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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Graeme @ BGS on July 9, 2009 at 21:51

Great post Donny,

It is comething that I am certainly looking more into. Just think a few years back who would of thought that we would be getting Email requests from clients for work etc. Surely this is the next step forward after a web site?

I believe that the social networks would be a brilliant opportunity to provide additional content be it in words, pictures and video etc. to help support and develop an understanding of our services for our target markets.

I think half the battle would be to develop a clear overview strategy such as determing the particular target audience and understanding where and how these are currently interacting. Backed with a clear content so that it would hopefully always engage them!

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Permalink Reply by Cat Fereday on July 10, 2009 at 1:38

Donny,

You can find me on Linked In. I thought about Twitter and wrote down one sentence every few minutes for about an hour once - I discovered I'd be a very boring Twit.

Rgds,

Cat

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Phil Voice on July 10, 2009 at 9:15

You are all using social media by participating this site. Remember, Landscape Juice is focussed on landscaping and gardening and related subjects and ranks extremely highly (if not top ) in many many many subjects.

If you all search on your names - Donny Bryan, BGS Landscapes, TVG Landscaping you will find that you all come close to the top of search results in Google.

The secret is to harness this 'juice' for your own ends and write location-wise and content rich posts with correct titles to draw in potential clients in your area. The site optimisation is being taken care of so that each member can concentrate on reaching their geographical goals and reach out to clients in their product niche.

Stuart Marler is probably the most web-aware when it comes to promoting his business name. Search for a landscaper or landscaping in Worthing and TVG comes high in results.

Stuart has also registered his business on Google Maps - you can also consider using a Google Map to demonstrate your geography in your news and press items. Why not add a marker to your map after every job you complete so that potential clients get a feel for the areas that you cover.

What I would suggest now is (and I know I don't live in the real world and have the time ;-0)) you sit down for ten or twenty minutes and write a concise blog post about an area of work you specialise in.

For example, Graeme would like to install more artificial lawns in the Berkshire area so I would be looking at a good title - Artificial lawn installations around Berkshire - it's a good title start but there is nothing to say that a second post, with a separate title cannot be written at a later date - The pro's and con's of installing a synthetic lawn (for example) and write the body of the blog post to call upon geographical areas, product descriptions and materials within your writing and it will be featured in search results.

It has been mentioned before by Stuart that he cannot afford the time to sit down and write blog posts. I would disagree with this and consider that any time spent is expended as a marketing cost. On a day that may be wet (especially in the winter) it is worth writing about your specialism.

Make use of the guest blogging feature of the main Landscape Juice Blog and send me a topical (not advertorial) post about a job you have just done, the challenges you had to overcome and the materials or soil profile you had to deal with.

There is never ever a one solution that will take you straight to number one spot but Landscape Juice is very strong and you should all be making use of it.

Please feel free to PM me or continue the discussion here - I am here to help you and LJN is about you - not me.

All the best


Phil

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Permalink Reply by Cat Fereday on July 10, 2009 at 10:16

Stuart Marler said:

I first thought of using social media (Xing, Linkedin, etc. etc.) as a way of finding more contacts but all these different forms of socail media are mainly full of "wine tasters", "personal guidance people", "life coaches", lots of foreign people.. mainly Americans; offering services and groups but nothing tangible.

Yes it might be good to tweet but has anyone, who lives in the real world, really got the time to "tweet" or blog every day?

Nothing wrong with the odd American.... the more odd the better, I think! I agree, though, that LinkedIn has a preponderence of Americans, but I think this is because the phenomenon of social networking seemed to take off over there quicker than over here.... over the past few years, though, the UK membership has grown and is continuing to grow.

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Phil Voice on July 10, 2009 at 10:23

Take a look at Westacott gardens site - Andy won my assistance in a competition on here some time back but he has not really needed a great deal of help and has taken to the task really well.

I pop in from time to time and adjust photos and tweak titles and move things about a bit but Andy does all the writing.

Search results are strong for small gardens and front gardens. Something like this would suit you all I am sure.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Boyd on July 10, 2009 at 16:56

SMN is very polarised in terms of who can use it successfully. I know from our study of it over the last 18 months it is virtually a waste of space. Whilst our TM use it as a marketing tool, they use it from a sales prospective only. So evaluate your TM.

If you don’t find the right type of person on SMN forget it and concentrate on your website. Blogs are OK but your ROI via your website will/can massively out weight a blog. If your funding is limited then getting a website to rank in competitive fields for “money terms” is also a waste of space. So take a different approach and long for the “long tail” phrases to rank for.

Lastly beware of taking the sheep approach just because everyone else is, there are a few wolves out there and they love sheep.

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Permalink Reply by Nicola Gammon on July 11, 2009 at 9:10

Hi Donny - My website Shoot brings together gardeners and professionals in gardening. Take a look at the Landscaping & Design forum we hosted recently with the APL & SGD http://www.shootgardening.co.uk/siteForum.php?mode=view&forumid...

It was very well used by our members who loved it. See their comments here http://www.shootgardening.co.uk/sitePage.php?pageid=71&name=cus...

You can set up a profile page in Shoot, like Jason Lock's here: http://www.shootgardening.co.uk/siteMemberProfile.php?profileid=125 which links to his business profile http://www.shootgardening.co.uk/siteProvider.php?providerid=125 and his forum pages.

We are always getting people's questions about gardening, and each forum post you reply to will link to your listing. A basic business listing is £30 (http://www.shootgardening.co.uk/serviceRegister.php?business=true) and we will be doing a special offer with the APL in August if you are a member of that organisation too.

Hope this gives you some more ideas of using a more gardening targetted media.

All the best, Nicola

p.s. you can then also generate extra revenue from clients as explained in my first post about the care maintenance schedules in Shoot.

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Permalink Reply by Donny Bryan on July 11, 2009 at 15:54

Hi Cat, linkedin invite sent. Am sure you wouldn't be a boring tweet :)

Cat Fereday said:

Donny,

You can find me on Linked In. I thought about Twitter and wrote down one sentence every few minutes for about an hour once - I discovered I'd be a very boring Twit.

Rgds,

Cat

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Permalink Reply by Cat Fereday on July 11, 2009 at 16:35

Linked in invite accepted.... and I took the opportunity to update my title while I was on there - did you recognise which one of my recommendees has been on the News? Tried to edit it off, but can't seem to get rid!

Donny Bryan said:

Hi Cat, linkedin invite sent. Am sure you wouldn't be a boring tweet :)

Cat Fereday said:

Donny,

You can find me on Linked In. I thought about Twitter and wrote down one sentence every few minutes for about an hour once - I discovered I'd be a very boring Twit.

Rgds,

Cat

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Permalink Reply by niall gibb on July 11, 2009 at 17:35

hi

i tried twitter but find it a complete waste of time, mostly americans join up with you. I joined facebook, business wise waste of time, but i am back in touch with old mates and relatives so good from personal point of view.

i find it hard to get time to blog during summer and it hasnt brought in any business, just my mate commenting when had a few.

hope this helps, off to the pub enjoy your weekend:-]

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Permalink Reply by Donny Bryan on July 12, 2009 at 15:42

Hi Niall, I think that facebook was always intended as a personal networking forum and I agree that a personal facebook page should only be used for personal contacts and not to generate business. However, they do now have a business page facility. Mrs B is trying it out with her business & has told me I need to create a page to safeguard my business name and I suspect she's right - if nothing else it will help with search engine visibility.

I'm still experimenting with Twitter. I seem to have followers from UK, USA and other countries. Putting a local place name into tweets seems to generate more local followers and ultimately I expect it will pay dividends as I have already met some interesting landscapers. Luckily for me if I decide to blog it will probably be Mrs B who will do it for me!

niall gibb said:

hi

i tried twitter but find it a complete waste of time, mostly americans join up with you. I joined facebook, business wise waste of time, but i am back in touch with old mates and relatives so good from personal point of view.

i find it hard to get time to blog during summer and it hasnt brought in any business, just my mate commenting when had a few.

hope this helps, off to the pub enjoy your weekend:-]

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Permalink Reply by Donny Bryan on July 12, 2009 at 15:45

A clear strategy is definitely key to success plus a willingness to experiment with different approaches and stick with it long enough to generate meaningful success data. Many people try e.g. twitter for a couple of weeks and conclude that it doesn't work. Relationships take time and I know that Mrs B (the social media queen) often follows someone for weeks before making contact & starting a conversation - basically she 'gets to know them' first to establish common interests and quality of content. It would be good to continue to swap notes as we proceed. Cheers, Donny

The BGS Group of Companies said:

Great post Donny,

It is comething that I am certainly looking more into. Just think a few years back who would of thought that we would be getting Email requests from clients for work etc. Surely this is the next step forward after a web site?

I believe that the social networks would be a brilliant opportunity to provide additional content be it in words, pictures and video etc. to help support and develop an understanding of our services for our target markets.

I think half the battle would be to develop a clear overview strategy such as determing the particular target audience and understanding where and how these are currently interacting. Backed with a clear content so that it would hopefully always engage them!

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