Turf, February 2014

Social Media Continued from page A9 see that were more than just a guy who shows up to cut your lawn every Tuesday He says that based on viewer feedback and the number of hits that each video gets hes learned that other landscapers especially startups and owners of small companies tend to like the videos focusing on the companys day to day activities including how it maintains its equipment and how it performs its services The public including customers prefer videos that showcase the results of the companys work and completed projects including beautifully maintained landscapes and lawns Social media and the Internet world have been very good to our business Weve gained new clients because of it and its provided us a platform to build positive visibility in this very competitive industry Michael Stewart Jr Both audiences react favorably to videos with humorous content Its not hard to find humor in some of the stuff that we do but we dont want it to be cheesy or corny says Stewart While the YouTubes generate what the Stewarts see as great community and brand building measuring its effectiveness in attracting customers and generating new revenue is admittedly harder to measure Whats the ROI And that lies at the center of industrys debate on using social media measuring its ROI in terms of time and expense in producing it Even with that caveat Chris Heiler a popular industry consultant based in Austin Texas advises a balanced approach to marketing for landscape and lawn care businesses with both offline and online components He recommends budgeting 5 to 10 percent of total revenues to marketing He suggests that startups and newer less well established companies spend more of a percentage of their revenues on marketing than companies with less aggressive growth goals and who are more focused on customer retention Heiler the founder and president of the inbound marketing agency Landscape Leadership reminds owners that while social media platforms are free they take time to update As everyone in the landscape business realizes time is money Once a company decides that it must improve update or enlarge its online marketing efforts the Continued on page A12 e REPORT News Features for Landscape Contractors Social Media Updates in Turf e Report Social media experts Wendy Komancheck and Hannah Tighe have agreed to share easy to implement digital strategies in our Turf e Report Turf magazines twice monthly e newsletter Our readers will greatly appreciate the information being shared by Wendy and Hannah Their practical easy to implement strategies and tips will help Turfs audience to build and improve the online component of their branding and marketing efforts says Turf Editor in Chief Ron Hall Hannah Tighe Komancheck is a frequent contributor to green industry publications including Turf magazine She writes a popular blog on optimizing the power of social platforms to improve companies inbound marketing efforts Visit www wendy komancheckswriting wordpress com Tighe is the founder and president of Chatterbox Social Media She and her husband are the former owners operators of a landscape company in southeastern Pennsylvania Her specialty is training coaching and consulting businesses on how to use tools such as Linkedin Twitter Wendy Facebook and other digital media to increase their ability to be found on the Web Each of Turf magazines twice monthly e newsletters will contain a short practical column offering customer attracting digital strategies by either Komancheck or Tighe To receive the Turf e Report visit www turfmagazine com Komancheck Most of us dont realize the interest that our day to day activities hold for the public Sharing dramatic moments like this online builds respect for what we do StewCare has discovered A10 TURF February 2014