Unleashing the Power of Social Media
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Two Renewal by Andersen Dealers did it. Here’s how.
The Issue
Renewal by Andersen dealers have websites provided by their parent company. The websites are effective, contain useful information, and do their part in gathering leads. However, the sites lack web presence. Renewal by Andersen dealers of Long Island and Central Jersey wanted to have a greater online presence. To learn what else could be done, they contacted Single Throw Internet Marketing.
The Solution
There are over 145 million Facebook users in the United States alone. Brands need to engage customers where customers spend the most time. Today, that’s on social media. Social media use accounts for almost 25% of all Internet time.
Social media advertisements are the billboards of the Internet—as users click through fan pages and read news feed articles, they can peruse information and updates from their friends as well as their favorite brands. This doesn’t mean a brand must buy one of the sponsored ads on Facebook. Instead, a brand can create a Facebook fanpage or a twitter feed to attract and engage followers and fans.
To make full use of the Internet’s wide range of tools, Single Throw created individual dealer fan pages and Twitter feeds for both the Central Jersey and Long Island Renewal by Andersen dealers, as well as a joint YouTube channel. These social media platforms enable the window dealers to create a web presence far beyond what their websites alone could achieve.
The Benefits
• Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube enable companies to interact with customers in a very intimate way. Social media pages can turn a national brand into a local company. Renewal by Andersen, the brand, is a nationwide brand. Through social media, the individual dealers can operate in the local marketplace—interacting with fans and followers about local weather, events, and news. They are also able to participate and run community outreach programs. Renewal by Andersen of Central Jersey partnered with the Blue Cross in support of “Tomorrow’s Children Fund.” They raised over $15,000 in 2011, using their social media outlets to spread awareness.
• Social media allows brands to raise local awareness. Renewal by Andersen dealers attend local craft fairs and support the local community. Because only people who have Liked or chosen to Follow a page on Facebook receive information about it, the Renewal by Andersen dealers are free to post information that applies only to the local community without worrying about appealing to a broader customer base. Customers are able to attend the events to learn more about the products after having heard about them through social media.
• Social media creates customer trust and awareness. Facebook is a network of peers, and people trust their peers. Facebook users know that the posts that appear on the Renewal by Andersen page are real posts by real people. The posts are both candid and unprompted, so customers trust them far more than they might trust featured testimonials on a website. Also, by consistently showing up in a fan’s news feed, a company can establish top-of-the-mind awareness.
• Social media documents stellar customer service, which serves as a recommendation. For example, after a storm a customer posted that their window was leaking on a Renewal by Andersen Facebook wall. Two days after the comment was posted, Renewal by Andersen fixed the window for them. The user posted a thank you on the comment. That exchange now serves as an example of superior customer service, and therefore a recommendation. Facebook users who read that comment know that Renewal by Andersen is a company they can trust.
• YouTube is the second largest search engine on the web. If you’re not searching Google, you’re keying words into YouTube. Companies have to be on YouTube. Single Throw created a YouTube channel for both Renewal by Andersen dealers and developed videos for targeted keywords. Renewal by Andersen appears on the top of the YouTube results page. Their videos serve as resources for people looking for information about window installation and other relevant topics. By becoming a trusted resource for a potential customer, Renewal by Andersen is more likely to get that customer’s business.
It is easy to say that anyone can create a Facebook page, and to question the need for experts when it comes to the heavily trafficked social media site. However, there are two reasons to turn to the Internet marketing consultants at Single Throw—time and expertise. Creating and maintaining a proper social media campaign takes time. To be successful, a Facebook page must be updated on a daily basis. Also, fan and follower engagement is not as easy as it sounds. At Single Throw, there is an entire department dedicated to figuring out how to engage fans and followers and encourage participation in discussions.
On the flip side, social media sites can become either too static or too pushy. If that happens, users will simply Unfriend or Unfollow you. While followers and fans expect to receive marketing information through social media, they don’t appreciate pushy brands, and they’ll simply forget about brands that never appear. How do you walk that fine line? Single Throw is experienced in the best practices of all social media platforms.
The Results
Both Renewal by Andersen dealers have achieved great success across all of their social media platforms.
Every video on their YouTube channel is optimized and shows up in the top ten results. The video for “double pane insulated glass windows” is the top result for its keywords. Videos for “types of replacement windows” and “energy star replacement windows” are in the first two results. Overall, the campaign has been extremely successful. All the videos show up on the first page, many of them even above videos that have been there for much longer and have more views. Single Throw’s unique built-in calls-to-action are greatly increasing the success of the YouTube videos, as well.
Both dealers have an active fan base on Facebook and Twitter. The Central Jersey dealer, which has been with Single Throw longer, has 650 fans on Facebook and over 2,000 followers on Twitter. The Long Island dealer has nearly 600 Facebook fans and over 1,000 Twitter followers.
Social media platforms are the way to reach out to a customer base in today’s world. They enable a business to interact directly with customers, create an engaging dialog between customer and business, and connect locally and intimately with customers like never before.
The Renewal by Andersen dealers’ success in the social sphere demonstrates the importance and power of social media. In today’s world, social media marketing and engagement is no longer simply an option, it’s a necessity.