don't care. What I do I care about is whether Facebook helps my business. It's not personal. It's just business.
You're putting all your bets on Facebook. This is true. If Facebook falls, so will your page (Facebook URL). It's more likely your property will have fallen down in decay before that happens. In other words, don't worry about it for a few decades.
Experts will tell you that won't get the SEO 'juice', brand awareness or inbound links, of a website and it's true. But then again you won't get much from just your website either. I doubt that failure of getting bookings to your holiday home will be using Facebook instead of a website.
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