Yesterday, I was at PLANET’s Green Industry Conference taking part in a roundtable discussion. One of the landscape contractors was asked what he attributed his recent growth to, and he said Facebook. I was a little surprised, but when he explained that it was because he posted pictures of work he’d done, which would then be shared by the homeowner to all his/her friends, who would then contact him for work, it made sense.
I know I posted an article a little while back stating the case for why you should or should not be using social media as part of your service business marketing. I still believe social media is not your strongest form of marketing and certainly shouldn’t be your only marketing tactic. However, there are certain times and ways businesses can benefit from posting a status update on Facebook, tweeting out something to their followers, or presenting a topic of discussion on LinkedIn.
And did you know it is possible to complete all of your social media tasks just five minutes a day? That means you still have 1,435 minutes left in your day to focus on whatever else needs to be done. So how is this possible you ask? Here’s how:
First, decide which social media platforms you should be on and which you shouldn’t. Just because you have the option to be on Pinterest or Instagram, does not mean your business should. When it comes to service business marketing, I recommend starting with Facebook and Twitter. These are both good platforms that a lot of your customers will be on. They are also some of the easiest to post to, which can help you get it done in five minutes or less.
If you attempt to post to every social place on the internet, I can guarantee your day will be more wrapped up in Twitter feeds than on your work.
Next, invest in a system to schedule your social media posts at the times of your choosing. We at HindSite Software use Hubspot to help us send out messages in advance. HubSpot is great, but if you want something less expensive, try HootSuite, TweetDeck or Seesmic. By being able to create a bunch of messages at once and then schedule them to go out at your choosing, you can do social media for 15 minutes on a Sunday and be done for the entire week, if not the next two weeks. There are plenty of options out there, you just need to find the system that is right for your business.
Lastly, if you don’t have anything to say, don’t say anything. Your field service business does not need to post the same amount as your 14 year old niece does. And for that matter, your business does not need to post the same kind of content your niece does either. Save yourself the time of thinking up a witty status update or filtering certain pictures to make them look “cool”. If it takes longer than a couple minutes to write up a message, you are spending too much time on a post.
If you don’t have anything to say on a certain day, just leave that day blank. Only post when you have something valuable to share with your customers, and do not post ten valuable things in one day. Chances are high that your customers will miss or skip the content you are posting. Spread it out and make it special so when you do post, your customers notice.Understanding the processes behind social media on how some companies can be successful, while others completely flop is not something many of us as field service business owners will ever truly understand. And to be honest, we shouldn’t. Our expertise is out in the field. However social media can be used for good when done in the right way. Limit your use to just five minutes a day and work on your business while still having time to work in it.
A lot of business processes go through hits and misses. Sometimes your ideas work out great and other times they fail miserably. After being a 30-year business owner, I have learned a few things that I wish I knew from day one. Check out the Words of Wisdom: 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started My Business eBook today and learn some tips from a gray-haired entrepreneur like me.