Facebook – it costs nothing to pop your property on Facebook. You can choose to pay for advertising or not. Just having a presence will help, you can easily and quickly share photos of the local area, your gite, local cuisine, events, markets etc. For anyone considering your area/gite for a break – this is free information and it can really help you sell. Take time to do it properly, good photos, good information.
Twitter – also costs nothing unless you choose to pay for advertising. You only have 140 character spaces - less in you include a picture - to make your “tweet” meaningful, it’s not as easy as you might think but it can be very effective.
Google+, Pinterest and Instagram all cost nothing to set up.
However, unless you’ve got lots of time to run all these different pages, just choose one or two and be consistent in your posting. Generally speaking three posts/photos a week is a good number to aim for.
Do respond to all comments, if someone has taken the time to write something to you, you need to thank them, acknowledge them and always reply to questions.
Post your photos on other relevant Facebook pages, and copy in relevant twitter accounts to widen your reach to an already interested audience.
Create a mailing list – issue a letter every month/quarter, information about what’s on and coming up, a recipe that’s local, any changes you’ve made to your gite, the garden or local area. Make it interesting and relevant to your potential clients…
FREE marketing for your gite