Social media advice for Tradies – Part 4

Social media advice for Tradies – Part 4

So, this advice could be a little late if you have followed our previous blogs on joining FB groups, however it’s never too late to improve on what you are doing, so here goes:

Beware of your Stalkability!

Facebook may not be a real world, however what we are saying is that once your business page is out there and you are joining groups to get more hits on your business page, this doesn’t mean you (the person behind the business) remains invisible. If your name is “John Smith” you may not have to worry too much, but even then, if you are “John Smith” of “Smith and Son’s Plumbing” in Bexley, people can, and will, find you and check out your personal page. If you name is “Jamjar Wentworth Smythe”, you definitely need to worry about this.

You see, these days people want more than a tradesperson, they want a relationship with a trusted individual who they are prepared to invite onto their property and count on again and again. So, this is an opportunity to put prospective customers at ease and “upsell” yourself a bit. With that said, here are some pointers about your personal Facebook page that you should be following even if you don’t have a business page:

Present-ability: Pictures of your cute dog (or kids) doing something is good. Picture of your new “I hate Jesus” on your left butt check is bad. Be mindful when posting pictures.

Careful of what you share: Although not always possible, remember that prospective clients might be looking at your page. You might think that marriage equality is a bad idea or that Donald Trump is an idiot, but your next customer might be LGBQT or pro Trump, so best to keep it to yourself.

Keep it positive: Sure, you might be having a crap day and feel that life sucks and it’s OK to express that occasionally but don’t get carried away. People respond better to positivity, and posting on the bright sides will have the double bonus of helping you look on the bright side.

Rule of thumb, imagine you are looking for someone to do something for you (understanding of course that you are a tradie and can do most things yourself) and you’ve got a couple of choices. Imagine that you can see their FB pages. Which one do you go for? Well, your FB page should look more like the person you would give money to, to do a service for you.

Social media advice for Tradies – Part 3 (FB Groups)

Social media advice for Tradies – Part 3 (FB Groups)

So, hopefully by now you’ve found some local groups and you’ve joined them and are starting to think about content to post. We’ve mentioned about reading guidelines of each group before posting, however here are some other great hints on what not to do by Search Engine Optimisation guru, Kate Toon.

Our next bit of advice is to go slow and steady! It might be tempting to join 50 groups and start posting the same thing daily across all of them, however that’s a sure way to just annoy people and damage your “brand”. Instead we suggest that you join a couple of groups that you think might have potential customers to your services and post tailored messages and/or adverts for each group. After a few weeks start looking at more groups and more posts however don’t start spamming (IE: posting too much). 

In terms of content, think about what’s in it for the person seeing your ad? Have you got an offer? Offering something for free (consultation, quote or even first visit) is a great way to get attention. Make sure you include clear graphics and tag your FB page in posts as customers may not be ready to buy yet, but when they “like” your Facebook page it is easier to re-target them later on.

If this is sounding like hard work, marketing your stuff does take time and effort, however the payoff is in getting more customers. Don’t forget that you can get Us For You to do all of this for you! It’s not expensive and you need to decide if your time is worth more than a little money.

Social media advice for Tradies – Part 2

Social media advice for Tradies – Part 2

In our first blog we spoke about joining local Facebook groups as a way of advertising your trade business and getting ahead of the rest of the pack, because let’s face it, there is a lot of alternatives to your services out there. The good news though, is that not many tradies are using social media and if they are they are not using it effectively. So, if you have gone ahead, researched and joined some groups, here is our second piece of advice:

Observe the rules and have a clear message. 

Most People who run them, will tell you it takes a lot of time & energy to administrate Facebook groups. To keep things running smoothly they will often have guidelines. Guidelines like no post dumping, weekly promo only, and some local buy, swap & sell groups have a strict no advertising rules.

Some Facebook Group you need to be a paid member of a paid service that the person running it owns. Check out how many members they have and if they are a local group it may be worth the fee they are asking for.

Now make sure your message is clear. Don’t try to say too much with each post, just stick to the rule of “keep it short and simple”. Also, we strongly advise that you have someone check your posts before you send them, as we all can miss simple grammatical and spelling errors when we check our own writing. Even professional writers have “proof readers”, so get a friend or family member look over your posts before you post them.

Finally, as we mentioned in our last post, make sure that you personalise your posts for each group. The pitch and tone of your message will be different if it is a local mother’s groups as opposed to a buy, swap and sell group. Us For You can do this for you, or even write your content if you don’t fancy yourself as a writer.

 

Social media advice for Tradies – Part 1

Social media advice for Tradies – Part 1

 

Tradies are an essential part of our society. To some of us they are magicians that can turn up at our house and fix the stuff that we have no idea about, making our lives a little better. But with the onset of the internet, it has become really hard to find the right tradie to fit our needs because there are so damn many to choose between.

In these series of articles, Us For You is offering advice to help your service become more visible among the ever increasing pack.

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Facebook Groups – you should be joining them

Facebook Groups have been around for a while now and the power of local advertising in them branding benefits can’t be ignored. However, if done incorrectly you can risk damaging your business brand.

Remember, that joining Facebook groups is about becoming more visible to more people, not necessarily about actively marketing your services. In fact, most groups have rules about not marketing, so you’ll be doing more damage than good if you try. Make suer you read each groups guidelines before posting anything.

How to find groups to join: Simply type in “groups” to your Face Book search bar then hit “Discover Groups on Facebook”. This will bring up lists of recommended groups, local groups and groups that you have friends already in. Now go ahead and join any group you think might have people that might need your services in the future. Local buy, swap and sell groups are good for instance.

What to do once you have joined the groups: Now you need to make a bit of noise. Make sure that your company page is up to date and looking good and when you decide to post on any of the group pages, personalise your message to the group you are posting to. Us For You can help you with this and has expertise in pitching messages appropriate to different groups. It can also help you find the right groups to join, so if the above is looking a bit overwhelming, check out our website and call for a chat.