Every contractor marketing firm and local business should have a Twitter and Facebook account to boost contractor leads. For efficiency and more online activity, you can easily link the two.

First, if you don’t already have a Twitter or Facebook account, you need to get one yesterday to increase your social bookmark on the web. These social networking platforms help create exposure, build brand loyalty and credibility, boost expert status, and provide a great resource to generate contractor leads for your business.

After ensuring you have fully completed profiles on both, use the following steps to link your Facebook and Twitter accounts so your Tweets automatically post to your Facebook account!

#1. Log in to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

#2. Go to: facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2231777543

#3. On the Facebook page, click the “Go to Your Twitter Profile Settings to Start” button.

#4. You’ll be taken to your Twitter Profile page. Click on the ‘Connect to Facebook’ button close to the bottom of the page.

#5. Click ‘Skip’ or ‘Allow’ when the Facebook pop-up screen comes up, depending on whether or not you want to link to your other Facebook pages.

#6. Make sure the ‘Allow Twitter to post to the wall of my Facebook profile’ is checked on your Twitter profile.

And that’s it! Your Tweets will now post to your Facebook page automatically. Per Twitter, Tweets that are @replies and direct messages will never be posted.

Tweet and microblog away to boost contractor leads for your business!

For microblogging tips, check out the following post: Creating Powerful Microblogs to Boost Contractor Leads.

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Facebook is a great tool to generate contractor leads, but you must use it wisely as a contractor marketing company. Your Facebook Newsfeed should be updated frequently and consistently.

Friends. Everyone enjoys having them. And making new friends is even better, because you often feel a sense of success surrounded by friends (and often, the more the merrier).

Leads are similar to friends. Contractor leads are something every business enjoys having (and needs for survival!). Generating new contractor leads is even better, because you feel your business or company is in success mode by continually generating those new contractor leads (and indeed, the more the merrier).

So how can a business keep generating those leads that are the heartbeat of their business? There are many ways to do so, with a popular marketing tool as of late being Facebook. Facebook is a great place for people to find friends and make new ones, so why wouldn’t is be a good way for businesses to generate new contractor leads as well?

But you must use it faithfully and wisely, and part of that is posting to your Facebook Newsfeed on a consistent basis.

The Facebook Newsfeed is the portal where all things get posted. It can be videos, comments, pictures, links, or whatever else is shared on Facebook by users. The newsfeed is also something where everyone can see what you post if they have chosen to “like” you or are subscribed to your business Facebook page as a “fan” or your personal page as a “friend”. You want to use the newsfeed by posting newsworthy content consistently and frequently to be seen and exposed as much as possible. You don’t want to be one of those local businesses that creates a page on Facebook and never uses it. If you are, then you wasted your time even setting up the page.

Respond to other people’s posts, and ask your own questions to generate engagement on Facebook.

When looking to generate new contractor leads, then consider responding to other people’s posts that show up that may be relevant to your business, as well. You can also choose to answer questions you know the answer to, or leave questions so others can put there two cents in. If people like what they see, you may just attract them to your business website, which means they become potential contractor leads.

With so many users on Facebook (closing in on a billion!), it’s a great place to be seen and generate new contractor leads. The Facebook Newsfeed is just one component of a Facebook page that should be used to boost your exposure and attract contractor leads.

Would you like to learn more about how Facebook could boost your business to the next level? Leave a comment below!

Generating high-quality contractor leads for your business involves a mix of on-site tasks to make your website attractive to prospective customers and search engines – and off-site tasks to distribute content all over the Internet like a breadcrumb trail to lead people to your website. Some of these tactics are a little more fun than others. Here’s one that’s fun: Foursquare.

It’s a way to get great publicity for your business and not break the bank. Foursquare is a social networking application that advertises to your local target market – for free! Here’s how it works. Folks register for the service and use their smartphones to let their friends know where they are by “checking in.” Whether they are at the grocery store or hanging out at a bar, their friends will all know it. To make it even more addictive, there’s a game involved where users earn points and rewards for their activity.

Most people might only think of using check-in apps like this for pizza places movie rentals – but businesses of all kinds can benefit from them. Foursquare’s location-based social network can benefit your business because all these restaurant-hopping, grocery shopping, local business-frequenting users also link their accounts to Twitter and sometimes Facebook. They are advertising your venue on their profiles for free with tips and shouts, and you probably don’t even know it! Other sites you can try, too, are Facebook’s Places, Yelp, and Groupon.

How can you get the most from this trendy app? Look for your business in Foursquare and make sure your business name and address is correct. If not, you can register for a free account and make changes to the info. Capitalize on your Foursquare visitors by offering them incentives to return to your venue. Overall it’s a fun, win-win way to boost your bottom line.

You can leverage this activity to increase your search rankings because Google Places and Bing Maps are now including Foursquare venues on their local searches. And Google is using the activity for business citations and recommendations.

Speaking of citations and recommendations Google’s just changed the process for how people leave reviews. Prior to the recent change, users could stay anonymous and leave reviews on a business’ Google Places listing. Now that’s changed – a development that’s getting mixed reviews. Users essentially have to log into their Google account to leave a review. While this raises the credibility of reviews, it also makes it just a bit harder to get happy customers to leave reviews.

Is your business using Foursquare and the other check-in services? Are you offering coupons and special deals for customers who find you that way? I’d love to hear your success stories and questions about getting leads for your contractor business like this.

Increasing your Contracting Businesses Online Visibility with Social Media

The Hootsuite platform is a multi-integral social media management dashboard that has the ability to manage, organize and obtain your businesses social media networks…all in one location. There is a reason we choose Hootsuite for our Surefire Social Clients, and we think that your business should too.

Sometimes life is not as hard as we make it out to be. Following some simple, but highly effective principles for web traffic conversion will get you more contractor leads than anyone in your market. The hard part is not making this too complicated…and of course, just doing them.

SECRET #1 – Use a landing page, PLEASE

Your homepage is not the best destination for social media traffic because your message will be much broader on your homepage that you have on your social media site.

In social media, you are publishing regularly through micro blogging, article writing and videos on specific topics. You should have landing pages within your site structure that you can drive this very targeted traffic to that will be and exact match to the social media subject your viewer/prospect is reading.

Think of it this way. If you are on a social media site learning about energy efficiency and how windows can help make your home more energy efficient, how would you feel if you clicked on a link and were dumped on a page that talked very broadly about window replacement and tried to sell you a deal or request a quote?

SECRET #2 – Match your Social Media Message to your Landing Page

The primary message on your landing page should be the same (or reflective of) what you said in your social media channel. Like positive reinforcement for dogs, seeing a familiar message adds to the feeling that you made a “good” click. Conversely, not having a matched message can make your visitors feel lost – at which point they head for the comfort of the back button.

SECRET #3 – Social proof via social media widgets

There is a new buzzword in the social media marketing world…wisdom of the crowd. This is based on the fact that most people are a bit like sheep. They have no idea where they are going, and in most cases, just wander around until they find something interesting. Our herd mentality makes us want constant validation that our choices are sound. We do this by seeking reviews of products and services and we observe the reactions of others as they experience the goods before us. The great thing is, with social media, we can make this concept work for us.

SECRET #4 – Make it easy to share with social media widgets

Having viewers of your social media content be able to easily share and spread your ideas will benefit your business in several ways. Sharing your content can come across as a “referral” to someone looking for a contracting service like yours. The cool thing about viral sharing is that it will also add to your “authority” as and expert. Great way to differentiate your business from the pack!

You can find tons of social media sharing widgets that make it easy to integrate sharing capabilities into your website, Facebook Fan Page and other social media/web 2.0 sites.

SECRET #5 – Keep Your Lead Gen Form Short

Traffic conversion to a qualified lead is a dynamic tension between enticement and resistance (barriers to entry). If you are collecting leads (personal data such as name, email, phone number, company, website etc.) then your lead gen form is a barrier to entry and the size of the barrier is directly correlated to the size of the form (number of fields).

When collecting personal data, you need to offer something back to the customer in exchange, such as a whitepaper, webinar registration, eBook and so on. The more relevant and interesting your giveaway is, the larger you can make the hurdle. Another important aspect here it to make your offer something that will only engage people truly interested in your service. Offering a discounted cruise if someone gives their contact info and sets up a sales call may get you lots of leads, but you might be attracting a very unqualified lead. Better, offer something that only someone who would want to buy your product or service would want.

SECRET #6 – Have Multiple Calls To Action

Sadly, not everyone that comes to your landing page is ready to convert “right now”. They may be more upper funnel, trying to get educated, window-shopping, browsing or just curious about what you have to say. By offering several calls to action (we recommend at least 3 per landing page) you can sometimes persuade the visitor to maintain a connection with you wherever they may be in the purchase decision.

The simplest ways to do this are to provide a method to:

• A visible phone number to call for immediate help.
• Download a free handbook/ebook
• Request a quote button

Other simple ways to get the contact using social media are:

• Like your Facebook page or group
• Follow you on Twitter
• Join a LinkedIn group
• Bookmark you on Delicious

SECRET #7 – Post-Conversion Sales

Post-conversion sales strategy is a completely overlooked part of the sales funnel. You got your conversion and you got your lead so everything’s good right? Wrong. You need a sale!

There are several ways we use to optimize your post-conversion opportunities:

• Use an autorepsonder to move your new lead to a sale. Use social proof (testimonials) and education materials to build trust and authority in your sales process.
• Follow up with a call immediately to arrange an in-home demo. Make sure you have a script and your people know it and keep track of demo set up rates so you can optimize that script.
• Place additional call-to-actions on your confirmation or thank you page (after they complete your lead gen form). This can help to reduce clutter on your landing page. And you can also suggest a page on your website as their next step – knowing that they have a qualified level of interest.
• Turn the email into a complete social profile using a service like Flowtown. This gives your leads an identity and sets you up for more targeted follow-up marketing. Your first contact with the prospect is critical, and the more you know about them the better. By connecting based on real profile data you look like someone who’s made the effort to do some research before making contact. This is a massive conversion advantage.

In Summary

Don’t get overwhelmed by the possibilities. Bookmark this post and do one thing at a time and come back and continue till you have implemented everything.

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Got a Facebook Fan Page and Need Some Help?

Contact us with questions at  info @ surefiresocial.com

It’s the new formula for successful contractor marketing if you want to create a lead generation machine of your own.

In fact, a new study done by Marketing Sherpa says the 36% of small businesses are not using social media to enhance their SEO efforts. For companies with less than 100 people, over 70% are using social media to drive SEO rank to their website landing pages. The question is, how are you doing with this important new tactic.

The reason why using social media to drive SEO is so critical for smaller businesses is they have an advantage here. Being smaller, they are likely to be much more agile that larger businesses and can win quickly. Of course, all this does not mean much if you don’t have a site that converts visitors,but that is another post.

So, what does a social media marketing program look like for a small business? Here is an outline to start with:

• Determine your keywords and phrases that you used for your landing pages and make sure you map them consistently (back to the appropriate landing page) throughout your distributed social media content.
• For social media SEO, a great place to start is bookmarking your website landing pages in web 2.0 social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon, Furl, Delicious and others. Use 25-30 bookmarking sites for each page and make sure you use your keywords in descriptions.
• Register your website in key local, regional and national directories so you get the links and search juice. Use your keywords and phrases in your descriptions and titles.
• Distribute 5-6 articles per month and distribute them to article directories like ezine, article alley and other high value article directories. Make sure you use your keywords and phrases in title of articles and have enough keywords density in the copy.

When most people think about social media they think Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. While these social media sites are great and can add huge value to your contractor lead generation efforts, you may not get the SEO bang for the buck that you will with the first steps above. Get the basics done first and then you can expand your social media program to these other sites. You can even get really sophisticated and do a link wheel that will put your SEO efforts on steroids.

Want to learn more about this strategy, get our free ebook “Surefire Social 20 Day DIY Social Media Guide”. We have a special contractor edition just for you.

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Also check us out on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube!

We all know that the social media world can be a very intimidating place when it comes to finding prospective customers. Having a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profile is a great step toward social media lead generation, but what good are these profiles if you don’t know how to use them to your advantage?

Think of the social media community as a prime place to make connections, build trust and generate contractor leads for your business. Give your target audience the type of information they are going to be able to take with them…make it worth their while.

Here are some ways to spark up a great online convo. That will help establish some long-lasting, quality contractor leads:

Facebook. Assuming your business has a rockin’ Facebook Business Page, spend your time driving the Facebook community back to your page.  Try this: Get on Facebook and use the search bar (the white bar at the top of the page) and search for phrases like: “Home Improvement” and “Home Renovations,” or browse for any type of “DIY” page where homeowners are asking questions or engaging in conversation. Join in and provide your expertise and let them know that your businesses Facebook page has to offer.

Twitter. Not only does Twitter offer you a huge community to sink your business marketing skills into, but they offer incredible search capabilities. Jump on search.twitter.com and search Twitter users by geographic location. Engage with people in your local area (i.e. people who will need your services). Concentrating on building relationships and the leads will come pouring in.

LinkedIn. I really cannot say enough good things about LinkedIn’s Groups section. Although, LinkedIn is more accommodating to individuals than businesses, the Groups section provides for some fantastic, networking opportunities. Join a few groups, some in the contractor niche, and some for homeowners exchanging home improvement ideas. Become apart of the conversation and soon you will have made some new online connections and generated some pretty solid leads for your business.

So, next time you are browsing around Facebook, sending a tweet, or accepting a LinkedIn connection, think about these three key ways to building relationships and generating contractor leads for your business.

Social Media falls into a larger umbrella called “Inbound Marketing.” Traditional marketing is 1) canvassing/cold calls/ telemarketing 2) print marketing such as magazines or newspapers 3) radio advertising 4) TV advertising 5) outdoor advertising. These traditional marketing techniques would be labeled as “Outbound Marketing.”

Just a few years ago, successful contractors could use these familiar, traditional marketing tactics and dominate a market. The problem with outbound marketing today is: consumers have DVRs so they do not watch TV commercials; consumers have iPods or satellite radio so I don’t listen to radio commercials; consumers subscriptions rates to magazines and newspapers are near extinction; and consumers have learned to ignore “interruption marketing” such as telemarketing through services like caller ID.

Successful contractors of the future will learn to adopt these new “inbound marketing” techniques to generate a consistent flow of inbound leads. As we discussed in previous posts, social media alone is not going to move the needle. Three “pillars” of Internet marketing in today’s environment are; 1) and properly structured website, 2) distributed content including social media and web 2.0 sites, and 3) ongoing Local Search Engine Optimization including both on page and off page tactics.

That said, using Social Media is an important new tactic that will give you leverage to compete with bigger businesses, and with bigger budgets. Here is how:

Create Profiles on Social Media Sites: Although there are many social network sites it is best to get your feet wet on 1) Facebook 2) Twitter and 3) LinkedIn.

Facebook:
Create a Fan Page for your business. You will need a personal profile first. Click on this link http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and follow the setup instructions.

Twitter:
Create an account by navigating to https://twitter.com/signup. Follow the instructions to setup your account.

LinkedIn:
Create a personal account and a company page. To create a personal account go to https://www.linkedin.com/secure/register?trk=hb_join and enter in the appropriate fields. To create a company page make sure you have your personal account created and verified and then click on this link http://www.linkedin.com/companies?didentcompy=.

What’s Next

Send an email out to your mailing list and let them know about your cool new social media pages and ask them to follow and friend you. Give people good, helpful in formation. Maybe try some coupons or specials that you can promote to get your new followers sending your page to friends.

In general listen and be helpful. See what your target audience is talking about, and then after you understand add value by sharing your thoughts. Below are a few specific examples:

Twitter:
You have 140 characters. Be short and link back to more information on your website or blog (your link bait). By linking back to your website you create traffic and allow your site to be indexed by search engines. Both are good.

Facebook:
Pose questions. Share resources that your target audience would find of value. Think of your Facebook Fan Page like a forum.

LinkedIn:
Answer questions posted by your target audience. This will give you “expertise” which is rewarded with green stars in the category your answer was selected as the best answer. Link your blog to your company page. By adding your blog to your company page your LinkedIn page will share your latest blog post with the professional community.

Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. You can do it by just clicking on the icons on the right.

We have some other free resources for you if you are interested in learning more. Check out our videos at www.surefiresocial.com/contractor-leads.

How is social media working for your contracting business?