Social media platforms are highly populated places. Millions of businesses and billions of people are present on them and the numbers are ever growing. Logging into Facebook or Twitter you may have noticed the explosion of information there. A Million Links are shared on Facebook every 20 minutes and 58 million tweets are made on Twitter every day.
All companies, from a Fortune 500 giant to your local restaurant, are vying for people’s attention online. In the world of Internet, therefore, you are not just competing with your direct rivals, but also with each and every brand or business trying to gain consumer attention.
So given the vast number of choices and so much noise, how does a tradie make his business stand out online?
Here are a few suggestions:
- Use Appropriate Social Channels
- Create Content That Resonates
- Be Social
- Identify Consumer Pain Points
- Create a Good Website
- Monitor
- Use Keywords
- Offer Something Your Competitors Don’t
A plethora of social channels is available today, with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and Google + among the established ones, and new ones springing up each month. For a tradie the question is which is the right social media channel to market his services to stand out from the crowd?
The answer is simple. Choose a channel where your target audience spends most of its time. Being on the right channels will ensure your voice is heard by your prospective customers.
It’s important but not enough to be on the right social channels. You need to further create content that will help you gain people’s attention. As per reports, brands that Succeed on Social Channels have one thing in common – they all create highly engaging content.
Quality content that is either informative or entertaining will grab your audience’s attention and compel them to share it within their networks. It will generate more likes, shares and comments. Most popular organic page posts have a higher chance of being shown to more people, even if they are more than a few hours old.
For instance, a carpenter posts on Facebook: “Tips on choosing a faucet,” or a plumber tweets “For your plumbing project, try using flexible PEX tubing instead of copper piping.” People following them may find this interesting and may in turn share the content with their followers.
A tradie can even showcase his expertise through a quality blog which will help him position himself as an expert and a thought leader in his industry.
While auto-posting tools are one way to communicate, tradies should understand that engaging with their audiences in real conversations will bring them better results and add more value to their social streams.
Tradies need to communicate with their followers or their target audience in interesting and relevant ways to get noticed. This is also important to persuade your target users to take an action. That action could be as simple as liking your post, retweeting your tweet, or commenting on your blog post.
To stand out from your competitors, you should interact with your fans or followers on a daily basis by asking questions, replying to their comments, responding to their feedback, and giving tips pertaining to your industry. Everyone loves a business that reciprocates. Regular interaction will help you build a relationship with your customers.
Make sure your customer service is excellent on all levels. Show your customers that you truly understand their problems and are there to help them.
One way to do this is by asking them on your social network what, if anything, they are struggling with. This will invite a discussion and give you the chance to directly address their problems.
Another way to do so is via a smart use of the hashtag. Keeping track of hashtags pertaining to your industry you can find issues your fans or followers may be facing and providing them with appropriate solutions. Your online profiles should act as constant reminders of your excellent service to your current and prospective customers.
Modern customers expect businesses to have some kind of an online presence. If they don’t find you online easily, they may assume you are either not present on this medium or that are you are not worth their time. A professional looking website that contains basic information about your services and provides your contact information is a worthy investment which will help you stand out from the competition that doesn’t have an online presence.
Monitoring your website traffic and social media conversations will help you gain insight into what’s working and what isn’t. A tradie cannot ignore the conversations taking place on the Web regarding his service. In a complex world of multiple social networks, Social Media Analytics Tool help you cut through the noise to monitor conversations that are important to your business and track key topics, trends and influencers.
These tools also help you monitor your posts and know what kind of content your audience finds engaging. With these reports you can focus your marketing efforts in the right direction and thus gain more a bigger follower base.
Including keywords in your post-page titles, meta-descriptions, sub-headings, alt-tags, etc. will help your website get higher rankings on search engines. The higher you appear on search rankings, the more traffic you will attract.
Since social media updates are included in search results, be sure you’re also optimizing your tweets, Facebook posts, and LinkedIn company status updates with keywords appropriate for your business. This could help you get found in search results.
Monitor your competitors’ online presence. The business information you glean from your rivals will help you develop the competitive edge you need to surpass them in your industry.
In order to stand out from you competitors, be different. In other words, be innovative. If you do something different and better than your competitors you are bound to get noticed. You can, for example, offer incentives to your fans/followers/subscribers. For instance: “A flat 10% off for all our subscribers who schedule a service for today.”
Following these basic steps can make a huge difference to your business, helping you cut through all the online noise and get people to notice you.
