Social Media is the future of communication, a countless collection of internet based tools and platforms that increase and enhance the sharing of information. This new form of media makes the transfer of text, photos, audio, video, and information in general increasingly popular among internet users. Social Media has relevance not only for regular internet users, but business as well. Any new or growing auto detailing business should have a social media marketing plan in place.
Social Media Channels like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter have created online communities where people can share as much or as little personal information as they desire with other members. The result is an enormous amount of information that can be easily shared, searched, promoted, disputed, and created. Your auto detailing business really needs to be represented someway with the more relevant social media platforms. Facebook and LinkedIn can work very well if managed properly.
Using Facebook: A good Facebook presence can help you engage your fans and grow your auto detailing business. But with so many ways to promote your detailing business on Facebook, it’s hard to know where to start. Your Facebook Page is your business’ home base on the social networking site. A Page is a lot like a regular Facebook profile, but for brands and businesses. You will interact with Facebook users through your business’ page, so make sure it truly reflects your brand. Use your car detailing business logo as the primary photo for your Page, and pick a cover photo that is attractive and showcases what your business does. Type up a few snappy sentences to describe your brand, and choose a memorable Web address. Facebook Page URLs appear in the form of www.facebook.com/(yourbrand).
It’s not enough simply to have a Facebook Page far your car detailing business. To rack up followers you’ll need to create worthwhile, interesting content for your fans. Users who like your page will see your posts show up in their main Facebook news feed, so get cracking. Let all your customers know about your page, have them like it and they can be your advocates and help promote your band. You can share updates, photos, videos, promotions and a lot more. The most successful Facebook posts – the ones that drive the most people to comment, share and like – are short and visual. Look for ways to add a visual element to your posts, whether it’s a short video clip, a photo from inside your store, or just stock art. Traditional marketing techniques can help you grow your audience beyond your existing following. That means advertising your Facebook Page’s Web address on signs in your store, on your business card, in emails you send, and on any other marketing materials you produce for your business.
Facebook offers is a tool that allows you to create coupons that can be redeemed at your detail shop or online. For a fee you can also have Facebook push your offer onto the news feeds of users who don’t already follow your detailing business. By establishing a budget you determine how many users will see your offer. Promoted Posts allow you to boost the visibility of any Page update. For a fee, your post will appear near the top of news feeds belonging to potential customers. New customers are more likely to try your detailing business if their friends already have used you. Facebook lets you leverage word-of-mouth to promote your products or car detailing services. Keep in mind that when a fan interacts with your Page, their friends will see the activity in their news feed. Facebook also offers traditional advertising options that let you position your custom ads in users’ news feeds. The ads appear as promotional posts and direct anyone who clicks straight to your car detailing business website. Because Facebook collects heaps of user data, it can target your advertisement to users who are most likely to be interested in your car accessory products or auto reconditioning services.
Using Google: Taking advantage of pay per click advertising and using Google for a social media presence will help your auto detailing business grow in ways you never thought possible. Pay per click ads also known as “sponsored listings” are ads on Google that are positioned at the top of search pages and also on the side. You are only charged for your ad if someone clicks on it and you can decide what you want to pay per click for each key word. For recently launched web sites or web site with poor page ranking these ads can really help drive relevant traffic to your web site. After polling several auto detailing businesses that are using Google pay per click advertising the general consensus is that the phone rings a lot more! Let’s say you are paying $1.00 per click for the key word phrase “mobile auto detailing” and you are getting 5 clicks per day. If your web site is informative and your prices are competitive you phone should ring at least 2 times from those five clicks or at least they would request information on your web site if you have a “call for action” to request more information. Be sure to look into Google AdWords and Google Local and see if this type of advertising can fit into your budget. Be sure to track your results and take advantage of the free tools Google has to offer to better optimize your advertising campaign.
If you do not have a Google+ page for your auto detailing business now is the time is NOW to make one. Google+ has already passed Twitter and is gaining on Facebook. We strongly feel that having a Google+ page for your detailing business will help your business get noticed more online. Google is now publishing conversational content from Google+ pages in their search results. This will bring more visibility to your business and help the search rankings of your web site. We also realize that maintaining all these social media sites can be timely. There are reasonably priced online apps that can help you easily update and maintain your social media channels. HubSpot is one that we really like here at Detail King. Take advantage of what Google has to offer, it can help your business grow online and offline.
Using LinkedIn: LinkedIn provides a great opportunity to connect with customers and identify new leads. It may be a good idea to have LinkedIn accounts for both your company and yourself as a business owner. LinkedIn has special “Company Pages,” which allow LinkedIn users to “follow” your auto detailing company, and you can create a profile that clearly details your company’s expertise. On your personal page, you can still share company news about your detailing business , but you should also use it as a springboard for leveraging personal relationships with LinkedIn members who know you personally. Recommendations are awesome for instilling confidence. Auto detailing business owners shouldn’t be shy about asking loyal customers for recommendations about their services or products. However, you want to make sure your requests don’t backfire by leading you to lose customers.
If you have recognized that there may be an opportunity with a company in your area but are having a hard time reaching the decision maker, do a search on LinkedIn and once you determine who the “players” are send them a message about who are you are what your detailing business does. Sometimes making contact through “the back door” is the only way to get to the decision maker. The basic LinkedIn account is free. If you opt for an account with more robust features the upgrades start around $20 per month. If you use LinkedIn proficiently to obtain leads and establish important contact $20 is a mere bag of shells!
Using Twitter: Think of Twitter as a relationship-building tool for your auto detailing business. Twitter enables you to interact with people by sending short messages. It can also be thought of as a “micro blogging” service, which means you can post short, 140-character updates about your detailing business. By interacting with customers via Twitter, you’re keeping your business foremost in their minds — especially when it’s time for a hand car wash or auto detail for their vehicles. The most obvious business use of Twitter is to meet potential customers and leads the same way you would at a networking event, tradeshow or car show. Ask your customers if they are on Twitter and if so, ask them to follow your Twitter business account.
You can also use Twitter to develop and promote your brand, interact with your customer base, track what people are saying about your auto reconditioning business, create buzz around upcoming events and special offers and generate sales leads for your detailing business. You can also use Twitter to promote new car reconditioning services, a new product, or a new hire, even new equipment that you added to your arsenal and so much more! Twitter helps you develop relationships with bloggers and journalists for potential public relations placement. Auto detailing businesses today need a well-rounded mix of social medium marketing, and Twitter is much more than just a way to sound off. Use Twitter just as you would with your Facebook fan page. Develop a following and engage with them! The whole game plan is to keep your company high on their list as a choice merchant. Always ask your customers if they have a twitter account and mention that they should “follow you” for special offers and secret sales.
Using Instagram: Facebook paid 1Billon dollars for Instagram, there must be something to this! With Instagram on your phone, you’re able to share your work immediately, without having to load it into your computer and possibly spend time in Photoshop to get it exactly the way you want it. What a better way to show off your work of vehicles you have detailed. Here are some tips professional auto detailiers are using to promote their business with Instagram:
Connect your Instagram account to your Facebook account – Facebook and Instagram users are very connected, they share photos they post on Instagram and Facebook. Connect both accounts and cross pollinate those accounts to build your audience.
Use popular hashtags – People follow hashtages like they do popular products. You can use witty hashtags like #TheDirtiestCar and entertain a bunch of people or use something like #BeforeAndAfter to show off your work!
Use your established audiences – This is classic social media strategy. Use your Instagram photos of cars you have detailed where you already have audiences established. Be sure to use the photos on Facebook and twitter and even in your emails. There is nothing better than displaying a before/after picture of a car you recently detailed that was so horrible and you made it look like new again!
Host events – Companies are using efforts of their clients and subscribers to host events on Instagram. For example your auto detailing business can host an even on Instagram asking people to share photos of their favorite vehicles. Classic cars and muscle cars are always favorites especially if you have established a niche in that area. Use hashtags like; #LoveCorvettes or #LoveTransAms. Any niche that you have established can be promoted even more to grow that niche through Instagram. There are tons of other ways to use Instagram to promote your brand. Be creative and think out of the box to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity to show off your work!
Using Pinterest: If you are you interested in getting more traffic to your site? Then consider using Pinterest. The experts are saying that Pinterest drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube combined. In order to take advantage of this, Pinterest users first have to be attracted to your pins and repin them to their boards. The most successful pins on Pinterest have some traits in common. They combine great images with content to solve a problem, inspire, offer something desirable or appeal to interest in a hobby or activity. This doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. For example, let’s say you have established certain niches that your auto detailing business does well with. Possibly you have detailed many Corvettes and you are the “go to” guy or gal to detail a person’s Corvette. Establish a business page on Pinterest and begin posting Corvette pictures of the Vetts you have detailed. Other Corvette enthusiasts will easily be able to find you once the cars that you have detailed are repined. Before you know it you will have many Corvette owners contacting you to detail their Corvette. Women make up over 85% of Pinterest subscribers. Women love clean car interiors, you may want to show some great before/after pictures of some real nasty car interiors that you have cleaned. Offer a “lady’s day” special for car interior cleaning and detailing services through Pinterest! Be sure you always publish relevant content with your pictures that you post. There are some really cool tools that will let you measure the reach of your content on Pinterest. The Pinterest Pin Count tool will show you the number of times a page or blog post from your site has been pinned and repinned within Pinterest.
To create and manage a successful social media marketing program for your auto detailing business will take some time. Don’t get discouraged if you are not seeing results right away. Just like anything else, this will take some time too. Be patient and set aside an hour or so every day to keep your social media channels updated and looking as good as the cars you detail. Tip #6 will be out in a few days, be sure you check back to the Detail King Blog again soon!