|
The way to get “found” today by potential clients and raving fans who deliver referrals to your inbox is to start socializing. Specifically, you need a presence on social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, or a blog where you can tell your story and provide that free information customers crave. Cohan is active on Facebook (www.facebook.com/susancohan) and this year decided to purchase a Facebook ad. It was ZIP code targeted, and the ad stayed online for 10 days. Cohan got a call from someone who saw the ad, clicked through to Cohan’s Facebook page and approached Cohan for services. Cohan admits she was somewhat surprised by the response. But for $400, the investment was well worth it. In fact, she has essentially traded traditional marketing, such as sending postcards, for social media like blogging and being active on Facebook and Twitter. As for keeping up with offering this experience, Cohan commits to blogging three times each week, spends about an hour each day on Twitter and five minutes updating Facebook. She focuses on quality followers. “I don’t care if I have 100,000 followers on Twitter,” she says. “I can’t service 100,000 clients. I’m really looking for engaged followers who I can spur into action in some way.” That way is usually a referral: a follower has a friend, who has a friend, who sends that person to Cohan’s blog, who checks out her portfolio, who then calls Cohan for more information. And having a web presence is essential today, she says. “It’s important to share, and share broadly,” she says. “And be your own person. Be the voice.” Creating a following Twitter has become somewhat of a pet project for Scott Jamieson, vice president, Bartlett Tree Experts. While the corporation has its own Twitter and Facebook accounts, Jamieson’s handle, @ChicagoTreeMD, is not all about the business. It is, however, all about trees. To gain a sense of control over what is a vast, diverse universe of online talk, Jamieson has taken on Twitter as “a personal mission to understand it and build some community.” “The power in Twitter is individual,” says Jamieson, explaining why he decided to open his own Twitter account a year ago after talking with a marketing professional who advised him to dabble in social media. “Can companies tweet? Absolutely,” he says. “But people want to know who is behind that tweet. Who is Bartlett Tree? When it’s ChicagoTreeMD, they know that tweet is from me.” Jamieson’s goal is to deliver worthwhile information in a light, concise, interesting format. Twitter is just the platform to serve up this order. “People want something of value,” he emphasizes, underscoring how the old days of output marketing – sending the public a message – have been traded in for two-way, relationship/information based sharing. People want to learn, and they want to get to know you. “Give me information. Make me laugh. Make me want to connect with you,” Jamieson says. “The main thing with Twitter is this building of community that does not have a direct linkage to sales,” he adds. “It’s networking, building trust, creating a sense of community and expertise – ‘If I want to learn about trees, I’ll go to @ChicagoTreeMD.’ I’m hoping at one point I’ll connect (followers) to the business.” There are certainly links. For instance, Bartlett Tree has been involved with helping the Toomer’s Corner poisoned oak trees at Auburn University in Alabama. He made the connection via a tweet. “From that perspective, I’m providing insight that followers might find useful and ultimately retweet,” he says. Jamieson shares insight from trade shows with on-the-spot tweets. He has attracted people to his booth this way. People have even approached Jamieson at shows and events after recognizing his photo from Twitter. “I have seen amazing things where I connect with people, tweet with them and go to a trade show and then people I have only seen online come up and say, ‘I know you,’” Jamieson says. “It’s like you know them through conversation and you can just pick up.” But how does a company achieve a personal connection? The key, Jamieson says, is to ensure that tweets and Facebook posts are congruent with the brand. A company needs a strategy: a plan that integrates social media into the overall marketing picture. “I see us working hard corporately to establish a social media strategy,” he says. “As a larger corporation that has been more traditional marketing focused, we are trying to work hard at having social media as an integral part of our complete marketing strategy. It’s not a separate thing.” Delivering information Once you get into the groove of blogging, when you miss a daily post you feel like something’s missing. “The whole day you feel off,” says David Marciniak, owner and lead designer at Revolutionary Gardens, Manassas Park, Va. “My blog is my website,” Marciniak says of http://revolutionarygardens.com. Information sharing is his mission and a way he differentiates his business from competitors. “We’re not building rockets,” he says. “Homeowners want information to be accessible to them, and there is reciprocity at play if they find someone who is willing to share that information. It advances me as the authority.” Marciniak started blogging in 2008 when he took his business full time. “It was definitely a lousy time in the economy,” he says, adding that social media has allowed him to cast a wider net, capture more leads, prompt referrals and nurture relationships so those friends eventually become customers. “There are only so many hours in a day, and social media allows you to be in more than one place at a time, and it gives you cheerleaders who help move you forward,” he says. Most of Marciniak’s social media time is spent blogging. He posts four days a week, Monday through Thursday – and sometimes Fridays, if he has photos or a tip of the day he wants to share. He doesn’t worry so much about length. “You don’t need to be churning out ‘War and Peace’ every time you sit down at the computer,” he says. “What amazes me is how much people really dig on seeing progress photos or job-site photos, or even plan drawings or renderings.” Marciniak spends about a half-hour writing each blog. He spends an hour daily on Twitter (@revgardens) following threads. Facebook (www.facebook.com/RevolutionaryGardens) reinforces his blog: He posts links to blog updates, and posts photos and other teasers that eventually guide “friends” to the blog. As for LinkedIn, Marciniak is still playing with ways to utilize this tool. For now, he treats it as an online resume. His business cards contain a QR code on the back that takes contacts directly to his LinkedIn profile. “They can add me as a contact – it’s a short-hand way to exchange business information,” Marciniak says. Converting friends into clients isn’t Marciniak’s focus for social media. But he notes that the sales closing rate for people who find him through his blog is about 60-70 percent. That’s because clients can essentially prequalify themselves by reading his blog. “They get a sense of the type of work I do, my business philosophy and my personality,” he says. “At that point, they can decide whether this is the level of service they want.” Meanwhile, Facebook drives in leads from his vast network of contacts, which includes friends of friends who learn about his business from job-site photos he posts. “Where the value comes in is through those referrals – where someone who is in my network shares a post or photo with someone in their network, and that comes back to me,” Marciniak says. But using blogs and other content marketing tools only works if you’re consistent. People have high expectations: They want updates, often. “If you decide to blog, you have to be firm and steadfast in your commitment,” he says. “You have to make time for it.”
|
Get curated news on YOUR industry.
Enter your email to receive our newsletters.
Explore the May 2011 Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
Latest from Lawn & Landscape
- Project EverGreen helps revitalize Milan Park in Detroit
- Trex Company wins Product of the Year, Judges’ Choice Winner at Environment+Energy Leader Awards
- General Equipment & Supplies in Fargo adds Takeuchi equipment
- Mariani Premier Group acquires Hazeltine Nurseries
- EnP Investments adds Mark McCarel as Northeast territory sales manager
- Our April issue is now live
- Ready or not
- Tribute to an industry guru
