Element to include in your myspace marketing

[Steve]

Here is the response from Tara on a question I asked her about what kinds of elements a lawn care business owner should include in a myspace page. Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]I just have to send one more thanks out to TeamGopher for all of the support and ideas. I just love my banner that someone from your team*not sure who to give credit too* made for me. You asked me in another post what elements I thought should a LCO include on a myspace... Some of the things I have added which I think are very important: Contact info *make sure it is listed several times* Pictures of us/employees if you have them *we don't except for my 19 year old son* Any helpful industry links - For example Angieslist.com has been a very powerful marketing resource that has helped us gain several customers this year. I have their link posted. If a person joins Angies List or is already a member they can read several great reviews written about our company from current happy customers. Before and after pictures and pictures of properties you maintain or jobs that you have done. I also put the following in blogs: Fall Specials *you will recognise the flier =)* Additional Service Offers Our Premium Lawn and Ornamental Service Our Standard Lawn Service About Us All of these except for the fall flier I already have posted on our website www.theothersidelawncompany.com so all I had to do is copy and paste =) Now the idea I have is this... While my personal myspace only has people I know personally or dailydrool.com friends and a handful of other basset owners I have met online....I want my lawn and landscape company to have many friends. The more the better! I figure that I get so many basset friend request with my personal myspace without even trying *so many that I have turned down some because I do not want that many on my personal myspace* that if I put a little effort into it I can do the same when it comes to folks that are in the green industry, or into gardening, landscaping, etc. etc. I want to join some networking groups and put an add in the free classified area that myspace provides. Anyways I am going to spend the winter months filling it up with friends. I want all kinds of comments about how nice our lawns look, what a good job we do, what good people we are etc. etc. Then right about when we gear up to start the next season...*probably in January* I am going to start putting out a monthly lawn and landscaping tip bulletin. Then around March when we really start gearing up for the season I am going to do a search for folks in a 25 mile radius of us *I have already done one and there are over 3000* and I am going to go down the list and request an add from those myspaces that look like they may be potential customers. I figure I get an average of 3 bogus friendship request a day...come see my pictures that myspace won't let me post and you can be a millionair or get a free ipod etc etc...so why can't I market my lawn and landscape myspace in the same fashion. If I get just one customer from it then I have paid for the time I put into it...so what do I have to loose...right =) Again I really do appreciate having TeamGopher as a resource. You guys have been so helpful to me over the years. I could never thank you enough! Tara

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[tjgray]

Lawn care business tips

Oh...I didn't know you were going to post this...I would have spell checked it first

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Tara Gray
Green Paws Lawn Care
http://www.greenpawslawncare.com

[Steve]

I do thank you for all the great information! I am sure everyone else appreciates it too!

Do you have any suggestions on how you will build up your friends list for your lawn care business?

[tjgray]

The first thing I have done to get friends is send out a bulletin to all 120 of my friends on my personal myspace letting them know that I created a myspace for our lawn company...

I have had our company myspace up all of 2 days and I have 15 friends already...all personal friends of mine

Well except for Serrano Landscaping who inspired me to create my myspace so much by looking at theirs...

The next thing I have done is to add some groups. So far I have added:

Entrepreneurs and Business Owners Group

Gardening enthusiasts

And Cooperative Ventures

But ya'll their are litterly thousands of groups you can join...

After that it is a matter of networking. Posting to threads, talking to folks, being helpful and offering advise.

I am a real people person. If you leave me standing for too long in the supermarket line I am starting up a conversation with the person behind me

Relationships come easy for me. In person or online...

I actually get so many friend request from my personal myspace that I turn down because I don't want that many friends on my personal myspace. All because I have such a sweet squishy basset houndie...



I figure our lawn company myspace may not be as cute but I can use the same techniques for getting friends...

Now thats got me thinking...I do bring my hound to work with me when I go out on route. I have a real cute blog about him going to work Hami Bones Hound on de Job maybe I should put it on our company myspace and see if it gets me some friends request

[tjgray]

Now here is a question for you

How long did it take to get the 273 friends on TeamGophers myspace??? What are some of the ways that ya'll built up your friendship list???

[Steve]

You know, after reading all that, I was thinking how great it would be if you had a business name that included your pet interests! Can you imagine Bassett Lawn Care and then have a logo with your dog's image in the center! Then you could do so much with the cross marketing! It would be amazing!

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]How long did it take to get the 273 friends on TeamGophers myspace??? What are some of the ways that ya'll built up your friendship list???

The site has been up since May. Most of the friends have come from friends I know on here but some have come from searching out other business owners. I probably could be doing a lot more to reach out to people though.

[Steve]

Here is an idea.

If you did something like this, then you couldn't you possibly pay for all your bassett expenses with pre-taxed money? Couldn't it be a business expense for a company mascot?

Just a thought!

ha I was just about to ask this question...so yay it's already here...

My only concern is spending time making my page look good and now there's a nice spam button when you request a friend. If I get spammed too much I could be deleted right??? Like if the people hit the button enough.

And before I was saying how I didn't want to post my pic as I didn't want a bunch of guys contacting me just because they find me attractive or whatever but since I won't be alone at jobs, maybe I could use my pic anyway??

What do u all think, good idea or bad??

or maybe just add my pic into a message?? So I control who sees me?

I'm just looking for a way to add "friends"/customers and so far my tactics have only gotten me one...so any other ideas are welcome!!