10 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your HVACR Contractor Blog

If we only had to create great content and the rest would happen magically?

We’d get more fans, more followers, more web traffic and more business.

Unfortunately, although creating great content is a necessary first step (which we help you with at SocialTract), you need to do more.

Once you develop a consistent, compelling message through your blog content, there are a number of things you need to be doing to really make that content go to work for you.  Here are 10 things you should be doing right now to integrate your blog posts into the rest of your traditional marketing efforts.

1. Promote the Blog on Your Website.  Make sure there is a link to your blog on your website and, if possible, promote your latest blog posts on the main site.
2. Leverage Your Email Signature.  Include your blog link in your email signature line. Make sure your employees do the same.
3. Blog on Print. Put your blog address on your business cards, direct mail and print advertising.
4. Where Are Your Customers? Yes, you have customers on Twitter and Facebook, but are their certain groups on LinkedIn you should be active in? Are their other regional/local online communities that you should be involved in?  Find out which ones and be sure you have a presence.  Link back to the blog as your main contact point. Also, find key bloggers in your region.  Sign up to their RSS feeds. Read their posts and comment when necessary.  Doing this may be the most valuable thing you do to help people find your blog.
5. Sign Up Your Customers. When you are making house calls, be sure to tell your customers that your company sends helpful tips to customers on saving energy and other home comfort solutions.  If they are interested, get their email address and sign them up. This is a great way to continually send out great content and notices to your customers without selling to them all the time.
6. Fan Yourself. Many business owners forget to tell employees to fan their own sites on Facebook and Follow on Twitter.  Be sure employees know that you’d love if they shared relevant posts with their networks as well.
7. Follow/Fan Your Customers.
8. Follow/Fan your regional influencers like local media outlets, retail outlets and any place that you do business on a regular basis.  This is a great way to show you are active in your local online community.
9. Show Your Human Side. Although much of your content distribution via Twitter and Facebook can be automated, you must show your human side by responding to customers (you know, like a real person would).  This example from SocialTract customer Theo Etzel shows how Theo is actually listening when people are talking about him or his company.
10. Leverage Google Alerts. Google Alerts is a free service that lets you track what people are talking about on the web.  You only need a Gmail address to sign up.  Then when people talk about your company, the products you carry or key terms like “Air Conditioning Cleveland”, you can get an instant notification via email.  This will help tell you who’s talking about what and where, and IF you should get involved in the conversation by commenting.

As we said, your content strategy (your blog) is key to your success in social media, but you have to give it a boost to get the right traction with your online marketing program.

For more on Twitter and Blogging, check out these 10 Twitter Tips for HVAC Contractors.