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
-
The relationship between Social Media and SEO?
I have read mixed reviews about the relationship between these two in the past. Are there any ways Social Media can improve SEO?
Social Media | | sophiecrosby970 -
ROS Outbound Social Links vs Connect Page with Social Feed?
A client wants to include social media icons in their footer. Instead of linking to facebook, Google+, etc they would like to link to a page with social feeds from their networks. Are there any SEO implications to doing this?
Social Media | | CompucastWeb0 -
How can you bulk search by email for social networks?
Hello Everyone! We're trying to launch a Social Media campaign for our website and in order to reach more people and follow/invite them to our social profiles we thought of finding them by their email addresses (i read a post somewhere - maybe seomoz, maybe not can't remember). Can anyone suggest a tool or best way of researching ~20.000 email addresses to find out / filter what social networks have this email registered? Much appreciated! Alex
Social Media | | pwpaneuro0 -
Sherpas for a journey of best practices for social media marketing?
What are early-stage (0-6 months) best practices for social media marketing in a business to business market? Our customers are professional buyers of electronic components. We are doing it backwards. We registered Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a few more. +5 for initiative. -5 for not having a social media marketing plan. -5 for not having someone helping us who really knows how to engage with our audience. This is also a humble request to SMM gurus out there who have room for a new client. I'm looking for our sherpa. Thanks!
Social Media | | groovykarma0 -
Identifying Social Activity of Competition in Open Site Explorer.
Analysing the competition in Open Site Explorer, as you all know the results come back with the following detail: Facebook Shares Facebook Likes Tweets Google +1 There is no link through to the pages that have liked, followed or tweeted the URL. I want to understand what the competition is doing in moire detail. How are these numbers actually defined? Is their any way (or whats the best way) to identify the individual pages that the numbers refer to? Thanks in advance. Justin
Social Media | | GrouchyKids0 -
Anyone have a great example of a confirmation page with a social element?
We're thinking of adding social elements to our confirmation page, which as of right now doesn't ask for any specific action. Might as well take advantage. i.e. "Tweet this" or "Share this" with a shortened link to the landing page. Does anyone have any great examples of Twitter/Facebook being incorporated into a confirmation page? Visually pleasing, striking, great copy? It can be a confirmation for any type of action, whether you've just bought something, subscribed to something, joined a site, anything really.
Social Media | | PurchSEO0 -
Social or SEO?
all, would you consider social bookmarking to be part of an SEO package or a Social Media Package? thanks
Social Media | | imageworks-2612900