Timeshare – getting the good news out there

RCI is urging its affiliates and industry associates to help promote awareness of the holiday exchange company’s Our Blog, which was launched last August to promote all the positives about timeshare.

The blog, which can be found at www.rci.com/blog, appears in the pre-login section of the RCI consumer website which, crucially, means it is accessible to the general public, as well as to timeshare owners and RCI members.

Helen Foster, Marketing Manager, RCI Publications, Europe, said: “Reaching an open market audience, beyond timeshare owners and RCI members, is crucial in helping to educate the industry’s potential customers of tomorrow by demonstrating the longevity and credibility of the timeshare and shared-holiday ownership product. That’s one of the key remits of the RCI Blog, and why we see value in investing in resourcing it.

Foster said the Blog will help to dispel the myths and misunderstandings about the product, by promoting the value of trusted and established timeshare products and operators.

“The Blog posts are supported by RCI’s social media programme and shared on the RCI Facebook page and a robust SEO strategy,” added Foster. “The frequency of postings, combined with RCI social media sharing and support,helps to boost the number of positive industry messages online, thereby working to raise the page rankings for timeshare positives resulting from ‘timeshare’ keyword online searches.”

An example of the Our Blog home page

The blogs themselves fall into three categories:

• Experiences – to showcase the fabulous destinations and resorts available to timeshare owners with lots of great holiday ideas and inspiring destination editorial.
• Timeshare Advice – to help educate people about the product, dispel myths, promote how the product works and the benefits of ownership, as well as provide advice on how to avoid consumer scams when selling/buying timeshare.
• About RCI – to demonstrate how timeshare works with exchange membership; how membership of an exchange holiday programme can help owners get even more value and fantastic experiences from timeshare ownership, and the leisure lifestyle benefits that come with RCI membership.

The RCI Blog has built a strong following since its launch in August 2017, with new blogs now posted twice a week, the majority being User Generated Content (UGC). Average monthly views are 3,300 and there are already more than 3,000 subscribers to its monthly blog newsletter.

“Though we are pleased with the engagement we have seen since the launch of Our Blog, we always want to do better,” added Foster. “RCI’s own Social Media team has worked hard – and with some great results – to push Our Blog out in front of a wider audience, but we all know how social media works and, with a little help from our affiliates, industry associates and friends, we could do so much more to increase eyes to the blog page and therefore instil a better understanding of the value and benefits of our product to both timeshare non-owners and owners alike.

“So, I’d like to askour industry associates who may be reading this to have a think about how you might help to get the positives of our industry out there. Do you have an in-resort communications strategy for members and guests – in-room TV or an owner/member newsletter or your own Facebook page maybe?

“If so, please ask a member of your team to use your member, owner and guest communication channels to point people to www.rci.com/blog and to ask them to sign up to the newsletter by visiting http://pages.mail.rci.com/Your_Newsletter/.”