How To GROW Using Facebook

Facebook is one of the best tools available for lead generation if you use it properly. For free lead generation nothing else compares. However, you can't just throw your business out there and expect results. Using Facebook takes thought and specific action. Here are some very simple steps to make Facebook a powerful Marketing Tool for your Interiorscape Business.

Things You'll Need: 

    * A Facebook Account

    * A Plan for your Account

    * Specific Goals for Your Interiorscape Business

Go to Facebook.com and sign up for a free account if you have not already done so. Ensure that the account you are using to grow your business is separate from your personal Facebook as it helps to keep professionalism and credibility high.

Step 1. Develop a plan (a recurring theme in any social media project—just know it’s not important, it’s mandatory to success)

Know what you want to accomplish. Anything is possible with Facebook, but you must decide exactly what you want from it.  For example, sales leads, marketing list or PR just to name a few. Once you determine what you want to accomplish, identify your demographics. You must know exactly which end users you are looking to attract. You cannot be haphazard with Facebook or you will only attract a mess. You want to make sure the people you have in your friends list are those who fit the target demographics of your regional customer profile.

Step 2. Define your Identity

Decide "who your Interiorscape business is" and how you are going to present yourself. How people perceive you/your business and how you are identified is everything on Facebook. You are a professional so identify yourself as a professional. But, it is also important to show you are a person, a human and an individual. Let people see you as an expert with heart and a love for your work, your clients and the world around you. Once you identify yourself, stay with that identity in everything you do. If you are using Facebook for business, then it must be a business tool, not a gathering place for you and your "buds".         

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Have You Heard the Rumor, ‘It’s Time For Your Plantscaping Business to GROW or Go?’

Well, Finally Here’s an Effective, Affordable Method to GROW

(Generate Revenue On the Web)

A major strength of social media is the interface between businesses and consumers - or between any actors in a value chain.

 Engage. The stars (and online communities) are aligned for your interior landscape business (well, isn’t it about time?).  Exactly. Which is why we drafted this ‘in-depth primer’ on maximizing social media platforms to boost your bottom line. If only a fraction of the road map provided here is earnestly explored, you will have not only tested the waters, but jumped in and even done a few laps. You are soon to be among those interior landscape firms who know what it means (in this age) to successfully GROW.

Marketing Your Interiorscape Business: 

New Rules/New Tools!

As we set out into these new waters, keep in mind that we are not in Kansas any more. The print listings in the ‘Yellow Pages’ phone book have long since been laid to rest, permanently (they killed too many trees anyway).

So soak up these ‘Ten Rules Needed to GROW.’ Together they form the critical arch through which you freely enter the world of a less expensive but certainly different paradigm for turning up sales in a down economy

Rule One: Set Your Goal

Decide on your goals – Let’s see. I would start out with you want to be seen as the leading expert and you want to encourage sales… 

Rule Two: Listen

Where are your regional facility managers and local architects talking?  Are they on blogs, industry online communities, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook?

• Read blogs talking about the facility management industry. Sources:  blog.google.com

• Search topics related to your regional building managers on Twitter. 

• Search group discussions on LinkedIn:  While you CAN joining groups on LinkedIn without having registered or have an active profile, why would you? You want them to easily be able to review who you are, you’re your company has been up to and for how long. THAT is the inherent beauty of LinkedIn. So, once you’ve created an initial LinkedIn profile, you will browse the GROUPS directory. Here select the group’s your local businesses, facility execs, building managers and owners are likely to have joined. They even offer FREE local Green Building Council Groups (may not be one formed in every market but if it’s not yet in your market, go for it and start one). 

• Search for the facility management/green building industry’s hot topics subjects on Facebook. 

• Search for industry photos on Flickr. 

Rule Three:  Learn 

What are your customers (and prospects) talking about, what information or tips do they want, what problems are they struggling with, what expert advice do they need?

•  Comment on blog posts (Check Out: blogspot.com)

• Add your environmental, design and general horticultural expertise to Linkedin Group discussions

• Tweet about something new and fresh in your industry that you came across in your readings.

Join Industry online communities by going to the local professional chapter web sites for IFMA, AIA, USGBC, and BOMA as they almost all have blogs now!  Spend time filling in your profile or at least listen and join in.
 

Rule Four:  Pick your tools

It is best to start with 1 or 2 tools and do a really good job with those tools before adding more.

•   Blog – create a blog (see steps to starting a blog at gilhooleyconsulting.com). You can create a free blog at wordpress.com.  Think about your long-term goals for your blog. If you are creating a professional blog for your interiorscape business and you plan on keeping the blog active for a long time you may want to consider setting up your blog under your own domain name and on your own hosting platform. The general cost to create and host a blog are minimal; the main cost is your or your staff’s time writing posts, commenting and keeping the blog current. Comment on other blogs. 

•    LinkedIn- create a professional profile; join the relevant end-user groups as well as select local and regional general business groups on LinkedIn. Try it! You’ll Like it! Comment on discussions. 

•    Facebook –create a Facebook page for your business (precise steps telling ‘How To’ coming in my next article). Start discussions, add photos and share local events.  Invite customers to join your page and become a fan. 

•    Flickr- BEST KEPT SECRET FOR AN INTERIORSCAPER READY TO ‘GROW’! Build an album showcasing your projects. Post/forward this link on all of your online marketing, offline marketing, e-mails and press releases. 

• Twitter – create a Twitter account for your business. Comment on other related tweets, share news about your business, ask for comments and ideas. Run specials, have contests and encourage your customers or potential customers to share their thoughts. Many companies are maximizing their consumer’s input to improve their products or service. 
 

Rule Five: Learn the Local Language, Know the Terrain

Social Media and Social Networking tools are multifaceted. Know the difference between them.  Social media uses the “wisdom of crowds” to connect information in and among many collaborative forms including the following: 

Internet forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video.  

Technologies such as blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, group creation and voice over IP, to name a few.  

Examples of social media applications are Google (reference, social networking), Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Facebook (social networking), Last.fm (personal music), YouTube (social networking and video sharing), Second Life (virtual reality), and Flickr (photo sharing)
 

There are great sources available online to gain an understanding of the various new media interactive marketing tools. Spend 15 minutes reviewing them.

• Wikipedia  

• Commoncraft.com (short informative, simple videos)

                         • Wikipedia:

Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers and clients. 
 

Rule Six: Evaluate your programs

One of the best benefits of interactive/social media marketing is the ability to make changes easily.  It’s so easy to quickly glance and know if you are getting the results you want out of your new marketing or if one effort is performing better than the others. It’s agile and affordable. 
 

Rule Seven: Audit your current website because you WILL be having visitors!

Review your current Website – Do you have fresh content?  Is all of the information current?  Do the 3 second glance – if you look at your homepage do you know right away the following key pieces of information:

Your company name

What you do – services or products

What you do better than your competition

How to contact you

•  How does one enlist your plantscape services

•  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – do you show up in Google searches (this will naturally improve once you begin your social media efforts).
 

Rule Eight: Promote all of your new tools

•Your website is the one place where you can and should blatantly promote your social media presence. You will want to display the facebook, linkedin, and possibly your LinkedIn Group logo on your homepage with links to your profiles.

•The real beauty to this online medium is the ‘link love’! One channel (or online presence) will serve as a link to another and then to your website, etc. Visibility and credibility rise concurrently while traffic to your site and conversion rates go up (visitor to contract ratio).
 

Rule Nine: Get and Stay Real

Authentic – keep all of your messages, comments and posts authentic and honest

Remember it is all about building relationships – listen to what people are saying – add interesting/related comments. Occasionally add links back to your blog or website…give a little information and then read and later add more details…

It is now all about conversations, not monologues. Don’t just push information out; ask for comments, thoughts and ideas.
 

Rule Ten: Leave Your Room and Have a Ball!

If this is all about relationships, then it is all about an online ‘reception,’ a professional banquet or golfing. Make enough time to play, journey and hear a good joke. Balance business with personal to the extent you would if you were meeting new professionals at a trade show or conference. You warm up, engage, maybe sit by the pool and later have a cocktail. Like an off-line event, when you get out of your room and meet new friends deals are made almost effortlessly.

Contact MJ at 800-347-9014   or click here to email her at mjg@golhooleyconsulting.com.