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www.landscapeirrigation.com Landscape and Irrigation 33 Getting started If you're just starting with social media, your goal should be to create a channel where your customers can connect with your company and learn more about your services. It is important to develop an executable strategy for social media success for every social channel you launch — many eager social media newbies launch five social channels at once, just to let them die because they don't have the time, know-how or funds to maintain each channel. To get the most out of your social media strategy, introduce new channels one at a time. Once you are comfortable with posting to a channel, consider adding a new channel, if, and only if, the existing channels will not be neglected as soon as the new network is estab- lished. After creating your social channel(s), it's important to make it easy for your existing customers and Google Plus (G+) to find your social channels. When people come from your website to your social channel and vice versa, G+ takes note — making your products and services discoverable by millions of people. You can also make it easier for site visitors to find you socially by adding social icons to the top of your website's pages. So many outlets, which one to choose? Each of the following networks has its own social niche. The fol- lowing is a brief description of each and its benefits, as well as best prac- tices to help you determine which social networks will best fit into your social media strategy. Google Plus (G+) As the leader in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Google aims to make sharing on the web more like sharing in real life. Not only is G+ a social networking channel, but Google controls 65.2 percent 1 of what searchers find online. If you set up nothing else, setting up your Google Business account is imperative, and will give you the most value. Gen- erally speaking, the audience is made up of consumers who do not "know" you. How to use Google Plus By creating a G+ account, you claim your Google Business Page. Until you do, G+ will provide information about your company that has been gathered from various sources around the web, correct or not. Lock down your company information to get the most out of Google services. Beyond your initial company information, you can expand the basic listing by: • Telling prospects about your company's history, etc. — things that will make them confident that you know your customers and services inside and out. • Inventing fun ways to tell your circles what your company does, so your customers will know you're knowledgeable. • Getting people excited about the services you offer. Sometimes visual inspiration can really get people excited. Be creative — take and post pictures of projects, or simply post teasers to get existing and po- tential clients excited about what's coming next. Frequency Post new information to your G+ Business Account at least two times per week. Facebook Facebook exists so that people can share what they love most, with the people or "Friends" that are closest to them. How to use Facebook Facebook gives you the opportunity to build brand awareness and social value with new and existing customers by combining business with personal messaging. The people who interact with your Facebook page are most likely current customers, or they are friends or family of a customer. They "like" your company and are interested in what you have to say. Once you activate your Facebook account, you can: • Engage your fans in historical trivia. Not everything on Facebook has to or should be business related. Take the opportunity to engage your audience by posting events in your timeline. A great way to do that is to post a trivia question related to the industry that your fans might find interesting. Then, answer the trivia question with a quick reply, or go all out and reply with a video. • Randomly amuse your audience. Entertainment is the goal of so- cial media, and you can hop on the amusement bandwagon by giving your page a viral appeal. Think about how to really entertain your au- dience while still including company branding in your posts. • Give fans what they want. You can easily invite your fans to cele- brate special events, products, services or the holidays with you. Frequency Post no more than one time every four hours and no less than twice per week. Twitter Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that can be accessed via native web and mobile applications, as well as various third-party management applications. Get people to trust you and your brand by spreading your message quickly and generating word-of- mouth marketing. Posts are called "Tweets," and users are referred to as "followers." How to use Twitter Twitter affords you the opportunity to build a personal relationship in a public forum one 140-character tweet at a time. You can use Twitter to provide: • Brief, informational nuggets about your company. Twitter is perfect for live event updates without too much detail — give just enough to keep your fans engaged and interested in what's happen- ing right now. • Open tweeting to your entire company. Think about topics beyond your services, and don't forget about retweeting other industry-related news and tweets. Frequency Tweet daily, but at a minimum of twice per week. If you set up nothing else, setting up your Google Business account is imperative, and will give you the most value.