Best Social Media Practices for Roomorama

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By: Matt Clark & John Cantwell

Yup that’s right, Johnny boy is back, for a limited time only. He signed a short term deal with DBlab to help with this post. Unfortunately John is too busy with “higher education” and trying to “better his life” to contribute more.

Anyway, today we’re looking at Roomorama, a new booking engine that helps arrange short-term stays in furnished apartments.

Unlike Craigslist and other sites that only act as a forum for renters to find properties, Roomorama handles the listings and transaction process. That means renters aren’t forced to show up carrying wads of cash, and the listing party is guaranteed their money ahead of time. Roomorama also verifies the quality of their listings ahead of time, ensuring that buyers get what they’re paying for.

As anyone who’s trudged the depths of Craigslist can attest, there’s definitely need for a simple, reliable service like this. So the question, then, is how can Roomorama use social media to effectively promote and differentiate its service?

Let’s start with a few facts. First, Roomorama is still small. The site only offers listings in New York City and Boston right now, though Chicago and Toronto are in the works. Second, the site and service are clearly geared toward a younger, more Web-savvy crowd. At the same time, however, Roomorama must also reach out to a crowd that’s likely older – the kind that would have and be willing to list desirable short-term rental properties. This latter fact may seem like a chicken or the egg situation, but it’s not.  Although Baby Boomers are becoming more familiar with social media, 20-30 year olds, who would be looking for the services Roomorama provides, dominate the industry.  Also, I always believe the more users you have, the easier it is to gain more sellers.

Roomorama needs to expand its presence among both renters and listing parties, two groups that don’t necessarily overlap in terms of demographic. They also need a strategy that differentiates their service from other, more established short-term rental services, highlighting both the simplicity and reliability of the Roomorama service.

Here are a few things that might be worth trying:

• Blog it. Offer more than just rooms, become travel experts for people traveling to their current cities. Start a blog to share local attractions. This could not only be a source of income (sponsorships) but as travelers start to search for information on what to do in New York, they would come across the Roomorama Blog and would click over to the main site. This will increase traffic and potential users.
• Hit the travel blogs. Although they only cover New York and Boston at the moment, those are two very popular travel destinations.  Romarama should do a blog push, inviting top travel bloggers to beta test their site, offer feedback, and serve as an early product testing board. Roomarama will improve their services, and gain trust in the travel community. When ready, Roomarama would be able to garner a favorable site review from these blogs.
• Create YouTube videos. For a low cost, Roomarama could create a few funny shorts that highlight the struggles of finding a place to stay in New York. The video would need to be more comical than informational to get a desirable number of views.  At the end of the video they would include a call to action, directing viewers to their site.
• Employ general PR. Use a PR freelancer (cheaper) to target real estate and travel publications that listing parties read. This will help increase listings in the short term.
• Avoid Facebook. One of my friends suggested they create a Facebook app, but there are already over 13 travel apps on Facebook and TripAdvisor leads the pack with 1,912,896 monthly active users. At the moment, this would be a waste of time and resources. Later on in the site’s life, there are many brand association tactics they could employ on Facebook.

The five above tips will help Roomorama increase traffic, users and credibility.  But they will not reinvent the site.  As with all marketing tactics, you need to employ a mix of traditional and new media strategies to reach your potential customers.