This is a guest post by my friend Randy Patton of Patton Services, a commercial roof coating contractor working with White Roofing Systems. Randy does a great job marketing his business online, so listen to what he has to say and enjoy his post.
Start by connecting with people you want to do business with, like friends, past customers and future customers.
Now to build that relationship you need to post interesting things that your friends to want to read and learn from you about the things you do. Look for articles and stories on the web about things you do and share them so they get ideas for their home or business. Also pictures will sell more work for you, like….. say you do kitchen remodels, find an interesting picture of a kitchen remodel, share it even if you didn’t do it, they may see it and think I like that and WANT it! Especially the wife!
Get creative with ideas!
Use engaging questions that they can respond to, Like…..
- When was the last time you remodeled the bathroom?
- When was the last time you had someone look at your roof?
- Who wants a “man cave”? That will get the guys attention!
Mix things up a little once in a while, people don’t want to just see posts from you with pictures or video of jobs you are doing. Be yourself, let them know you are just like them, share a picture of your family once in a while so they can get to know you. Like family outings, kids activities and vacations, everybody likes to see pictures of your kids. Just don’t over due it!
Stay plugged in with your posts, what I mean is when someone comments on your post reply back to them.
Answer their questions or ask questions where appropriate.
Be sure to thank them for their positive comments.
“Social media will help you build up loyalty of your current customers to the point that they will willingly, and for free, tell others about you.” ~ Bonnie Sainsbury
Remember, you’re taking part in a social site, so be sociable. That doesn’t, of course, mean that you have to act in a way that’s going to bring your company’s image into disrepute, on the contrary, by talking to, and listening to your customers you’re going to start to build a rapport, and this is going to help you to get genuine feedback about your products.
There are some very large and successful companies that are doing this already, if it works for them, then there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work for you; in fact, if your company gets a reputation as being approachable then it will help with customer loyalty.