At Vincent’s Heating & Plumbing (VHP), it’s no secret that one of our advantages to navigating the digital marketing gauntlet is using a third-party vendor whose expertise is just what we need. In our case, it happens to be our sister company, Online Access.

Anytime you work with a third-party partner, you have a ready-made ‘network.’ They share experiences, expectations, and goals to set for your online social presence.

I’d love to say that we hand it over to Online Access to do all the work. However, even with constant content creation and posting, it doesn’t mean anything to our local audience without a personal touch.

At VHP, we pride ourselves on being very involved with several local organizations, charities, and sports programs.

We see the most significant interaction and success on our Facebook page. For example, we involve other local groups in contests, or even other cross-promotion efforts, for their causes and events.

It’s Not All About What You Sell

Long ago, we learned that nobody cares about what we sell until they have an emergency. It wasn’t easy to keep people following our company’s Facebook page when all we posted was equipment information and sales promotions.

Some people may see success with these posts. However, in our experience, special offers only brought low-quality leads. We found far more success in building quality relationships and mailing lists through local charity contests and community projects.

By working with local organizations, we changed everything. For example, we created engaging social media over the holidays by participating in our city’s Christmas Lights project in a local park. Businesses were asked to adopt a city park section, deck it out in lights, and create a massive community walk-through display.

We spent some money on lights and worked with our third-party social media vendor to promote the entire event. We posted pictures of our team putting it together. Our part of the light show included a sign in front of the light display that read, ‘Merry Christmas – May the Season Bring You Joy and VHP Bring You Comfort.’

The park itself saw thousands of visitors over the holiday. Our spot was so well decorated that crowds of people used it as a family photo and video backdrop. They posted those pictures and videos on their social feeds.

Social Media SHOULD Reference Your Expertise

No matter what you are promoting through social media channels, it’s always a great idea to include something about what makes you the expert in your field. For VHP, a lot of our expertise lies in our High-Performance approach to HVAC contracting. Because we measure, test, and diagnose systems, it’s always beneficial to mention something about that in your posts.

Do we do this all the time? No. But you should find ways to promote skills, training, and certifications that sets your company apart from competitors.

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