Member Article

Sally's Cottages reaches social media milestone

Lake District-based company Sally’s Cottages has reached a major social media milestone.

The family-run holiday lettings agency has achieved half a million likes on Facebook, where its page features regular competitions, stunning images of Lake District scenes and details of individual cottages.

Popular monthly giveaways offering a weekend stay in a holiday cottage attract the attention of millions of Facebook followers and their friends. The latest competition had a reach of around 3.5 million, with 32,000 likes, 30,000 comments and almost 10,000 shares.

Daily posts about individual cottages attract an average reach of 90,000, with 1,000 likes, 90 comments and 100 shares. In addition, regular posts about the Lake District generate an average reach of 100,000, with about 2,000 likes, 250 comments and 100 shares. 

Cumbrian-born entrepreneur Sally Fielding, who founded the company 14 years ago with just one cottage and an initial investment of £1,000, is delighted with the landmark number of likes. 

She says: “It’s a fantastic achievement and we’re proud to have so much support.

“With over 500,000 likes we believe we have the biggest Facebook page of all Cumbrian businesses. On top of that our Facebook page is way more proactive, fun and chatty than any of our national competitors in the holiday lettings business, which is absolutely superb! Even though they have thousands of cottages, they have far fewer followers than us and much less interaction.

“One of the keys to our success is that we connect with, and get to know, our audience. Social media is great for interacting and building a relationship, and a super platform for sharing moments of happiness.

“We love helping people to find their dream holiday and then talking to them about their fantastic experiences after their visit.”

As well as Facebook, the company also dominates on other social media platforms, with over 13,000 followers on Twitter and almost 9,500 on Instagram.

Sally’s Cottages is now the largest independent holiday cottage agency in the Lake District and continues to be recognised for its growth and excellent customer service through a number of national and regional awards.

In the past year, the business has seen an increase of 30 per cent in bookings, brought on 85 new holiday cottages, received over 6,000 reviews and taken bookings of over £7.5million. It has enjoyed success in the Cumbrian Family Business Awards, Forward Ladies Awards, and British Travel Awards. It was also a finalist in the Amazon Growing Business Awards 2017.

Over the next three years, Sally’s Cottages is sponsoring the Keswick Under-14s Football Team and this year is partnering with Keswick Film Festival and Go Ape! Whinlatter. Sally Fielding is also featured alongside Dorothy Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter on the logo of ‘Celebrating Women of Cumbria’ – a creative project involving 11 museums around Cumbria, including the ‘Herstory’ exhibition in Keswick Museum.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sally's Cottages .