Landscape Management, October 2012

BUSINESSPLANNER2013 continued from page 84 QUIck tIP be as easy as connecting the dots to bring a proven solution from another industry or community to your own Ideally your value should be published on a stand alone blog on a domain you own or a subdomain of your primary website Make this hub the source for the high quality evergreen content you share to the respective social media channels such as Facebook Twitter LinkedIn and Google and whenever possible customize the sharing for the characteristics of each channel Engage the community The reason for creating and sharing interesting useful and valuable information is to spark online conversations by giving your audience something to discuss This engages your business with its customers and the friends they infuence Social engagement is the result of numerous activities including listening asking good questions and offering suggestions and other types of assistance When these actions are combined with the value your business provides the natural result is engagement in the form of likes shares and comments that serve to build your online communities As a leading business in the Green Industry your customers look to you to be current with trends and developments so its essential for you to set alerts and notifcations to monitor leading publications blogs and news sources This can be accomplished through email but using a news reader such as Google Reader is more effcient As you curate and share news add your perspective to clarify and personalize it for your community This is invaluable for encouraging engagement Also ask good questions ones that have no right or wrong answer that respect the community Here are a few from the Facebook page of Sublime Garden Design one that attracts a lot of engagement Is this a garden or a landscape Wouldnt you love to have a cozy hideout like this in your backyard What do you think of this rustic arbor Finally because social media is virtual and devoid of human qualities its vital your content sharing is accompanied by a photo video or quotation to connect with people emotionally TRANSFORM YOUR WORKDAY AND YOUR BOTTOM LINE Through revolutionary design and engineering the patented and patent pending T3000i will dramatically increase your productivity and profi tability Step on and grab the steering wheel for simple intuitive driving The ride is smooth and steady especially on hills and rough terrain Move effortlessly from residential properties with 36 gates to commercial properties improving route effi ciency Easily match your spread and spray widths and capacities for unprecedented control And the best spray in the industry is now driven by a new longer lasting pump Whether you operate one machine or an entire fl eet the T3000i simplifi es route management so you can maximize your profi t NOW WITH HANDS FREE SPEED CONTROL WWW TURFCO COM See the T3000i in action call 800 679 8201 for a demo or DVD LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET OCTOBER 2012 86 A simple formula for earning your customers trust and building a process to better understand and serve them is to provide value engage the community and facilitate the conversation