What Works for Us

Throughout this class we have tried multiple Social Media platforms, some of them were okay, some would be better for us later and some didn't really go with what we have going. There were a few though, that were so right on, that they are already making us a nice profit. I knew it was going to be a fun class, but I had no idea how fun. We have learned how to make money for free. Of course, it takes our time and these days especially, that isn't free, but we have really been given a platform to succeed in virtually any thing we can think of.

With every few assignments there were different Social Medias for us to work with. Most of our success came from Facebook. We tried the others, but it is absolutely the best for what we want to do in the future and such a great way to keep our customers. It's a way for them to feel like they are part of our team and part of what we have going on. I have loved coming up with posts and being able to preset them to post in the future. I love the way the customers and friends have engaged in our posts and added to them. It has been such a great experience and really the best fit for us right now.

We also set up an account with Yelp, Twitter and Google+. With each new account, it was so great to be able to post on Facebook about those new accounts. We have been steadily picking up followers on all of them. Facebook alone already has 340 Likes and it's just a couple of months into it. I have spent a majority of my time on the Facebook page, with a random Tweet or Google+ post here and there. I just really like the Activity Log on Facebook and the way I can plan posts for an extended amount of time. In fact right now I have two months worth of posts scheduled to post and it has been like that since I started working on the business page.

I currently post an electrical "tip" on Monday mornings at 8:50am, the tips are a hit, and it seems to get a lot of attention at that scheduled day of the week and time of day. I will either post an electrical "fact" on Wednesday at 11:00am or an electrical "joke." These times show our most engagement in the Facebook Insights. Then on Friday at either 8:50am or 11:00am, I will post a really nice job photo. The rest of the days and times are left open for the owner to post if he wants or either he or I will share interesting electrical posts that we have found in the Cockrell Electric newsfeed. It has been working really well and brings with it tons of engagement. Once a month I will also schedule an employee bio post. These have also been a big hit that brings engagement, shares, and likes. I will stay with this schedule permanently or until the Insights begin to show otherwise.

Google+ and Twitter are the others that we are posting to on a semi regular basis. Not because they are less important, but because I have been focusing on Facebook as a learning tool on what works and am now beginning to take that over to Google+ and Twitter. Their posts will become more regular and everything will be linked to the Website. I do not have a schedule for these accounts yet, but I will be more engaged in the future after learning all that we have about them.

The other site we started a page on was Yelp. They have what we are looking for with their advertising plan. Their demographic is exactly what we want for our clientele. Their key demographic is 35 to 45, educated with a bachelors degree, income of 100,000 plus and speak English. These are people that are searching for the right Electrician, people that are actually searching for an electrician, not just us advertising to random people hoping they may someday need an electrician and that it might be us. I have set up an appointment after the first of the year with a salesperson at Yelp to begin the process of us advertising with them. They have a few different ad plans, but I think we will be going with the year plan because of the options that come with it. One of the things that happens when you are advertising with Yelp, is that when people are searching for your type of business in your area and they click on someone else in your area, you will be the advertisement on their page.

There were so many different positives that went along with all the different Social Media sites and so many different ways you can make them work for you if you try. We will stay on track with Facebook and pick up our presence on Google+ and Twitter as well as adding the advertising on Yelp in the new year. It is really exciting and so much to look forward to. It really has been a great class and I am sorry to see it end.