[Adam P]

i know the usual fish will be along soon for their bait but thought i'd say what a fantastic idea this is! maybe after you all get loads of customers from this we should all set up a joint blog so that there is another way customers can completly ignore us!

i guess you all are also following your local builders? your plumbers? painters? your gas man? and find it really interesting to spend your evenings seeing their latest pictures of the wall they painted which has made you decide you want to re-decroate your bathroom?

at least it's only time being spent and no money i guess.

[cozy]

I agree, they all seem to be going the wrong way about it. It's Facebook, not twitter, and twitter is rubbish for this malarky too.
Facebook can bring you custies and money in, but you have to use it properly. A page full of your mates wont get you anything. I've heard that it helps your business get better Google rankings or something. Maybe it does, but the way to use Facebook is to put your Facebook page into a position for potential customers to see it.
You need to post on club walls and such like. Local rugby club, horse riding clubs wall etc etc. Put a quick intro, who you are, what you do, and a link to your page (Hopefully not full of other carpet cleaners) and they join as members or fans, who cares what they are. They see what you do and you are in their lists.

This brings us between 500 to 1200 quids worth of work a month from free advertising.

[derek west]

i know the usual fish will be along soon for their bait but thought i'd say what a fantastic idea this is! maybe after you all get loads of customers from this we should all set up a joint blog so that there is another way customers can completly ignore us!

i guess you all are also following your local builders? your plumbers? painters? your gas man? and find it really interesting to spend your evenings seeing their latest pictures of the wall they painted which has made you decide you want to re-decroate your bathroom?

at least it's only time being spent and no money i guess.

[garyj]

I thought it had already been explained that adding other carpet cleaners is useful just to get your first 25 'likes', when you have 25 likes you can then claim your vanity URL and add other little goodies like a bigger side bar picture.

As it becomes more a business tool with real customers then you can slowly start dropping the other carpet cleaners off.

[garyj]

For instance Simon you could be constantly updating with pics vids of ship cleans and directing custys there rather than website.

You can now run a website within Facebook, it looks like Facebook and acts like Facebook but its actually a separate  website hosted on your own server.

For those that 'liked' The Auranaut page for me ( thanks :-) ) on the right hand side there is a menu which says Auranaut, this is a separate website which is where I am going to sell the new releases and have download links.

[cozy]

So after 25 likes you can call it what you want. What use is that if you don't know what to do to use it to get more work?

If you started with customers in the first place you would be erning from day one. Waiting for a bigger side bar wont be worth anything if nobody looks at your page. Who wants other carpet cleaners to look at their page?
What good is a vanity URL with nowhere to go?

Potential customers wont go looking for your page guys, you have to get in their faces and make them want to look at it. When you post on other sites and pages, you need to advertise with pictures of before and after.Once they are members or fans, don't expect them to read what you post all the time, they wont. They just come back to you if and when they need you. Normally through private messages. Sometimes they will post a question or request for a quote on your wall, b ut mostly through PM's.

You don't open a page and prune it to perfection and wait for it to be a customer magnet. It wont. You have to push it to start with. Later, when you get momentum, then it tends to grow whether you work it hard or soft, if you see what I mean.

[garyj]

I think reading the thread there is a good basis as to what to do. If you're a complete muppet or arsehole then you can sit back and pick holes all day long. No one here is so thick that they think its going to be a customer magnet, you'll have to work at it, maybe as the thread goes on more could be revealed as to how to run it and what to do.

Derek rightly said earlier, its a small piece in a big puzzle.

Every little helps :-P

[cozy]

I'm sorry if I appear to be nit picking or try to shoot down a good idea. I've spoken from my experience of getting regular work from my Facebook pages. I thought that a thread like this was opened for advice and information. If I see people going off track and getting advice that could be explained better, then surely the idea is to chip in and help.
There is a great chance to increase business through something as good as Facebook. I would be happy for any advice that makes my business grow faster or better.

I try to only post on this section when I know what I'm talking about, or most of the time, when I need advice.
Am I in the wrong section or what?

[Neil Williams]

Am I in the wrong section or what?

No, you're in the right section but with some very strong minded people
Unlike window cleaning which has only a couple of variations on how to do it, there are numerous methods of carpet cleaning, and once you're into one method of doing it all other methods are just pants....well that's the way it goes with some

I know little about facebook so to me all I can say is that it looks like you are advertising only to those who already know you and what you do, which defies logic to me, but I guess it brings in a nominal amount of work. It's preaching to the converted.

[cozy]

  I know what you mean, respect to the CC guys.

Yes Neil, that's the problem. You need to advertise to new potential customers and if you invite all your mates from CIU it's wasting time and effort other than you get a vanity URL.

Nathaniel Jones knows how to "Seed" and pick up 500 plus "Likes" within a couple of days. (I think it was Nat anyway). There are tips and tricks to use, but the main point is to use it to get more work surely.

[garyj]

Half right Neil, but the hope is that while you are preaching to the converted you are also getting the message to their friends too.

For each customers that 'likes' you that message gets sent to all their friends, each time they converse with you there friends get to read that message too, that's why it has to be as exciting as possible.

Its slow, but over time it could work, we already hope that when we finish a job our custies will tell their friends and family with a little bit of persuasion they may advertise you on their own Facebook site, something along the lines of

" Had my carpets cleaned today by Willclean, they look like new" etc.

Wherever there are people there is chance to advertise your service and Facebook is a place where a lot of people hang out!  

[cozy]

Yeah, that's great, if you have a few spare years to wait for it to get going I suppose. If I knew someone that can drag 500 or 1000 quid a month every month out of Facebook, I'd ask him to help me do the same.
If someone is doing that and another person isn't, but has great advice about how to do it, who would you listen to?

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

It's good advice Cozy and I'm sure people appreciate it.

Can you go into any more detail as to how you have gone about making it successful for your business ?

[garyj]

I'd sit back, do sod all for 6 months to a year then wish I had done something when my rival is stacked out with work because Facebook has replaced Yell/ Yellow Pages and Google.

It could happen, but what has been pointed out a hundred times on here is if you do nothing, you get nothing. The quick fix doesn't exist. I'll admit its a slow way to build customers but the ones that you can get to add you are almost certainly guaranteed to carry on using you in the future.
It's highly unlikely that one of your customers would 'like' you on Facebook then use another carpet cleaner.  

Cozy, all the advice on this forum is there for you to take or leave, its just another idea to add to your marketing arsenal, I doubt its going to be the be all and end all, hence it being a small part of a large jigsaw.

[cozy]

It's good advice Cozy and I'm sure people appreciate it.

Can you go into any more detail as to how you have gone about making it successful for your business ?

Yes Steve. I'll stick it in word to spell check it first though mate   Will stick it on here tomorrow, I want to get drunk now and moan about the England game.
 

[cozy]

I'd sit back, do sod all for 6 months to a year then wish I had done something when my rival is stacked out with work because Facebook has replaced Yell/ Yellow Pages and Google.

It could happen, but what has been pointed out a hundred times on here is if you do nothing, you get nothing. The quick fix doesn't exist. I'll admit its a slow way to build customers but the ones that you can get to add you are almost certainly guaranteed to carry on using you in the future.
It's highly unlikely that one of your customers would 'like' you on Facebook then use another carpet cleaner.  

Cozy, all the advice on this forum is there for you to take or leave, its just another idea to add to your marketing arsenal, I doubt its going to be the be all and end all, hence it being a small part of a large jigsaw.

Well while you sit there thinking about it, have a look at the amount of traffic on this site mate. 60% of the work comes via private messages as people seem to be shy about posting on the wall.
You may notice, prices are never posted on the wall.
It's all done by PM

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=217388302773

[Steve Barnett (Carpet Care Plus)]

Impressive - that's 100% more enquiries than I've had from facebook !

[Neil Williams]

That's impressive stuff there Cozy but I guess you have North Germany tied up there, do you have any competition from any other British guys?
I'm getting the impression that the British forces there know you are the guy to call which is a bit different to us here who have much more competiton.
Where abouts are you based because I spent numerous years at such delights as Nienburg, Iserlohn, Gutersloh, Larbruch

[Steve Rothwell]

what were you in Neil as Guttersloh and Larbuch were mainly RAF camps I think.

[cannon]

Cozy, I notice yours is a group, I have cannon cleaning as a friend, a group, and today as a business page.

Which one should I promote?? Ive been concentrating on getting people to add cannon cleaning as a friend.