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Social networking as affordable marketing
18 Jun, 2009 By: Jamie J. Gooch LDB SolutionsCommunicating with customers is critical to success. While nothing can replace building one-on-one relationships with current and future customers, new ways of using the Internet can supplement that direct contact and make it easy to quickly get your message to many people at once.
Three social networking platforms dominate the social networking scene at the moment: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Making use of these free communication tools can keep your company's name in front of your customers, their families and friends, as well as your industry colleagues.
What, exactly, is Facebook? It's an online community with more than 200 million active users who form networks by "friending" one another. It's common for users to have Facebook friends who are friends, acquaintances, family members and co-workers offline. Facebook users also join groups that consist of like-minded individuals who they may not know personally. Members use Facebook to update their status — basically telling all their Facebook friends what they're doing — posting photos, playing games and generally interacting with their network of friends online.
How can a landscape design-build professional use Facebook? Set up a page, invite people to friend you and start sharing. Facebook is a great platform to show off photos of your landscape designs. Your status updates could explain interesting aspects of your day-to-day job that might spark conversation. Just ordered a rare specimen tree, designed a two-tiered deck, installed a waterfall, won an award? Update your Facebook status and let your network know about it. You never know who might be inspired enough by your post to call you about that project they've been putting off, or pass along your information to an acquaintance.
Facebook shares many broad features in common with LinkedIn, but LinkeIn has carved a niche for itself as a networking site for professional development. This is the place to connect with colleagues and business partners. When you sign up, you'll be prompted to enter your education and work history, and then LinkedIn will suggest connections based on schools you've attended and places you've worked. Of course, you can search for other contacts and invite other colleagues to join. LinkedIn is a great way to connect with potential subcontractors or find potential new hires, for example.
Like Facebook, LinkedIn has groups you can join to expand your network. Professional associations such as the American Society of Landscape Architects, Association of Professional Landscape Designers, the Professional Landcare Network, and OFA, an association of Floriculture Professionals are just a sample of the groups on LinkedIn. State associations, colleges and universities, and local organizations also form groups on LinkedIn.
You can think of LinkedIn as a sort of living resume that you can update as often as you like. You can post questions to your network and prove your expertise by answering others' landscape design-build questions. You can also recommend collegues with whom you've worked and, in turn, be recommended by others in your LinkedIn network.
The social network with the most buzz at the moment is Twitter. It strays from the Facebook and LinkedIn model in its simplicity. Instead of friending or connecting, Twitter users follow one another. Twitter is based on short status updates called tweets. Tweets are 140-character messages that your followers can read and respond to on their Twitter pages. They can also choose to "retweet" your status updates to their followers, who in turn can retweet it to their followers. It's the very definition of viral marketing. However, it's important to note that direct marketing is frowned upon by the Twitterverse, as Twitter users are collectively known. But Twitter is very useful for indirect marketing and having quick and frequent conversations with your followers.
You can also follow your clients, your suppliers, industry associations and news outlets via Twitter. With Twitter, anyone can broadcast information, you just need to tune into the information you're interested in by following them.
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all free, but they do require an investment of time. You can do more harm than good if you don't respond to tweets. It's just as rude to ignore someone in cyberspace as it is in person. And, like a beautifully designed and installed landscape that isn't maintained, not updating your Facebook and LinkedIn pages can reflect poorly on your company. Fortunately, it doesn't take long to post updates. Many mobile phones have applications that allow you to update your status on the go. There are also applications, such as Tweetdeck and Seesmic, and online services that allow you to update multiple social networking sites at once.
You also need to be careful about what you post. Don't post anything that you wouldn't want everyone to see, because you never know who will see your messages. Don't complain about a picky client, a lazy employee or a demanding supervisor. Keep your posts positive and professional.
Those two caveats aside, social networing services are capable of expanding your potential client base and helping you retain and interact with your current client base. In business, it's often about who you know. Social networking simply allows you to know more people.
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