[Social Media] Blogging for dollars

Social media use for business is seemingly everywhere — and it’s growing. According to a Forrester Research study conducted in late 2008, 95 percent of businesses surveyed planned to use social networks to some extent. Hundreds of thousands of businesses have a presence on Facebook, reaching out to the site’s more than 500 million active users.

The rise in popularity of using social media for business promotion is growing as quickly as the sites themselves — and for good reason. The tools are inexpensive — usually free, fairly easy to learn and (at least for some companies) have delivered amazing results.

While we all know that insects are social creatures by nature, the question that many PMPs are asking is this: "Where does social media fit into my marketing efforts and what impact will it have on my business?"

For the most part, social media is not something most pest management companies have ventured too deeply into but there are PMPs that have jumped into the social media arena and they have seen definite results for their businesses.

This is a common scenario for nearly every industry, according to Augie Ray, senior analyst of social computing at Forrester Research.

"Looking around, we have seen scattered noteworthy success," said Ray. "For example, in retail there are not a lot of best practices and then you see Zappos (a successful online shoe retailer), or you look at the auto industry, and then see Ford, which is way above the rest."

A Strategic Approach. A successful example of social media in action in the pest control industry is Takoma Park, Maryland-based American Pest.

Between September 2009 and January 2010, the company went through a complete rebranding effort, which included changing its logo, as well as launching a new website, sponsorship campaign and social media campaign.

According to American Pest’s Marketing and Advertising Manager Miranda Sherman, the effort to make a stronger digital presence was driven by the company’s 2010 strategic marketing goals.

"Website visits and organic placement on Google were among the company’s most important initiatives," said Sherman. "We needed to create a real and personal feel to the face of our company. And perhaps more importantly, we wanted to brand American Pest."

American Pest uses a combination of the company’s newly redesigned website (www.americanpest.net), a blog, Facebook page and Twitter account to drive its digital marketing efforts. And although the company had established a presence on Twitter it only began using the social media tool in earnest after the rebranding effort and the launch of the new website and Facebook page.

All of the digital platforms are strongly branded, and messages are coordinated between each platform as well as targeted for the medium. The integrated marketing approach led American Pest into a high-profile but unique effort to promote its services. The firm entered into a sponsorship agreement with the Washington Capitals, the local NHL hockey team.

The company sponsors the "American Pest Hard Hat of the Game," a contest in which fans are invited to vote for the most valuable player on the Capitals’ team after each winning game.

This sponsorship has helped American build its fan base on Facebook to more than 2,000 fans in just a few short months. The company has managed to keep these fans engaged through interactive posts and online contests.

According to Sherman, the company knows its strategy is working as it saw increases in both confirmed sales and new leads this past spring. In addition, website visits are up 62 percent consistently and they have found that as many as 72 percent of their visitors are new.

This, according to Ray, is an example of American Pest applying the POST strategy (People, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics) when developing its campaign. The strategy is a structured methodology Forrester Research recommends to clients in order to help them think through their marketing or social media strategy in an organized way. The key components of the POST strategy include:

• People — Who is your audience? What do they want? How can you engage them?
• Objectives — What do you want your campaign to achieve for your organization?
• Strategies — Ideas on how you can achieve your objectives.
• Tactics — The specific steps you need to take in order to execute your strategies, which will allow you to achieve your objectives.

Recognizing the Opportunity. In contrast to the complete rebranding and planned strategy of American Pest, Dominion Pest Control, Lancaster, Pa., discovered the power of social media when customers began posting information about the company in response to news stories on the area’s stinkbug problem.

Local media had reported there was no known solution to fighting stinkbugs. When these stories were posted online, customers of Dominion Pest Control began commenting on the stories, saying that they had found an answer in Dominion. These positive comments led to an increase in website traffic and online sales for the company.

Dominion uses a Facebook page and a blog to promote their business, but its most innovative tactic is the development of an online reality TV show — The Dominators (www.dominators.tv).

The Dominators is a full-length reality show produced by and starring Dominion pest control staff. The idea for the show came to owner Gregory Pettis when he was talking to one of his technicians, Christopher Komarow.

Komarow had seen reality shows on the Discovery Channel and A&E Network featuring pest control experts. He commented to Pettis that he was proud of his job and thought it would be interesting to have a camera crew see what the technicians at Dominion do on a daily basis.

In a twist of fate, Pettis was friends with someone who had produced a reality TV show called Classmates. Pettis had worked on the show with his friend, so he had seen the production process and knew how to put a reality show together. Working with his friend, Pettis created an outline for potential stories and then invited customers to participate.

The result was seven episodes, which are featured on the Dominators.tv website. Dominion promoted the online show by blogging, writing articles and approaching the media for coverage.

The local newspaper, the York Daily Record, wrote about the online show and sent a camera crew to film Dominion filming an episode for the paper’s website. Dominion’s efforts have resulted in a great deal of attention for the online shows, which have been viewed more than 10,000 times since the series was launched.

Getting Personal. One of the challenges facing every pest control company is finding a way to maintain contact with customers that use the company’s services fairly infrequently.

Spider Spray, a pest control and lawn care company located in Pleasant Grove, Utah, solved this problem with the launch of a website, which was geared to function around the company’s blog.

"We wanted to be more than just a transaction for our customers, we wanted to share timely messages and helpful hints to prevent pests," said Kevin Thorn, owner of Spider Spray. "Social media has allowed us to have more than a static website that people never come back to."

The company also incorporated a Facebook page and Twitter account into its integrated digital marketing efforts. According to Thorn, the strategy has proved successful with website visits having tripled and site visitors spending more time on the site.

Spider Spray worked with a marketing company to develop a strategy for the look and feel the website and blog needed to project. Thorn then sat down with members of the Spider Spray team to pre-plan some of the content for the blog before launching. This strategy has made the maintenance of the blog much easier for the small company.

"We sat down and thought of about 125 blog posts and made a list. Before we had a blog, we had a list. Whenever I need inspiration, I pull out the list and have plenty of ideas to choose from," Thorn said.

The use of social media also has helped Spider Spray attract the attention of local media, who have written about the company several times and extended the company’s branding efforts further. Thorn credits the blog and website for helping reporters to find out about the company.

What About You? American Pest, Dominion and Spider Spray have each taken a different approach to using social media to benefit their business and have all seen results. These three companies illustrate that there is no one formula for success in social media, just like there is no one formula for business success in general.

"How you approach social media depends on your objectives," said Forrester’s Ray. "There is not one answer as to what you should do, but it is important to remember to align your expectations to what you hope to achieve and what you are able to spend."

It is also important to consider your company’s willingness to "let go" of control of the content that comes with social media. Many companies worry that negative statements or false information will be posted in these ever-growing online forums.

While it is important to consider how you will handle negative postings and having a plan in place ahead of time is good practice, many businesses find that, as President Franklin Roosevelt once said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

American Pest’s Miranda Sherman said her biggest surprise about social media was, "That there was nothing to fear. We asked why we didn’t get started sooner. There are so many tools out there to make it easier and deliver positive results."

The author is president of Clear Verve Marketing, Elm Grove, Wis. Contact her via e-mail at csteder
@giemedia.com.
 

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Recommended
Reading List

If you are interested in venturing into social media, these books can help get you started down the right path.

Trust Agents. Authors Chris Brogan and Julien Smith explain reputation building in an online world and provide case studies and action steps you and your firm can take to start your online efforts off on the right foot.

The Age of Engage. Denise Schiffman, a strategic marketing consultant, shares the shift in philosophy that is required in order to successfully interact with customers in an online world and provides a series of questions you can ask yourself to plan your strategy.

Groundswell. Charlene Li and Josh Bernhoff, two top analysts from Forrester Research, describe how today’s consumers are more inclined to obtain information about the companies they do business with from their peers rather than from the business itself. They dub this trend "The Groundswell" and outline 25 case studies that show how leading companies are using the groundswell to their advantage.

Blogging for Dummies. One of the many "For Dummies" books, this edition explains the many options for blogging, helps you figure out what to say, and also covers microblogging via Twitter or Tumblr.
 

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Facebook and Twitter Numbers

More than 500 million active users.

Fifty percent of users log in on any given day.

The average user has 130 friends on the site and spends 55 minutes per day on Facebook.

On a monthly basis, the average user clicks the "Like" button nine times and becomes a fan of two pages.

85 percent of the U.S. population is aware of Twitter; only five percent of Americans use it.

300,000 new users sign up for Twitter every day.

Seventy-five percent of Twitter’s traffic comes from outside third-party applications vs. the Twitter website.

Twitter users are more likely to live in higher income households, own three or more computers, and are three times more likely to follow brands on Twitter than on other social networking sites.