How you approach social media marketing will depend on what stage of the game you’re in. Andrew Pototschnik of lawncaremarketingexpert.com offers the following advice.
For those just starting out. Make sure you set up a “business” page on Facebook as opposed to a “personal” page. If you’re promoting a business on a personal page, Facebook will likely delete it.
Set up a Google+ business page. “This is Google’s answer to Facebook, and will become more and more important over time with respect to internet search,” Pototschnik points out.
Once you get going, you can set up a Twitter account for your business. Also consider a YouTube channel. Video is a great marketing tool. You can also feed these videos through to your own website.
Speaking of your own company website, immediately add the Facebook like, Google +1, Twitter and YouTube icons on every page. That way visitors can instantly begin following you and referring you to others.
Start posting relevant information about once a week. Don’t spend a ton of time at first, though. Your main goal is to start building up your list. Once you get to around 100 followers, you can start thinking about hiring someone to manage your social media efforts.
For those who’ve been at it a while. Don’t just play it off the cuff. Create a social media marketing calendar. You want your posts to coincide with the different promotions you’re doing throughout the seasons. For example: “We’re running a special promotion on a lawn treatment this week. The first 10 people to share this with their friends get a 20% discount.”
You also want to engage more with your followers on a personal level. You want to build a friendship. Talk about your company, employees, vendors, what you’re doing in the community, etc. Post photos of recent projects. Have a “customer of the week” contest. Show that human element of your company to make a connection.
Finally, tips and educational information can be effective, but don’t get crazy. It’s likely that most of your followers aren’t really interested in the scientific details of a certain seed you are using.
Be sure to visit Andrew’s website to download his free report: “11 things I wish I had known before I hired this shady ‘SEO’ company and wasted a bunch of money and time.”
