Social media should definitely be part of your roofing company's marketing strategy, and now is the time to harness the power of your accounts specifically to power your SEO strategy.
Google has long relied on people to endorse relevant and useful links on the internet. Social media has now magnified that tremendously, particularly now with Google Social Search becoming so important, enabling your website or blog post to jump from #50 otherwise into the top 5 in someone's search results page simply because someone they are connected to shares your link on Facebook or LinkedIn, gives it a +1 on Google+, re-Tweet's it on Twitter, etc.
Here are 5 social media SEO strategies roofing contractors should do (or keep doing) right now:
1. Be more active on Google+
Google+ is here to stay for a while, and it is extremely useful for SEO. It's not as big as Twitter or Facebook, but it affects search results much more than the others.
2. Establish even more connections online
Everything you write or share can be seen by those who you are connected to on social media, as well as in their search results. Although any connection is good, the biggest impact comes from people adding you to one of their Google+ circles. For more on this, please see my blog post 'Social media directly influences search rankings'.
3. Post your articles, videos and blog posts immediately on social media
Sharing your content on social media helps it get indexed by Google faster, so make sure you post new content you create across all platforms as soon as possible.
4. Create sharable content
If someone shares a link to your website or other content, it is basically an endorsement (similar to a direct inbound link). Even if someone who isn't connected with you on social media shares a link to your content, their entire network can see the post by searching for relevant topics in Google Social Search. Again, please see my blog post 'Social media directly influences search rankings'.
5. Add the +1 button to everything
The +1 button has turned into an internet-wide Facebook "Like" button. It is quick and easy for people to click, and gives your content huge benefits. Put that +1 button everywhere you can and ask people to click it.
None of this should be considered a replacement to (or even better than) traditional SEO methods, but it is becoming increasingly important. Not everyone knows this, so the faster you do it the more of a leg-up you'll have on your competition.
If you have any questions about social media SEO, please email RoofPal@gmail.com.
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.
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.
