Let’s face it. As woodworkers, and cabinet makers, we are something of an old fashioned bunch. If you have taken my suggestion from the previous blog post and delved into the world of Social Media, you may well be confused and concerned. At first it all seems sort of pointless and out of touch with our business. I’m here to show you that you are wrong. If you primarily work with designers, architects and contractors, it is highly likely that your current clients, and others that you want to work with are already on Social Media sites. Linkedin has any number of groups devoted to cabinet making, furniture manufacturing and other wood related fields. If your client base is professional, I highly recommend Linkedin. Linkedin is one of the most structured and formal sites. You have to ask people to join your network, and while there is a good search function, much of people’s profile information is hidden to you until they are a part of your network. A good way to get introduced to people and ask them to join your network is to ask and answer questions. Linkedin has a really big board of open questions being asked and answered by members. You can view questions by category, and by participating, you can build your network. Most folks are very polite on Linkedin, and will send you e-mail (through Linkedin) thanking you for answering or discussing your answer. This gives you an opening to then ask them to join your network. Since Linkedin is all about networking, this process is pretty painless. Like most Social Media, being helpful is the key to building a quality network.
If you work with homeowners, then you need to be working more with Facebook in my opinion. Facebook is much more of the social in Social Media. You can search people in many ways, and finding people in your geographic area is possible with most sites. A surprising number of middle and upper income adults are on Facebook. Facebook is a bit more open and freewheeling than Linkedin. Yes, your first impression is correct. There is a LOT on Facebook that is useless to you, but again, the point here is to be helpful and friendly and drive traffic to your website. Answering people’s questions about cabinets, remodeling, and hardware gets you a lot of exposure really fast. On Facebook, most interaction is VERY public. Every member has a “Wall” where things are posted publicly. People you have “friended” can write comments on your wall, and you can write on theirs. The really effective part is that you can read all comments on their wall, and your posts on their wall can be read by all their friends even if you don’t know their friends. See where this is leading? A polite, knowledgable person, being helpful to their friends online, can really help you build a reputation online as a go-to company.
Twitter is another site altogether. At first glance, Twitter seems totally useless as a business tool. I know, I thought that too. Twitter seems to be nothing more than people posting what their dog did on the carpet this morning. But it really can work for you. I have been surprised at how fast Twitter has been able to drive traffic to my website. Again, the point is to be helpful and knowledgable, and gain “Followers”, who in turn follow you. Twitter is fast moving and brief. All comments, known as “Tweets”, are limited to 144 characters. I use Twitter to broadcast new information on my blog or website, new articles as they come out, and anything that might reasonably be of interest or amusing to my followers. I also respond to others if I have useful information for them. Now as your number of followers grows, you will find that some post a lot of totally useless information and you can get hundreds of tweets per day. I, like you, really don’t have the time or desire to wade through all that flotsam. The good news is that you can simply not follow those people that fill your box with drivel. I follow anyone who follows me, but if they spend all day posting silly stuff, then you can unfollow them. 99 percent of the time, they will not even notice.
I have been able to winnow down my follows to those people that I want to hear from, people who are marketers that I respect, other woodworkers, NASA, the USS Constitution, and just some interesting people. By being helpful and knowledgeable, I have again been able to drive traffic to my site by assisting others and announcing new stuff that may be of interest to them. Just this past week, ShopBot posted a tweet praising last week’s blog. I noticed an instant spike in visits to my blog.
By now, you must have noticed a pattern to my advice here: Be helpful and knowledgable. Be polite and informative. Provide expertise and people will become comfortable thinking of you as an expert. They will visit your site, where they can learn of your services and how to contact you for more information. One more point: Social Media is SOCIAL. There are a number of companies out there that simply post several times a day with product reviews and announcements. They do not converse, they do not respond to others posting, they use their Social Media presence as just another advertisement. This is more harmful than helpful to them. People use Social Media to connect. Sometimes for personal reasons, sometimes for business reasons, but a connection is key. These sites should NOT be viewed as another ad space. I don’t sell on these sites. I build relationships, and when my connections ask, I will sell to them then. Seth Godin calls this “Permission Marketing” and it is very effective. It is not instantaneous, it does take some time and care, but it is free marketing, and over time is highly effective. You can find a link to Seth Godin’s book, “Permission Marketing” on my website, on the “Recommended Reading” page. It is a bit dated by now, but the pricipals are well worth knowing and studying.
Again I invite you to look me up in the Social Media realm. I can be found on Facebook and Linkedin as Ralph Bagnall, and on Twitter as Consultingwood. Come say hello and I will be happy to show you around.
