Social Media: Connecting with Clients Some basic socila medis skills and strategies

Social Media: Conne

Nina A. Koziol

Love it or hate it, social media is a tool your company needs. But what should your firm use and why? What’s the best way to engage current and potential clients and is there one best way to do that?

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines social media as “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).”

But at this year’s iLandscape, Kathy Jentz summed it up like this: “Social media is a time suck. It can suck up all the time you give it.” Jentz is editor and publisher of Washington DC Gardener magazine and she spoke to an overflow crowd. “However, one of the best things about using social media is that it’s free marketing,” Jentz said. “Currently, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter don’t charge you.” And who can argue with free?

Then and Now

When television arrived on the scene, many saw it as the demise of radio. Didn’t happen. When the Internet was born, others said it would be the end of books and just about everything else in print. Didn’t happen. Likewise, social media platforms are just another tool for promoting your business.

It’s been nearly two decades since the first blogs appeared. YouTube launched in 2005 and the following year, Facebook and Twitter were worldwide attractions. Other sites like Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare, and Pinterest entered the arena, and today, there’s a wide variety of social networking sites, including Houzz, SnapChat, Reddit, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and others.

Posting on social media could be a full-time job or something you’d contract to a marketing firm, but that’s costly for many small businesses and may not be necessary. “There’s a big universe out there,” Jentz told the audience. “Do you need to be on all those platforms? No. What you need to do is develop deep roots on a few of them. I love Twitter— that’s where I live. I’m on Twitter the most.”

Your firm may simply need two or three platforms, like Facebook, Houzz, or Instagram, where you can feature your work and attract new clients. “When I post every day on Instagram, I connect the post to Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter. That way, I’ve created four posts from one,” Jentz said.

Social media lets you “cut through the clutter,” Jentz explained. “The old saying is it takes seven impressions before something sinks into somebody’s brain. That’s why Coke spends tons of money on their brand. They want to keep it top of mind. Repeating yourself on social media is not a bad thing. Your clients might have missed the first post, andsome repetition will help.”

Social media engagement — think of it as marketing — is not really free. “It’s not free as in your time,” Jentz said. “But, that’s probably your biggest expense: time. Compared to marketing costs of the old days, it’s so much cheaper and easier.”

And, it’s incredibly fast. “It used to be six degrees of separation but now it’s one degree. Let’s say you have a stone company and have a huge amount of excess stone. You can post it immediately. In the old days, you’d do it in print [ads]. Now it’s almost instantaneous.” A good example is the ILCA Facebook page, which has featured daily video updates to help members deal with the impact of COVID-19 on their businesses.

Social media has been crucial for nonprofits like the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Morton Arboretum, and Farnsworth House, as well as garden centers, temporarily shuttered due to the virus. “We have 10,000 followers each on Facebook and Instagram, but Facebook definitely skews older and towards people who read,” said Landscape Architect Scott Mehaffey, executive director at the historic Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois. “We also repost to Twitter, but that’s mostly for the media.”

You’re the Expert

“Using social media allows you to establish expert status and branding,” Jentz said. So, how much time should you devote to posting on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter? “That’s the $24,000 question. What I do — and I don’t expect everyone else to do this — is an hour in the morning and an

cting with Clients

hour in the evening. I own a garden magazine and I’m a communicator. But 20 minutes in the morning and again in the evening is a good aim for landscapers.” One-third of the landscape architects in the audience said they used social media.

So, let’s say you (or a team member) post a project photo and an engaging caption in the morning and another one in the evening. Jentz recommends checking for client comments twice a day and responding to those comments.

Hashtag Heaven

A hashtag is simply a keyword phrase, spelled without spaces with a pound sign (#) in front of it, for example, #iLandscape2020, #makingconections. Hashtags can be used anywhere in your social media posts: in the beginning, at the end, or anywhere in between. Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links in your posts. This helps clients find posts about topics of interest. To make a hashtag, write # along with a topic or phrase and add it to your post. Experiment.

Houzz about that?

Houzz (www.houzz.com) is a hub for interior designers, remodelers, contractors—including landscape firms— dealers, and homeowners. It’s an online community, directory and marketplace for all things in home design—inside and out. Launched in 2008, it is incredibly popular and boasts more than 40 million monthly unique users and 2.3 million active home-renovation and design pros that use the site.

“We’ve had so much more success with clients finding us through Houzz,” says landscape designer James Drzewieckiof Ginkgo Leaf Studio in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. “I was an early adopter of Houzz [after] I saw a Facebook conversation between two interior designers. I know I was skeptical because it was free.” Drzewiecki began posting on Houzz in 2010 and has won Best of Houzz awards annually since 2012. His website gingkoleafstudio.net features those awards as well as the icons for Facebook, Houzz, and LinkedIn.

The old adage, “a picture is worth 1000 words” rings true — if it’s a good photograph. “I’m very particular about photos,” Drzewiecki said, “and I pay for a professional photographer to shoot our projects. We’ve been the number one profile a few times under landscape design.”

Promoting Your Social Sites

Whenever and wherever you post on social media, it should be connected to your firm’s website. “Everything should link back. Direct folks back to your blog or your website, your videos,” Jentz explained.

When you send emails or e-newsletters to your client list, include links to your social media sites. You can also put short teaser text on Facebook to direct clients back to your website. For example, if you’ve installed a pollinator garden, post a photo on Facebook with a link back to the project photos on your website.

“If I have an upcoming event, I’ll start promoting it a week out,” Jentz said. “Then, I’ll do it five days out, three days out, the day before,, and the day of the event.” She has a year-round marketing schedule and has reminders on her phone.

“One of the biggest sins is that you set up an account and your last post was 18 months ago. Take down the account, rather than have it be inactive,” she said. “If you’re not going to keep it up, it’s better to take it down. That’s the first thing a client’s going to see.”

If your firm does any communitybased outreach (your team donates time to work on a park, school, or restoration, etc.) tout it in your social media posts. Let your clients — past, present and future — know about those good deeds.

“Sometimes it’s hard to find people who might be our clients,” Jentz said. She explained that Twitter skews to a younger audience. “Instagram is growing; Facebook is probably the best venue

for projects as is Pinterest and Houzz. If you’re looking for new clients—ask past clients—are you on Facebook or Twitter? Let’s connect.”