Why is Social Media Important?
Social media is easy (at least once you get the hang of it), free or extremely inexpensive (especially in terms of ROI), and it keeps your brand and product top-of-mind for customers. Seventy-six percent of businesses use social media to achieve their marketing objectives.
- Businesses who use social media for marketing experience a roughly 133 percent increase in revenue.
- About 71 percent of consumers respond to social media, based on feedback and recommendations.
- Consumer reviews on social media are considered more reliable by customers.
What is Social Media?
Social media is your online presence. Most of the time it’s in reference to the top social media platforms—Google Plus, Facebook, Instagram, Houzz, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Think of the Internet like a street corner. You’re standing on the street corner peddling your product. You can bark and shout and throw rocks (literally) at people passing by, but odds are they’re not going to listen. If they do listen, they probably won’t stop to buy anything, right? Now, think of social media as your shop (literally and figuratively). Learning how to use social media effectively is like the difference between standing on a street corner and screaming like a crazy person, and setting up a brick-and-mortar building that people can find and feel comfortable in.
1. The Foundation
Setting up a social media page is like buying the plot of land on the street corner and laying the foundation of your building. Without a profile, page, or platform, you’ve got nothing to build upon. If you don’t already have a platform, we’ll go through how to set one up after you learn how to use it—at the end of this presentation.
Setting up your platform, though, does not mean you’ve built your building yet. After all, you don’t see people standing on a slab of concrete and shouting at people to buy their products—that’s just as crazy as standing on the street corner with nothing at all. You’ll have no name, no face, and no content whatsoever. So now it’s time to raise the beams and frame this puppy.
2. The Skeleton
Just as if you were constructing a building, you want to build your social media profile.
Start by choosing the right category—local business, then a sub-category, local business.
On Twitter and Instagram specifically, your “handle.” A “handle” is like your online nickname, like CB radios with the “at sign” in front of it.
To give more structure to your support beams, fill out all the information you can about your business as you’re setting up the account, but this can be done later. This is a description about what you do, contact and location information, and your website address if you have one. This is kind of like the insulation of your building—if you have holes in your descriptions, your profile will be drafty and uncomfortable to visitors. You’ve got to entice them to read, but be careful not to oversell.
So now you’ve got the bare minimum for your profile—your framed structure. But it’s still not enough. Now you need walls.
3. The Exterior Walls
Posting content is like putting up the exterior walls of your building—after all, who’s going to like a building without walls? When I say content I am talking about posting pictures of the jobs you do with short descriptions of the work done. Content literally builds up your online presence and gives people a reason to start coming inside. Don’t get me wrong, putting up walls isn’t enough to make people stay, but it starts to give them a reason to look around.
Content is king. The stronger your content is, the better your building will look. Strong content means photos that are in focus. Words spelled correctly. Don’t be afraid to try new things every once in a while. Pictures of jobs are not the only thing to post.
For example, say you’re digging a hole on a project and run into a family of gophers. Try to take a picture of that and put it up, saying something like: We ran into a family of gophers on this border today…hope the guys from CaddyShack do not blow us up. And take a photo and post it.
Some people say a job isn’t done or a project isn’t completed until it’s been posted to social media. Others advocate sponsoring content, which is paying Facebook to put your post in more people’s feed. Just a couple of things to keep in mind.
Alright, so now your profile is starting to look like a solid building; you’ve got your foundation, solid support beams, and good-looking walls. But you’re not done yet.
4. The Sign
Ok, so you’ve got your walls of content all nicely held up by your solid informational support beams, firmly planted in a strong profile foundation. People still need to find your building, so put up a sign.
Hashtags are like signs that make it easier for customers to find your business. It’s a search tool. According to HootSuite, a social media tool:
“Hashtags, once your phone’s pound sign, now have a place on most popular social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Vine, and Pinterest. The hashtag is likely the most popular means of categorizing content on social media. It makes your own content discoverable and allows you to find relevant content from other people and businesses. The hashtag also allows you to connect with and engage other social media users based on a common theme or interest.”
For example, if you think your customers are interested in, say, “rocks,” you would hashtag “rocks” (#rocks). But that’s pretty broad. You’d probably attract a lot of geology nerds, or maybe people who haven’t given up on outdated 90’s slang (“That rocks, dude!”).
Put some thought into what hashtags you’ll use, and search for them before you use them to see how they will perform. You don’t want to use an over saturated hashtag or one that nobody is looking for.
5. Maintenance
Your building’s built, but you don’t want it to start falling apart, or look trashy. You’ve got to keep it up. Just like you would sweep the sidewalk and wash the windows of your building, you must maintain the appearance of your social media profile. That means always using proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.—as well as posting relevant content.
- Use hashtags: You want to keep your “We’re Open” sign shiny and bright.
- Share your content: If you want more people to see the things you post, make your posts something worthy of being seen. If people like what you have to share, they’ll share it, and then their friends will see it, and then their friends will share it…(Twitter calls this “retweeting”)
- Share other people’s content: Not only does sharing other people’s posts keep your building’s thread fresh and new, it also alerts people that your building is up. Every time you share someone else’s post, they get an update, and their followers will see that you shared it. That might cause someone to come looking for your profile (“Hey, they like the same things I do. Maybe I should check them out”).
- Be dedicated and stay active: Just like an abandoned building looks creepy, so does an abandoned FB, Twitter, Instagram etc profile.
- Follow other users, especially the other owners here: Most of the time, if you follow someone they’ll follow you back, or, at least, look at your profile. Make sure you post are engaging relevant to your business.
- Proofread your content: I can’t stress this enough. Bad grammar is one of the biggest turnoffs for potential customers. You can edit on Facebook, but it shows editing history, and most of the time too late.The 25 Worst (Best) Spelling Mistakes on Twitter 133K1.7KThe Worst Typos EverThe Most Hilarious Twitter & Facebook FailsUse pictures of projects and video of installations along with short descriptions check out what we were doing in Waco today: Just like you wouldn’t want a boring building, you want to give your customers something pretty to look at—something that catches their attention as they’re strolling down the sidewalk—or in this case, scrolling down their social feed.
It’s fairly easy to set up a social media account. Most social media platforms are about the same to set up. Here’s a quick rundown of the top social media platforms, and why each one will benefit you.
Facebook is the big kahuna of social media. It’s all about “friends” and making social connections. Facebook gives a “face” to your business. Facebook pages are a lot more detailed than, say, a twitter page, which means you can give a lot more information. It’s also easier for customers to leave comments and reviews Ninety-three percent of businesses use Facebook to market their brand.
To start a Facebook page, you first have to have your own Facebook profile. I’m willing to wager that most of you already do. If not, you’ll need an email address you want associated with the account, although you can change it later if you choose. Then all you have to do is fill out the information. If you don’t want to update and maintain your personal Facebook page, that’s ok, but you need it to create a business page (which you definitely want to update and maintain).
Once you have your personal Facebook page set up, go up to the top right-hand corner of your profile and click the carrot to the right of the world icon. There you can select “Create Page.” Then simply follow the instructions and your Facebook business page will be up and running. Now you have built the “storefront” (foundation, frame, and walls), but you still need to maintain it and make sure people know you’re open for business.
You already saw how to create an Instagram page, so I won’t take up your time telling you about it again. But you should know that Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms for business. It will be especially beneficial to you because it’s image-based, which means you can post pictures of all the pretty projects you’re doing. You can easily post simultaneously from Instagram to Facebook and Twitter.
Twitter is short and sweet, invited to 140 charters or less. That may not seem like much, but trust me when I say, “Less is more!” Tweets can link to your website, Facebook page, or any other link you want, plus you can post pictures to capture the attention of people scrolling through stories. You can use Twitter to quickly connect to your customers 24/7, and respond to questions or even complaints.
Think about recent news; specifically, Donald Trump. Love him or hate him, not a day goes by (almost) that the news doesn’t report something he tweeted. That goes to show the incredible power of visibility Twitter has. On Facebook, what followers see is decided by algorithms—only about 16 percent of page likes organically see your post. On Twitter, however, your first tweet has as much likelihood of being seen as Donald Trump’s. That’s why you want to tweet often. Twitter offers an even playing field to reach customers.
You can set up your Twitter page just like we did the Instagram profile.
Complaints
Now, before I go any further, I’d like to address the possibility of complaints or negative comments. Although your products are excellent, and your customer service is rock solid, you still may experience some negative feedback. Some people are just jerks—in the immortal words of Taylor Swift, “Haters gonna hate.” In the event that someone posts a negative comment on one of your social media platforms, there are some things you should do:
- Respond quickly. However, you don’t want to respond hastily. Give some thought to what you’re going to say.
- Say that you’re sorry for their poor experience, but don’t necessarily apologize for the work you did. Extenuating circumstances, for example, may be the cause of their complaint.
- Offer a solution. If this is impossible or impractical, try to offer something that will benefit both parties.
- Remember, people are seeing this. Don’t say, offer, or doc anything you wouldn’t want the entire world to see.
- Tell them to contact you directly. You don’t want to have a long, drawn-out conversation for everyone to see online. Have them email, call, or directly message you to keep it private.
Negative comments can actually be a good opportunity to show the world your great customer service. Here are a few examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Ok, back to platforms.
LinkedIn is geared toward businesses. It allows people to create professional profiles for themselves and their business. You can cross-promote your other social networks by using widgets, like having your Twitter feed update automatically on your LinkedIn page.
You can use company pages much like Facebook pages to create a space in which customers and other business owners can interact with each other. Setting up a LinkedIn profile is just like setting up a Facebook profile and page. It’s basically a more business-oriented Facebook.
Google Plus
You’ve heard about SEO (search engine optimization)? Google Plus and Google My Business are imperative to having effective search rankings.
If you have a Gmail email address, you already have a Google Plus page. Just log in to your email, click your picture icon in the top right corner of the screen, and you can go directly to your Google Plus account. Go to google.com/business and follow the instructions to get your Google My Business listing started.
Houzz
Houzz may be one of the best social media platforms for contractors (after all, we’re “building” a social media plan). It centers up home remodeling, decorating, and design. It connects customers with professionals and gives them ideas for home remodeling.
You can post pictures of your products and designs, and list your business information so that if people like what they see, they can instantly get in touch with you. You can also link your Houzz posts to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, so if people haven’t heard of Houzz, they can find your profile on something they’re more familiar with.
Here are some tips to make your Houzz (or any) profile really stand out, straight from the “Houzz’s“ mouth:
- Have a full business description, a profile photo, hand-curated projects and ideabooks, and a large assortment of high-quality images uploaded to the account.
- Upload lots of large, high-quality images. The more the better! Provide thorough descriptions and make full use of keywords to describe your images and expose them to more Houzzers as they perform searches on the site. You can organize your images into “Projects” to serve as your online portfolio on Houzz.
- Be sure to answer any questions about your images promptly. Houzz users often ask questions directly about the spaces uploaded to the site, which will send a notification to you as to the image owner. Those discussions are visible with your image and also live in the Houzz discussions area to serve as a reference to all Houzzers.
- Search for or filter discussions related to your area of expertise and jump in where you are able. When answering posts on other professionals’ photos, try to allow some time for others to answer questions on their own images first. If hours or days have gone by with no response, your help is absolutely appreciated by the community.
- Be personal, positive and friendly, in keeping with the tone of the Houzz community. Participating is more about building relationships than about hard sales.
- Follow Houzzers (both professionals and homeowners) who advocate for you or are otherwise relevant to your business. It is always a good idea to acknowledge your advocates in the discussions as well. A thank-you to someone for spreading the word about your work is a nice token of appreciation.
Setting up a Houzz profile is just like setting up your Facebook profile.
In Summary
- Get on social media!
- Share each others’ posts. This will build a strong Boulder Design or Border Magic community.
- Don’t ignore negative comments. They’re not fun, but—if handled correctly—they can be a big positive.
- Use hashtags. Make sure they’re something someone would look for (searchable)—you don’t want to be too specific or too broad.
- Make sure you always proofread. Spelling always counts.
- Stay active. A few ideas to post include:Customers posting pictures of themselves next to or using products
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- Have employees take pictures while they’re on the job (behind the scenes)
- Ask customers to provide testimony(all of these suggestions should have correlating hashtags)