How to work with influencers with Journey More and Ryan Thompson (STR COLLAB)

This for so long and it wouldn't let me. But now it is working. So welcome everybody to a new episode of the STR Collab. If you don't know what the STR collab is, please do go and check it out on Google, on YouTube, podcast, wherever you listen to it. Every single month we get together with Stay fi with MOUNT host GPO and a little company called Boostly and we bring to you the latest news, things that have come across our docket, things that we like to discuss, but most importantly bring in everything experts to discuss a topic. And last time we did this we spoke with Ben Wolf and we talked about influencers and content creation and it was by far our most registered webinar and it was our most watch back and it was our most commented on. And then Ben went on to speak at the Skiff conference and all those cool things. He was featured in all these amazing places. So Maddie, who organizes all of this shout out to Maddie at MOUNT Went away and thought, right, well if that's what the people want, how can we do it more? And she reached out to Hayden and Nikki from Journey More, who are phenomenal content creators, go and check them out on Instagram. And Ryan Thompson whose story is fantastic. Ex Disney now lives in a school bus, which if that hasn't floated your boat for this topic and this discussion, then make sure you check out the next hour. Normally I package this up and I just throw it up on YouTube but I thought, you know what, because this is such a cool one, I'm going to live stream this everywhere. So when I flip the screen, this is a recording of what happened literally a few hours ago. But you're watching it live with me. So those of you who are watching live, do me a favor and just put hashtag live in the chat and those of you that watch this back, whenever you do watch it, then leave a hashtag replay. But most importantly during the zoom in the chat we were dropping handles for our Instagrams. So Boosties is obviously @boostly UK. Leave your Instagram handle and we'll go and follow each other when we're watching this live or on the replay. Now if you are wondering, well what is the STR collab? What are you talking about? Go onto Facebook, go to groups, type in STR collaboration, join and you can request what we do next. We do polls in there. There's going to be future in person meetups, there's going to be all these cool things that that happen, but you need to be part of that group. So with no more to be said from me, let me flip the screen. First up, you're going to hear from Jenny who is the the new face from Host gpto. Normally we have Jeff on but he's traveling somewhere so Jenny stepped in and again, phenomenal person. Then we're going to get stuck in with the actual topic. There was live Q A and again when you join in live on these streams you get to ask the Q A as well, which is great. So make sure you check out the next one. We have got no plans yet to announce who the next person is, so that is open for you to recommend. So if you want to hear more from Hayden and Nikki and Ryan, please drop it in. If you want more delving into this topic of working with influencers on content creators, let us know. If there's something completely else that you would like, let us know as well. Final thing from me, if you are watching this before the 24th of June, then next week we are running five days of total free training with so many experts, speakers and over 2000 hosts and business owners in a Facebook group called the Book Direct Virtual Summit. You are all invited. It is free. We're going to be delving into SEO, Instagram, the guest flow, storytelling, how to create content that will get attention, the story method which I absolutely love this topic and so much more. If you want to find out more again, search on Google for Book Direct Virtual Summit, Book Diet, Virtual Summit.com I think is the domain. Pop your name down. Totally free. We start from the 24th to the 28th, games, prizes, all that good stuff. Without further being said, let me flip over the screen now and you are going to hear next from Jenny from Host gp.

Oh hi, I'm Jenny Engelhardt. I'm the director of marketing at Host gpo. So Host GPO for those of you who don't know is a buying group for short term midterm rental hosts. So anything you need to buy for your property from furniture, linens, mattresses, amenities, you can get it at a discount through our collective buying power at Host gpo. And I have a deep background in influencer marketing actually come from fashion originally which I think is some of the original influencers in this world started in fashion. So have been working with influencers for a long time through fashion to tech and now just getting started working with them@host GPO. So very excited to be a part of this webinar.

Awesome. Thanks Jenny. Oh, Jeff is not here but he is part of the collaboration now. I'll pass it over to Hayden. Hayden and Nikki. You guys are some of our amazing guests for today.

Yes. Hello. Thank you guys so much for having us on. We're so excited to be here to share and answer any questions you guys have. So this is Hayden and I'm Nikki. We are the creators behind the Brand Journey. More. We built our brand around shooting unique rentals all across the US We've worked with over a hundred hosts in this area industry and have used our skills with professional photography, videography and social media knowhow to garner ourselves over 750,000 followers as well as a lot of traction and advertisement for all the hosts that we've worked with. We also create beautiful content for them to use on their page and promote their own brand. So we are all about just contributing to this space base and we have been married for five years and we work together. We started in the corporate life. I was an inspector, he did insurance and we wanted something better for ourselves. So we decided to learn skills that would enable us to break out of that. And it all started when we ourselves bought our first short term rental in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and fell in love with it. And then we wanted to go even further, traveling all over, experiencing them and creating content of them. And we truly believe that social media is so powerful for gaining a lot of traction for your short term rental. And we think followers transition into customers. If you take social media seriously, use it the right way and get help from people like us, influencers along the way.

Yeah, and we've seen countless success stories working with hosts all over the country, bringing in hundreds of millions of views across all of our platforms. And we've essentially booked out multiple hosts that we've worked with, sometimes a whole year, even two years in advance. So it's really just showing that power of being able to create those properties that do have that viral potential for social media, but then also working with creators like ourselves to understand what it takes to make that content and share that to an audience that is hungry for travel and hungry to experience these amazing places. And we are, we have kind of started our own agency of building out where we actually manage the social media for some of our clients. And one of those is the Tree Lofts in Bershoba Springs, Tennessee. We've brought them over 36,000 followers on Instagram by doing a lot of the social management or ourselves. And that has actually brought them from about 100% of their bookings through Airbnb to now over 60% of their bookings are direct. And that's all through that work on social media and we've also doubled their occupancy rate as well for this year versus last year. So a lot of power in using social media to your advantage when hosting these amazing properties.

Wow, that's incredible. And I know that's just like a little sliver of everything you guys have done, so I can't wait to hear more and dive into it. But we'll get to our next guest speaker as well. Ryan, do you want to introduce yourself and give a little background on why you're here?

Yeah. So my name is Ryan Thompson. I created Seeking Discovery and my background's engineering which isn't as traditional in the short term rental game. So when the pandemic happened, I was laid off from my engineering job and decided that I wanted to focus on travel and building online income. So I now do small business consulting and development specifically for short term rentals and unique experiences. And I'm what's considered a digital nomad. So as long as I've got the Internet, I can travel to any of my clients in my school bus, tiny house, work with them one on one in person, refine any of the infrastructure that may be needed on site to elevate the experience and then help with content creation and continue on my travels to other places. So my niches in my content are tiny living as well as travel. In the last three years, I've done over 25,000 miles on the road and been to most of the east coast. So I'm looking to head to the west coast this winter and continue creating content and helping more folks.

Fantastic. Excited to have you here Ryan. Thanks so much. And maybe we'll get a sneak peek of the bus as well. Bring it all together. Awesome. Well that rounds us out as a reminder for those that might be new joining this webinar. The STR Collab is really a community for us to learn from each other. The cornerstone, cornerstone for rental entrepreneurs where we bring in optimal tech and operational strategies and really just provide expert LED webinars. We also do in person meetups although we have not done that yet. But there will be one of those coming up soon. And then we do now throw events too, which we have some exciting news for that one as well coming up. So if you are interested in joining the community, it's free, it's on Facebook, it's in a group, you can scan that QR code. I think we can post the link in the chat too. So if you're on your phone right now and can't scan that, that's totally fine as well, but just a place for us to all really get to know each other and gather and hopefully continue pushing each other forward. So, just as a reminder, what we like to do before we dive into our Q and A with our guests is just a little background on what happened last month in the news. Pretty short one today because I figured we should just keep it all about the content with our guest speakers. But for some background, Airbnb did launch their Icons product, which really puts an emphasis on unique stays. For them, though, they built their unique stays on, like the up house and crazy properties. But for them, I believe it is all about capturing that traveler data. So they want you to create a profile. They asked very bizarre, detailed questions. I don't know if anyone filled it out, but I filled mine out and they asked me where I went to school, if I liked pets and what kind of pets and just, like, what type of music I liked. It was very detailed. So I think they're really trying to create this profile around travelers so they can offer you more than just a place to stay, if I had to guess is where it's going to, but something to keep your eye on because I think, you know, what we're talking about today is how to make your property stand out amongst content, how to highlight the unique aspects of it. And that plays really well into what Airbnb is doing with Icons. Most people can't do it on that level because they spent millions of dollars building those properties. But how can you do it at your own property with what you have? That's really what we're talking about today. Another interesting one. Touchstay sold to itrinity. I think Tyann is on his call, so.

Hello, audience.

So, yeah, but I think, you know, I put this on here because it marks a significant milestone in our industry, which is there's a lot of consolidation happening. And when a consolidation movement starts happening in a market, it's the next evolution of the phase of your market. We're becoming more professionalized just in general with companies. And I think this year we're going to see a lot more M and A with firms coming in. Large companies that have raised $100 million rounds, they got to spend that money. I think they're going to buy companies and so we should see more of that. But congrats to Touch Day. It's pretty cool. Anything to add? Anyone on our call?

Well, I've been saying for a while that I believe that Airbnb are trying to turn into a Tinder ota and everything that they do, they keep on doing these things. They started last year with your profile. So when you log on, on the profile, you can say your favorite 90s movie and things like this icons to get in more data. And I think it'll become to a. I won't be surprised, you know, if it's literally a case. You go into Airbnb, you type in I want to go to like New York or whatever. And you'll just be swiping right, you'll see swiping right, swiping left. And it'll get to that, it'll get to that point. But it is super interesting to see what they're doing. Obviously they want data because they know what's coming next. In the world of market and advertising, we're going further and further away from shotgun marketing, where you just put some out and hope it's going to stick. And it's more going to be about sniper marketing, where the Airbnb that you look at, Maddie, will be different from that I look at and, and all those things. And that's not just Airbnb. We're talking about every form of advertising. And so it's, it's fascinating to see from like the outside in what, what they're doing, how they're doing it and how they're collecting that data. And also as well, congratulations to Touch Day and the whole team there.

Absolutely, yeah. So quick little. Yeah, oh yeah.

Oh yeah. I think playing off of what Mark was saying also congrats Tyan and everyone at touchstay. But I think it goes into this kind of, you know, everything's getting more niche right now. And I think Airbnb and the marketing being a reflection of that is people are wanting more niche, more personalized things. I think, you know, in the world of short term rentals, it was this kind of splatter approach of how do we appeal to the most amount of people possible? And now we're like, okay, how do we appeal to a very specific group of people and that that's actually getting more occupancy. You're getting more stays by being more specific. And I think it's not just short term rentals. Like was saying this is across the board in any type of product. But I think it's a good thing to note for short term rental stays and how you are making your place stay unique and stand out.

Absolutely. Which we're going to dive into momentarily. Just the last housekeeping item for you guys. Upcoming events, if you happen to be in any of these areas. Some of these are in like two days but we, there are some very cool, more small events happening throughout the summer, some regional events and then as we get back into the swing of things in the fall, we have our big events. Jenny, I don't know if you want to call out the last one on this list, but that is very much you guys and everything we're putting together.

Yeah. So we are very, very excited for October 14th and our STR collab in person meetup which Host GPO is sponsoring is the Host GP Open, a pickleball tournament for the short term rental. So please you guys, you can sign up to be a team, you can sign up to come watch, you can be a spectator, you can participate but it will be very exciting. We are going to have very fun prizes and some food, some drinks, pickle ball, all the things. Very excited about it. So and this also ties into. It happens right before Verma International. So if you guys are going to be at Verma, you can do this right right before that and. And then it's just two in one.

Absolutely. It's going to be a lot of fun. Some good pickleball. So we'll post some more details about that in the Facebook group so you guys can sign up and get all the information you need. But hopefully we get to see a lot of you there and should be a good time. Awesome. Well, now we're into the. The bulk of what we want to chat about which is what's called today's agenda but really it's just a Q A and really those in the audience feel free to interject at any point. There's a Q A function on Zoom. Put your questions there, put them in the chat, we'll make sure to answer them. These were some that were put in the Facebook group actually. So already crowdsourced some questions but I think if we and we got into a little this already in your introductions but maybe we dive a little deeper and we can start with I might just call you guys Journey more for simplicity purposes. But why don't we start with you guys and really intro background. I know we did some of that but if there's anything you want to add to give a little more contact context so people know kind of what questions to ask and that all that stuff.

Yeah, you want to say you got.

Okay.

Yeah. So kind of as I had mentioned, you know we've worked with over 100 hosts of very unique properties and the reason that we focus on unique short term rentals is because that's where a lot of the potential is for virality on social media. It doesn't mean that if you don't have a unique property that social media is not for you. It's just when you're working with creators like ourselves, just as we are looking to help you and your business and grow your social media following, we also want the same as well. And so that means we have to find something that is really going to stand out from the crowd. And and so that's really our focus is honing in on what are those properties that are going to stand out from the rest, that are going to make people stop in their tracks when they're scrolling on social media and make them go, oh wow, I have to go experience that. That's really what we're looking for. And then along with that is also kind of sharing, you know, that experience itself through the content we create. And so that can be on site at the property, but it can also be, you know, we've worked with Mount and showing some of those experiences that are in the area and letting people know that, you know, as, as awesome as it is to come stay at your property, we want them to know what's out there to experience as well when they go to these places to make it more of an all encompassing experience rather than, you know, just going and staying in a cabin for a weekend, which is obviously great on its own. But at the same time we want to be really diving into every aspect of what a short term rental can offer and provide. And so on our end, you know, we're looking to take professional photography and videography at your property to create videos and to create photos that are really going to showcase what your property offers. And then on top of that we also offer some consulting of how to actually build a social media following and then how to use it effectively to turn, turn those followers into guests as well. And we again, we've done this countless times with many, many hosts and have just seen some incredible success stories.

Fantastic. That was an awesome background. Ryan, how about you?

So for me, I've always wanted to find a way to travel and so that's really what content creating and, and my school bus journey opened up for having worked as a project engineer at Disney, the guest experience has always been something that's very important to me. And as Hayden was saying, it's not just about staying in a place or sleeping in a bed. It's about the kind of experience you can offer your guests that go above and beyond their expectations. And really create that lasting memory and that lasting impression. One of my first kind of feet in the door to short term rentals was doing off grid systems for glamping, specifically like yurts, tents, tiny houses, because people wanted to elevate their experiences and have some of those more luxury items. And to us, we may not think of it as luxury, but having running water, electricity, air conditioning on an off grid property that you're renting is definitely a way to elevate that experience. And from working with one of the property management companies, we had pivoted into creating an experience within their stay and elevated it to an interactive escape room style experience that the guests got to participate at their own pace throughout the duration of their stay. So that was kind of a really unique challenge. And that's what kind of experiences. And then ultimately developing a digital guest guide software to allow hosts to kind of bring up that experience a little bit more for their clients and have everything you need at your fingertips. So that's kind of how I got started in this space.

Awesome. That's some really good background as well also for the STR collab members, questions and stuff. So. But I think, you know, working our way down the list. How do you guys, I think content creators typically work with hosts and property managers. Like, is it you reaching out? Are they reaching out to you? Like, how does that whole process work?

Well, I know for us when we first started that first year and a half or so, it was a lot of us reaching out and really kind of trying to build our own portfolio so that then, you know, we would have that work to be able to show host, you know, and prove kind of our worth and. But now the last year and a half, it's really kind of, that has really turned and our demand has just grown so much that we essentially just kind of, you know, pick through everybody that has been reaching out to us and just kind of finding those properties that we feel we can bring the most value to and that can be also the most valuable partnership between the both of us. And so really, it's just kind of, you know, what are you doing to grow your own brand so that you, as a creator, you know, other hosts are going to be able to find you and you can kind of create that demand for yourself. Pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, that was, that was pretty good. Ryan, do you have anything to add for that one?

See that my mic was causing some echo, so I apologize for that. For me, specifically, it was. I offered my services on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork and that was kind of how I got in with other short term rental owners or agencies because I was advertising my various opportunities to work with me there. I have since kind of stepped away from fiverr and now I focus more on directly reaching out to those hosts in areas or unique stays that I feel that would be a good partner to work with. Or if I have actually stayed at their property and have ideas on ways to improve, elevate or have recommendations to see if they're interested in working together.

That makes sense for, for both of you or all three of you. Have you ever reached out to hosts and property managers and gotten pushback simply because they don't, you know, they might not understand what it's like working with content creators or what that means or really what the value is. Like, how do you get over those barriers?

Definitely it's we, and we still have that even now, you know, with our following, you know, it can be kind of easy for, for hosts to see, you know, the numbers and feel like, oh, this is going to be very valuable. But there's still a lot of hosts out there that don't really understand the power of social media. And a lot of the times we'll get questions along the lines of, you know, how do they get to my property if you're posting on your social media? And so there's a lot of things that we kind of have to educate them on of, of how we put the link to their property in, you know, the bio or the description of our content or things like that that gives, you know, a viewer direct access to the property. Then there's things like collaborative post on Instagram where, you know, our Instagram is directly what we're posting, is going on to the host profile as well. That way there's that direct connection. And then also things like email newsletters and our own website having links to their properties there as well. So there's a lot of different ways to do that. But you know, there are a lot of hosts that don't fully understand and you know, like I had said earlier, that's why we do a lot of consulting and really taking time to meet with the host even before we work with them to kind of understand their pain points and what they're looking to do and then being able to educate them on how we can bring that value to them, that's super important, is really building that relationship with the host so that you have that direct line of contact to be able to answer questions and educate them. Because social media, even though it's been around for a while. It's still kind of relatively new in really being a source for or a resource for short term rental hosts.

Yeah. And I think another thing that we have to personally deal with is there are creators across an entire spectrum. No two are the same. And there are creators that do trades for their work and then creators that do paid work. And we are in the paid work space sector, I guess you would say. And so that's kind of another thing that we have to explain and overcome because people will reach out and, you know, ask us to do traded work. And so we kind of jump into what value we can bring to the table and why exactly we are paid. And again, that can be very personalized to each host and what they're looking for and what they need. And so I think that we've had to become very good at kind of explaining our position and explaining the power that social media can bring. And we've got a lot of case studies that kind of help back that up. And it kind of opens people's minds. And having that aha moment is really cool.

From the, the host perspective and PMs, what's the best way you like being reached out to? Do people just DM you on Instagram? Do they find you on your website? Like, how do you. How do you like to be contacted about. About partnerships?

Yeah, most of the time people will direct message us on Instagram. Our email is also there along with our website too. So it really just kind of depends on how the host wants to reach out. We're fine either way. But most people just reach out directly through Instagram, which is totally fine. We know that's kind of where hosts are searching to find people like us, so we understand that that's usually pretty easy. But our website, journeymore.com we have a contact form there that hosts can reach out when wanting to work with us. And then my email is also directly linked to our Instagram. So there's that little contact button that you can click to actually send a direct email as well.

Yeah, and we are on Instagram pretty much all the time. And so that's why we focus a lot on the DMS there. And then with hosts that we work with, we usually try to work with multiple in one area. And so if we ever reach out to a host, we usually try to find them on Instagram and use their email if it's listed. If it's not, we DM them. And then we try not to do the sin of messaging on Airbnb because we Know how harmful that can be?

Well, in reality, when somebody reaches out to us through a social media platform, at least in my opinion, it shows that they're already taking the first step in seeing the value of social media because they've probably already got a page set up for the rental for the property. And it also gives us a glimpse at what are they already doing. Are they just posting photos? Are they just posting videos? Is it merely just a profile with no content yet? So in my opinion, I prefer when they reach out on social media just because it kind of provides that looking glass into what they're already doing and then can always follow up with more formal communications via. Yeah, phone, email or Skype.

I like that. That makes sense from a host perspective. Let's say they're getting a lot of outreach, so a lot of influencers, content creators, are reaching out to them. Do you guys have any advice on what they can look. Look for to figure out who is a reputable content creator? Who. And also, what does success look like? I guess. How do you evaluate these cold outreaches?

Yeah, yeah, great question. So something that I had kind of mentioned before is we run the social media marketing for a property in Bershoba Springs, Tennessee, called the Tree Loss. And so this has kind of helped us to be on the other side because we're actually doing the influencer management for them. And so some of the things that we look for is what. What's the type of content that they're creating and that they're sharing on their profile? We've had all kinds of different influencers come and stay at the Tree Loss and showcase it. And we've definitely kind of been able to see that those that focus more on travel and like, unique stays, that content usually always, even if it's not getting as many views, it's usually always bringing more bookings and actual guests to the property because again, their audience is a little more focused on those people that are looking to stay in the property itself. We've had some that are like fashion influencers come and kind of do their thing at the property. And it's not that they're not doing a great job. It's again, they're just kind of a different audience. And so they don't really. Yeah, they don't translate as well to actual guests that are booking at the property. So I think that's the biggest thing is looking at the type of content that the creator is making and sharing and their type of audience. And then follower count is not everything. And so a Lot of hosts, you know, they'll come to our page and they'll see 200,000 followers on Instagram and they think that that's, you know, the end all be all. But at the end of the day, you really want to look at how is their content performing as well. If we've got, you know, if somebody's got a hundred thousand followers and then you scroll through their, their reels and they're getting like a thousand views per reel, then there's something going on there where they're not making content that's actually reaching their audience. You know, if you, if you're in that six figure range of followers, you should have, you know, tens of thousands of views, at least on your reels as kind of your average. But you also want to see some really viral content as well. We always look for reels that have millions of views, you know, if somebody's got that large of a following. And so that's another thing to kind of be looking at as well. And then just kind of the professionalism that they put out too. We've had people reach out to the tree lofts, our client, and they've just, in their message they said, hey, you want to collab? And it's like, that's not the way to reach out to a host. And so from the host perspective, you know, you want to see somebody that's putting their best foot forward. That's a, that's introducing themselves and telling you kind of the value that they can bring, giving you some examples as well. That's what we're always looking for when we look to work with creators, with our clients. But then us, ourselves are always trying to put our best foot forward when we're reaching out to a host as well, to give that information, to make sure that, you know, in that initial message they can see who we are, the value we bring and what we can offer them. Because we know hosts are busy. And so, you know, we don't need to be going back and forth with 20 different messages for them to try to figure out if we're going to be good to work with or not. I think another great thing to look for is if they're willing to jump on a video chat or a phone call to have more of that personal connection. I think that that's very important to kind of set aside that time. That way you can actually get to know them on a personal level too.

Yeah, I mean, that makes a ton of sense. Ryan, what have you seen in your outreach?

So I think one of the, the different perspectives that I would have is more of like the micro influencer. So typically you're looking at that 50,000 or less followers and one of the big things is trying to find those regional influencers or somebody who's maybe a little bit closer to your target audience so that you can leverage that local reach. It's great to have these hundred thousand thousand million follower accounts, but if that's a global audience that isn't really going to convert or translate into more bookings and more revenue, is that really a good fit for you? So one of my recommendations to hosts would be to kind of think about that in the back of their mind is look for some of those smaller creators who are a little bit more niche for who your real client will be because you'll likely see better success on some of those smaller scales. And in that same realm, I'm a data nerd, so I like to know kind of how the data is tracking. So I think one of the questions was how can you kind of keep track of social media versus converting to bookings? So if I'm linking something in my bio to promote for another brand or property, I'm going to use a link that's clickable and trackable so I can go back to the host that I'm working with and saying okay, the video got X number of views, then we had 0.5 whatever clicks and in that same window you had three new bookings. So you can kind of see that top down funnel of the large scale view of the content, the smaller scale click and then ultimately who books. And in reality most people who are online looking at an item, you're lucky if you're going to get a 3 to 5% conversion rate. So even if you see that million view viral video and you say, well that only got us two or three bookings, that's not a terrible conversion rate because again, your ideal client or your ideal niche may be a lot smaller than what that virality is actually reaching.

Yeah, it's a very good point. E Commerce, those numbers, they're not, not high, those conversion rates. Ryan, you made a good point on how to keep tracking what the success is. And there's a question on here, what does success look like? And then Jordan actually put a question in the chat as well. It's how do you track guests who book directives as a result of the following on your account, on social. So like let's say you post a video, how do you actually track who's booking from that and what was the Success of it past just the views and the number of followers you're getting from it. Hayden and Nikki, I know you guys have done this because you've pushed a lot of direct bookings to your recent clients. Like, how do you guys keep track of all of that?

Yeah, great question. So I'll kind of take it from the creator's perspective. We use linktree when we are putting links in, like our personal bio of Journey more, and that gives us that tracking ability to see who's clicking the link, how many people are clicking the link, and really giving us that data over time so that we can then kind of turn around and share that with the host. We also actually kind of collect data from the host before we actually post. And so we kind of get that rate of bookings on like a weekly and a monthly basis when working with host. And so that way we can kind of compare that before we post the video and then after we post the video. And then that's allowed us to kind of gather some data over time to give us kind of some general numbers. And so in the past, what we've seen is usually if a video gets a million views from our page, that usually brings anywhere from 10 to 20 bookings, depending on the type of property, the availability, and different factors like that. And so that's just kind of some historical data that we've been able to kind of capture on our own page. And then for the tree lofts itself, the client that we run, we've done really seen it really helped that he didn't have any direct bookings beforehand. And then all of a sudden, after social media, you know, about 60% of his bookings are now direct. Again, we're using Link tree to capture and to be able to track all of that data of who's actually clicking the links. And then we also use things like discount codes. And so we'll run like a 10 discount code that we're specifically blasting out on social media. And so then that will tell us exactly how many people are booking and things like that. But then another thing that you can do as a host is in the tree lofts, they have four different cabins. And so in each cabin we actually have a QR code that pulling that up, you can kind of type in, you know, like where. Where they found you and things like that. And so that's also kind of capturing that data on the back end from the people that are actually staying at the property itself and then just continuing to work with other creators and then kind of getting that data from those creators and really helping them to understand like, hey, as a host, you know, I want to see where this traffic is coming from. And usually a creator that's doing professional work and that is really wanting to do what's most valuable for you as the host, they're going to be more than willing to try to capture that data and share it with you.

Awesome. That definitely seems like a good way to keep it all together and tracked. I don't know if you guys are able to share. Oh yeah, go for it.

Jenny, can I jump in really quickly? I just want to say from when we work with influencers or work with and do any partnerships, we use UTM tracking on the link. So these are just little code snippets that are added to the ends of URLs. So say, you know, host GPO is working with Journeymore or Ryan. The URL that I would give them to sign up to become a host GPO member would have special UTM tracking codes associated with Journey More or Ryan. So that way every time I get a sign up or, you know, somebody books a room, you can see that it came from those links. So as a host, as a property manager, you can send those types of links to your influencers that you're working with and then you really can actually directly track, okay, this booking came from that person. And then you can track it over time too and see, like, oh, oh yeah, this person came from Journeymoore and now they've become a repeat booker. They come stay every quarter, that type of thing. So you can even see value over time versus just that initial, initial push.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Yeah, I like that one. That was a good tip. I don't know if you guys are able to share this because I don't know if you publicize your rates at all. But Ron did ask a good question. That was what is the going rate for, he said, UGC creation, which I think is actually slightly different than just working with an influencer. And maybe you can speak to that difference as well. But I also think a lot of content creators are asking the same question. It's like, what do I charge? It's like the Wild west, you know, So I don't know exactly kind of the answer there, but maybe you guys have some insights.

Yes, I think this is one of the most asked questions. And we just had a creator retreat where all of us creators came together and discussed these things. And it is definitely a large topic. And I'll let you go ahead and take away what yeah, yeah.

So we, we kind of look to be kind of an all encompassing package where you're not only getting advertising on our profiles to our following, but we're also going to be creating content for you as the host. So this is going to include photos, video clips, drone footage. We'll also put together actual reels for you as well. And so that's kind of that UGC content creation. And when it comes down to like the ugc, you really just kind of have to pull in those factors of what's your experience level, what kind of gear are you using? You know, is it just your, your phone is, are you actually using professional cameras? Drones, obviously step up the game for you as a creator, because there's a lot that goes into that. You have to get certifications to be able to fly a drone and use it properly. And then you also have to really learn that skill of flying the drone and getting that content as well. And so when you kind of pull in all these factors, it really depends on, you know, what kind of package are you putting together for the host, what's their needs? We look to go anywhere from 10 to $20 a photo. And then when it comes to video clips, we're kind of looking in that, you know, 20 to $30 a clip kind of thing. And so it's, it really comes down to what you're looking to do. Again, our packages are going to kind of be based on the value of our following and then also the content that we're creating for the host. And so kind of bridging, bringing those together. Our average package is usually around $2,500 when working with a host. And we've done packages that have been as high as $5,000 when working with a host, it just kind of depends on what they're looking for and what they need. And a lot of these packages will give a lot of content that the host can work with over time to continue to build that following and do things for themselves. And so if you're a creator, that's, you know, ugc, maybe you're more of a micro influencer and I'm sure Ryan can speak to this even more. But really look at, you know, what content can I create for the host that they can use? Because that's really what's going to allow you to bring a lot of value to them.

And I think that it kind of goes back to what I had said earlier. No two influencers are the same. And so everybody is kind of basing their packages and their pricing on their experience level, their abilities. And then we also have to take into consideration that we are two people. And so a lot of times our price is different because we have two professionals on site. And when we work with Host, we are on the clock from the moment that we arrive to the moment we leave. We aren't the type of creators to come see day, shoot a few things and deliver it on the back end. You know, we are trying our best to capture as much as possible. And so we consider like travel, the hours worked on site and then also post production is a huge part of, you know, editing, putting it together, doing the research into hashtags and virality. And so that's kind of where we base our pricing packages on. And so we know that like not everybody can work with that budget. And so that's why we kind of do our best to do what we can for your needs. But if you have a smaller budget, that's where UGC user generated content is very helpful because sometimes those creators will do it per video or per clip or per photo. And then you can kind of come up with a package that's very comfortable for you. And then I would be sure if you are looking in that direction, just do your research on the quality and the style to make sure you find the right fit for your property. But I know you may hear this number but like really no two creators are the same. And then I highly encourage you if you kind of get a number that seems really astronomical because I that that's happened with the tree lofts where people come to us and they give us a really big number. A great way to kind of come to a meeting point with them is asking them, you know, where is this number not coming from? But like, you know, lay out for me like what these charges are and kind of what you consider to be part of these charges. And when we explain that to host and get into it and our time on the property and being two people and traveling and our equipment and our experience, usually they're like, oh, okay, I understand, you know what these charges are for. So if you're not sure, you know, if you should pay the price, just talk more with them about it and find something that works for you because your instincts will help you with what you should fix.

Ryan, anything to add?

Yeah, when I'm looking at some of times more of like the mom and pop style short term rentals, it may be their first time working with social media content. One of the strategies I like to use is look at what their nightly Rental rate is because for those single owners or the smaller businesses, a lot of times they're thinking about their profit in how many nights do I need to book to make X number of dollars. So I kind of adjust my packages based on what their nightly rate is to kind of help sell the package and the reasoning behind it ultimately have something for them to correlate to. Again, you can do this for the equivalent of five night rental type idea. So that hopefully in their mind it's like, oh, okay, I only need to get X number of nights. And this is basically paid for itself already. So that's one of the strategies I use when working with kind of the smaller hosts.

Fantastic. And I think it ranges too, you know, depends how professionalized you want the content. Is it an individual? Are there multiple people? Is it just user generated content or is it an influencer collab? Like there's a lot of factors that go into play here and it really depends where you want to start. One interesting question that came up in the chat a bit ways back was along the lines of not every property is crazy instagrammable, unique looking and a lot of short term rental properties are just, you know, your six bedroom house in Destin, Florida and that's great. So how can those type of properties also cater to social media? And honestly Jenny, this might be a good question for you too and host gpo because I think you guys have a unique answer to that with what you supply hosts. But I think let's get some different answers around the table. For what do you highlight, you know, if it is simply a normal property, quote unquote normal.

I, I would say personally, you know, when we, when it's a normal property we usually try to, because we've done consult with more normal properties. I know that we don't shoot those very often just because our schedule is so jam packed with people that we go to, we tend to stick to the more unique. But we have kind of spoken to those people who ask, you know, how can I make my property look very attractive on social media even though it's not a unique property? And a lot of times we really encourage hosts to focus on the experiences and the uniqueness that it provides. Maybe with their area, maybe you have something unique in your house that is different than others. Like we saw this one home that they had a whole wall of Nerf guns and that was a really unique piece of their property. And so just finding different ways that fit inside a normal home to develop the experience to make it even better. So I would Say like if you provide coffee and you provide special like bath bombs and those types of things, it's like that's something you can kind of dive into a little bit with social media. I don't know if you have anything to add.

Yeah, and just working with those creators that are more focused on that user generated content. Yeah, they can really kind of focus on those little things that are kind of harder to capture on that larger scale. And so just focus on those amenities that you can provide. You know, a lot of people are looking for hot tubs, they're looking for spas and you know, things like that, those types of experiences. And then again, you know, like Nikki said, just those in those in area experiences that you can kind of focus on as well is really looking to bring that into that social media.

And Ryan made a fabulous point earlier of like using creators who are from your area and have a audience that is based near you. We have found that personally to be, be so incredibly powerful. And so, you know, maybe find people in your area and search on social media for local creators and you can kind of spend time with them dreaming up how to do that with your property.

Jenny, what's your take on this? Because I, I feel like you probably have some interesting ideas.

I think, you know, the goal of working with influencers for me is to our, especially for properties and for our hosts that we work with is to generate kind of a sense of fomo. And you know, you really want to work with influencers who are going to be taking those photos that people think, I want to go stay there, I want to be having coffee right there where that person is having coffee. It's not even about capturing like the whole view of the room. It's capturing a moment, it's an emotion, it's a quick feeling. And so I think even, you know, whatever type of property you have, you can create and work with influencers to create these vignettes that, that evoke that feeling of like, yes, I want to sit and sip hot cocoa in front of the fireplace. You don't have to show the whole fireplace, you don't have to show everything around it. But you know, the influencer can make that inviting photo, can do that inviting photo of that cornhole in your backyard or of just even playing like, I don't know, like checkers at a table with some nice light streaming in. You can do little vignettes with some sort of features of your home, like, you know, games, amenities, different things. I love that idea of the Nerf wall. I think That's a really cool standout thing that you can really use to generate interest and generate this sense of FOMO that people, people want to be going and doing that thing that that influencer is doing in your space. And you don't have to redo your whole space, just redo little bits of things, create little fun vignettes that appeal to people.

Fantastic. That's. No, that's awesome. And for those on the call unaware like host GPO is a great way to leverage putting in these amazing extra design elements. So definitely check them out. I just put a question in the chat because it was a really interesting one and I believe we do have some creators on the call because I blasted this out to our content army. So for the, you know, if you, if you're a creator on the call, check out what I just put in. Put in the chat because this is a question from a host, but do you do one off collabs? Do you do recurring collabs? Would be interesting. Get the take there. And then I'm going to jump over to Tyenne's question because I think it's really interesting and also a brilliant idea. But she said, I'd love to see influencers include a step by step instruction kit on how best to leverage the content that they've created for them. She goes, it's an excellent value ad, but she'd also pay extra for it. Journeymore Ryan, have you guys considered adding this to your offering? Or maybe you do.

That's usually a piece of what we do. Again, we want to educate the host on how to use the content. And so we always try to push. We usually offer at least a one hour, you know, meeting with us to discuss those things. And usually it is an add on, but if it is something that we can kind of work into the package depending on, you know, what kind of deal that we come up with to, to bring the most value. Usually that is part of it because we know that there really needs to be that education there and helping them to understand how to use what we create for them.

And we have a great example. One of the hosts we did this consultation with, she took notes and took it very seriously. We just told her our strategy and what we do and the tips and tricks that we have. And after working with us, she had about, I think 3,000 followers. And she has taken on that, what we taught her and posted to social media, took it very seriously and she has now got herself 80,000 followers all by herself by just putting the time and the work that it takes into it. And then she used a lot of our content to help along the way and now she's working with multiple creators and has a lot of direct booking through that.

That's incredible. What a great, what a great use case. We do have three minutes left on this call. It was only booked for an hour, so apologies to those that didn't get your questions answered. We can keep this going in the Facebook group though. We'll pop over there and if you guys have any more questions, we'll try and get them answered. And if you want to see more of our amazing guests, just let us know because we can bring them back. They are amazing industry voices we want to keep highlighting and this is a really element I'm pretty passionate about, about moving forward in the industry and just connecting amazing content creators with short term rentals because I do believe that is the way the younger generations find and book places to stay these days. So why not bring everyone up together and if you have any feedback for us on, you know, next call we want to run, we do them every month. Ideas of what you want to see. Also let us know because this is a very evolving community. So, so appreciate everyone jumping on. If anyone wants to wrap us up, other than I just did, you know, jump on in. But other than that, that's all I gotta say. Thanks for joining everyone.

Thank you for.