Timeshare Lifestyle poised for growth - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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“The industry carries a little bit of a that timeshares are abad thing,” Lambie “The stigma is really ther e for people who haven’t taken the time to do the To counter this, Timeshare Lifestyled puts the Web to use in connectingg timeshare owners with prospective buyerw and renters. Starting in 2006 with five employees, the compant used pay per clicik advertising, but now Lambie employs socialmedia — includinyg sites like Facebook and Twitter — to sprea awareness of the company and its Lizz Harmon, president and CEO of , said that socialo media is a critical tool to increasee visibility in today’s market.
“Not beinb involved in social media, for companieas that deal with consumers, is not an Harmon said. “It’s like going to a networkingf eventbut online.” In order to take full advantaged of these tools, companies need to embraces them as part of their overalk marketing strategy, Harmon said. “I think that it’se going to take people really embracing it to see the she said. “Right now, people are gettinvg on but they’re just not sure what to do.” Planz are in motion at Timeshare Lifestyle to perpetuatethe company’s growth.
One of its most significantr turning pointswas Lambie’w June 2008 hiring of Lukas Gilkey as operations managedr to handle in-house advertisintg and marketing. Prior to Gilkey’se appointment, Timeshare Lifestyle outsourced such but Lambie felt that more emphasisz was needed to help the company reachits potential. “The result was that I’m able to get the focusa that I need to help us grow to the next he said. Lambie considerds resorts and travel Web such asand , to be his primary competition.
He’s launchinyg a redesigned version of the Timeshard Lifestyle site in early July in order to improvde navigation and possibly includd an interactive section where users can post photos and blog further developingthe company’s social media presence. Timesharde Lifestyle also works with the resale whereas most resortsdo not. This gives the company an edge and provideas it with an opportunityfor collaboration. The company has establishex relationships withsome resorts, wherein they refer clientd interested in the resale market directly to Timeshare Lifestyle. Abougt 20 percent of its business is based onsuch referrals, Lambie said.
The companyy has set up a similar systemwith Realtors, whereimn they receive a fee when they refer a customer. Since the Realtords don’t handle timeshares, there’s no overlap betweenm the two. Lambie plans to further develop this approach and is exploringseveral possibilities, including appearancesz at real estate conferences and a direct-maio campaign. For future growth, Lambie plans to double the company’es 11-person staff by the end of 2009, and he aims to brinv in some bilingual employees to facilitatethe company’s international “The opportunity is there,” he said. “We just need good solisd people to help usget there.
” Timeshare Lifestylr is on track for a 30 percen year-over-year revenue increase in Lambie said.