Matthew here again… ????
In case you’re new to the conversation, I’m the sharp guy in Kansas who can’t WAIT to work with Discount Auto Glass and blow their team away with just how MUCH a great website and strong internet presence (and now social media) could impact their bottom line.
Previous posts:
https://matthewrupp.com/case-study/discount-auto-glass/
https://matthewrupp.com/local-seo-strategy-for-dag/
Today I am going to do something different. No massive 13-mile-long post today. Yeaaaah!
I am going to cover one more big “game changer” today. This is an item that, if implemented properly, will almost immediately increase website traffic and without a doubt improve the conversion rate (percentage of folks that visit the site and pick up the phone)!
Let’s jump right in.
GAME CHANGER #3
Social Media
Ah yes, this ole chestnut. You had to know it was coming. I am going to do my best to keep this brief (and clearly that’s a challenge for me). Let’s run through the list and see if I can explain this well.
First off, if you are going to bother using social media at all, you need to start by setting some goals. Ask yourself HOW social media can help you do the following:
- Grow your business
- Increase awareness
- Build your brand
- Drive traffic
Next, it’s important to consider how you plan to measure those goals. What metrics will you use to see if using social media is worthwhile for your business?
That’s where the conversation needs to begin.
Let’s keep it simple and say the goals for DAG, in relation to social media, are to
- Drive traffic to the DAG website
- Build awareness of the brand name in the communities they serve
- Bring in information about what percentage of visitors come to the website from Social Media , how long they stay, etc.
Once you know your goals for using social media, the question is, how are you going to show off that “social proof” to people who visit your site? You want to let people who visit your site SEE that you are involved in the community and get a better sense of the fun, caring people who make DAG the great place to work it is. You also want to share happy customers’ stories and pictures and how many people “liked” or visited your location recently. So you need to make sure that visitors have easy and clear access to your social media.
Here’s how DAG links its Facebook page on their website:
The tiny logo in the corner is not quite as compelling as it could be.
Let’s go over a few things real quick:
- Nobody ever goes on Facebook because they want to find out what content their local dentist or plumber posted or shared that week, what kind of ads they might see, or which “sponsored” posts will show up in their feed. People get on Social Media to keep up with friends, to spy on exes, to share what’s going on in their lives, to browse different pages or visit whatever groups they are interested in, to watch videos, and to read something they find interesting or funny. Right? I would like to show you how incorporating elements of what people want from social media (interesting content, humor, etc.) could make your business page more appealing.
- There is very little wisdom in building up a huge “audience” or collecting likes or followers on a platform you don’t control or own. Once upon a time, Myspace was all the rage, Blockbuster had 6,000 locations instead of just nine, and the Yellow Pages were the be-all and end-all of advertising for a local service business—but times have changed. The companies affected by those changes had little control over the fate of their businesses. Your website, on the other hand, is something you own and have complete control over. That is where we want prospective customers to come to ask questions, learn more about you, get an estimate, or book a time to come in—your website, not a platform where the rules can change tomorrow.
OK, let’s recap real quick:
- We know what our goals are.
- We know we have to be genuinely helpful, interesting, and funny when using social media or it’s a waste of time.
- We know we need to drive people to the DAG website —“likes” are great, but they don’t help open new locations!
- We know that useful content will help us rank better and help drive people to the DAG site.
Let’s talk about content a bit before we go on:
Content just for content’s sake doesn’t help grow your online presence, traffic, or rankings—it just muddies the water when it comes to helping search engines understand what you do and why you are the best choice when it comes to windshields.
I don’t know the specific goals that DAG has for 2017, but I can say with authority this content is not going to help them achieve them.
http://www.discountautoglass.net/blog/discount-auto-glass-blog/2017/04/17/give-the-perfect-toast
http://www.discountautoglass.net/blog/discount-auto-glass-blog/2017/03/17/spring-break-park-trips
http://www.discountautoglass.net/blog/discount-auto-glass-blog/2016/12/12/ford-truck-history
A tool I love using:
I recommend using a tool like Buffer (there are a thousand social media tools, but I really love Buffer). It allows you to almost effortlessly browse dozens of sites you choose for content you find genuinely funny, clever, interesting, or useful and schedule those to be shared or posted on your Social Media accounts whenever you choose.
You can add all your social media profiles in one place
You can set a schedule for how often you would like to share on which platform.
You can see what kind of traction your posts got and easily reschedule them to run again at a later date.
The especially cool part is you can fill up the “queue” with good content, and then periodically, say every 8–10 funny or interesting posts, you can slip in content from your blog that your target audience might find interesting—for example, “Why to never use Duct tape to fix a windshield crack” or “Did you know some windshield ’cracks’ are really just air?” The goal isn’t to be “salesy;” it’s to be helpful and funny first and foremost.
When you make the overall goal of your Social Media to be helpful, interesting, or funny, there is a MUCH greater likelihood that people will actually click “like” or share your content. Facebook sees when people LIKE what you post and it then SHOWS IT TO MORE PEOPLE. It also knows which posts are not getting any activity and therefore does NOT show those to more people. In fact, it will continue to show your posts to fewer and fewer people until you’re left with only a handful of viewers. This is where the power of SM comes in. Facebook realized that nobody wants to see ads, so a year or so ago, they cut way back on how many people see a business’s content. You can combat this and enjoy 20–50 times the reach by being helpful and funny in your posts. That kind of popular content is what will continue to make your posts visible. That way, when you do have a company-wide contest of some sort or sponsor something like Auto Craft in Wichita did where they gave away a CAR for Mother Day literally thousands of people can see it without them spending a penny.
- Then we can jump over to Google Analytics which makes it easy to see what percentage of your traffic is direct (they typed in your business name or some variation)
- referral (they came to your site from another website, like an auto dealer, for example)
- organic (they searched for a keyword related to what you do)
- or Social Media
You can even drill down and see how many visitors came from each social media platform, how long they stayed on your site, how many pages they looked at, and more.
With this particular client, we can see social media visitors stayed on the site longer than organic, direct, and referral traffic, second only to traffic from paid ads they are running on FB.
Social media can be a powerful source of visitors, quality visits, and brand awareness, but it takes time and good tools to do well. This is just a rough overview; there is so much more that goes into a solid Social Media plan in relation to a local SEO strategy.
My advice is, if you wouldn’t find it helpful, funny, or worth liking or passing on, DON’T put it on your SM profile!
It’s great that content from your site was shared on your social media profile, but A) the content is not especially helpful, interesting, or funny, and B) while some might see the value in how to “give the perfect toast,” they will be disappointed very quickly if they actually visit that page on your site. http://discountautoglass.net/blog/discount-auto-glass-blog/2017/04/17/give-the-perfect-toast
Don’t get me wrong. My goal isn’t to bash on Social Innovations. This is how most big agencies do social media—by sharing generic advice posts on why you should brush your teeth, smile often, and count to ten when you get angry. Their intentions are good, but there is nothing original about the content.
Now, if visitors found THIS article on how to give a toast, I bet they would be impressed: http://www.scienceofpeople.com/2015/09/how-to-give-an-awesome-toast/
A couple more from your Facebook page
There IS a better way. ????
I am sure you can see the difference. It’s about being real, being genuine, and sharing GOOD stuff there is a high probability your target audience will see value in. Mix in a handful of posts from your website that are centered around what Discount Auto Glass actually does and how they can help or highlight a community event the company or a certain location is involved in (for example, mention how each DAG location is going to be a drop off point for Operation Holiday through the month of November). THAT is a plan that I have seen work over and over, and it’s a plan that will help build your brand, increase awareness, drive traffic, help your SEO campaign, and ultimately grow your bottom line (with very little spending).
I have ONE more post planned and it will be about the Discount Auto Glass website itself. While it could be a monster post, I will do my best to make it succinct (OK, maybe not succinct, but somewhat controlled ????).
If you found this post interesting or helpful I would love to hear from you! You can drop me a line at localseo@matthewrupp.com or give me a call at 316.285.0729.
Hope you are having an awesome week!
Matthew
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