Facebook Advertising!


Facebook has become a HUGE part of many Owner's advertising campaigns & lots choose to "rely" on it as their only advertising avenue. This is becoming more & more problematic.

As most who use it, will be aware - this year, Facebook has been "swamped" with innapropriate spam-posts - some of which are of a rather inappropriate theme for a social networking site. These posts usually seem to be being generated via a "hack" - where innocent people's profiles are accessed, & the tasteless posts are submitted to sales groups under the innocent person's profile. Usually, the person concerned has no idea these posts have been made or submitted. Unless the group settings have been constructed as "admin approval", these posts are just being made public for all to see... which is obviously generating lots of complaints to the Facebook admin. (Quite rightly so)!

As a result of the "constant spamming" - it would seem Facebook have taken the action of limiting the number of posts any one person submits, especially if they contain external links, (although some have also had a "restriction" placed when all they have posted out is their own Facebook page link):- which is one way of preventing these "inappropriate" posts from being publicly aired... however, this also applies to the "innocent-posters"! The exact number of "permitted" posts, or the amount of groups posted to, has not been made clear....

This restriction is placed with no prior warning at all.

Which, if you use Facebook a lot for your advertising, could result in the consequences of having your profile "restricted" (which is usually for a period of 7 days), & in turn means you are no longer able to post new threads, or comment on old ones: either in groups, or on "time-lines"...  

In addition to this (which is perhaps the most severe consequence):- ALL OF YOUR PREVIOUS POSTS ARE AUTOMATICALLY DELETED from view for the duration of the restriction. So any advertising you may have spend hours, days & even months putting together will no longer be visible to anyone until your restriction is lifted.

If your profile is restricted, all you are able to do for that time-period, is write a "message", post on your own time-line & use your own Facebook page.

There has also been an increasing number of "public arguments" aired on sales groups over this past year... ETK stresses that should a disagreement, or grievance arise between "Guest & Owner" - this should always be dealt with privately & confidentially between the two parties & never "aired" over Social Media. Sadly this is not always the case.  

ETK recommend limiting your "Facebook advertising" to, in turn, "limit" your risk of having a restriction placed on your profile: be careful how many times you "share" a post, or add a link to your advert (external, or to your Facebook page), as this seems to be the main reason for the restriction being initiated. This will become more & more time-consuming, as in the current climate, it is "safer" to bump or edit existing adverts rather than just re-posting a new one.  

More & more Owners are looking at "paid" advertising as a result & there a good few reasons why this option should be seriously considered for future rental advertising...

Online advertising relies heavily on SEO. If you rely on Social Media you will not have such support. With Facebook, for example, your advert will only be visible when YOU "bump" it...  which in turn means unless you are prepared to spend all day in front of your PC (& now risking a "restriction" & losing your adverts in any case)! - your advert will be buried amongst others very, very quickly.

Google generally WON'T bring your Facebook, Gumtree or Ebay advert to your holiday maker's screen! However, Google WILL bring up Company Websites... Once the Guest is happily browsing through the Holiday Homes listed - they have no reason to think to check social media! Research shows that once we have chosen a site to view we rarely return to the search engine. This is true of a Holiday search too. So, if your Holiday Maker likes what they see at first search - they will book it! Guests are far more likely to make a booking through a "Company" than they are an "Individual." 

The fear of "being scammed" is something the Guest is now becoming increasingly worried about (with good reason).