Another Social Media Explosion!

Minnesota

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One of our first blogs was about the Magic of a Tweet, and how one little Tweet had turned into some great connections for one of our advertisers!   This past week, we watched it happen on Facebook with a secondary page of one of our clients, Nick Peters Photography.

Nick is a busy man, raising a family, working at a golf course and a love of photography.  Taking pictures of storms led him to look into storm chasing, so he set up another Facebook page, MN Storm Photos.

The last couple of years he has worked very hard on his Facebook page for Nick Peters Photography and kept people up to date on weather, esp when storms are coming in, on MN Storm Photos.    Now in watching this all happen, I did notice, Nick was better at this then the guys on 4, 5, 9 and 11!   So I when planning golf, or my day, I tend to check on his page if weather might be a factor!

Of course I as well as many noticed how good he is with the camera!  Many of his shots end up on local weather reports!  One amazing shot of Sundown over the NHL Alum Game at TCF Stadium now hangs in a few “offices” at the X.

On Monday, March 6, 2017 we had some weather moving into MN, and tornado warnings started to pop up.  A little early in March, but we are used to weird weather in Minnesota!    I happened to check MN Storm Photos Facebook page to see what Nick had to say.   He had made 4 posts about the storms in a couple of hours, just updating information.   At that time the page had 475 likes and his photography page had just over 700.

Now as I mentioned, Nick has been trying to grow the Photography page, asking for likes, doing a give away, and it was slowly climbing, and for Mn Storm Photos, well as we said, he is busy, and this was his hobby.  So just happy with 475 and not really worried about it.

Around 6:00 pm Tues 3/7/17 Nick sends me a message that his likes on Storms has gone nuts!

I take a look and sure enough, 1800 new likes in 24 hours!   And it keeps going ..and climbing and as of this writing on 3/9/17, it now sits at 4131 likes!!!!!!   At first the thought goes to being hacked, something is not right.   So he posted asking people ..how did you find us.  Well the answer was simply the magic of liking and sharing!   Many of the new fans responded, they saw the page, a friend liked it, a friend shared it etc.   Also, clearly trending due to the storm, Facebook started making it a Suggested Post.  You do not pay for that, that happens when timely subjects in your feed are picked up by Facebook!

Now with the very best results from a Facebook ad set to get new likes, this would have cost over $1000.00.  But the value of these new likes is even higher in Facebook’s mind.  They are organic!

Now of course Nick is parleying this new likes over to his Photography page!

Now you can chalk this up to perfect timing, dumb luck or what ever you want to!   The only thing we know for sure is ….It would not have happened if he did not post that night!   It was timely to what became a big news story!   Will every post do this for you?  NO, but you never know when it will happen.

The best part …It did not cost Nick a thing other then his time!   Social Media is free to use, and while yes you can spend money with it, and maybe should, the important thing is, Social media is worth 10 to 30 minutes a week, You just never know what will happen!

From liking other pages and their posts, to posting on a consistent basis on your page, not only about your business, but using timely events as well, from weather, to sports teams success, to big events in your area!

Please take the time to visit Nicks Pages!  Like and share his stuff.  Hire him to take pictures!

He does great work with the camera, and when he plays weather man, he tends to do better then the ones that are paid to be weather experts!

 

 

How to capture today’s customer???

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The internet has certainly made finding places to stay, eat, golf or explore so much easier.

In a matter of a few key strokes, potential customers are exposed to thousands of business’s looking to serve them.  In a matter of minutes they can take a look at your business, and quickly decide if what you have to offer suits them.  From putting together a golf event, booking a family vacation, a weekend get away, or simply looking for a place to eat!

It is all right here at their fingertips, now how do you capture them?  We will get to that at the end.

I have spent my entire life in Sales, and the old saying of every No gets you closer to a YES also applies to capturing your next customer!   Sales is a life of phone calls, knocking on doors, walking in doors!

You need to think of your potential customers the same way.  Not everyone will book a vacation at your resort, a group outing at your course, or bring in that group of 20 for dinner,  so every call or on line request is just getting you closer to that customer that books.

I have spoken to a few of our courses managers, resort owners and other business’s that are always busy.  I ask them what do they think the biggest reason is for their constant business.  They all have the same answer.  They answer every call when it comes in.  They respond to on line requests immediately even after hours.  Today’s technology has thrown out the 9-5 mentality.

When I asked them why they take that approach, they again all have said the same thing.  The customer will book with the first person they TALK TO up to 80% of the time!!!!!!   The customer already put you on a list to call from looking up things on line and now they want to make the plan!

It all makes perfect sense!  As a consumer, I will gladly hand over my money when a business makes it easy to do so!  I think most people will.   I tend to spend more money when I’m golfing if their is a active beverage cart working the course, or they have a grill set up at the turn.    I tend to book places to stay with the first place that picks up the phone.  I make tee times with the first course that has a time I am looking for.

So the simple answer on how to get and keep customers is answer your phone and on line requests.

It is hard to do, we are all busy, but you never know who is calling.  It could be a golf group, a family that needs 4 cabins, or a couple that will fall in love with your place and come back year after year!

Use Technology to your advantage, not the advantage of the next business they will call.  Call forwarding and Smart phones make it very easy!

 

 

 

The Magic of a Tweet!

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Almost at the Mid Summer point and many exciting things are happening here at www.HotDealsMinnesota.com with the addition of more great advertisers!

Resorts, Bed and Breakfast’s, Golf courses and Home Service companies continue to join the network of

Hot Deals Advertisers.   A few of our new clients have come from social media connections.  It is something we believe in!   You never know who might see your business name on Facebook or Twitter!.

Simply liking and following other business is a easy FREE way to promote yourself!  Sharing their events and networking with other business is a great way to spread the word about your business.

As I said earlier, you never know… Just ask Sara from Sara’s Tipsy Pies!    When Sara first joined HotDeals, we chatted about some of her “dreams”  She hoped to take off in the wedding industry.  She has!  She keeps everyone updated on what she is up to on Facebook and Twitter.   One Day someone shared something on Twitter about Sara and soon she is meeting with Jerry’s Foods!   Now you can find her amazing things in Jerry’s Foods!   And to make the summer a bit funner!  Sara sent in the application to be at the State Fair!  Guess what, she will be there!   Now we are not saying Hotdeals or one tweet from anyone is going make you explode with business, but you never know what might happen, or who will see it!    Use social media to your advantage.  It takes just minutes per day!

Click like and share!  Small Business helping Small Business!