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The world is getting faster. Customers can now access information at the touch of their fingers on handy smartphones or by wielding purse-sized tablets to just name a few.

It’s important that our industry stays in touch with our ever-connected customers.

Utilizing social media allows lawn care companies to build personal relationships with customers, creating a more loyal fan base. Furthermore, it allows companies to tap into their customers’ friends or followers and maintain an up-to-date flow of information about the going ons in the company including coupons and sales.

Do you have someone interacting on social media for your company?

If not, it’s time to jump on the social bandwagon and join in on this free publicity.

Intimidated by social media?

A lot of lawn care companies are intimidated by social media, and who wouldn’t be? Facebook has a running list of rules for company involvement. And once you post or tweet, it’s hard and some times down right impossible to “take it back” or make it disappear.

At Holganix, we’ve been untangling the social media chaos as we interact with our customers and fans.

We certainly aren’t perfect! But here are a few helpful tips we discovered in our journey to understanding social media. After all, as Holganix CEO, Barrett Ersek, likes to say, “Wise men learn from their experiences, but super wise men learn from the experiences of others.” Feel free to be super wise men or women and steal our ideas.

Also, if you have any tips or questions you’d like to share with the Holganix community, please post away at the bottom of this entry!

Keep in mind, this blog is on using Facebook for Lawn Care. To access tips on additional social media tools, visit our blogs here. 

Tip One: Pages are for companies. Accounts are for people!

Before you even start to think about your status update or your raving fan following, make sure you’ve set up the correct Facebook account.

If you already have a personal account set up for your company, consider this link. It will switch your personal account to a page. Be warned! A possible side effect of using this app is losing some of your account content.

Tip Two: There's an app for that! 

If you’re one of the many people in lawn care that are always on the go, consider downloading Facebook to your smartphone. This way, you can post even when you aren’t near your computer.

Tip Three: Progress, not perfection...

Don't get too stressed if you write a post with a grammatical mistake every once in a while (been there, done that!). Too many mistakes makes you look unprofessional but making the occasional mistake makes your company look human.

Tip Four: Post, Post, Post

Facebook's sweet spot is posting two to three times per day. If this seems like too much for you to handle, don’t sweat it. Post as often as you can, even if that means only 2-3 times a week. After all, some social media interaction is better than none.

But, be consistant! If you select to post only a couple times per week, make sure you don't skip a week in between.

Tip Five: Pictures and videos are best!

Facebook prefers pictures and videos over other posts. That means if you post a picture or video, you have a higher likelihood of appearing on your fans’ newsfeeds. Plus, customers tend to respond more positively to pictures and videos, as it makes the connection feel more personal.

So, next time you are out surveying one of your beautiful lawns or having a fun company meeting, grab your phone, take a picture and upload away!

Tip Six: Set up a schedule

Create a schedule of certain things you want to post on each day, this way you don’t have to stress over topics. For example, Mondays you could post an interesting quote, Tuesdays a lawn care tip and Wednesdays a picture showcasing a property.

Tip Seven: Have the intern do your dirty work.

If you don’t have time or just can’t handle the headache, get an intern or ask the teenager that lives next door. Social media is second nature to them and they are cheaper than hiring a professional.

Nervous about handing over the reins to a student? Set up guidelines and standards with your social media teen to make sure they are positively representing your company.

Tip Eight: What’s the return on your social media investment?

ROI can be difficult to quantify for any social media tool. However, there are ways that you can gauge the impact your social media tool makes.

At Holganix, we use a template that allows us to track how much our interactions on social media increases every 15 days. Feel free to steal the template for yourself.

We also use Hubspot’s social media analytics tool to track our reach on social media. It’s a gold mine for data. Google Analytics has similar options… best part is, it’s free!

Tip Nine: Super wise men learn from the experiences of others

Pick a role model for your Facebook in the industry. Watch what’s working for them (i.e. did their coupon for a free app gain a lot of likes or comments?) and borrow their techniques for your page.

Some good role models to keep in mind are TruGreen, John Deere and Real Green Systems.

Explore Holganix Marketing support

At Holganix, one of our core values is sustainable growth - the growth of plants, people and companies. We are passionate about helping our customers grow their companies. That passion and our core values led us to create a lawn and landscape marketing support library to help you build your lawn and landscape business. Check out our marketing support page below.