How Twitter’s New Visual Timeline Will Affect Your Vacation Rental Marketing

Competition between the key social media networks is strong and as a result, they are constantly evolving to keep up with one another; last week Twitter updated its micro-blogging service to include more visual timelines.

This is great news for vacation rental managers as you are being introduced to exciting new features that improve usability and social interaction. However if you are connected to a variety of social media networks, it can be quite easy to miss out on new updates that could hold potential marketing opportunities.

To keep vacation rental managers in the loop, we have put together some of the ways Twitter's recent update may affect your marketing efforts:

How have Twitter timelines become more visual?

Similar to fellow social networks Facebook and Instagram, Twitter have now enabled the function to view previews of photos and videos from Vine on their timeline rather than a text link. Not only do photos and videos look great and break up the otherwise text heavy network, they encourage more engagement with followers.

As you may or may not know, before the update a Twitter user would have to click on a link to a photo of video which took them to a seperate page. To make Twitter that bit more interactive, the user can now tap the image or Vine preview to view it and retweet/favourite directly from their timeline.

How can it improve Vacation Rental Marketing?

Present Property Images Proudly

The new update works to the advantage of vacation rental managers as what is being marketed depends heavily on visual appeal. If you have beautiful photographs of your rental or the property area, now more than ever is the time to share them on Twitter! Followers are more likely to engage with photos of a property on the timeline in the new preview mode rather than a text link.

Use Vine to Create Short Videos

When Instagram video came on the social media scene, there was a decline in Vine users. However, the new Twitter update promises a brighter future for the video app. Working in a similar way to Instagram Video, Vine allows users to create and post short video clips from an iOS or Android device. Since Vine is a product of Twitter, tweeters can view, retweet and favourite Vine videos directly from their timeline, whilst an Instagram Video still appears as a text link.

An excellent way vacation rental managers can tap into this marketing opportunity, is to create short video tours of their property or place of interest nearby. Not only will videos increase engagement on Twitter, they will entice potential guests to find out more about your vacation rental.

Engage With a Larger Audience

Above all, remember to use appropriate hash tags when posting images and videos. Hash tags will categorize your posts, expand your marketing reach and facilitate interest around your properties, and in turn increase booking chances!

We hope we have given you a clearer idea of how Twitter's new visual timeline will affect your vacation rental marketing. Please share with those of interest or post any of your experiences or comments in the box below:

If you need help with a Mobile-Ready Vacation Rental Website fully integrated with a Reservation System and Channel Manager, Kigo can help! For more information contact one of our vacation rental software experts at [email protected] or on the phone (Europe) +34 512 702 104