As employees and business owners in the lawn and landscape industry it’s not a stretch to say that we are kind of busy. We do everything we possibly can to keep up with the demands of our business and make sure we hang onto our commitments with our family and community. My point here is that we don’t spend a lot of time leisurely perusing social media like Facebook. But guess what? Everybody else on the freaking planet does! Last week we examined how combining a simple and free Google “Places” listing with your MyLawnQuote auto estimating widget can produce more sales than you can imagine. Much the same way you can engage and sell your services to consumers through a Google “Places” listing you can do the same thing with Facebook and with a little bit of extra effort you can turbo charge the whole thing. If you aren’t on Facebook you are jeopardizing the future of your business’s growth. Check out “A simple Facebook strategy that will turbo charge your business in 10 easy steps.” 1. Set up a Facebook page. It’s so easy even a kid could do it. In fact, if you have kids it may make sense to use this as an opportunity to bring them into the business a little bit. Chances are good that if you don’t have a Facebook page yet you may be better off working with them in the first place. Remember this has to be a Facebook PAGE and not a personal Facebook account. Don’t worry if you don’t know what this means your kids will know what to do. If you already have a Facebook page and you’ve got a few followers please skip ahead to number 5. 2. Set up a “MyLawnQuote.com” account. This one is something that you should probably handle and not your kids. But don’t let them go too far away because you are going to need them again very shortly. Go through the process of setting up your pricing, your services and building your profile. If you need help we can certainly help you out in this regard. 3. Build your Facebook audience. What this means is that you are going to need to get people to “Like” your page. You should think about this as a long term strategy as much as a short term strategy. Keeping current and potential customers engaged with pertinent information regarding your business can never hurt and Facebook gives you the opportunity to do just that. You should include your Facebook links on everything you do whether it’s statements, leave behinds, door hangers whatever. You need to put a little bit of effort into getting people to like your page....... 4. Unless you don’t mind spending a couple of bucks to get it done. Facebook makes it real easy for you to promote your page to your audience and they give you the opportunity to set up the demographic that you want to encourage connecting with. If you only do work in Smithtown, Jonestown and Trentown you can choose to promote your page only in those towns. It’s real simple, just click on “promote page” and Facebook will take you through the rest. It even allows you to budget a certain amount per day to do so. 5. Engage Once you’ve got a few followers and you’ve posted some content over the course of a couple of weeks you can get down to the real task at hand, making some sales! Obviously you are going to want to promote certain things at certain times of the year. For example right now it’s the second week of October and you may want to be promoting fall cleanups. If you’ve followed these steps appropriately you’ve already taken care of setting up your MyLawnQuote.com account in step 2. 6. Make Sales Here’s where it gets good. What you are going to do is link your auto-estimating widget directly to a sponsored post in Facebook. Essentially you are giving a certain audience the chance to literally see what you are promoting, do their own estimate and sign up for your service without you actually having to talk to them. And yes, I just heard that collective “gasp.” Naturally, for services like fall cleanups you will want to include a “terms and conditions” that the customer will have to agree to. So don’t worry, we got that covered. 7. Promote the post. What is a “Sponsored Post?” Facebook puts a little button next to your posts that say “Boost Post” and when you click on it you get options to promote your post to a demographic that you select. If you want to sell a few aerations in Smithtown you would select only the Smithtown area to see your posts. You can also choose the age and gender of your audience. You obviously don’t want to promote aeration to 17 year old girls so make sure you select accordingly. 8. Make it appealing Create a post with a message that looks something like this, “We’ve reduced our pricing on Fall Aerations by 20%. If you haven’t scheduled this important service yet click here to find out how much it will cost to aerate your lawn.” You may want to put a picture of a nice lawn, an aerator or something else that gets attention in the post. 9. MOST IMPORTANT STEP. There is a link on your MyLawnQuote profile that leads directly to a screen where a consumer can enter their address and measure their lawn using the MyLawnQuote.com satellite measuring tool. YOU MUST LINK YOUR FACEBOOK POST TO THIS PAGE. The consumer will be able to measure their lawn, get an estimate, sign up and even prepay right there. All in the comfort of their own home or office and it doesn't matter what time it is! 10. Watch the sales pour in twenty four hours a day.