Truly Nolen's Toby Srebnik Shares Social Media Tips for Pest Control Companies

Truly Nolen's Public Relations and Communications Manager Toby Srebnik shares in-depth tips in the following video interview on how pest control companies can use their social media platforms to increase customer growth.

Toby Srebnik was featured in PCT's April magazine with his written feature Get Social, where he shared tips on how pest control companies can increase social media exposure. 

In this video interview, Srebnik dug deeper into these tips with PCT's Digital Editor Amanda Donchatz on how pest control companies can efficiently use them in day-to-day practice. 

Below is the transcript from the video: 

Amanda: You were featured in our April issue, and with social media, you explained some do’s and don’ts for social media postings. You mentioned that you want to make your followers feel special. How can a pest control company make their followers feel something?

Toby: I would say there are a couple ways. The easiest way is to do some giveaways on your platforms. For example, we are a fun brand with the Truly Nolen mouse cars, and we will do a giveaway with a trivia question on an insect. Any pest control company is going to have swag they can giveaway. Answering questions when they come in because not a day or two goes by where someone sends us an insect wanting to know what it is. If you’re able to be a resource for that follower or person, that’ll make them feel good about it. You also might have a customer that reaches out on social media because they don’t want to call you on the phone; It’s your responsibility to call them in a timely fashion and give them an answer quickly from the technician or manager to save the relationship. You want to do everything you can to salvage a relationship. One way you will not do that is to get back to their question five days later. Answering people timely and giving away swag are easy ways to foster a relationship with customers.

Amanda: In terms of posting on your platforms, how often is too often to post and how do you schedule out content that isn’t going to be overbearing but keep you noticed?

Toby: Let’s start with Facebook. We’ve changed a lot through the years. I helped launch us almost 15 years ago on FB, and we probably posted once a day on Facebook and that was a great engagement. We’ve evolved now so I would say over the last 4 years, we do it two to three times a week. When you’re looking to share content on social media, everyone has great employees and team members. People that want to look for pest control on social media, they want to see smiling faces or the people. One way to do that is take pictures of your people who are not smoking a cigarette and dressed appropriately. Those are the kinds of images that will draw some interest. If you can provide facts about an insect or termite awareness week, those are some easy topics. Twitter, using that as a social account, I would say two to three times a day and Instagram, probably could get away with three to four pictures a week. Just make sure you ask permission from customers and children in photos having permission from a guardian to use photos.

Amanda: In terms of companies thinking before they post content, why is it important to make sure you’re aware of what’s going on and being put out there on social media.

Toby: It can be very easy if you do the wrong thing and post the wrong thing and damage your brand. You can certainly damage it for a length of time. You need to know what’s going on in the world, does it make sense for you to comment on something, and I’m not the judge and jury when it comes to whether a small pest control company wants to make a political statement, you just have to know what the repercussions are if customers don’t agree with you. When you have your post ready to go, double and triple check it and it says specifically what you want to achieve.

Amanda: Any other advice you would give to smaller pest control companies on ways they can begin on the basics with going digital?

Toby: I would say for a smaller company, the most important thing is don’t feel overwhelmed. Every company has something to offer from social media and it’s the quickest cheapest way to do that. I would set aside 15 minutes at most each day and concentrate on your social media efforts. Do you have your logo in a JPG that you can use as a profile picture? Do you have good photos of your staff that you can share? Just try and devote some time to make sure all of the information on your page is correct. Facebook advertising is a really easy way to connect with people in a niche market. If you’re a small pest control company in one market, figure out what market and zip code you want to hit. If you’re trying to hire people, that’s another big thing you can do on social media for new employees.