W hether you are a social media novice or an experienced user, have you ever wondered why brands and compa- nies decide to use certain social media platforms? Today more than ever, ARDA and key members have been thinking through how best to target the association’s own social media campaigns during this coronavirus disruption period. As you may be aware, ARDA aims to “Take Back the Narrative” with two indus- try campaigns: The existing “Responsible Exit Coalition” offers education and resources for owners looking to exit their ownership. In addition, a positive sentiment campaign called “Love My Timeshare,” planned for summer launch, will promote the passion, commitment, and enjoyment of our timeshare owners touting their vacation experiences and the overall benefits of ownership. ARDA members who excel in the digital space currently participate with our Take Back the Narrative (TBN) task force led by Tom Nelson, CEO of Holiday Inn Club, and Jason Gamel, CEO of ARDA. Together with task force volunteers, technology strategies provided by Digital Ignite, and creative con- cepting by Brand Tango, we are harnessing the power of social media with a strategic marketing approach aimed to engage vari- ous consumers, prospects, and stakeholders in the timeshare industry. These campaigns continue to gather data and deliver results even with the current uncertainty that faces all travel industry stakeholders. The goal of ARDA’s Responsible Exit campaign, which has been underway for nearly a year, is to serve as an educational platform disseminating safe and responsible pathways to exit your timeshare. We’re spreading awareness of developer options, ways to avoid timeshare exit scams, and a checklist so visitors to the site, www. responsibleexit.com, can better understand their choices and rights to experience a successful exit. As we saw during the financial crisis of 2007-09, times like these become an ideal environment for scams to expand and fraudulent information to be shared. Bringing accurate solutions and information to our timeshare owners is more important now than ever before. The goal of our “Love My Timeshare” campaign is to bring timeshare owners together (or back together again, after the pandemic-related social distancing ends) through digital media with the sharing of memories, experiences, and testimonials that show how much they love their time- shares. ARDA believes that the timeshare industry will return to the travel and vacation space faster than other industries and that, through this campaign, we will appeal to all age demographics and promote experiences and benefits enjoyed daily by our timeshare owners. The fun and passion behind timeshare travel is obvious in this campaign where “Love is in the Share!” and returning to vacation experiences is around the corner, if not already underway. As most developers and industry leaders already know, social media marketing has become an essential element of the overall marketing strategy for many of ARDA’s members because it can increase conver- sions and sales, boost brand awareness, and How You Can Benefit by Getting Involved in ARDA Social Media Campaigns BY GRAYSON FRIZZELLE AND STEVE COOK SALES AND MARKETING Grayson Frizzelle is social media strategist at Digital-Ignite. Steve Cook is chief marketing officer at Digital-Ignite. 70 — Developments better the customer experience. Together, we can reach new audiences, encourage conversation about a brand, or change the perception people have of a brand. Thanks to social media and our task force partners, ARDA also can target niche markets to reach specific demographics with ease and be able to keep track of brand sentiment and what’s being said about their business online. Let’s take a deeper look into the benefits of different platforms and some of ARDA’s social media strategies for these campaigns: Facebook is an amazing platform for building an audience and connecting with a community. It’s better than email for communicating with your audience and is a great place to connect with an older demographic, which makes it an ideal plat- form for our Responsible Exit campaign. Informational and entertaining content performs the best on this platform, which is why we’ve focused on using our Responsible Exit page to share news and informational content, to further educate and direct our community to the valuable resources that exist on our website. It’s also a key platform for establishing the Responsible Exit campaign as a trusted and reputable source of industry information. Instagram , an image-based platform, consists of visual content intended to inspire, entertain, or educate. Instagram is ideal for campaigns like “Love My Timeshare” because it’s a perfect platform to share beautiful imagery that inspires people to fall back in love with or invest in a timeshare. For Responsible Exit, Instagram helps us educate our audience by sharing advice and providing the next steps to exit for owners interested in selling and exiting their timeshare. Twitter is the fastest-paced social media platform and is the place to be for those who either want to be entertained or are interested in keeping up with current events. Twitter can help you communicate with your community in real time and direct your audience to websites. For Responsible Exit, we’re using Twitter to share information from known influencers as well as breaking news from the industry. Our aim is to create a news hub for our community so that they can come to our Twitter page to find industry news and information. Twitter also helps us spread awareness of malicious timeshare exit companies that prey on vulnerable owners looking for ways out of their timeshare ownership. ARDA, the task force team, and their partners use metrics to measure the success of each campaign’s social media traction. Responding to changing conditions and having a structured strategy to measure results is critical when evaluating a campaign. Once goals are established, the macro key performance indicators (KPIs) are also set. For Responsible Exit, we want as many owners who are interested in exit as possible to see our message and be educated on the options to prevent them from potentially getting scammed by a third-party exit company. We do this by connecting them with their original developer and other site resources. We also constantly evaluate reach, which is the number of people who have seen a given post on social media. This metric is particularly important for Facebook and Instagram, as it represents the views of individuals or followers who have seen your content. To simplify this, the higher your reach, the more people have seen your content and received your message. Engagement is also an important metric for all three platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Engagement refers to the number of people who have inter- acted with your content. This could refer to likes, shares, saves, reactions, comments, video views, clicks, retweets, and more. Engagement is important as it helps us understand how our audience is receiving our content. The more engagements we have, theoretically, the more interested our audience is in the content we are posting. This momentum builds when everyone becomes involved. “Today’s environment is uncharted ter- ritory with the business adaptations being made because of coronavirus,” said Jenny Davlin, chief business officer at ARDA, who helps lead these initiatives “Social strategies for communication continue to be a priority. Our message of education, and communicating legal and healthy options for exit, remains important to our industry today. In addition, sharing the positive sentiment of all timeshare owners and their experiences is equally important to all the consumers and ARDA member organizations. This is why we invite you, as an ARDA community member, to help us by supporting our two campaigns.” She added, “It’s as simple as following us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and sharing our posts. We need the messages behind both of these campaigns to reach their target audience, whether those are potential new timeshare owners, current owners who love their timeshare experi- ences, or owners looking for a path to exit. Let’s stand together as a community and Take Back the Narrative.” SALES AND MARKETING Responsible Exit Instagram: instagram.com/responsibleexit Facebook: facebook.com/responsibleexit Twitter: twitter.com/responsibleexit Love My Timeshare Instagram: instagram.com/ lovemytimeshare Facebook: facebook.com/ lovemytimeshare Twitter: twitter.com/lovemytimeshare May 2020 Developments — 71