Building an audience for your Airbnb Instagram account is a powerful way to increase traffic to your rental listings. As one of the most popular social media networks, Instagram has reached the 1.35 billion monthly active users mark, according to Statista. In addition, it is an image-based platform which makes it an ideal place to showcase your vacation rental as an Airbnb host wanting to win more bookings.
Are you eager to create a buzz around your short-term rental and attract more holidaymakers to your Airbnb listings?
Read on to learn how to build your vacation rental Instagram strategy to make your short-term rental property’s profile as successful as can be.
1. Set Up Your Vacation Rental Business Instagram Account
The first step that you need to take is to create your Airbnb Instagram account. Download the app from the App Store or Google Play and then start signing up. You can sign up for Instagram using your email address or phone number. Another way is to use your Facebook account to log in to Instagram.
If you have a personal page on Instagram, it is still preferable to set up a new account for your vacation rental business. You should keep your business page focused on your property rather than your personality.
Make sure to add a profile photo (it can be a logo of your property management company), fill in the bio, and link to your Airbnb listing. Then complete the text for your bio with some information that reflects your Airbnb business. In general, it should include the following three key points:
- The location of your vacation rental property or properties;
- A brief and catchy description of your Airbnb;
- The link to your Airbnb listing or business website.
After you have done that, you are ready to share the first posts introducing your rental to Instagram’s audience.
2. Think About Your Airbnb Instagram Aesthetics
As Instagram is a visual platform, you should strive to make your feed appealing to the eyes of your followers. You should select a color scheme that represents your Airbnb property’s vibe and stick to it down the line. Keep your posts consistent with your brand and its design theme. Many Airbnb hosts fall at this hurdle and their profiles do not look as polished as they could, which in turn does their vacation rentals a disservice.
If you are struggling to keep your posts within the same color scheme, use an editing tool such as Adobe Lightroom. It has a versatile collection of presets and photo effects. What’s more, you can create and save your own presets. This way you can be sure that your Instagram feed will look consistent and cohesive.
3. Keep a Consistent Theme
Social media is a delicate balance between being on trend and being true to your brand. Other hosts might be tempted to upload any sort of media that relates to their property, but this might be a mistake. More posts are not always a good thing. You can include industry news if it is relevant to your property, but be selective and focus on content that will connect to your target guests.
Your feed should mirror the feel of your property. If, for example, you operate a woodlands house property in a fairytale-like glen. Your profile needs to keep clean lines, a clear message, and very recognizable imagery of your interior design and your property inspiration. This is how you build a successful feed as an Airbnb host.
4. Film a Virtual Tour of Your Property
Take a photo of each room as well as pictures of your most unique amenities. If your property is located in a nice neighborhood, it also makes sense to showcase the area.
Alongside taking snaps of your home, film a virtual tour of your listing. You can post them as stories and then save to Highlights. This way even new followers will be able to become familiar with your vacation rental.
Another idea is to create an iGTV series to demonstrate your property at its finest. iGTV series are long-form videos that tend to get more traction on the feed in your Instagram accounts.They can also drive traffic from your social media to a private booking website.
Recently, Instagram has rolled out a new video feature which is called Reels. Reels are short 15-second clips with audio, effects, and new creative tools. They are promoted by Instagram on the Explore page occupying a big part of the screen.
Therefore, Reels are currently one of the best ways to drive more attention to your Instagram profile. And this brings us to the next point…
5. Use Video Whenever Possible
When you have the opportunity to create a high-quality video (even with your phone camera), take it. Videos are much more effective than photos on Instagram.
Videos are also helpful because they can be republished to YouTube to help you build your audience there as well. Finally, create backlinks from your YouTube channel to your Instagram account. This way you can use Youtube to help you get more Instagram followers as well.
You can also host live Instagram events by posting promo videos on YouTube and Facebook. This will help you attract more followers to your Airbnb Instagram.
According to the latest report on Instagram engagement, video content gets the highest engagement on the platform. Video posts usually generate over 150 comments on average. So, if instead of a regular post, you can create a video, you should definitely do that.
6. Create Posts About Things To Do in Your Area
To make the content of your feed more diverse, share regular updates about exciting things to do in your area. It can be a photo of something as simple as a local park or cafe.
Such posts demonstrate to potential guests how much fun it is to visit your location. The appropriate ratio of your posts should be 60% of your local area vs 40% of your property and its amenities.
Chances are, you will be able to find local businesses to partner with and set the stage for mutual promotions. This will help you increase traffic to your Airbnb Instagram account, and eventually, get more potential guests.
7. Collaborate with Influencers in Your Industry
Hospitality, real estate, and local tourist destination influencers can provide a boost to your Instagram. This traffic is highly targeted because people looking for travel influencers are usually planning a vacation or search of inspiration for their next trip.
Collaboration with macro-influencers may look appealing in terms of reach. However, it is actually better to look for bloggers with a smaller audience.
Micro-influencers charge less for their services and they have a more personal connection with their audience. They also have higher engagement rates (2-3%), compared to the average 1.7% of macro-influencers.
8. Follow People in Your Industry / Target Market
When you start to gain followers on your Airbnb’s Instagram profile, you might be tempted to give every follower a follow back. However, you should focus on ensuring that your account only follows profiles that are in your industry. When you are growing your Instagram account, you are also building your brand. It’s essential to connect with people from your industry and follow them back.
You can also start following other property managers or even big property management companies. By doing so, you can learn what tactics they use for promoting their Airbnb Instagram accounts.
9. Link Your Facebook Account
By linking your Facebook account to your Instagram account, you can increase your Instagram followers. The audience that you already built on Facebook will likely follow you on Instagram as well.
However, it’s important that you don’t just assume that all of your Facebook followers already use Instagram. You need to give them an incentive to check out your Airbnb Instagram campaign. For example, run a contest with a prize, such as a discount for staying at your rental, among your new followers.
10. Use Your Instagram to Promote Your Blog
Promoting new blog articles on your Airbnb Instagram account can increase the number of visitors to your website. The latest trend is to promote your new blog articles in Stories as well as within your feed.
To market your blog content in Stories, create 3-4 separate frames with the same storyline. Promoting your blog post using just one story may be less effective. People usually watch stories by tapping through and your task is to snag their attention.
By creating attention-grabbing stories, you can stop automatic tapping and get your users interested in your blog post. Use a CTA within the final story linking back to your website’s page.
To enhance your blog post promotion, share a relevant post in your feed enticing users to check out your stories.
11. Use Hashtags for Your Airbnb Instagram Uploads
Local hashtags are very useful when it comes to helping rental properties to stand out in tourist destinations. To find local tags, try Instagram search by typing in your state and then look for hashtags for your industry. Check out other Airbnb profiles of local travel companies to see what hashtags they post. Finally, search for tags for micro-locations (your city, nearby landmarks, etc.)
Look at the number of likes each post with certain hashtags has gained. This way you can identify the top-performing hashtags which you can include in your captions too.
Although Instagram allows mentioning up to 30 hashtags per post, having more doesn’t necessarily make the update any better. A lot of hashtags underneath your image or Reel may look unprofessional. Mostly the top brands use from 7 to 11 of the most relevant and high-performing hashtags. We suggest that you follow this tactic to avoid looking spammy to users as well as to Instagram.
12. Add Longer Captions
Long-form content has become more popular on Instagram as well as on other platforms. Short captions won’t cut it if you are intending to get more users interested in your Airbnb Instagram.
Is there an interesting legend about your area or sights around? Are there any guests who are willing to share a story about their stay at your rental? Do you have recommendations to share with your guests or people who travel to your city?
There are a lot of ideas that you can explore and create engaging captions to be published along with your pictures. People will stick around on your Instagram page longer and might eventually convert to being your guests.
The Bottom Line
Promoting your Airbnb Instagram account goes beyond posting your photos and videos. It also means that you have to factor in technical aspects that can impact your rankings on Instagram. There is no single strategy for making your account into one of the best Airbnb Instagram accounts. It requires constant work and a complex approach that you should adjust from time to time to keep up with the latest trends.
Busy Airbnb hosts rarely have time to give proper attention to their marketing strategies. Luckily, there are a lot of software solutions to help hosts save time so they can use it for more meaningful tasks. Vacation rental software such as iGMS can help you streamline and optimize your routine operations. You can take advantage of the following features:
- Direct integration with Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo, and HomeAway to manage your accounts and listings;
- Automated messages and a unified inbox to enhance your guest communication;
- Cleaning and task automation;
- Reviews automation to get more reviews from your guests in return;
- Direct booking management tools;
- Reporting features to help you stay on top of your business performance;
- A payment processing feature that allows you to receive payments and generate invoices.
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