Social media and timeshare …a cautionary tale

There’s no question we’re living in uncertain and challenging times. The after-effects of Covid-19 have yet to be felt, or thoroughly envisioned, by the resort timesharing industry. No one knows when the pandemic will be declared over and the industry’s new normal, whatever it turns out to be, reveals itself. And no one expects the “reveal” will be a one-time occurrence. It will occur incrementally over time, constantly changing and evolving.

As companies struggle with constraints imposed by sequestering and social distancing, there’s a great deal of attention being focused on social media as a way to engage, or re-engage, with timeshare owners and potential owners. Seems logical since so much of our daily activities are currently being experienced in a virtual world, with new and lasting consumer habits being formed. But if pursued, it won’t be simple, easy or inexpensive. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have taken a global pandemic to draw renewed industry attention to the online arena.

During my 40-year association, much of it as an executive with some of the industry’s largest companies, I’ve had meaningful exposure to timeshare marketing and sales practices as they evolved. But I’m by no means an expert. Nor am I an authority on internet marketing. What I’m about to share comes from marketing three novels I’ve published since 2015. With Barnes & Noble the only substantial retail storefront still standing, I focus entirely online because over 90 percent of all book sales worldwide occur there.

I’ve learned a lot from using (or not using) various social media platforms. For me, the biggest caution for timeshare companies, regardless of who they are or how much they’ll spend, is that since they don’t own platforms like Facebook, Google, Twitter and Instagram, they’ll have no real control. Or at least the control over their marketing outcomes they’re accustomed to because these platforms can and do change their rules, policies, procedures, business practices and algorithms at-will, and usually without advance notice. Or, worse yet, often without any disclosure.

Do you know what “shadow banned” or “de-platformed” mean? Until recently, I didn’t. I understand it happens when an individual or entity commits what a platform regards as a thought-crime (posting an offensive opinion, stating an unpopular or unsubstantiated fact), or likes, links or retweets something not conforming to the platform’s current policies and practices – standards that can be ever-changing. A timeshare company’s punishment for transgressions that might happen innocently or accidently could be the loss of platform access and all its followers who had been expensively cultivated.

How is this possible? Simple. Activity on someone else’s social media platform is very much like sharecropping on someone else’s land. You’re paying for the opportunity to till the soil and harvest from the seeds you planted, but you don’t own or control the land. Legal? Have you ever read, let alone carefully studied, the Terms and Conditions we’re often required to click to “Accept” before access is granted? As a result, you may recall the CEOs of four of the largest platforms were recently hauled (virtually) before a Congressional committee to explain and defend their practices in policing and prioritizing their online content, activity that is entirely at their discretion.

Related: Resorts Not Investing In Social Media Are Losing $$$

A time-worn but nonetheless ever-present lament of company owners and executives is: “Half my advertising dollars are working for me – just wish I knew which half.” How can timeshare companies effectively measure their return on investment of dollars spent swimming in the social media ocean? I don’t have the answer. In deciding how to market books online and where to spend my advertising dollars, I couldn’t find, after years of searching, a shred of empirical evidence that said: “I spent this amount of money in social media marketing, spent it in these exact ways over this period of time, and I achieved these results.” Thus, I was forced into costly experimentation of my own.

What do you expect your dollars invested in social media will do for you? Said another way, what are your desired outcomes? Here’s a thought. Can your company’s social media experts, either in-house or consultants, point to other industries with similarly-situated companies where positive outcomes have been successfully achieved, and then document how those results were orchestrated? If so, emulation instead of innovation may serve the timeshare industry well.

Those seeking to achieve online sales of any kind will learn the importance of key words and phrases in the content of their marketing messaging. The all-important “hooks” to attract consumers as they search with keystrokes. This happens via the platform’s software only they understand, but there’s an insidious threat lurking in these algorithm weeds.

A company may think, through paying for expensive consulting or by trial and error, that they’ve figured out their all-important key words and phrases. And it may be true. But then the host platform scrambles the egg by changing their proprietary algorithms and the marketer is none the wiser, continuing an advertising spend that won’t get them their desired ROI — and they won’t know why.

The Holy Grail of online book marketing is to grow a robust opt-in/out email database of readers. It’s been proven that consumers who willingly give their email address are accustomed to transacting via email with an entity they trust, and inclined to provide referrals to other consumers. The key is to give them something of value in return for the address, such as a free downloadable e-Book https://www.larrygildersleeve.com/free/. And here’s the wonderful thing. Unlike sharecropping, I own and control this database, and I also harvest reader emails at www.larrygildersleeve.com where I’m the metaphorical landowner. Perhaps there’s application for the timeshare industry.

Everything I’ve studied tells me social media marketing has a voracious appetite. In order to have any hope of success, the marketer must keep feeding image-rich content to their chosen (albeit rented) platforms or lose their following. Constant Contact is the name of an established email delivery platform, and those two words must be the cornerstone of any social media marketing endeavor.

Industry professionals know and accept that timeshare, especially marketing and sales, is a heavily-regulated industry, with most, but certainly not all, constraint and enforcement occurring at the state level. What then are the regulatory implications for marketing initiatives that with a single mouse click can go global? That’s the purview of the attorneys.

Closing thought. In some ways, marketing on social media, at least at the outset, may be akin to being astride a tiger. You can’t control the tiger’s movements, and if you dismount, something unpleasant is likely to occur. Results are out there, but the path isn’t for the faint of heart or slim of wallet.

Gildersleeve’s four-decade association with timeshare began in 1980. He held senior management positions with RCI, Interval International, Hilton Grand Vacations and Trendwest. He’s also enjoyed success as an industry consultant and as a novelist.