• Pinterest is where you’ll most likely nd women who are about to become wives or moms, so that’s probably not a good choice either. • Twitter and Tumblr are great for bloggers and inuencers, but probably don’t necessarily t a surveyor’s target market. • You’ll nd pretty much everyone on Facebook, but the younger generation is becoming more scarce. is actually works in your favor. • Looking for some B2B action? Check out LinkedIn. I don’t want to tell you what to do, but as a surveyor, I think your best chances for success are on Facebook and LinkedIn. Step 2 Get signed up, but be consistent Now it’s time to setup your new social accounts. To make it easy for potential clients to nd you, try to setup your social media usernames (or “handles”) to be consistent. For instance, use “bobsmithsurveying” for all of your accounts instead of “smithsurveying” on one and “bobsurveying” on another. If you decided to start a Facebook page for your business, be sure to create your “vanity URL” as soon as Facebook allows you. is is important, otherwise you’ll be stuck with an awkward page URL that consists of a series of random numbers. ey oen require you to get 25 page “likes” before you can choose your vanity URL, so get your friends to like it ASAP. The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 39, No. 2 6 Step 3 Develop a strategy and setup a content pipeline You may already have some content that you could share. Look at the information you already have and decide if it’s something you can reuse. For instance, maybe you can share letters of recommendation or press releases. Do you take photos of the monuments you nd? Share those with a brief message about what it is and why it’s important. ink about some of the common questions you get from clients, then turn them into informative posts. Share photos of client projects and explain how you helped them succeed. Get creative and don’t always try to sell yourself. Find a good mix of client testimonials, project examples, helpful posts and even some funny content once in awhile. Show your prospective clients that you are human. In the social media world, sharing is not stealing. Spend a little time each day to nd content from others that is appropriate to your market and share it. Step 4 Tell people about your new-found social status is isn’t the “Field of Dreams”. You can build it, but they won’t necessarily come looking for you. Place social icons on your website with links to your new social media accounts. Put them on your business cards, email signatures and marketing materials. is step is very important, otherwise you might as well not even bother creating your accounts in the rst place. Step 5 Keep going and don’t give up Seriously. It takes time to get the ball rolling, but not as much as you might think. Spend an hour or two per week posting and sharing. You might even start to enjoy it and make some new friends in the process. Most of all, don’t give up. Abandoned social presences are worse than no presence at all. If your pages get stagnant, you are letting down potential clients. Give them what they are looking for to help build your reputation and your business. As a Professional Land Surveyor for 26 years and a web developer for 16 years, Wendell strives to bring the two professions together. He is the founder of SurveyorConnect, Harness Technology and, most recently, RPLS Today. For other great articles, check out www.rplstoday.com » continued from page 5 » SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SURVEYORS
PLSO Issue 2, 2016 March/April
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