Comments on your Facebook posts are more valuable than Likes

According to a November 2011 analysis from EdgeRank Checker that examined a random sampling of more than 5,500 Facebook pages and over 80,000 posts with links during October 2011, a comment on a Facebook post containing a link results in almost 5 times the amount of clicks of that link than a Like of a comparable post. For every Like a post gets, the link receives on average 3.1 clicks but for every comment a post gets, it receives on average 14.7 clicks. Overall clicks per impression were found to be 0.5%.

Wednesday and Tuesday is best for engagement, Saturday and Friday is worst
When sorting the average clicks and shares by day of the week, Wednesday's had the best share ratio (link shares compared to the number of fans per page) at 0.11%. Wednesday's also had the highest click ratio (link clicks compared to the number of fans per page) at 0.49%. Tuesday followed with a 0.1% share ratio and 0.47% click ratio.

Saturday fared worst for shares ratio (0.8%), while Friday saw the smallest clicks ratio (0.35%).

Smaller pages have more devoted followers
There is a distinct correlation between Facebook page size and fan engagement. Pages with less than 1,000 fans had by far the highest shares and clicks ratios (over 1.1% share ratio and 0.3% click ratio). Following distantly were pages with 1-5,000 fans, with a share ratio of less than 0.4% and a click ratio of less than 0.1%.

In contrast, pages with more than 100,000 fans experienced the lowest share and click ratios. The data suggests that smaller pages are able to create more relevant content for their fans, which may be an indication that large brands should make multiple pages to narrow down their audience.

Social context ads increase conversions
According to November 2011 analysis from TBG Digital, Facebook Likes do have a place in driving conversions. Advertisements that leverage the social interactions that users are comfortable seeing in their Facebook news feeds perform better than those that do not.

The analysis was based on a single client (a popular entertainment brand that spent $60,000 across a 14-day period and accumulated 436 million impressions) that had a 32% improvement in purchasing intent when using social context ads as opposed to non-social context ads.

According to the analysis, social context ads are built with a text and image box with the addition of visible endorsements beneath the ad. The endorsements note the number of friends associated with a user who like the page, group, event, or application.

The cost-per-click remained constant between non-social context and social context ads, but in this study non-social context ads took 132 clicks to achieve a conversion compared to only 99 clicks for social context ads. When factoring in the cost per click, the difference in cost per acquisition equated to $44 when using social context ads. TBG Digital said there are limitations to the social context ad campaigns that are primarily due to the URL structure in the Ads API.

If you have any questions about social media marketing in the roofing industry or would like help improving sales from social media, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.

What skills are needed to be good at social media?

If you, one of your employees or even someone you hire is going to manage your social media accounts or blog for your roofing company, what skills should they have beyond knowing the in's and out's of Twitter, Facebook and search engine optimization (SEO) to generate the results you are looking for? Here is a short list of skills I recommend looking for. They are basics before the basics of digital marketing and social media:

Is the person a good writer?

Writing is the foundation of most content creation. Even things like audio or video often rely on a written script in order to deliver the maximum impact to your audience. Can you communicate ideas clearly? Can you create language that is persuasive? If you can write well, you can apply that skill to nearly every form of content generation.

Is the person a good analyst?

Given a set of information or data, can they extract something of value (insight) from it? They don’t have to be a statistics expert, but they should be able to look at a pile of data and make a chart from it or at least see if there’s some kind of trend because that is the foundation of web and social media metrics.

Is the person a good researcher?

When posed with a question, can they come up with a solution by any legal means necessary? Can they use Google intelligently? Can they put together discrete information sources and find an answer? Can they learn independently without much guidance or hand holding? The ability to find the right answer and the persistence and willingness to get one is also a foundation skill.

The truth is that there really isn’t a lot that is needed to be good at social media content creation (have a command of the English language, be decent at math, and have the ability to perform basic research online), but you do need to be able to use the tools you have with excellence and consistency.

In our constant pursuit of the newest shiny objects we often lose sight of the prerequisite fundamentals that can make us great. While it’s great to have the newest, shiniest, most buzzworthy tools and services at our fingertips, it’s ultimately meaningless if we don’t have mastery of the basic skills to use them properly.

If you have any questions about this blog post or would like assistance with establishing or managing your roofing company's social media accounts, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.

Your Klout score means nothing - how influential is your roofing company online, really?

As a roofing contractor, virtually everything you tweet or post serves as a means to ultimately increase your revenue. You are either trying to create awareness, build a favorable reputation, establish personal connections with existing and potential customers, demonstrate your competency, or call those you are connected to into a specific desired action. Your ability to increase revenue as a result of your social media activity determines your online influence.

You may be familiar with Klout or similar services that report your social media (online) influence as a single numeric score. I check my Klout score periodically and participate in giving +K's to folks as a means of interaction and goodwill, but the truth is I think current online influence scores available are complete crap and you should pay them no attention.

The True Measure Of Influence
Influence is the ability to get people to do what you want. When you tweet or post a link to some kind of content or offer, you do so in hopes that the people you are connected to will click on that link and take the desired action, then re-tweet or share it with their connections to increase the total potential reach of your message (and ultimately your sales). The higher % of desired actions taken per message you tweet or post, the more influential you are online. But there is no way for a service like Klout to know if the ultimate action you intended actually transacted.

Online influence scores are all based upon algorithms, which should not be confused with formulas. The square footage of a roof is a formula. Your total number of connections along with a certain number link clicks, re-tweets or likes, comments and shares having absolute effect on your online influence score is an algorithm. There is some math used, but there are also many assumptions. These services are trying to determine the quantitative value of the relationship of these individual factors and actions to each other but they will never be able to describe why it happened, let alone predict your ability to initiate desired behavior in the future.

There are three kinds of measures to focus on: descriptive (what happened), diagnostic (why it happened), and predictive (what might happen). Online influence scores are purely descriptive measures (for example, your Klout score purely reflects your social media activity, and particularly on Twitter). But don't confuse activity with influence - I can be extremely active without being successful in getting you to hire me to help you with marketing just as much as I can be fairly inactive but highly successful in earning your business.

Klout is fantastic at understanding what you tweet or post about, but it does not tell you why you have been active, why you have been successful in getting others to take action, and it certainly does not predict how you will get others to take action in the future. And they punish you for taking a few days off by lowering your score, treating reduced activity as declining influence.

Influencers Aren't Social Broadcasters
The more connections you have the more opportunity there is for people to see your message, take action and then share it with their networks. Outside of a few celebrities closely aligned with a particular area of expertise or a natural connection (like Oprah with books that housewives would enjoy), there is an inherent problem with individuals or companies having disproportional amounts of connections because social media doesn’t scale well.

As a roofing company, if you have over 1,000 followers on Twitter, friends on Facebook or connections on LinkedIn, you are going to have an inherently lower amount of individual interaction and activity with your connections than those with less than 1,000. When you get beyond that level, meaningful interaction cannot happen unless there are multiple people actively monitoring your accounts 24/7/365. Unless you are Chipotle, Levis, Apple, or some other mega-brand with built-in awareness and consumer loyalty, it is those real conversations and interactions that help you (the small-medium sized regional business) develop relationships, build trust, earn mentions, re-tweets, Likes, comments, and shares of your posts, and ultimately... new opportunities to bid jobs.

The more connections you have, the more you simply become a broadcaster. Your timeline is cluttered to the point that you’d likely have to actively seek out tweets or posts from a specific person or company in order to guarantee that you saw something they posted and be able to interact with them about it (and let's face it, there are very few if any that you actually do this with). Otherwise you might scroll down to the activity posted in the past hour (at best) and interact with just those you see. It's pure chance they posted during the time you were online. Also, above 1,000 connections there is a diminishing expectation of a reply to comments, questions, Likes, re-tweet's, and direct messages. Worst yet, the more connections you have the more you begin to feel compelled to simply distribute sell-sell-sell messages, which is a complete turn-off to those on the receiving end.

At some level you stop engaging people and become a broadcaster because you have no other choice. If someone with less than 1,000 connections tweets or posts a question, those they are connected to expect that this is an invitation to a conversation. If someone with over 1,000 (and especially 10,000+) connections tweets or posts a question, most people they are connected to realize the question is rhetorical. The number of connections you have becomes a sort of barometer of engagement expectations. If I see that I am one of 2,500 "friends" of yours on Facebook, I assume you could care less about anything I post and just hope that your barrage of sales-focused posts eventually gets me to call you to re-roof my office building.

Recommendation
A couple of weeks ago I went through my entire list of "friends" on Facebook, clicking on every single profile to try to determine the fit to RoofPal. It took a few hours, but shockingly I found that 25% of all of my connections were non-roofing industry related (there were a lot of website developers, "models", SEO specialists, marketers, etc. that had sent me random invitations to connect). I un-friended everyone whom I wouldn't bother interacting with online. Now when I am on Facebook, every single post I see in my News Feed matters. I can Like, comment, share, and message with everything and everyone I see, and it makes sense for my business. I've been pretty good with LinkedIn, so next up is Twitter.

I recommend you streamline your connections in a way that makes sense for your company. Cut out the noise that clutters your ability to interact on a meaningful level with those you are connected to. Show the human side of your company (see my blog post titled "Stop Selling! Social Media is for Creating Relationships Through Communities"). Create awareness of your company, but really work on building a favorable reputation, establishing personal connections with existing and potential customers, mix in demonstration of your competency to roof, and then (sparingly) call your connections to action to hire you. If you do this, your ability to increase revenue as a result of your social media activity will greatly improve your real online influence, regardless of your Klout score.

If you have any questions about online influence or would like help with a roofing social media strategy, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.

How to Properly Measure Social Media Success

There are literally hundreds of metrics on social media, but most of them provide no real value. Who really cares how many followers you have on Twitter, or "friends" or "fans" you have on Facebook? It doesn't matter how many posts per day you put out there. What really matters is everything that happens after you post or tweet.

Did you grab attention? Did you cause people to want to share? Did you initiate a discussion? Did you cause people to take an action? Did your participation deliver economic value? These are the outcomes you want from social media, and below are three recommendations from RoofPal on how to measure your real success online, regardless of the social media site(s) you participate on.

Conversation Rate
Simply, this is the number of comments or replies per post. You want to create a virtual water cooler so you can have meaningful conversations with your audience. I am not proposing that you just be provocative and say ridiculous things just to get people to comment - you want large volumes of people adding to the conversation, asking follow-up questions, and participating in adding new value.

Amplification Rate
This is the rate at which your connections share your content with their network. On Twitter, this is the number of re-tweets per tweet. On Facebook and Google Plus, this is the number of shares per post. On your blog or YouTube, this is the number of share clicks per post or video. You want to give your audience content they consider to be of such value and interest that they want to share it.

It is also important to understand what types of content causes increased amplification, when it happens and where (geographically) it is happening. Once you know this, you can fine-tune what you post to increase the likelihood everything you post will be shared.

Applause Rate
This is the rate at which your audience enjoys the content you share and endorses it to their connections. It also increases your placement in search (especially Google) for those connected to those you are connected to (for more, please see my blog post titled "Social media directly influences search rankings").

On Twitter, this is the number of "Favorite" clicks per tweet. On Facebook, this is the number of "Likes" per post. On Google Plus, this is the number of +1's per post. On your blog and on YouTube, this is the number of +1s and "Likes" per post or video.

A really good fourth metric would be Economic Value, but that is a much more in-depth conversation for another day (and another blog post). If you would like to discuss the economic value of social media for roofing or would like assistance setting up a social media metric tracking system, please email me at Chris@RoofPal.com.

How to Get your Roofing Company Started with Social Media

If you own or work at a roofing company that hasn’t bought into social media yet, the message is simple: it is time to finally jump on the bandwagon! People are online right now talking about your company whether you like or not, so if you don’t engage in the conversation you risk losing your customers.

To get you started, here are seven sequential steps to follow that will help you develop a presence and be relevant on social media:

Define your offers and customers
The first thing you should do before engaging in online marketing or social media marketing is to write down exactly what it is you are trying to promote (new construction, re-roofing, roof maintenance, roof cleaning, reflective coatings, solar installation, etc.) and define your target customers (homeowners, HOA managers, building owners, property managers, facility managers, multi-housing associations, etc.).

Sign-up for social media
The big ones are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn. I would also recommend blogging. I use Blogger since it is owned by Google and is favored in their search results. Facebook allows you to create a business fan page that allows you to get some decent analytics on traffic, but people have to find you or be recommended (as opposed to reaching out to them and offering to connect through a personal page branded as your company).

Identify a social media manager
Managing multiple social networks is a daunting task. It's not rocket science, but it does take time and skill. I recommend doing this before you start posting content, requesting friends and adding followers.

I also recommend using free tools like Ping.fm and HootSuite to gather mentions of your brand, industry or search terms and review the success of your posts through real-time statistics. However, I do not recommend using it to schedule your posts and Tweets though (for more, please read my blog post titled "Auto-Posting to Facebook Decreases Likes and Comments by 70%"). Once you get the hang of the free tools, there is also paid services like SproutSocial (plans range from $9 to $49 with a 30-day free trial) that does all of that plus it allows you to take all of those you are connected to and create contacts out of them which you can manage in the system and track engagement, has one inbox for all of your messages from all the networks, and allows you to track check-ins at FourSquare and Gowalla.

Post updates
It is important to have good content on your social media pages before you start adding friends and followers. When you try to find friends, the first thing they will do is look at the page to see if they want to follow you. You need to give them a reason to connect with you first. What kind of content? Provide valuable information about the industry. Post pictures of your roofers working and before & after pictures of jobs. On YouTube, post short videos of jobs (before, during and after), commercials you have made, how you practice safety, types of roof maintenance, video customer testimonials, etc.

Find friends and followers
Twitter and Google+ are by far the easiest to build a network. Search keywords like "need roofer", "roof leak", "roofers", etc. to find followers. Also consider terms your potential customers would use (for example, "property management", "property manager", "facility manager", etc.). Once you start connecting with people, these sites will begin to understand the kind of person you want to connect with and will recommend similar profiles. Also, find your competitors' profiles and offer to connect with the people with are connected with them.

Engage with friends and followers
Your first priority should be building a relationship with people, not pitching your roofing services. "Like" and comment on their posts. Congratulate them on successes. Show them that an actual human being is behind your company's profile and that you take the time to learn about them and care enough to connect with them. Most social media sites will inform you of birthday's that day. Wish them a happy birthday (and maybe offer them a limited time free roof inspection or discount on roof cleaning).

Stay current
Sign up for alerts to be emailed or even sent to your phone when people engage with you via your social networking sites (at least in the beginning) so you can quickly respond. Timing is everything with social media. People come in, look around and post, then get out. If you are responding a day or two after the fact, it is almost pointless.

If you have any questions about getting started with social media, or would like assistance setting up your roofing company's social media networks, generating content and making connections, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.

Auto-Posting to Facebook Decreases Likes and Comments by 70%

Automatically publishing content to your Facebook News Feed through 3rd-party applications like HootSuite, TweetDeck, and Networked Blogs receive an average of 70% fewer "Likes" and comments, according to a new study by Applum.

Why Does This Happen?

The difference is likely due to Facebook reducing the prominence of posts published by third-party API's - collapsing all recent updates from the same ones a user would otherwise see.

Likes and comments increase an individual post’s prominence in the Facebook News Feed, which increases impressions and improves the likelihood of clicks, so RoofPal's recommendation is for roofing contractors to stop using auto-posting applications and switch to manual posting if you want potential and existing customers to actually see your posts, Like them and comment on them.

Time vs. Value
Many roofing contractors also update Facebook automatically by syncing their Twitter posts or auto-converting their blog post headlines. This does increase efficiency by eliminating the need to copy and paste headlines and links from one platform to another, but it is not optimal as different platforms have different publishing capabilities and norms. For example, Facebook allows for rich media posts so authors can select a thumbnail image and caption along with posting a link and headline. It’s typical for Twitter accounts to post up to a dozen times a day, but that volume could be viewed as spam on Facebook. Auto-posts then appear robotic and less compelling to those who may see it in their News Feed.

Which 3rd-Party Apps are the Worst?
EdgeRank Checker has revealed empirical data that automatically-published posts perform worse than manually published ones. Analyzing over 1 Million Facebook updates by more than 50,000 pages with a combined reach of over 1 Billion fans (including duplicates). It then calculated the engagement ratio of the total Likes and comments on a Page’s post, divided by the total fans of the Page at the time of the post for the ten most popular third-party publishing APIs. Compared to the engagement of posts published manually to Facebook’s web or mobile interfaces, the reduction in engagement ratios of the top third-party publishing APIs were:
 • HootSuite – 69% reduction
 • TweetDeck – 73% reduction
 • Sendible – 75% reduction
 • Networked Blogs – 76% reduction
 • RSS Graffiti – 81% reduction
 • Twitter – 83% reduction
 • Publisher – 86% reduction
 • twitterfeed – 90% reduction
 • dlvr.it – 91% reduction
 • Social RSS – 94% reductions

The Bottom-Line
On average, posts published through a 3rd-party auto-posting application had approximately 70% fewer Likes and comments than those published through Facebook’s first-party interfaces (manually). Also, if a user’s News Feed contains multiple posts from a single API (whether from a single author or several different Pages and friends), the posts are collapsed and must be unfolded to be seen.

It is well worth the extra minute to manually craft a Facebook post by hand than auto-posting because you are sacrificing a lot of social media performance and return on investment to save what ulimately amounts to a very small amount of additional time and effort.

Questions? Need Help?
If you have questions about this post, or would like assistance with your roofing social media strategy, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.

20 Ways to Promote Your Roofing Facebook Fan Page

How are you spreading the word about your Facebook page?
Your fan page can be one of a roofing company's best sources of customer interaction and lead generation. The only problem is making people aware of it. You definitely need to educate your customers and potential customers on how to find you on Facebook.

To help you out, below is a list of 20 different ways to promote your Facebook page. Even if you only do a few of these things, you should start to get more fans and begin to increase your return on time invested.

1. Put your fan page URL in your email signature. How many emails do you send every day? That is how many chances you have for someone new to find out about your page. Free publicity!
2. Write a blog post about your new fan page. Give your blog readers five compelling reasons why they should join your fan page (tell them about the kinds of information you share on your page).
3. Tag well-trafficked fan pages in your status updates. Fans of those popular pages your target customers visit (that are at least semi-relevant) might see your page and click over, giving you some additional cross-traffic.
4. Ask your Twitter followers to join your fan page. Give some compelling reasons why your Twitter followers should join your Facebook community. If Twitter is the new water cooler, think of your fan page as an invitation to come in and chat. Maybe Tweet something like "Want more conversation than 140 characters will allow? Join us on Facebook at ” and leave the URL to your fan page.
5. Invest in Facebook ads. They are a lot easier than you might think and you can spend as little or as much as you want. You can pinpoint fairly accurately the demographic you are targeting.
6. Put a Facebook fan page widget on your blog and website. Have your website developer put a basic widget on your website and blog that automatically displays the last 5 or so Facebook status updates from your fan page. Visitors will see this content and a) know that you have a page and how to find it, and b) get a sense of the kind of information they have been missing out on.
7. Customize your fan page URL. Vanity URLs are a fantastic way to make your fan page memorable. For example, my Facebook page URL is http://www.facebook.com/RoofPal.
8. Put your fan page URL on your business cards. Combine offline and online by letting the people you meet in real life know about your fan page.
9. Put a link on your personal Facebook profile. You can put a link to your company fan page under the “Links” section of your personal page. This may remind your friends and family to share the link to your company page with their Facebook friends.
10. Leverage the power of your team. Ask everyone in your company put the link to your company fan page link on their personal profile.
11. Ask your Facebook fans to post a link. Simply ask all of your current Facebook fans to post a link to your company page on their personal profile. As long as you don’t ask this often, often times people are willing to help you out. This becomes a personal recommendation, or word-of-mouth advertising (the very best kind).
12. Put a tag in your YouTube videos. If you make compelling videos as a part of your content marketing strategy, throw in a well-timed Facebook fan page link at the end of your YouTube videos.
13. Put your Facebook fan page URL on your Twitter profile background. Many people still use the web-based version of Twitter, and your profile background is a prime piece of internet real estate. Cross-advertise and use one social network to promote another!
14. QR Codes for your page. Create a QR Code that takes people directly to your Facebook fan page and use that code in your marketing, stationary, email signature lines, etc. If you aren't sure what a QR Code is or how to create one, please read the article I published, titled QR Codes for roofing contractors.
15. Actually use your Facebook fan page. Use the “Tell Your Fans” feature on Facebook. With the tools built in, Facebook allows you to import a contact file or import your contacts from your email account. This is particularly good for when you’re just starting out and want to tell people you already know.
16. Add a Like box. Place a Like box in your blog and website sidebar so people can "Like" your content automatically when they are signed in to Facebook and browsing the web.
17. Use targeted keywords in a Google AdWords campagin. Use a keyword-based ad and direct people to your fan page. This is like Facebook Ads on steroids. If you’ve never used AdWords before, it’s fairly straightforward. Google the term AdWords to set this up.
18. Redirect your webinar guests to your Facebook fan page. If you use GoToWebinar, you can choose to send registrants to a URL of your choice after they sign up. This is where you can direct them right to your Facebook fan page.
19. Put your Facebook fan page URL in your Keynote or PowerPoint presentations. When you present, the last slide can be your contact information, complete with your company's Facebook fan page vanity URL. Most people are already on Facebook, so it’s a no-brainer to give them an easy way to connect with you.
20. Invite all of your friends. Facebook automatically suggests people and pages based on the connections and Likes of your friends. The more of your friends who Like your Facebook fan page, the more their friends will have your page recommended to them without you lifting a finger.

These are just some examples. What are some of the most interesting ways you’ve seen people or businesses promote their fan page? Let me know in the comments box below and share what you have found.

Stop Selling! Social Media is for Creating Relationships Through Communities

Social media marketing must be approached very different than traditional marketing. You should not login with the intent to sell your roofing products or hail storm repair services - instead, you should login to create relationships through communities. If people feel you are part of their community they will support you and recommend you to their peers, colleagues and friends. Word-of-mouth marketing at its very best!

Here are 6 simple tips to get you started on creating relationships using social media:

Dedicate Resources
Building relationships in social media requires resources (both time and people). You need to dedicate the time of a person (or team of people) who are responsible for communicating with your network. This person (or persons) should read status updates/Tweets, read blogs, manage friend lists, write comments, join groups, upload photos, participate in forums, write blog posts, field questions, etc. - in other words, be active.

Be Real
Building relationships in social media requires trust. Be yourself, and let your employees be who they are as representatives of your company. Building fake profiles, writing fake reviews and blogs, lying about who you really are, etc. are pointless activities and a waste of time. Don’t underestimate the intelligence of your connections - they can smell a fake a mile away and will crucify you when you are found out.

Communicate Early & Often
It doesn't matter if you send email newsletters, write blog postings, update your status, send a Tweet, or post to a group discussion, be sure you are communicating. By communicating early you can get a jump start on topics that are hot in the industry and respond to them a lot earlier than your competitors. Communicating often helps to build relationships with your audience that they can trust you will be there and will inform them of the valuable information they need or are looking.

Get Involved
Don’t just post links to your blog posts, website pages or press releases. People will start to ignore you because it’s not a two-way conversation. Get involved with your community - if people are looking for assistance, point them in the right direction. If someone posts something funny, interesting or personal, Like it, comment on it, re-Tweet it, etc. That will gain you much more respect rather than slapping a link to your website that isn’t related to what they asked.

Reward Your Audience
As much as you are involved in building relationships in social media, so is everyone you are connected to. Your audience is also spending time and effort to post updates, leave comments, write blog posts, do research to answer questions, establish new connections, and so on. Reward them for their time and effort by personally thanking them for doing so.

Remember to Listen
Building a relationship requires that you listen more and talk less. As much as you want to spend time promoting your products and services, that is the last thing you should do on social media. This forum offers a unique opportunity for you to get real reactions, learn about real issues or problems as well as successes straight from your customers’ perspectives without the stigma of a focus group where people think they need to give you the answers you want to hear. It is amazing what you can learn just by listening to what your customers are saying. Take the time to read their posts, the comments they leave on your blog, their Tweets, what they say in reviews, etc.

If you have any questions about this blog post or would like to discuss strategies for improving your social media marketing, please contact Chris@RoofPal.com.

Roofing Customers are Extensions of your Marketing Department

People trust the opinions of their friends much more than corporate marketing messages, hence the growth of social media networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, and so on.

In fact, a recent AdAge study found that 90% of American consumers trust recommendations from people they know and that 70% trust recommendations of general consumer opinions posted online.

I began thinking this morning about how personal recommendations relate to the roofing industry... and I came up with an idea!

Because of what I do, I happen to see a lot of the content that roofing contractors post on social media. Most of it is sell-sell-sell posts and links with the occasional pictures of jobs in progress or recently completed. BORING! On my personal social media accounts I don't follow any contractors because there is almost no content shared that is value-added for me, let alone anything I would care to share with the rest of my network. But I know that there could be.

On Facebook for example, I almost never see contractors tagged in their customers' posts, photos, or videos. Why is this? My guess is it is a combination of a) we don't ask them to, and b) they don't have anything interesting to post about us. Essentially roofers do their job, leave, and send the customer an invoice. What's the fun in that for the homeowner, property/facility manager or building owner? Nothing. So here's an idea: give your customers content they could share and ask them to do so.

All roofing contractors (and especially residential roofing contractors) can get their customers to become extensions of their marketing department by doing a few simple things that could go a long way. Here is a simple 4-step recipe for engaging your customers on social media and getting some free advertising through personal recommendations (the best kind of marketing):

1. Take at least 5-10 pictures of every job you do. There should be before, during and after shots - as well as a few from interesting angles (from vantage points the customer wouldn't see from the ground).
2. Take 3+ videos (30-60 seconds in length) of every job you do. Videos should give the viewer a "peek behind the curtain" of what was found (i.e., why you are doing roofing work), an idea of exactly what you did, and how it turned out.
3. Email only the best pictures and the videos to the customer(s) of each job with a simple note thanking them for their business, asking them for feedback, and letting them know you thought they might enjoy seeing exactly what was done and how it all turned out. Give a brief description of each picture and video and then encourage them to share those photos and videos on Facebook, Twitter, etc. using the descriptions you have provided (and to tag you in them). If you aren't connected online with them already, provide them with links to the pages of the networks you participate on and ask them to send you an invitation to connect (so they can tag you, and so that you have a newly established ongoing connection).
4. Once you are notified that you have been tagged in content they shared, acknowledge their efforts by "Liking", leaving a positive comment, re-Tweeting, etc.

Not all of your customers will do this, but even if just 10% did wouldn't that be a huge improvement in obtaining personal recommendations that you never had before? For the minimal investment of time required to do this, I think it is definitely worth trying. My challenge for you is to do this consistently for the next 60 days. Then please come back and leave a comment on this blog post and let everyone know how it worked for you. Worst case, you will show your customers that you care enough to follow-up and share with them details of what was done, which is much more personal and thoughtful than just sending them a bill.

If you have any questions about this blog post or would like assistance in implementing a strategy to get your customers to become an extension of your marketing department, please email Chris@RoofPal.com. I would be more than happy to discuss this with you. Best of luck!

What You Might be Doing Wrong with Social Media Marketing

If you've been paying attention to the recent changes in Google Analytics, you may have noticed the new multichannel funnels. This is an incredible tool that provides great insight, and has fortunately unearthed some new discoveries about social media marketing and what you may have been doing so far that isn't working as well as it could.

Here are two metrics that you should understand:

Last interaction conversions are the interactions you have where you ask people to buy from you - the final touchpoints before your goal is achieved. In order to drive results in this metric you need to have a large audience of people who are qualified to buy (your social media connections). It seems obvious, but asking the same 100 people over and over again if they need a new roof will generate rapidly diminishing returns and alienate those people quickly.

Assisted conversions are the interactions that eventually lead to and contribute to crossing the finish line. In order to drive results in this metric you need to get people to your website, specifically to the call-to-action page where they can initiate a bid request, a service dispatch for leak repair, etc. If all you are doing on is being friendly and conversational on Facebook, replying to everyone on Twitter as fast as you can and not moving prospective clients to the start of your conversion process, you are not going to show any results here.

So how exactly do you make social media marketing work better?

First, constantly build and grow a targeted network of prospective clients, or you won’t have anyone to ask to buy. The larger you grow your social network, the more people will be eligible and interested on any given day to do business with you. Set a goal. Can you add 5 or more new relevant connections on each platform every day? This is what it takes to produce more last interaction conversions.

Second, increase your "gentle encouragenent" of your connections to actually go to your website. Offer them valuable content that is only there (i.e., content that is not on the social networks). Have a call-to-action. Create an incentive for visiting your website (something that they care to see, read or do). This will produce more assisted conversions.

If you commit to doing these simple steps for 30 days, you should see a dramatic improvement in your social media marketing efforts. Then feel free to come back in 30 days and comment on this blog post with your experience and describe the results you've seen.

Finally, here is a quote from Gerry Praysman of Brainshark that I felt was relevant for this blog post. Please consider this as you continue to grow and interact with your social media network:

"If all you are doing is auto-posting your blogs and links for the SEO 'value', then no one will develop a connection with you. The most successful Facebook presences I’ve seen care about what the community wants and doesn’t want, provide constant value, and ALWAYS vary their content."

Do you have any questions about this blog post?

Please email Chris@RoofPal.com to discuss. If you would like help improving and/or executing your social media strategy, please visit http://roofpal.com/coach.aspx to see how RoofPal can assist you.

5 Tips for Roofing Contractors to Win in Social Search

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been rapidly evolving over the past few years: in October 2009 Google first introduced its social search strategy, have since introduced the +1 button and now they have launched Google+ (their version of a social network).

With more than a 60% market share in the overall web search landscape, Google remains king. So, how does a roofing contractor, consultant, manufacturer or distributor like yourself achieve positive results in the search game at a time when SEO rules of engagement are evolving so rapidly?

Content
Despite the rapid pace of change, one thing that has remained constant and is actually now more true than ever before is that content is still king when it comes to SEO. Google’s Panda update is testimony to this - they want the user to have a good experience in a search, and the best path to a good experience is delivery of relevant content. You should remain committed to producing high quality content.

Content Diversity
The good news? We have many social media platforms at our finger tips to produce content. The bad news? Google and Microsoft are watching for content diversity, which puts more pressure on you to produce a diverse mix of content. This is no small undertaking. A traditionally SEO-optimized website is no longer enough to rank well for competitive keywords. You now need to produce video and photo image content that is also optimized with proper tags and descriptions. Downloadable content can also be indexed, and therefore sends positive signals to Google and Microsoft that you are a producer of diverse content. Content across other social channels are worthy of your focus as well.

Google's +1 Button
The +1 button is gaining greater importance. We know that Google is using +1 clicks as a signal, but did you know that the location of the +1 button is also significant? When someone clicks on the +1 button on say a product page, that signals that they like that product. But when someone clicks the +1 button on say a category page, that signals that they like the entire category. Take that one step further to clicking the +1 button on a home page, signaling that you like the entire website! Get the picture? The +1 button is a bigger deal than you might have realized.

Social Sharing
Since the introduction of social search in October 2009, sharing content across various channels has become extremely important. This continues to be more true every day. Google and Microsoft are tracking the extent to which your content is shared. Consequently, the social sharing buttons on your website or blog are incredibly important.

All of Your Employees Work in the Marketing Department
If content sharing is so important, then it is even more important that everyone in your company understands this point. If every employee shares your blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook posts, Tweets, LinkedIn company pages, etc. across their social networks, that turns the entire company into the marketing department. It takes a company-wide culture with strong leadership to execute this strategy.

Social search is here to stay, and I strongly urge you to embrace this. If you would like to discuss this further or need help getting started (or getting your company to the next level), please email me at Chris@RoofPal.com.

Also, don't forget that every person's search results are going to vary based on who they are connected to on social media. Please read my blog post on this topic and incorporate that into your social media strategy as well.

Developing a B2B Social Media Strategy

Social media marketing is different for B2C (business to consumer) companies like residential roofing contractors than it is for B2B (business to business) companies like commercial roofing contractors and roofing material manufacturers, suppliers and distributors.

Here are five basic steps for B2B companies to develop a winning social media strategy:
1. Stop Calling it a Social Media Strategy
2. Know What Stage You Are In
3. Focus on Your Customer’s Issues
4. Develop a Keyword Strategy
5. Content, Engagement, Call-To-Action

Stop Calling it a Social Media Strategy
Think bigger picture. This isn't just social media, this is a marketing strategy. It is 2011, so obviously social media will play a role in how you reach and engage your customer, but don’t tunnel-vision your strategy by thinking it’s solely a social media strategy. Do you have a “tradeshow strategy,” a “direct mail strategy,” and an “email strategy?” Of course not - these are merely elements in your overall marketing plan that help you reach customers, engage them, differentiate your company, create new job leads, and ultimately move qualified prospects into to your sales process.

Know What Stage You Are In
A recent article on Mashable estimated that about half of all companies currently using social media are in the initial Launch stage of their plan. This involves things like creating branded accounts for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and now Google+ as well. The focus in this stage is just establishing a social media presence usually with little or no strategy.

Another 40% of companies are in the Management stage - seeking to drive traffic, followers, fans, subscribers and to begin engaging with their community. There is typically very little strategy involved in this stage as well.

The remaining 10% are in the Optimization stage. This is where a strategic marketing plan is in place with executive-level support (including budget for people and technology resources). The purpose is to drive revenue with ROI metrics defined to measure successes.

Focus on Your Customer’s Issues
What business issues do your customers care about? In a typical B2B sale, multiple people are involved in the research and selection process for the products or services your company offers. Often tose decision makers span different areas of a business, and therefore they have different needs. Map out the issues for each role and develop your content to address each of them. Don't just assume a “one size fits all” mindset with the content you create and share.

Keep in mind that each of their issues can change according to the stage of the buying process. Meet your potential customers where they are through your social media engagement and address them accordingly. Blog and video content is a good way to deal with this by using titles and tags that allow your content to be easily found according to the relevant issues for each role.

Develop a Keyword Strategy
This is very closely tied to developing a role strategy. Once you have identified your cusotmer roles and their issues, create a list of keyword phrases that very closely address each role's issues. The same product or service must be communicated slightly differently according to keywords that are meaningful to each role that must approve the ultimate purchase.

Content, Engagement, Calls-to-Action
In B2B marketing, slick campaigns have limited effect. B2B buyers are not influenced by sizzle - they are influenced by the steak! The steak in B2B marketing is relevant content. Blogs, white papers, ebooks, videos, case studies, and webinars all represent methods to deliver relevant content. But, the content alone is worthless without a high level of engagement. When people respond to your content, don’t be invisible, be engaging. It sounds simple and intuitive, but it takes time, effort and authenticity.

Add relevant calls-to-action in your content. It can be as simple as an invitation to contact you with your name and email address, an invitation to request budgetary pricing about your offering, a link to more information/content, etc. Calls-to-action should always be designed according to the strategic goals that can be measured as tangible contributors to the revenue goals of a B2B company.

Let me know what stage you are in by emailing Chris@RoofPal.com. If you have any questions about successfully moving to the next stage of your strategy, I'd be happy to chat with you. Best of luck!

Where to spend your time on SEO

Roofing contractors should know that it is important to keep up with how search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing are changing and adjusting their algorithms (almost daily in some cases) in order to provide the best search engine optimization (SEO) and social media results.

In 2011 there is a clear pattern of social media influencing search results. If you had to pick just two areas to focus on for the rest of the year, here is what RoofPal.com would recommend: content and social media sharing.

Content is the cornerstone for improved keyword rankings and building inbound links over time. A lot of properly optimized content written on various strategic keyword themes drives more visits and improves search results in the long run. Blogging is a great way to frequently add content to your website. If you’re not already blogging for improved SEO results, what are you waiting for? It’s time for you to start blogging and writing content now! If you aren't sure how or just don't have the time, RoofPal.com can assist you with this.

Something important to keep in mind is that search results vary according to the personalization of the person doing the search. This personalization brings us more relevant, useful search results and makes relevant, SEO-friendly content more important than ever. This means no more top rankings or number one rankings for certain keywords, as SEO results vary from user to user. Writing optimized content regularly in addition to tracking your traffic and ROI is what’s important, not necessarily tracking individual keyword rankings.

The bottom line is that the more SEO-friendly and industry-relevant content you write, the more chances your target audience is going to find you.

Once you start blogging frequently, the next step is to share it via your social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others. This is no small task - just like writing content takes time and effort, social media sharing takes effort as well. But the time and effort and repetition day-in and day-out reaps tremendous benefits in the long run. Social media sharing provides SEO benefits in addition to improved lead generation results over time.

To expand your reach and improve SEO even further, it is important that you, your employees, and even friends and family if possible share your blog posts. The more people sharing your content in social media, the better. Good content spreads like a wildfire. Also, make it easy for your visitors to share your content. Be sure social media buttons are on all your web pages so that your visitors can socialize and engage with you and share your content.

Search engines are starting to heavily incorporate social media into search results. Social media should work together with SEO, so start integrating social media sharing into your content strategy for improved SEO results.

If you have any questions on this topic, please email Chris@RoofPal.com.

Social media directly influences search rankings

Google and Bing’s search results are now being adjusted on a per-person basis depending on the searcher’s social connections.

For example, if you follow RoofPal on Twitter and then search for 'QR Code Roofing', my article on this topic it would rank higher than it would if you didn’t follow me on Twitter. This is because Google’s algorithm assumes that because we are connected, my voice as a social connection should be more influential to your search than others.



That’s a big deal for three reasons:

1. Influencers who have large social networks no longer just spread word of mouth, they now causing search engine adjustments based on what they share.

2. “#1 ranking for a keyword” on Google is less meaningful now if the #1 is displaced by social sharing influence. My #1 result for a search term will be significantly different than yours because we are connected to different people on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

3. If you marketing a product or service there is now a direct incentive to build your network as large as possible among your prospective customers. By connecting with potential customers in as many social channels as possible, you are effectively doing free targeted advertising in organic search, with your results ranking higher than your competitors who aren't connected to them on social media.

I highly recommend connecting with your customers and prospective customers as soon as possible on all platforms. Put a form on your website to ask people for their Twitter ID or Facebook or LinkedIn name. Ask on each platform. Connect everywhere. Also, even though there is no direct evidence that the content around a socially shared link matters, it’s still not a bad idea to give it some context, both for followers and possible contextual association. Here’s an example of two tweets:

Check out my new article @RoofPal: http://roofpal.com/Documents/RoofPal%20QR%20Codes%20Roofing%20Industry.pdf

Check out my new article on QR Codes for roofing contractors @RoofPal: http://roofpal.com/Documents/RoofPal%20QR%20Codes%20Roofing%20Industry.pdf

This is going to have massive ripple effects throughout the social and search industries. Start making these changes effective immediately, and you’ll be ahead of the curve and your competitors.

For more, please read the June 23rd blog post by Christopher S Penn