Is Social Media producing work for you?

[FredC]

i was offline for about a year. had several customers say they got my name off facebook. they later said it was from folks i was cleaning for who just posted about how happy they were with my work. i just recently got back online and have been working on a facebook page. no jobs yet from it.

your customers told you exactly how to use facebook......................

 

[steve_64]

your customers told you exactly how to use facebook......................

i love my customers fred. i listen to them and pay attention to what they are saying.

 

[Jack May]

I don't work my FB pages (one each for cleaning and repairs) like I should but I get the odd job filtering through.

Just booked a $300 job during the weekend for repairs all through FB.

Its an area that I find comes and goes, as far as work flow is, but that's probably worsened by my lack of fresh content etc

John

 

[Royal Man]

Maybe this is Larry's FB "secret":

If you notice he has 400 likes from 400 local businesses.

They must be swapping likes with each other, to try to access each others clients.

 

[carpetcleaner]

I haven't done any marketing of any type for over 13 yrs. I don't even have a website.
I have started on a website and want to start using social media to market. I have found some interesting things for storefront businesses, but not anything for onsite, service businesses.

 

[FredC]

i love my customers fred. i listen to them and pay attention to what they are saying.

I'm sure you do.....but may have missed what I meant.

they later said it was from folks i was cleaning for who just posted about how happy they were with my work.

My opinion (again) on FaceBook

If you are using it to bu the piss out of your customers with constant updates....fail
If you are using FB PPC ads....fail

"Likes" and "fans" act as bookmarks for people for the most part...most will never see anything you post but those who do will likely grow tired of it. Also unless its a grabby headline or a cat picture people will ignore when other people like or fan something.

Many times people take the strategies that work for other industries and try to apply them to theirs. What I mean is there are a few pages that I choose to be constantly updated on. Usually these are things that I use on at least a monthly basis......carpet cleaning would not be one of those.

I'm not saying you shouldn't update your page at all but I see them as "live" refrigerator magnets mainly there for your existing clients.

The only way I can see FB working is to get other people to post about you. People like to tell other folks what is going on.........way more than they should imo . Turn it into a referral system. I'm sure everyone in this thread has no problem asking for a google review....why not a post on FB instead?

sure...its not as sticky because it will move off page quickly but people don't have to go seek it out either.

Also participate in local groups...there are probably way more than you think.

 

[Larry B]

I'm sure you do.....but may have missed what I meant.

they later said it was from folks i was cleaning for who just posted about how happy they were with my work.

My opinion (again) on FaceBook

If you are using it to bu the piss out of your customers with constant updates....fail
If you are using FB PPC ads....fail

"Likes" and "fans" act as bookmarks for people for the most part...most will never see anything you post but those who do will likely grow tired of it. Also unless its a grabby headline or a cat picture people will ignore when other people like or fan something.

Many times people take the strategies that work for other industries and try to apply them to theirs. What I mean is there are a few pages that I choose to be constantly updated on. Usually these are things that I use on at least a monthly basis......carpet cleaning would not be one of those.

I'm not saying you shouldn't update your page at all but I see them as "live" refrigerator magnets mainly there for your existing clients.

The only way I can see FB working is to get other people to post about you. People like to tell other folks what is going on.........way more than they should imo . Turn it into a referral system. I'm sure everyone in this thread has no problem asking for a google review....why not a post on FB instead?

sure...its not as sticky because it will move off page quickly but people don't have to go seek it out either.

Also participate in local groups...there are probably way more than you think.

I still disagree with you Fred as we post stuff all day long on FB and have no problem with people un-liking or un-friending us. The key to the posting is NOT to flood them with CC stuff but to keep them talking. We may post one or 2 pics a day that has to do with carpet cleaning and all the rest is just funny pictures, stuff we see or just post "Have a Great Day". When people click "like" or make a comment it shows on their friends news feeds. Pictures are also great because if people "share" them then it shows on others wall as "so & so shared Burrell's Carpet Cleaning photo"

I also dont think twice about sharing rat nasty looking carpet pictures that most on here say they would never let customers see. Nasty pictures get people talking, lets people know you have seen worse than theirs, makes people want theirs cleaned before they look like that and so on.

Just to give you all an idea of what I have been doing, on Saturday I posted a picture of a "cabin view" then a couple seconds later posted a nasty truck seat picture I had cleaned, within 2 hours we had booked 6 car/trucks and 2 houses from FB.

The other key thing to social marketing is getting people to like/friend your accounts.

 

[Royal Man]

Maybe it just shows how every area is different.

All I get from FB (so far) is when clients brag to their freinds on FB. I try to encourage it as much as I can. (I need to include FB bragging in my post cleaning leave behind materials)

A couple of times I've had client take pics while I was cleaning so they could post them on FB. Which produced a few jobs.

So , far I just can't get it to take off like it has a potential too.

 

[FredC]

I still disagree with you Fred as we post stuff all day long on FB and have no problem with people un-liking or un-friending us. The key to the posting is NOT to flood them with CC stuff but to keep them talking. We may post one or 2 pics a day that has to do with carpet cleaning and all the rest is just funny pictures, stuff we see or just post "Have a Great Day". When people click "like" or make a comment it shows on their friends news feeds. Pictures are also great because if people "share" them then it shows on others wall as "so & so shared Burrell's Carpet Cleaning photo"

I also dont think twice about sharing rat nasty looking carpet pictures that most on here say they would never let customers see. Nasty pictures get people talking, lets people know you have seen worse than theirs, makes people want theirs cleaned before they look like that and so on.

Just to give you all an idea of what I have been doing, on Saturday I posted a picture of a "cabin view" then a couple seconds later posted a nasty truck seat picture I had cleaned, within 2 hours we had booked 6 car/trucks and 2 houses from FB.

The other key thing to social marketing is getting people to like/friend your accounts.

Do you have a super secret facebook page or something? Cause the ones I see do not have the activity you describe (and your personal/converted page is not what I'm talking about....my comments were on Business Pages). Doesn't even matter to me...maybe you are an anomaly

You don't have a problem with people unliking you? I really wouldn't expect you to. Like I said they choose whether or not they see your post and the majority of folks who use FB don't have the pages they are fans of showing in their activity stream. That is unless they have some other interest in what you have going on...friends, relatives, other cleaners, etc

At that point you/your page simply becomes a bookmark. How many of you here that use FB allow all the pages you have fanned/liked (I know the language has changed now) to show or be shared?

and you may want to go back and read my comment on dirty carpet...I was referring to pictures they may post of their own:

Keep the shots tight....obviously nobody wants to post pics of their dirty ass house on FB...well almost nobody.

and I don't think anybody would disagree that working your personal network for jobs is a bad thing. However:

Maintaining a personal account for anything other than an individual person is a violation of Facebook's ​

Statement of Rights and Responsibilities

. If you don’t convert your noncompliant account to a Page, you risk permanently losing access to the account and all of its content. ​

 

[FredC]

Just a note on that last part...anything I post on a public forum whether it is about google, FB, or anything else is based on complying with the TOS...even if I hint otherwise.....or would do it completely different myself

 

[steve_64]

fred, they also said i should have a facebook page.

i get what youre saying but i think it can be done in a non intrusive way.im not going to go phishing for names or aking for likes. i did a few of my friends who are also customers so they know im there and refer to thier friends easier. thats one reason i never liked direct mail or calling past customers. i dont like being bugged and assume others dont. thats why i did newspapers a lot and stayed away from these monthly value pak stuff. i was trying a different approach that worked for a little while. now im stagnant though. time to up my game.

 

[jcooper]

Facebook ads were a waste for us, got two likes from it though! lol.

Seems like most of the ads are for games, credit cards and so on.

 

[Glen G]

Lots of great comments here and many people don't see results from Facebook right away. But don't give up. I think Larry has a great point, he posts a lot on FB, and he posts INTERESTING thing. Give people a reason to check out your page. Photos can help a lot as well. At the end of the day, you get out of it what you put into it. If you put an hour a week into it, you're gonna get those kind of results. It's a lot of work, but the rewards can be big. BTW, while talking about it... don't forget to make sure you're checking out Google Places for your company (I've been seeing a lot of companies overlook this only to find their info is wrong... could that be why you're not getting calls?) .... and it is going to be more and more important the the new Google Penguin algorithm is coming out that your social media is on the radar to get you more organic search results.

Thanks!

 

[Studebaker]

Glen
PM me on whats going on.

 

[mcatt]

I really have not had any luck with it. I get some to like us and they may even comment but no direct jobs really. I think it is a good way to keep your clientele though. They always have you there on there Facebook for reference.

 

[Rob Lyon]

We have done great with it, but just like a piece of equiptment it requires maintenence. Dont overload with junk about yourself, list things you are doing and add a little commentary at the end!!

 

[Jtuseo]

Lets give Rob Lyon a nice warm welcome back. He is a dear friend of mine and a real class act ad also a degenarate like myself.

 

[Brian R]

All social media is, is a bigger neighborhood and friend base to spread the word. Whether it be bad or good.

 

[The Great Oz]

It isn't a big deal for us, but then we don't work hard at it either. I would agree that it has potential, but a lot of us missed the boat by not getting involved earlier. Today everyone knows that likes are currency, and they expect to get paid for their like. They also know their personal page will fill up with crap if they like too many companies, so you'd better watch how much you're posting and whether the content is interesting to your likettes.

I'm looking into doing some FB advertising, but in a diffreent way. I don't want to put a compelling offer in my ad. That way, it comes up but no one clicks, giving me exposure without any cost. When a boring ad for a competitor comes up I suspect they're doing the same thing, so I click away!

PS: I've heard the FB death penalty for having multiple accounts is as scary as McGoogles, but neither seems to be paying much attention as they compete for users.

 

[Mark Saiger]

Facebook has worked very well for us. Must be the size of our population area and maybe Facebook is popular in our area. We post pics of jobs and results. Having our company logos on our wands has also helped identify us in the cleaning pics we
post. We had a real increase on our tile and grout cleaning this year featuring those pics too. We also link our Facebook as a running display on the front page of our website.

Mark Saiger
www.saigers.com