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As a House Painter, you have many goals for your business: painting great houses, making homeowners and business owners happy, making great connections with your local community and just making the world a better place, right? Well, in order to paint the world better, you need leads and painting contracts. So, how do you get these? How do you get more House Painting business? First, you need to find people that need your services. So, let’s go out and spread the word that you are here to help them with their Home Painting needs. TARGETING AND SPECIALIZING A great way to build your customer base is through targeting a specific group of customers. When I was considering painting as a business for myself (I needed a business that I could travel with and had to go a different direction, but I have painted my share of houses), I always thought I would focus on ranch style homes and single story businesses. I am not a big fan of carrying around big ladders. I guess I could have gotten better at it. And, the heights don't bother me, but the weight of the tools made the 2nd story jobs super hard for me. So, this is how I decided on my target market and my specialty. It wasn’t really a direction based on preference, more of what my abilities were. So sit down and think about your abilities, your interests, your preferences? What direction do you want to go in? Maybe you just want to paint houses along the coast of Florida? Maybe you just want to do House Painting work with new houses only. These are great ways to narrow down your focus so you can specialize, talk about and gear your marketing and your techniques specifically towards this special market.  REACHING OUT TO THOSE MARKETS So now that you have your specialty how do you reach those people in this market? How do you connect with these potential customers? Marketing is about sharing your value with your customer with your prospects. It's also about building your brand awareness so that people will contact YOU! So when people are ready to have their House or Business Painted they already have you in mind. While marketing is considered a way to increase your brand awareness for your House Painting business, and a way to educate prospects, it's also kind of the middleman between you and your customer. Between you and your special Market. So essentially what you are looking for are ways to connect yourself with your market. Right? I'm going to give you a few suggestions today. I'd love to hear more about the ways that you have used in the past. There are many ways that you can bring awareness and connect with your target house painting market. WAYS TO CONNECT WITH YOUR PROSPECT 1. One great way is through your neighbors. Your neighbors are a great way to spread the word about how amazing you are. If they like your work they're going to want to tell their friends, their family, their Neighbors. And, pretty soon you’ll have more business than you know what to do with! 2. Another great way to connect, especially if you're interested in doing new homes, is with construction companies. Reach out to construction companies through their social media. Go to their office or work site and contact the lead GC. Start connecting with them. It might take a couple of attempts. But bring some of your flyers and you're business cards, and start making that relationship. 3. If you want to focus just on rentals and HOA developments, property agencies are an excellent way to make this connection. Similar to reaching out to contractors, get in touch with rental and HOA property management agencies. You can share your painting business with them through a variety of channels: you can mail them your marketing materials, you can go to their place of business and speak with whoever is in charge, you can call them on the phone, you can meet them at a leads group, you can find them on Social Media. 4. Let's say you want to work with updating construction businesses. Reach out to interior designers. These folks you tend to find on social media. Social media marketing and networking is a fantastic way to meet your connectors. Showing up on Social Media is a great way to build your brand awareness so that people will want to work with you. A wonderful place to find interior designers is through Instagram. They love to show off their work on this platform and they gather here often. ARE THEY WORKING FOR YOU? There are lots of fantastic ways to make connections with your specialty and your target market. I've just touched on a handful this time. Have you tried any of these options already? Which ones are working for you?  LOOKING FOR SOME HELP? If you need help with any of these items: creating graphics, creating flyers, making your connections through social media is one of my specialties, please reach out. I love to help Home Service Pros connect with their specialized custom target with marketing. My job is to pick up the slack for your business in a consistent and professional way. I produce all types of backend content for your Blog Articles, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest Posts as well as the Graphics that go with them. My time for you is also spent engaging with your community and keeping your accounts active. And, if you want to be better at you Social Media, because you’ll want to do some of it yourself, I offer coaching so you can up your social media marketing skills! When I do this work for you then you can focus on what you need to focus on! The video creation of your business, the networking, the sales and the Home Service work! I've been in business for myself for over 20 years. I've mostly been in a business of one. I really really enjoy it. I've had my ups and downs, of course. I've gone door-to-door, done publication advertising and now I'm really lucky to be able to do social media advertising and marketing. I even do my networking online! I am your Content Powerhouse! Contact me and we can set up your easy package and take your backend content off your plate while streamlining your marketing for better exposure! You’ve been a house painter for a little while now. You’ve painted all your friend's houses. You’ve painted all your family's houses. You’ve painted all your neighbor’s houses. While some of these folks might need to have their houses repainted by now - because you did their house a number of years ago. Some will not be repeat customers until some time in the future. And, now you are wondering how to get more customers for your House Painting business. How are you going to keep the customers coming to you? What’s exciting is that you have many options when it comes to marketing and getting the word out about your small business. There are traditional ways to get your message out and there and there are digital and social options to spread the word about how awesome your House Painting Business is! MARKETING IDEAS FOR PAINTING BUSINESS 1. Flyers and Brochures! Love fliers and brochures. It’s a low-cost option to get the word out. It’s also a low-cost option for delivery. If you have a couple of hours a week you can walk them around and leave them in a variety of places like cars, houses (that don’t have No Solicitor Signs) and businesses. When you go to a business you have a great opportunity to meet with your community as well. While fliers are a great plan to deliver and hand out in these areas, fliers are great marketing handouts when you are at events when people spot you painting houses, and for other customers to give to their friends and family. 2. Lawn Signs. Also, a cool way to spread the word about your amazing House Painting Business. Have a couple of lawn signs made up and place them at the houses you’re working at. You can leave it for a month or so and then pull it and move it to the next house. Signs will surely attract attention and draw eyes to your beautiful work - a gorgeous house. I know when I drive around and see a nice looking house and see a sign for a Home Service Prof, I make a mental note for sure. And, now I can also grab a quick picture of your sign for future reference or to refer you to my friends! Make sure to include your phone number and website address on these signs so customers can reach you easily.  share this image above! 3. Referrals. This is a fantastic way to bring in business. If you do good work, are friendly and your customers like you, you should have no trouble getting referrals. And, you can certainly ask for referrals from past customers. When customers like you they want to share that! At the end of the job, leave some of your brochures and ask them to pass on your info! You can also touch base with them in the future and ask if they know anyone in their family, group of friends or neighbors that are thinking about having their house painted. 4. Chamber and Lead Groups - Networking can be a great way to bring in more leads for your local House Painting business. Bring your business cards of course. But, add in a flyer or brochure to help stand out in the crowd. Maybe you can even do a small business talk at one of these events on the importance of keeping your house looking good. 5. Your Website and SEO. Seo can help get your website and blog found easier through a search. It’s difficult to get to the first page, but it can happen if you work your SEO well. Gear your website and blog articles towards the info people are searching for in your community to aim it towards the searches. 6. Social Media Marketing. While this is technically called marketing, I like to think of SMM for House Painting Professionals as an educational and awareness tool. People will be looking for you here, so it’s important to have a presence. And, once you get some digital marketing materials in place, it’s important to start showing that off and use it to drive traffic to your website. If people come looking for your online and don’t find you, they might go with someone else. Another great way to use Social Media Marketing for House Painters is to display your reviews and host discounts. You can also let people know if they follow your newsletter they can get good tips and discounts as they come up throughout the year. Your newsletter or emails don’t need to be long, they just need to be consistent. Social Media Marketing can really bring a lot of trust about you to your customer base. They like you online, they will be more inclined to call you for the painting job. MORE MARKETING IDEAS FOR HOUSE PAINTING BUSINESSES There are more ways to market your small business and I will touch on more great ideas in the future. But, I recommend trying one or two and making note of what works and what doesn’t. Keep the ones that do and add in another one to test out. And, then it’s just about repeating the process for ultimate success.  LOOKING FOR SOME HELP WITH ALL THIS? My job is to pick up the slack for your business in a consistent and professional way. I produce all types of backend content for your Blog Articles, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest Posts as well as the Graphics that go with them. My time for you is also spent engaging with your community and keeping your accounts active. And, if you want to be better at you Social Media, because you’ll want to do some of it yourself, I offer coaching so you can up your social media marketing skills! When I do this work for you then you can focus on what you need to focus on! The video creation of your business, the networking, the sales and the Home Service work! I've been in business for myself for over 20 years. I've mostly been in a business of one. I really really enjoy it. I've had my ups and downs, of course. I've gone door-to-door, done publication advertising and now I'm really lucky to be able to do social media advertising and marketing. I even do my networking online! I am your Content Powerhouse! Contact me and we can set up your easy package and take your backend content off your plate while streamlining your marketing for better exposure!  Are you considering advertising for your House Painting Business? Maybe you've decided to place some ads on Facebook? Or in your local newspaper or mailers? There are a few things to think about before you start designing. And consider that it will take a little time to sketch something out so it sounds good. Marketing for your House Painting Business is a great way to connect with your community and your prospects. Even if people don't buy from this ad right away, it can certainly be something they will hold onto for when they are ready to paint their house. YOUR TARGET MARKET AND SPECIALTY We've talked a little in the past about your target market and your specialty (I can link up to that post for your article). if you haven't yet decided on your specialty, now is the time to focus your attention on who you would like to work for. Your target or your House Painting specialty market is the group you're going to be speaking to. This is who you will direct your communication towards. Just like what I am writing about here. I love to work with house trades. I was one for many years. Now I want to help you build your business and your marketing. So, my target market it Home Service Professionals. Once you know who you want to work for and work with, it can be easier to focus your attention on these people. Only. If other people come to you because of your fantastic marketing you can work with them too. But you will be directly speaking with to your target when you are getting the word out. FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE When you start communicating through your advertising and your marketing, you want to focus on examples of how you have done a good job for other customers. You can talk about the many years you've been in business. You can talk about the skills you have. You can talk about any special techniques. Or maybe you like to work within certain budgets that you can highlight. Consider mentioning the great results you’ve provided. YOUR STORY Writing about your House Painting experiences with your personal story can be a strong way to communicate your message and get increased attention. Share the good stuff. Paint the picture of who you are and who your business is so your customer gets a great idea about who they can work with. While you are probably doing some of this on social media already, your advertising can certainly help connect your story to your prospects. If you are stating statistics and absolutes, make sure that they are accurate. You don't want to mislead potential customers. That would certainly be the opposite of a good direction to go in with your marketing.  GRAPHICS OR IMAGES Pulling your advertising piece all together with images and graphics really gives your advertisement piece professionalism and trustworthiness. If it looks crummy and half put together, it doesn't portray the presence you want to send out. Take the time to find the graphics you want. Hire someone if you need to. Look for photos that are copyright free. Make it look nice so people know that you're a professional and that you will do a nice job on their House Painting job as well. LOOKING FOR SOME HELP WITH YOUR MARKETING? My job is to pick up the slack for your business in a consistent and professional way. I produce all types of backend content for your Blog Articles, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest Posts as well as the Graphics that go with them. My time for you is also spent engaging with your community and keeping your accounts active. And, if you want to be better at you Social Media, because you’ll want to do some of it yourself, I offer coaching so you can up your social media marketing skills! When I do this work for you then you can focus on what you need to focus on! The video creation of your business, the networking, the sales and the Home Service work! I've been in business for myself for over 20 years. I've mostly been in a business of one. I really really enjoy it. I've had my ups and downs, of course. I've gone door-to-door, done publication advertising and now I'm really lucky to be able to do social media advertising and marketing. I even do my networking online! I am your Content Powerhouse! Contact me and we can set up your easy package and take your backend content off your plate while streamlining your marketing for better exposure!  Homeowners and businesses are looking for House Painters and Painters for their businesses all the time. Sometimes they will ask around. But when they don't find someone through their neighbors, they will turn to advertising and marketing looking for the best person to help them with their painting job. Even if they do find a house painter through a referral, potential customers will often look for your online first before calling just to see what you are like. If they've also seen your advertisements around town in newspapers or magazines or on flyers they received, they will remember you. It will start to click and they will consider someone they recognize for their house painting. Advertising is going to cost money and you will need to set aside a portion of marketing and advertising dollars in your budget. Whether you do it yourself or you have someone help you, you need to try some things out to see what brings in leads and provides good brand awareness for you and your house painting business. PAINTING COMPANY ADVERTISING You can place an ad in the newspaper. These advertisements can vary in size and cost. They will go out to the people that subscribe to that newspaper. So if some of the neighbors do not subscribe they will not get the opportunity to see your advertisement. Just the other day I was reading the free newspaper in our neighborhood and saw two advertisements for two small handyman businesses in our area. I definitely kept those and will be reaching out to those businesses. Newspaper advertising is not dead. Local magazines are another option that is similar to local newspaper advertisements. They might be more expensive. You really need to call around and see what the pricing is and if this is a good investment for you at this time. You'll also want to ask what their subscription size is to get an idea of how many people will have the opportunity to see your advertisement. LOCAL BUSINESS ASSOCIATIONS Some local business associations include directories for their members. Sometimes you can also be included in their events section if you are having a discount. Maybe during the summer? Or maybe for veterans and seniors? Call around and see if you want to belong to any of these groups as a networking option and what their directory offers are with this. CRAIGSLIST AND CLASSIFIEDS SITES Craigslist is still a great option to list your house painting business on. You can include photos, you can include your website information, your reviews from past customers. This is a great way to get the word out that you are available in their community. Remember to focus on your target market to draw in the perfect customers. If you're looking for other sites online that are similar to this, consider sites like Backpage, Thumbtack or Nextdoor. Make sure you find out the rules first so you don't post information that is outside the recommendations. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Social Media Marketing is a great place to advertise your business. And honestly, you could just start posting and sharing your house painting business on your own business account. You can look around and find some groups where you can share information about your house painting as well. Many groups focus just on referring contractors to home and business owners looking for help. Social Media Marketing can be a super way to build awareness of your business. It’s free and available to everyone.  YOUR HOUSE PAINTING TARGET MARKET
We have spoken a lot about your target market in the past. Why? Because this is always going to be who you're aiming your marketing activities towards. If you don't want to work for certain markets, you don't have to focus on those markets. For example, I was considering house painting as my next career, I went in a little different direction because of my life circumstances, but I always figured if I go into that career I would work on specifically ranch or single story types of projects. So this would be my target market. My specialty. If somebody called me from my advertising or marketing that wasn't a single story customer I might refer them to someone else. But, I'm getting sidetracked. When I talk about your target there are many ways that you can Implement your communication with them. That's why it's so important to know who you want to work with most of the time. So let's say, I've used this example before as well, but let's say you just want to work with beach communities. Find the advertisements that reach to these types of homeowners. These types of businesses. What magazines are they reading? What newspapers are they reading? Where do they hang out on social media? How can you reach them most effectively? LOOKING FOR SOME HELP WITH ALL THIS? My job is to pick up the slack for your business in a consistent and professional way. I produce all types of backend content for your Blog Articles, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest Posts as well as the Graphics that go with them. My time for you is also spent engaging with your community and keeping your accounts active. And, if you want to be better at you Social Media, because you’ll want to do some of it yourself, I offer coaching so you can up your social media marketing skills! When I do this work for you then you can focus on what you need to focus on! The video creation of your business, the networking, the sales and the Home Service work! I've been in business for myself for over 20 years. I've mostly been in a business of one. I really really enjoy it. I've had my ups and downs, of course. I've gone door-to-door, done publication advertising and now I'm really lucky to be able to do social media advertising and marketing. I even do my networking online! I am your Content Powerhouse! Contact me and we can set up your easy package and take the backend content off your plate while streamlining your marketing for better exposure! Last time we talked about Marketing Strategy. If you want to check that out... head over after you read what Social Media Managers do on the job. Social Media Managers are busy people. Depending on the number of clients one has… they could be working part time or full time. Independent Marketing Managers (they go by many different titles) could be working from a variety of places. From a home office to an area coffee shop or even in their backyard! They will handle a variety of marketing projects for your business. From planning and reviewing your projects, training and teaching, to creating content for your blog to your social media platforms, emails, newsletters and the like! LOTS OF CONTENT CREATION TO EDUCATE YOU When they aren't creating the content for their you, their client, they are creating content for themselves in a similar fashion. Many successful social media marketers have their weekly plans and monthly plans scheduled out in advance. Similar to the what they encourage you to do as well. When they create content for your Facebook platform they mostly likely create your content for the whole month. When they write blog article content - they probably create more than just one article at a time. For example, my content creating days are spent creating a lot of content all at once. Both in text form as well as video. But also photos and graphics. If I don't produce a lot of these types of materials how in the world will I share anything helpful for you?? PLANNING SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT First, before I do any type of actual creation… I put together a plan of social media content. Usually I plan a year, 6 months, 3 months at a time. Then I break that plan down into monthly, weekly, daily. And then I start my day with each content plan that I have designated to create whatever content I have on my schedule. Whether I'm creating videos that day or posts for social media or writing blog articles like I'm doing right now, my process isn't always smooth and formal. Some days I create a lot of content on my smaller devices, and some days I’m at my desktop computer or laptop. Sometimes I'm on my couch and some days I'm at my desk. Some days I am able to work in long blocks of time and create a lot. Sometimes I have to work in shorter sprints because I have a number of other tasks on my plate for the day. My life as a social media marketers is filled with variety. My job isn't just to inform you and educate you with my content, but I also feel obligated to do it so it’s interesting and maybe even entertaining for you. If what I'm telling you comes across in a boring manner… you're going to turn away and move on. Think of a college professor that just gets up and lectures. That can be dull over and over. So, I try to think of ways I can keep it interesting. (it’s not always easy)  Shareable Image WHAT IS CONTENT RESEARCH Social Media Marketing specialists also spend a considerable amount of time researching and learning new things. When clients ask us questions or come up with new ideas that haven't been executed before in their marketing, spending time online researching and asking their social media network these questions can help a marketer come to quick solution and provide you with the best answers. My day starts with my favorite…. And your’s... coffee!! I sit down and spend probably the first hour or 1 ½ reading the news. I read about what’s going on in my field. Social Media, Marketing, news about the Tools and Marketing Platforms I work on. I keep a bookmarked folder of the top sites I follow and I catch up with that most mornings. (Sometimes I watch videos) I also sneak in learning. As an Social Media Marketing specialists I must always put learning in my schedule. If I’m not learning a new project - like right now I am learning Facebook Advertising for Agencies, So I can do more than boost posts and more than just run my own ads. Honestly, I want to master it. It’s quite the process - so this is going to take some time. We have to set aside this time during our day and weeks. I want to learn new tools, new tactics and strategies. There is always more things to learn. Some specialists go to conferences, webinars, schools and workshops. It’s certainly something we all do to stay smart in our industry! WAYS TO NETWORK I also spend a considerable amount of time online networking, mingling and engaging. Social Media Marketers and Managers are engaging with people that have similar businesses to them, people that they're interested in having as clients, people with similar passions in life, people in their industry. We look around whichever platform we are on for like minded individuals and companies we are interested in and try to strike up a conversation. Similar to the way you would at a party or networking group. Often it’s just fun - even though we are working. Good social media experts have a network of other experts at their fingertips. I belong to a number of other paid networks I mingle and network with so I stay on top of the most current social media news, social media tips, and social media platforms. I also meet super amazing and inspiring people. It’s a fun part of the business for sure! Social media and the internet, changes constantly. And the platforms that we are working on often do not produce announcements that changes are happening. Often times we get this information because of problems we run across. Or if we hear about it while we're in one of our networking groups. It's essential that we have these groups to communicate amongst. When you're on your own and do not have a network of other social media marketers, you can easily get lost and confused as to why things are happening. One of the best things a social media marketing specialist brings to the table in order to help you the best is their background of Networks. It's like you get a whole group working for you because a large group of knowledge comes to the table not just one persons. MARKETING SMALL BUSINESS So maybe that's a long way around to telling you how a social media marketer spends their day. SMM's spend a considerable amount of time staying educated so you don't have to. And SMM’s spends a great deal of time bettering their skills and honing their skills to bring you the best quality product so you can spend your time providing the same for your clients. ALWAYS ON THEIR PHONE! When you see an Social Media Marketing specialists on their phone, they're probably not screwing off and playing games. They're probably writing, engaging and networking, putting out fires. I like to call my phone a device. Because really, it’s my little computer that I can take with me in my pocket. For example a little while ago Facebook and Instagram kind of seized up both at once. As an SMM I kind of just rolled my eyes and moved on to something else to let this hiccup pass. But, everyone was talking about it. Clients were wondering what was going on with their accounts. It was all the chatter. It’s important your marketing manager is always within reach of their device - because it’s actually a tool for work, not a toy. AT THE END OF THE DAY Social Media Marketing Specialists are very busy. While many of them do work-from-home they certainly aren't laying around with their feet up eating bon bons and watching old reruns of Magnum… nope not at all, I swear. They spend very little time screwing off online or otherwise. They are at their computer working (and taking care of their family). If you want to talk more about how I spend my day working to be an expert for your small business, please contact me here or message me on Facebook or Instagram. I love to chat with small businesses about their marketing. I love to help guide them and consult with them about making their marketing more focused so they can build a great following and gain exposure! HOW CAN I HELP YOU? My job is to pick up the slack for your business in a consistent and professional way. I create all your backend content from your Blog Articles to your Facebook Posts. This way you can focus on what you need to focus on! The video creation of your business, the networking, the sales and the customer work! I've been in business for myself for over 20 years. I've mostly been in a business of one. I really really enjoy it. I've had my ups and downs, of course. I've gone door-to-door, done publication advertising and now I'm really lucky to be able to do social media advertising and marketing. I even do some networking online! I am your Content Powerhouse! Contact me and we can set up your easy package and take your backend content off your plate. Let’s streamline your business marketing for better exposure!  HI! I'M JENNIFER. Thanks for following and reading the Ultimate Marketing for Home Service Professionals here at Voiyoo! I'm here to make life easier for House Painters, Landscapers, Electricians, Plumbers, HVAC Techs and House Cleaners - working to guide your online marketing to create more brand awareness and engagement. Together we will direct your message across online platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube as well as with your Content Planning, Strategizing and Creating - like Articles for your Blog! I can also train you with these platforms to make it easier for you to upload and get more engagement! Check out the rest of the website: Voiyoo Social Media Management Find Me Around the usual Hangouts & Message Me on Instagram or Facebook! It would be so fun to work together! Last time we talked about some budget tools for your business office. I showed off some of the goodies I like to use. Check it out here. This time we are going to talk about your marketing strategy and what I did to plan mine out. Do you have a marketing strategy for your Home Services business, yet? And, what does that really even mean, anyway? When I was just starting out and taking my social media management program, I had no idea how to come up with a strategy. Or how I would pull it off once I managed to pull one together. (I really didn’t even know what strategy meant for marketing!) After more studying, trial and error and really just learning the platforms the best I could, I began to naturally develop a strategy by combining what I had learned and what I had tried. What I liked and what I found effective. And, this is how you can develop a marketing strategy for your business as well! You want to layout something to start with, of course. With the best of your ability or maybe with some coaching advice, you want to put up a strategy on your calendar and then experiment with this strategy. Try what you have laid out. Make notes mentally or even physically write out your conclusions and make adjustments from the info you have gathered. Make a monthly assessment and pivot or continue on with what you have concluded from your notes. HOW TO DO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING First, I started with my goal. I was new and wanted to build a fan base. This is often the best place to start - online or off. Build your brand awareness and create your business visibility. I also wanted to become more of an expert in my field and I wanted to share that. Because this is what marketing is: Sharing and Educating. Sharing who you are with the world and educating your community. Educating them about who you are, what you can help them with and what they need to know, and how you can help them get what they want. How they can make their dreams and goals come true because of what you can share with them! Honestly, I’m still in this stage. Building and building. Not sure you ever stop this part. Because you are always building your business, right? THE THINGS I TRIED From here, I analyzed what direction I want to go in. As a Content Creator and Social Media Manager, I needed to review all the social media platforms that I could. Work with the platforms for a period of time and then either embrace them or move on. I dove into Facebook on my Business Page and LinkedIn first off. I jumped into Instagram and started my video channel on Youtube while also learning and building my Pinterest page. And, I am a blog article writer. So, I created this Blog and have built it up over the last year. I would like it to be bigger as well. And, now that I know more and don’t have to learn some of the preliminary marketing areas, I can spend more time implementing them! So, this is pretty exciting! It’s my 1 year anniversary of sorts of when I first I dove in and stared learning. Trying. Experimenting. It’s an enormous endeavor to do all of this at once. And, I forgot to even mention... Twitter? Care to follow me over there? @jennvoiyoo THE BEGINNING MARKETING STRATEGY I remember speaking with a potential client at one point about how they should construct their strategy. What should they be doing and where in the beginning? I didn’t really know and I couldn’t actually tell them anything except “go with the platform you enjoy the most. Learn it well and expand on it as you get better.” That’s not bad advice. It’s a great place to start. But, now, a year later, I know how to expand on that info greatly. Because I have a giant amount of info stockpiled. And, because, it’s not really just about where you enjoy being. What you already know from working on the platform already is great, of course. It is a great direction to start from! SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS FOR BUSINESS It’s about learning where your ideal client is also mingling around. It’s about where your target market is hanging out. Where your avatar is spending their time. So, while it’s about where you might be comfortable, if your niche client isn't there…. You’re just having fun and wasting time. (fun isn’t really a waste of time - but we’re here to make a living!!) So, this for me was the hard part. And, it’s actually something I always analyze. I often work on a platform for a certain amount of time. Diligently with a serious plan. If I get some interest form my niche, then I stay and try to develop that more. If I don’t I move on and spend a large part of my efforts somewhere else. Like I mentioned earlier, if you want you can keep a chart and record some of your analytics to make it more decipherable. A good example of this is Facebook. I came in at a time when Facebook had made a huge shift and it wasn’t easy to get a following any more. (Aww… remember the days?). So, my efforts didn’t lead to much return. I made note and moved on pretty quickly from here. I will return with a better plan later. But, for now, I wanted to learn and not struggle. I needed to also get some wins to keep it interesting. I am starting to build a community over there now and would love to have you join me! @voiyoosocialmediamanagement  Pin the image above to Pinterest for easy reference for later!! PINTEREST So, from here I built up my Pinterest skills. I studied it and took a program for Blogging better and Pinterest Promo. I built my follow up in a few days to 8k? 12k? It was a good size in just a very short time. But, I was also reviewing statistics about what Pinterest really was and the turn out it had for my clientele. It was small. It’s also more of a search engine now than it used to be, so I will keep a presence on there, but it’s not really a place to gather like some other platforms. After some more learning, I use Pinterest more as a “depository” of sorts. If someone is looking for what I have to offer, they should run across what I have on my page. I like to consider it a library of sorts. Come and check it out: jennifer @voiyoodigitalmarketing From here, I moved on to Twitter. I don’t love twitter, so I didn't stay long. It’s very dense and the info moves very fast. When I want the news - I often go to twitter. I might come back around here and develop a deeper following and interest. For now, I have a presence, but not much more. Do you love Twitter? Do you get great results? Let's connect: @jennvoiyoo YOUTUBE AND BLOGGING Youtube and Blogging also started to fill my day. These are both still high on my list. They aren’t really social media platforms, but they are an excellent part of any marketing plan. You can both educate your public and start getting some ranking with SEO. YouTube is also a search engine. The second largest. So, another large library like Pinterest, but just video. And, you can leave comments and follow like social media platforms - so I enjoy the connections. Visit the Voiyoo Channel And, lastly, Instagram. This is the one I have enjoyed the most. It’s easy. It’s fun. And, you can build a following as well as build relationships and a community! What’s not to love?! Well, I do still need to give this platform a good review for my business. Because, while I have had the most fun on Instagram, I have to stick to my plan and analyze weather it’s going to be a good fit for my business. I have stayed on Instagram the longest, because of the items I listed earlier. It sure makes it a great fit in many aspects. It has also allowed me to try other types of marketing that I wouldn’t have been able to do anywhere else, because the other platforms were so hard to build following that was real. A following that became my people and my community. So, needless to say, I probably won’t be leaving Instagram. But, do I expect it to get me any business on a large basis? Right now, I’d have to say no. However, in the scheme of things, it has been a short period of time. In the marketing business we call it warming up your audience before you start to tell them what you have to offer. So, now that I have been on the platform for a bit, I will start to offer what I can to help my audience. I will put building my audience here on Instagram at the top of my list. I will strategize this platform more to expand on my current following and see if I can build some leads on here as well. You can find me at: @voiyoojennifer And, then there is LinkedIn. This is the next place I will head. I started making some connections over here when I first got started. I built on communities and connections I had outside of the virtual world. But, I got pulled away when Instagram became so fun! But, now I am ready to wander over there again, order a drink and get very well acquainted. I honestly don’t know what to expect. I hope it will be as awesome as Instagram. You can do a lot more on the platform than before I started. Video and posting articles is newer! And, the audience that’s on LinkedIn tends to be older and more serious about putting business first. This might just be the place where my marketing shines and I make some more great connections! Let's connect there, too! @voiyoosocialmediamanagement OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS Ha!! I don’t do snapchat,Tik Tok yet, the separate messenger platforms for business, or any of the chinese platforms. If you think of any you love that I have mentioned - please leave a comment to share that! REVIEWING While I have been experimenting and learning I have also been reviewing my competition. I have learned to call them my peers, my warrior collaborators and my peeps. Yep - we still use this word. I have also been paying attention to what the statistics say so that I can evaluate the direction I need to be going in. SOME BASIC OUTSIDE ANALYTICS It’s important to look at your analytics, but it’s also important that you include basic info about the platforms and processes as well. The youth of the American world hangs out on Instagram the more than the older groups. Is that my clientele? The older crew that’s more settled, hangs on out Facebook more. Even if you see some people say they are leaving, Facebook still draws the biggest crowd. YouTube is just huge for everyone. This is important to know and take note of! WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA IS BEST FOR BUSINESS? I need to know what to tell MY target market when they ask me where THEY should be. Because it might be different than where I should be. I am a social media marketer, not a painter, plumber, electrician, cleaner, or HVAC tech. It’s a daunting task to do all of this and build your business at the same time. But, I have learned a great deal and I can pass that on now. I know stuff. And, I know how to do stuff. I also love to share it! At the same time that I was constructing my strategy and learning the platforms for my business, I learned how to write for this blog. And, get better at it. This article (yes, I like article better than post and I’m gonna use it! No apologies right?) is about 1500 words and it took about 2 hours to write and edit. I started off last year by staring at the page. What the heck am I going to write about? I also had a blog for a long time, as an artist (before this). But, I didn’t do it strategically. This time I took a course to be a better blogger and how to develop that skill more. I learned how to do keyword research and some SEO applications. I learned better strategy. WHAT’S THE POINT My whole point is I’ve developed a good size marketing plan and strategy by sketching one out first starting with a preliminary jumping off point. Then, I learned and experimented. Analyzed and pivoted as necessary. I didn’t realize it would take so long! But, being a Social Media and Content Manager is harder than it used to be. The Social Media Platforms make you jump through more hoops to just get seen. That’s not something just to brush off. You need to know that developing your marketing plan can take time. I also explored as much as I could get my hands on in a years time. I need to know as much as I can so that I can guide you and offer you the best advice. As a Home Service Professional or Small Business Owner, I do not think you need to be everywhere. Absolutely not. A LITTLE REVIEW From there here these are the questions I answered to find out my strategy: 1. Throughout my trials I kept my focus on the goal I laid out at the beginning: more exposure and more awareness? 2. Where should I be to get the best exposure? 3. Where should I be to reach my audience? 4. What should I do to grab attention and warm my audience to me and my brand? And, that’s basically it. Have you laid out your strategy? Do you have a good firm plan set for you Marketing? HOW CAN I HELP YOU? My job is to pick up the slack for your business in a consistent and professional way. I create all your backend content from your Blog Articles to your Facebook Posts. This way you can focus on what you need to focus on! The video creation of your business, the networking, the sales and all the rest of running your business. I've been in business for myself for over 20 years. I've mostly been in a business of one. I really really enjoy it. I've had my ups and downs, of course. I've gone door-to-door, done publication advertising and now I'm really lucky to be able to do social media advertising and marketing. I can even do my networking online! I am your Content Powerhouse! Contact me and we can set up your easy marketing package and take your backend content off your plate to help streamline your marketing time for better exposure!  HI! I'M JENNIFER. Thanks for following and reading the Ultimate Marketing for Home Service Professionals Blog here at Voiyoo! I'm here to make life easier for Painters, Plumber, Electricians, House Cleaners, HVAC tech and other Home Professionals. Working to guide your online marketing to create more brand awareness and engagement. Together we will direct your message across online platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube as well as with your Content Planning, Strategizing and Creating! Check out the rest of the website: Voiyoo Social Media Management Find Me Around the usual Hangouts & Message Me on Instagram! It would be so fun to work together!  Ha! Who is that appearing in a purple wig and tie?? TOOL # 1 MY PHONE(S) I used to use a tiny inexpensive Samsung phone when I first got started. It was what I have and really small compared to what I have now. I think I shocked the TMoblie guy that I could even use that little phone for what I do for a living! Ha!! Since then I have updated, but I stayed on a budget. I saw no reason to spend more than I needed. 2 or 3 years from now ya gotta do it all over again anyway! Ha!! I invested in a LG Stylo. And it’s awesome. Especially for being in the lower price point. It has a big screen, runs fast and even has a built in stylus. It takes good video and photos. Fantastic! I hope they continue to make this series… I've been very happy. I also keep my old phone and my husbands old phone around to use as a camera, take videos etc. It’s nice to just have them laying around and ready to go!  TOOL # 2 MY STAND UP DESK Love this thing too! Yes! It is an essential part of my office set up. I looked at a number of options: adjustable platforms that you put on top of an existing desk, a makeshift desktop made from items you already have, and lots of expensive crank type or electric type desks. And then my husband stumbled across this beauty! He found it at Costco and it's awesome. It's electric… so that’s really wonderful. It's white - so it goes with my office furniture. It's sturdy and was inexpensive! What is not to love?! I stand for my morning work and sit in the afternoon (or when I am writing a lot)  Pin the image above to Pinterest for easy reference for later!! TOOL # 3 APPS! I try to keep it to a minimum when it comes to apps. I will try some and if I don't love it I will quickly uninstall. You can easily fill up your devices with apps you wind up not using. So which ones do I love? Well, the one I'm working on right now is from the Google series which I'm sure a lot of you use. It’s Docs and I like to write almost exclusively on it. I write my blog articles on it. I right my Instagram posts on it. I use it for client work. I really use it all around for just about all my longer writing. The main reason I work with this platform is because it’s super easy to share with clients, too, who are already using this platform. And, it easily syncs with all of my devices. Another favorite reason is the fact that I can use the Speaking Tool and speak all my blogs articles before I edit them. Fantastic! I also love the the Plain Notebook App that came with my phone. It wasn't anything special. I didn't download any particular app. I like to keep my hashtags on it for easy access. Sometimes I'll even jot down a post in there. And, I also keep our weekly/monthly meal plans in here. I find it’s easy and it works great on a budget! I use Dropbox for my image and video storage, Google Sheets, and Google Calendar, Quicktime and iMovie for creating YouTube Videos, and an app called Randomness. This one is actually a favorite freebie I had a hard time finding. It creates random passwords in various sizes. Love this thing! It will also let you make other decisions by rolling the dice, flipping a coin and more. Fun! And that actually kind of sums it up for your basic business type of apps. Most were included with my computer or phone. If you’re working on a budget - you don’t need to spend much to get a great set up. When it comes to social media and posting content and adjusting my images and video, I use buffer to schedule and kind of plan out my my posts for Instagram. It's easy and it's free for small numbers of accounts. If anybody has any questions on using buffer on your devices, please reach out I'd be delighted to give you any information I can. I also use a variety of video and photo apps. This is probably the largest section selection of apps that I have. I don't know of one app that does everything when it comes to video and photos. A lot of them do different things and you pick and choose from the techniques you like. I've written an entire article on many of the apps that I love and use for Instagram and that friends who are also in the industry love. You can find that over here as a featured article on the Social Media Managers School Website. ( I was honored to be chosen to write this piece and I think you'll find it super helpful when you're looking for Instagram apps)  TOOL # 4 MY PLANNER I actually designed my own planner. And, it actually took me maybe a year to design and create it to work the way I need. I knew some of the direction I wanted to take it in but it took some… you know… molding and finessing and redoing and adjusting and actually just last week I finished the layout for it! It finally came together and I absolutely love how it eases my life! I find my job is complicated and complex. It’s also time consuming and can get messy quickly. I needed something so when I come to my desk in the morning I didn’t wonder “no what should I be doing”. That drove me a little nutty. It includes a breakdown for my entire quarter, week and day. It also includes a breakdown for each of the platforms I'm on, the articles I'm writing, the videos I’m doing, etc. And in the back it also has a bunch of different sections for things that are important to my business like strategy and services that I provide information on. It also has a nice plastic folder that I attached to keep papers and magazine clippings that I come across and collect overtime that I want to create content about. I stuff all that in there because otherwise it's just collecting dust on my desk and getting shuffled around…. And you got it… driving me nutty! I love to work on a budget and I love to reuse items that I have. I will give you a brief overview of it I'm going to go more in-depth with this planner in another article and probably a short video series. But it's like a planner on steroids. It’s a 3 ring binder with a zipper - so nothing falls out when I take it with me… wherever! I have it section off as I need and I reuse old manila file folders as dividers. I think the whole thing cost about 30 bucks.  TOOL # 5 A LITTLE WORKOUT EQUIPMENT My Stay Fit Tools! I now keep some workout equipment at my desk. For many years I had a job where I was physically active all day. And when I decided to switch careers after 20 years, I found that I gained like 10lb in the first year! And I could not get rid of the weight the traditional ways that other people were getting rid of it. Or through ways that I had in the past. I couldn't stay as fit as I had in the past. I found it very sad and had to take what I call... drastic measures!! So I bought myself a mini elliptical - I guess you call it a stair stepper. I have my can of bush beans - the one pounder that I use while I’m just standing around reading at my desk, watching videos, or on the phone. And I got this this lovely set of massagers for your feet! Cuz I'm standing a lot at my desk and I do use my stand-up desk at least half of the day. It's nice to take care of your feet because they are so important. There’s a wrap up of some of my favorite business and office tools. We didn’t even talk about computer, sound or lighting equipment. We’ll leave that for another day. Come and say hi over on Instagram - tell us some of your favorite business of office tools!! WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP YOU?? And lastly, and most importantly... what can I do for you?? Honestly, what do you need help with in your business? I've been in business for myself for over 20 years. I've mostly been in a business of one. I really really enjoy it and I've had my ups and downs of course. And I've also gone door-to-door. I've done publication advertising and now I'm really lucky to be able to do social media advertising and marketing. I even do my networking online! Visit the Marketing Services Page! I'd love to help you get your Marketing all together! Contact me with your questions, suggestions, ideas, anything you'd like me to help you out with or answer. Have a great week and we'll see you next time!  HI! I'M JENNIFER. Thanks for following and reading the Ultimate Marketing for Realtors® Blog here at Voiyoo! I'm here to make life easier for Real Estate Professionals - working to guide your online marketing to create more brand awareness and engagement. Together we will direct your message across online platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube as well as with your Content Planning, Strategizing and Creating! Check out the rest of the website: Voiyoo Social Media Management Find Me Around the usual Hangouts & Message Me on Instagram! It would be so fun to work together!  SERVICE #1 - YOUR PLANNING AND STRATEGY Planning is what changed it all for me. Planning is actually quite exciting. Because this is what can be the pivoting point for your business, for your marketing, for your... whatever. When you take the time to sit down and plan out all the areas of your business, all the areas of your marketing, all the areas of your day... oh, you really start to run your own show. This is when the show stops running you! This is when your day stops going haywire. This is when you get a grip and you get a handle on running your business. Exciting! This is one of the best ways I can help you. I talked with a lot of people who spend their day scrambling, not knowing which direction to go in. Panicking that they're not doing the right things. Feeling overwhelmed. Maybe even wondering if they are cut out for this running your own business thing. Planning together is something I'm really great at. And I love to help you put together your plan and a schedule and a strategy to move you forward in your business. To move your goals ahead. Maybe just to figure out your goals. We can meet for a consultation and see if this is a great fit and move you forward! I talked a lot more about this last time. Swing over and check out that article, too! Very helpful. SERVICE # 2 - YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING & MANAGEMENT Your social media marketing. First of all you know you need to be on “there”. You know you need to have a Facebook page. Maybe you're considering Instagram and YouTube? I know what a realtor should have as their main focus when it comes to social media. I spent the last year actually studying this for your industry - Real Estate. I found that a great way to start off is to stop being everywhere, stop thinking you need to be everywhere, stop trying to learn every darn thing. Start with one platform... like many people talk about. And I recommend you start with Facebook. It’s the platform with the most active followers, still. You've probably got something going on there already…. So we can tinker with this and make it better. We can make it more focused and set up for your business. Then we can move into a number of other platforms that I think are important for Realtors. Instagram for one. YouTube for another. And while it's not social media technically - blogging can be very vital and important for Realtors. Some people think Blogging is a dead art. But, blogging can help boost your credibility and experience as an expert. I love to start Realtors off with a good platform and marketing review. Always start from where you are and build on that. What is it that you need? I can give you good tips. I can give you good guidance. Check out the page that talks all about Your Social Media Management Needs!  Pin the image above to Pinterest for easy reference for later!! SERVICE #3 - YOUR CONTENT Your content. Your content is pretty much the basis for everything you do. When you have a good bunch of content in your content coffer, you have all you need to draw from. This is your knowledge this is what you are sharing with the world what you know. This is what you can constantly talk about in your marketing. So just think, you have no content, you've written nothing, you're talking about nothing, you've posted no pictures about anything. You have nothing going on. What do you share with your people? What do you tell the world you're good at? What do you tell your community you can help them with come up? Can you see where I'm going with this? If you want to talk to your community…. About how you can help them with their home sale or purchase. What's going to make them believe you? What's going to make them think you know what you're talking about? What’s going to make them like you? Being able to provide content for your clientele is actually a gift. Think about it 10 - 15 years ago you had to send out a postcard with a little bit of information on it and nice picture, maybe a house that you sold in the area and that was maybe it. Billboard. Door to door. Maybe a newspaper article or a ad? That's great! But now you can really expand on that. Now you have these platforms where you can tell the world all these great things you can help them with. That’s so awesome! They have been waiting for you to share your knowledge. And now you have a away to do that. So, I hope you'll take advantage of that and set aside a bunch of time to create it and share it. I can also help you with your Content Creation. Once we start working on your strategy and your planning we can get together and plan your content. You won't again be scrambling or wondering at the last minute what the heck you're going to write about. Or when. It's probably one of the easier plans you will make. Cuz you probably have a lot of ideas! If you just took the time to sit down and write them all out - just the ideas - and then you can build on them later. Maybe you don't have time to do any of those things cuz you're really cranking out a lot of other marketing or showings. I can help you behind the scenes writing content and posting for you. Let me help you pull it all together! Visit The Content Creation Page for more information! SERVICE # 4 - SOON TO COME... YOUR FACEBOOK ADS And soon to come… Social Media Advertising. Just think about it as any other kind of advertising. It might not be in the budget to run something on TV or on a bus stand or even in a newspaper. But with social media ads like Facebook - you can get more for your buck. You might have even tried running Facebook Ads for yourself, but not had much traction. You might have had other people in your brokerage that have explored Facebook ads and come up short. I can help you get a better handle on this. It seems easy… just push the boost button, right? But there is a lot of stuff in the background that we can review. Help get you better coverage in your Market and better hone in on what works for you. Sometimes it takes a specialist to guide you in the beginning. Soon, I will also be able to offer this Facebook Advertising service to you. I am working towards my Facebook Advertising Master Certificate with Andrea Vahl. It’s an intense course that only opens a few times a year. I will come away with this skill so I can provide you with top-notch Facebook Advertising. Please inquire and let me know if this is something you will be interested in… in the near future! WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP YOU?? And lastly, and most importantly... what can I do for you?? Honestly, what do you need help with in your business? I've been in business for over 20 years. I've mostly been in a business of one. I really really enjoy it and I've had my ups and downs of course. And I've also gone door-to-door. I've done publication advertising and now I'm really lucky to be able to do social media advertising and marketing. I even do my networking online! Visit the Marketing Services Page! I'd love to help you get your Marketing all together! Leave me your questions below, suggestions, ideas, anything you'd like me to help you out with or answer. Have a great week and we'll see you next time!   HI! I'M JENNIFER. Thanks for following and reading the Ultimate Marketing for Realtors® Blog here at Voiyoo! I'm here to make life easier for Real Estate Professionals - working to guide your online marketing to create more brand awareness and engagement. Together we will direct your message across online platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube as well as with your digital marketing: Newsletters, Emails and Blogging. Check out the rest of the website: Voiyoo Social Media Management Find Me Around the usual Hangouts and Message me on Instagram!  5 STEPS - HOW AND WHAT TO PLAN WHEN IT COMES TO YOUR MARKETING Have you been planning your marketing in large batches or just scrambling at every last minute to get whatever you can out there?! Well, stop that. Make a plan and get past the scramble. # 1 - WHY PLAN Number one, why you should plan your content and social media marketing? Because if you don’t your marketing has the tendency to get messy. It’s not only messy, but it tends to be inconsistent, hard to keep up with and unintentional. Which is the real reason you are marketing in the first place. To have an intention with your marketing activities. To have intention with your business actions. We are here to serve! You have goals and specifics you are targeting. If you doing your posting and content creating on a whim, you’ll have a hard time aiming at your goals and you have a hard time tracking what your doing to find a good fit with your process. Planning what you marketing will help you stay on track, help you be more organized and help you reach your essential purpose and clientele. Who can pass up planning after all that?!  #2 WHAT TO PLAN Figuring out what to plan is your next step. Assembling your marketing ideas and processes is going to depend on your marketing plan in general. I’m guessing you’ll be working on your blogging, but you want to also work in your social media marketing, any email or newsletters to your plan and schedule. What else were you considering? Write these all down. I like to use one spreadsheet and then break up each area into a separate sheets. So, when you pull that document up it’s all easy to access in one plan doc. I also like to work within a theme or topic for each month. Not everyone likes to plan their content this way. But, it is one option. And, I love it! Many of the big brands do it this way, too. If you’d rather go a different direction - you can plan your content by weekly plans and topics, quarterly, etc. If you think of something else, leave a comment - we’d all love to hear other options to think about! So, you have these working ideas settled on and in a nice document. Let’s talk about putting everything together in a good, easy to follow marketing plan. #3 HOW TO PLAN YOUR MARKETING I recommend you start with a free planning method for your content. I like to use Google Sheets and Google Docs. If you’d like to expand into a different program when you’re ready to expand there are a number of different planning programs you can explore… maybe Evernote? Or to get more complex you can venture into Trello or Asana for project management. Today, I am going to discuss planning today with Google Sheets and Docs as an example. But, these tips can transfer to any layout. First you want to layout your Sheet to fit these sections along the top of the Sheet:
Now, you can probably see where this is going… You can even add more to the list above if you’ll find it will help you plan and keep track of what you’re going to build. After you have these headers in place, you want to plan for at least 3 months at a time. You can do more if you want to of course and I like to start at the beginning of the year (or the end of the year - wink wink). But, plan 3 months at least and it will help you stay organized more than if you just do 1 month at a time. Setting aside precious planning time is hard enough, huh? This is a nice starting point for your thought process and what you want to plan in order to market what is special about you. These plans will give you something to build on over the year. Decide what you want to do, write about, photograph and coordinate it here. What will your theme for each month be? Here is where you’re going to decide on when to publish your content. This is where you layout all the details to what is in your theme. When you are laying out your blog theme content - expand on it to include a Blog Outline. I also tie this in with my blogging doc. From my spreadsheet I like to move the basic theme and blogging outline to my blogging doc. Then, everytime I sit down to write - everything is already laid out like a book index and I just build on that. #4 TIE IT ALL IN If you have a plan, you’re executing the plan there is no reason why you shouldn’t also be consistent with your writing content and with your marketing. Making your plan is going to really solidify your process. It’s going to pull it all together and focus your aim and time with your digital marketing. Planning is what is going to change your world. It’s going to change how you look at your business and your marketing. Your day will flow better and who doesn’t want that!? And, when you aren’t working on it on a schedule you’re probably feeling guilty. So make sure to put this on your calendar and stick with it. #5 WHEN TO POST Now that you have a plan for 3 months at a time, you can just pull it all together and then schedule it. Yes, it will certainly take time. If you have looked at when is a good time to post already, go ahead it schedule your posts and content. If you haven’t looked into when are good times to post for your community - this will take a little time as well. You can research it a little online, but in the end, you want to try out times for your posting - especially on social media platforms. Post and see what happens. Look at other people in your industry and see what times and days they are posting for a starting point. Make a bunch of notes and after a few months review your numbers or what you’ve discovered and take that into account when you are posting! It depends on what you are creating and building of course, but this is important to work on and take the time to plan. This is what you have to offer to your clientele. This doesn’t need to be a waste of time if you plan and you focus on your plan. Focus on your intention. CONTENT PLANNING WORKSHEET And, below you'll see I have included a content planning worksheet to help you get started. You can change it up as you need to. It's and easy way to get started! HAVE FUN! AND, IF YOU NEED HELP! If you are ready to get started but really just don’t have the time, or your ready to get started but can’t figure out this confusing social media messy stuff - reach out to me! I’m super delighted to help you out! I can get your pages started for you and let you run the rest or I can help you from start through engagement! Please, reach out and say hi! You can message me on Facebook or I’m around the other Social Media Hangouts, too! 
Hello Realtors! I know this has been on your mind, and we are just going to get right into it and chat about... Keywords! Keywords! You might be wondering what the heck they are in the first place and what are you supposed to do with them after you have some. But, I have mentioned them in the past and said I would do a full article about Keywords so you could understand better what they are.
Like I summed up in my article, How to Start Your Blog for Realtors, and the YouTube for Realtors Post, Keywords are the words that relate to your industry. âThey are the content words and ideas around your specific industry, niche of that industry and your location.â â WHAT ARE KEYWORDS? Keywords are what connects you with people searching for what you have to offer! Keywords are what people use when they are searching for stuff...like you...online. So, when you are searching for, say...a new TVâŚ. what do you type into the search bar at the top? Those are your keywords or long keyword phrases: âSamsung, Flat Screen, TVâ. See⌠easy! So, now you know what a keyword is (and a long keyword phrase - all of those together). How do you collect some for yourself? Where do you look to gather up some good keywords for your business? I have broken up the process into stages. From Easy to more Difficult. 
Pin the image above to Pinterest for easy reference for later!!
EASY
First, to get started, do some brainstorming to get a list of keywords that you just think of based around you, your business, your community and your industry. Sit down and take a minute and write down all the words or phrases you can think of that are tied to your business. For example, I am working with a Realtor from Tampa Florida and a good start for her Brainstorming Session would be Keywords like: Realtor, Real Estate, Tampa, Florida, Homes for Sale, Other Towns in her area like St. Petes, Clearwater, Brandon (consider where your focus is to weed out area towns or suburbs that donât match for you). Take the time to think of all the words you can related to your business. You should be able to come up with a decent list. EASY part 2 From here, itâs time to expand on your starter list from step one. And, you can start by going into the URL Search Bar to see what gets searched for. How do you do this? Just like when you search for what new TV to buy from the above example. This time type in âRealtor Tampa Floridaâ. Now, see what shows up underneath - like a menu of other searches. These are keyword searches that are popular... that other people have looked for. That other people have clicked on. Write all of these down. You can see an example below: 
You might want to skip the âscott kennedy realtor tampa floridaâ. But, write the other ones down.
EASY part 2 CONTINUED
So, Thatâs not the only place you want to look. â Think about where else can you search for stuff? These are the other places you will review the keywords - the same as we did in the google search bar. So, places like: YouTube, Different Search Engines can even give you different search results, Some more examples below:
You might want to stop here. You might have a pretty good list and that might suffice for now. If you want to move forward and do more research, continue down through the remaining article! â
DIFFICULT
So, this step might be more difficult if you arenât too techy or just canât sneak in some more time. And, you can certainly be set with the Keyword list you already have with your Brainstorming Session and your Search Engine Research (Two Steps Above). But, if you want to look more in depth at what you competition is using and what is going on in your industry, youâll want to explore other Realtorâs Websites. Here are the steps to try this out:
In Firefox you can get there by clicking Tools > Web Developer > Page Source
Now you will see a whole bunch of code in a new window. This is the behind the scenes code that runs this website. Kind of fun just to see this. These are the workings of what makes websites work! Did you ever think youâd ever see this?! Who even knew this existed, right?!
So From here you want to try and find the keywords that this website is using. Youâre going to look for these words first: <TITLE> <META NAME=âDESCRIPTIONâ CONTENT=â...â> <META NAME=âKEYWORDSâ CONTENT=â...â> â When you locate these, note the Keywords that are in this row of words. Now, on that note, these are the technical instructions to find these Keywords and Phrases. I find, if you just start looking around in the top section of the code, you are going to get a good idea of what their Keywords and Phrases are, without really focusing on Title and Meta Names. I did clip an example for you from Realtor.comâs website for you to see what that looks like. I did squish up the browser page so it made the image smaller: 
So, you can see the above, this is a Keyword phrase that Realtor.com uses for their Tampa, Fl site. Now, you can also scroll down through the code page and see a lot of the other text they are including on their page that are in their Keyword List.
â Take note of these words and add them to your list. If they donât really fit into your business feel free to leave them out. For exampleâŚ. Realtor.com might include a lot of different city names in their list. But, you shouldnât need to fill in a list with all of those. âThe picture alone, without the written word,
MORE DIFFICULT
Now, it can get much more Difficult from here. You can sign up for Google Ads and start using their Ad Keyword Searches to get more detailed into what people are searching for. This type of search can drill down to other keywords that can be more refined for your business and service. You can visit other Keyword Tools like: The Bing Webmaster Tools, SERPs.com, UberSuggest.â But, I think youâll be good with the list youâve come up with from the 2 or 3 easier steps at the beginning for great Real Estate Business Keywords in your market. And, this is your Keyword List. You can easily start with the first couple of steps and build on it as you have time. â STORAGE You can easily just toss these words in a nice Spreadsheet for easy reference. Maybe keep them in a list on your phone for easy posting reference, too. WHAT TO USE KEYWORDS FOR? And, what do you use these words for anyway? Keywords are the words you will use to structure your marketing content around. These are the words and topics you will write about, post about, include in your marketing promotion. We will go more into this in the future. Because you went to the trouble of making the list, now you want to use the list!! AND, IF YOU NEED HELP! If you are ready to get started but really just donât have the time, or your ready to get started but canât figure out this confusing social media messy stuff - reach out to me! Iâm super delighted to help you out! I can get your pages started for you and let you run the rest or I can help you from start through engagement! Please, reach out and say hi! You can message me on Facebook or Iâm around the other Social Media Hangouts, too! FOLLOW VOIYOO & JENN OUT AND AROUND SOCIAL MEDIA! â Facebook ⢠Twitter ⢠Instagram ⢠LinkedIn ⢠AboutMe ⢠YouTube ⢠Pinterest
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Voiyoo
Online Digital &
Social Media Marketing 
Hi! I'm Jennifer Ressmann with
Voiyoo Digital Marketing. You've been thinking about how to get more exposure for your business! Now we can make that happen. My job is helping you... The Home Service Professional with your business marketing & brand awareness. People are looking for Plumbers, Carpenters, Electricians, HVAC Techs, House Painters and Cleaners on Social Media. Make sure you're out there! Social & Digital Marketing: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Blogging, Newsletters, Email and Blog Content Marketing. Consulting and Instruction. Let's make sure you're out there and getting noticed! 😀👍 
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