Social Media Marketing

How Social Media Turned Into Real Dollars for Home Depot

This post is about how any company, large or small, can have a huge impact on their bottom line through social media. And I am your human guinea pig. A few days ago I wrote a post where I talked about Home Depot’s strategy of providing home owners with DIY workshops and classes to get people into the store. Guess what happened? Out of the blue, I get an email yesterday from Home Depot. And not just anyone, but someone pretty important inside the organization. Now, I am not going to give her name, but let’s just say she has [...]

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Contractor Marketing: When Clients Attack!

Earlier today I talked about the effort involved in social media marketing for contractors. And no matter how well you treat your clients, there is always going to be someone who feels slighted. And that’s when you are going to have to deal with criticism online. Criticism online is a lot different from dealing with someone one-on-one. Just ask any contractor who has been screwed to the wall by a disgruntled client on AngiesList . And while no social media experiment is going to be flawless, there are some guidelines to follow as you prepare your organization for the inevitable [...]

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Social Media = Up All Night!

Contractors and home improvement companies need to know one thing BEFORE starting a social media campaign. To be successful, you need to work just as hard online as you do in your business during the day. And while social media marketing doesn’t have a fixed cost, there is a trade-off. Work! For all the hype built around social media, the one take-away you need to be aware of BEFORE you start is that it takes a huge amount of effort. Listening to conversations online is a laborious task, even with the help of tools like TweekDeck or Seesmic. Responding and [...]

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Contractor Marketing Tip: Using Photo Sharing Websites to Boost Business

Contractors are constantly being asked for references and proof of their work.  New clients want to make sure that the contractor can do what they say they can do in all of their marketing materials before agreeing to a binding contract.  Thanks to the different photo sites that are available, showing prospects before and after images has gotten a little easier. Increasingly, contractors have realized that having a website is not enough to bring in new business.  People have access to multiple sources of information such as friends, television, radio, printed material and the web.  In order to catch your [...]

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What Canadian Club Can Teach Contractors About Social Media

So, I happen to be a Canadian Club fan, having an occasional CC and Coke ( I know, I know) at the end of the day helps me relax and chill out. While I was away a few weeks ago with the family at the beach, I happened to tweet that I was having a drink. A few hours later I got a tweet back from Canadian Club thanking me for my support. Well, I was impressed with the follow up and left it at that. Later that night while nursing a bit of sun burn, I stopped by CC’s [...]

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Why You Need Social Media – Cause It Ain’t a Party If You Are The Only One There!

After my week-long series on social media marketing for contractors I received an email from a painter out on the west coast who basically said that social media is bullshit. His business was built on referrals and he is making a good living from that. To that I say good for you George. But for those of you out there who haven’t found the goose that lays the golden eggs you need to consider social media as another way to spread the word. And I mean spread the word because the days of “build it and they will come” have [...]

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A Contractor’s Guide to Social Media Marketing Part 5

How to use social media with traditional advertising Traditional advertising platforms such as direct mail and print yellow pages are designed to get a specific, trackable response from a specific set of people. Traditional advertising should have a verifiable return for every dollar spent as it provides a message to consumers that creates enough interest to get them to respond to your specific call to action; phone, website, email or coming into your showroom. Television and radio do the same thing, invite potential clients to reach out to you the contractor, but these two platforms are used more to build [...]

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A Contractor’s Guide to Social Media Marketing Part 4

Bringing the message to you — instead of you having to go out and find people to interact with, today I’m going to give you some tips on how to bring them to you. This will give you the opportunity to get involved in many more conversations giving you the ability to your brand value and expand your influence even faster! Leave them wanting more Blog searches — go to http://blogssearch.google.com and search for blogs aimed at do-it-yourselfers in your specific industry. Become an active member by commenting on the posts with tips and advice. Make sure to link back [...]

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A contractor’s guide to social media marketing part 3

In part three I want to make sure you understand that social media is not meant to be a replacement for everything else you’re doing to market your contracting business. Social media marketing really is meant to prop up the other legs of your advertising table and help you get your message out to more people by touching those who have not consumed your traditional advertising. By integrating social media into your overall marketing mix you let people know that you are available to them at their convenience; through your twitter or Facebook pages or your blog or website. Social [...]

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A contractor’s guide to social media marketing part 2

It’s a shame so many contractors recoil at the thought of social media marketing since many of you would really be fantastic at it. Why do I say that? Because you do it every day face-to-face! So, to get a better understanding of how social media works you just need to take a look at the way people are influenced in the real world. Here’s an example social media influence in the “real world” My wife went out and bought a new purse last weekend, brought it home and started to pack it with all the junk (I can say [...]

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