The early adopters of social media gained a first-mover advantage that many contractors are finding difficult to overcome today. That doesn’t mean you don’t start, it just means that most of you are going to have to work your asses off to make a difference.
How can you gain a foothold in social media today?
The days of casting wide nets to gain traction in social media circles are over. To win you need to focus like a laser on your target. To do that you need to take some specific steps that will help you navigate the social media pool and keep you and your contracting company from wading too far into the deep end too early.
Becoming an engaged advertiser online
1. Make sure any advertising you do offline has an online component built into it.
2. To stick with the swimming analogies, dip your toe in the water first and see what your competition is doing online, steal their strengths and capitalize on their weaknesses.
3. Make sure your campaign is “social media focused”- In other words, make sure your offline ads direct people to follow you on Twitter or fan you up on Facebook.
4. Be careful here, but you can promote your offline campaigns through social circles online, just don’t come off as a spammer or you’re screwed.
5. Get a Twitter account and a Facebook page…that is all.
6. Since social media typically doesn’t have a solid ROI attached to it, set goals that reflect your presence in the market; how many twitter followers you develop, fans on Facebook, etc. Many people will tell you the number of friends or subscribers don’t matter. Well they do, because each Twitter follower or Facebook fan has the potential to be one of the following 3 things; an advocate for your brand, a client, or a critic, but they will never be all 3 at the same time!
7. Track – Make sure you know how people are finding you online; Google places, Twitter, wherever people are coming from you want to make sure to spend more time there.
8. Reach out to the people who can influence your brand in your space. But be careful, this one too can hurt your brand both online and off.
9. Keep going-making a difference online means working hard, just like you do during the day. Just because the leads are not falling through the door doesn’t mean you are not making an impact.
10. In complete contradiction to number 6, numbers don’t matter. Even if you only have one follower, you have an audience that deserves your attention, or just get out of the way and let your competition take care of them!
5 responses to “10 Tips to Developing a Social Media Presence For Contractors”
Great topic! You provide good tips many peeps overlook. My 2 cents weigh in #5. If a brand or company isn’t ready to dedicate budget or resources to Twitter/FB prior to starting accounts/pages, I’d work to find it. I’d also challenge that consultant or agency to determine if FB or Twitter are the right communities for you and if so, develop a content strategy on how to participate. Don’t just set up an account/page and park your brand assets.
Nothing worse than looking at a blank FB page or Twitter account that is sitting there dormant! Great point Annie!
Love all of your posts. The Contracting Trade, and so many others, are perfect for the venues offered by Social media. And it is easy to use these tools to Focus LOCAL.
I just posted an article addressing that issue
http://www.youcanbuild.it
Several local Contractors, Manufacturers, Retailers and Professional Service providers are realizing the benefit. Of course they have been receptive to consulting and willing to ACT
Darren,
I really enjoy your articles and have learned a lot from you messages! I have been using social media for about 2 yrs now and have connected with a lot of people. Have new contractors looking at our business because of social media that other wise wouldn’t have ever meet. Keep up the great work!!
Randy,
I appreciate you stopping by and commenting. I am happy you are getting some good use out of the site…and out of social media!
-Darren