Social Media Approaches for a Pest Control Company
-
Hi Everyone, I am working with a pest control company that is looking to branch out into social media. Their primary goal is to connect with their existing customers to improve retention. The secondary goal is to potentially pick up new clients.
With that said, I wanted to see if you all had some ideas on things that they could tweet/facebook about on a regular basis? Posting about bugs on a daily basis gets pretty boring.
I know Rand has been talking a lot lately about not being so narrow, so maybe we should talk more about general home improvement? Any thoughts or ideas?
Thanks!
EDIT:
I should clarify that this is a company that has maintenance plans. You don't call them only when you have a problem. You sign up with them, and they treat your property every 3 months, or whenever you call. Only about 2% of their customer base is one-off phone calls to fix 1 problem and never come back again.
I don't think their existing customer base will have any issues with Liking them on Facebook or following them on Twitter. The initial plan is to incentivize them to do so, but once we get the like/follow, we want to continually be in front of them with interesting content, contests as Jay suggested, etc.
-
First off, social media for pest control companies isn't nearly as sexy as social media for a taco stand. So any ideas of glitter and glamor are going to be as helpful as a rainbow colored unicorn. Just wanted to get that off my chest before diving in here.
How I see social media as a pest control guy:
1- Maintaining conversations about interesting pest control subjects.
2- Building relationships with current customers.
3- Building relationships with current employees.
On Facebook after establishing a fan base you can use paid advertising to friends of fans, using fans as endorsements. But don't expect huge returns here. It's more building awareness and trust. You will most likely not see Facebook as a last touch for sales. And it's hard to track the first touch.
Funny videos can build links, but I wouldn't consider them great for building trust. I prefer the class nerd image over the class clown image. Nerds are allowed to make jokes, but your know for being smart, not for being funny.
Lastly, check out http://www.familyownedpestcontrol.org we have just launched this lead sharing network, no cost to you.
And if you want to guest post on blogpestcontrol.com I could probably get you in.
-
Thanks Matt! That makes sense.
-
This is great; I especially like the idea of giving 1 free treatment to a friend - that is clever
-
EGOL,
I think humorous video would be a good idea for spreading the brand and I would expect it to work on a subconscious level (as with most marketing the psychology behind it is important) - if people need a pest control company and a decent viral video campaign has made an impression on them then they should remember the brand. When remembering the brand rather than the term this should hopefully influence their search i.e for the specific company rather than the generic term - do you agree with my thought on this?
-
Matt,
What do you think about humorous video? That would be great for getting links and attention... but would that attract customers?
-
Hi Brian,
I think EGOL is pretty much spot on with the fact that your average person won't want to stay connected with their pest control guy other than using them to discretely fix a problem. However I have seen examples of other pest control companies using games and creating characters to help educate customers and keep them interacting with their brand - but this is still a sensitive area.
-
Brian, I would recommend creating a strategy that focuses on engagement with current customers. Prospective customers who then land on their social profile, such as Facebook, would then see ongoing conversation with current customers that will build instant credibility.
For example, you could suggest a Bug of the week contest - post a picture of a crazy bug and ask customers to name the bug. The customer with the right guess gets to give 1 friend a free month of pest service. That way the friend will become the referral source and address both your goals in 1 contest. To get current customers aware of the promotion create a 1 page flyer that posts 1 of the contest bug pictures and include a picture of the winner and quickly explain the contest. Asking the field team to make current customers aware of the Facebook contest will increase current customers to become fans of the page and help increase awareness to their friends as well.
images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRraHyyPTSP-9qMiWD36LMGdg67_GtO-_xQjT7KmuLhnl3tws_1
-
"I am working with a pest control company that is looking to branch out into social media. Their primary goal is to connect with their existing customers to improve retention."
I don't think that the average person is looking to link up with and stay connected to their bug guy about bed bugs, rat droppings and flea problems. They want a bug guy who will fix that problem silently and get out of their space ASAP. If bug guy can do that then they will call him if they ever have another problem.
My message to people would be that we fix your problem quickly and with minimal visibility.
Posting about bugs on a daily basis gets pretty boring.
ABSOLUTELY!
I would go with informative content that people can share when conversations arise.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Invite a Facebook user to Like a Company Page
Hi All, Was looking at our Facebook company page last night and was going through our recent posts and noticed that the individuals that liked our posts had an "Invite" button next to their name. I've been testing this and is it true that I can only send an Invite to like my company page if I'm actually friends with the user? The "Invite" button is there for every individual that has liked a post on our page, but I've only had success sending the invite to people I'm connected with. The frustrating thing about this is that the button changes to "Invited" regardless of whether or not they have actually received the invite.
Social Media | | Brando160 -
Social Media & SEO
Hi Does anyone have any good articles or case studies on how SEO/Social compliment each other? I know the benefits, I just need something tangible to show management, which justifies me spending more time on it. I currently do a lot of onsite SEO, but I know we're missing the content marketing/social media aspect and it's something I want to push. Any help would be great 🙂 Becky
Social Media | | BeckyKey0 -
Google+, Link from My Site to Author's Google+ Page or to Company Google+
Recently I verified authorship for my Website. So the image from my personal Google+ account appears in search results. My website has a Google+ social media button. Should the link point to my corporate Google+ account or to my personal Google+ account? What is more credible from Google's point of view? What are best practices for this issue? Look forward to hearing from the MOZ community. THANKS!!!
Social Media | | Kingalan1
Alan Rosinsky0 -
Social signals: are they weighted differently?
I know social signals affect your site's ranking: but does it make a difference whether these come direct from your website (eg, people click on the Facebook button on a page, which is then posted to their own profile - ie, they create their own post) or whether people are share/like a post you have created on your Facebook account which contains a link to your website. Are they seen as equally as useful/important?
Social Media | | SuperCooper0 -
Page Speed and Social sharing bookmarks - how to balance
I've been having some challenges on my page load times and am in process of addressing. Some of the issues are my pictures(so I'm in process of condensing), but part of the issue (according to pingdom.com) is my social sharing. I was using 1 click retweet, and when I changed this to Sexy bookmarks, it seemed to improve. But, I'm wondering 2 things: 1. Do you guys have any recos on which plugin is best to use and takes least time to load (I'm not sure if this is contraditory). My priority is G+/Tw/FB. 2. On my sexybookmarks, it's strange because visually, the plugin is not showing up correctly. Where the G+ button should be, it's invisible. Ironically it works, if I click on it, but a normal person is not going to realize it's there. Any suggestions? In case it helps, my site is TheFlooringGirl.com. I don't think the plugin shows up there, but it does show up at the bottom of all of my blog posts. Thx. I appreciate any guidance you can provide.
Social Media | | Jborgueta0 -
Social Media Analytics Software?
Hi All, Do any of you have recommendations on basic social analytics software? We are looking for something that's not to expensive, that's easy to use, and measures the basic stuff, hashtag mentions, tweets, likes, etc. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Margarita
Social Media | | MargaritaS0 -
Facebook Page likes vs Webpage facebook likes - Social Media Query
I have a website and a facebook page. I have the Facebook Social Plugin on my website which shows my facebook page likes - This is currently at approx 140 likes. Is there a difference between facebook page likes and webpage likes? For SEO purposes, should I be concentrating less on the Facebook page and more on building facebook likes for the website? Are there any guides on this? What gets people to like a website as opposed to a web-page?
Social Media | | MangoMM0 -
SEO & Social | More SEO effect by liking the page URL rather than the Facebook Page?
SEOMoz Gurus, I am wondering what our best implementation strategy shoul dbe around linking up the Facebook Like button on our pages. Essentially there are two options: A) Linking the button directly to the Facebook Page of the web site so every Like is actually converting into a Facebook "Fan" which can be messaged going forward through our Facebook page. B) Having them like the actual URL which might be more beneficial from an SEO and viral perspective as now a link to the actual URL gets shared on the Liker's facebook wall and it should also be easier to use that lIke for Google & Co. as it's tied to the actual URL not a random Facebook page given that search engines already convert those signals. Both approaches obviously have their benefits. Are there any common guidelines on what is a better approach to take from a pure SEO perspective? Thanks /Thomas
Social Media | | tomypro0