WITH STORIES OF rogue ADIs and driving schools on the rise, it’s important that honest instructors and businesses shout out that they stand out from the fraudulent crowd. Using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, won’t just help spread this message, but it could also open a whole host of promotional opportunities that are free. Outdated views that Twitter is just full of mundane information will not only keep you, but also your business, out in the cold.
It’s not surprising that we all assume social media is full of meaningless nonsense, especially when big celebrities use it to post updates on their pets or attacks on one another. However, the growing number of large corporations and businesses with Twitter accounts highlights its increasing importance in reinforcing a company’s profile. A website alone no longer cuts it as the sole online face of your business. So how can a Twitter or Facebook account be used to promote your reputation? On a very basic level, people can demonstrate how much they value your teaching by simply ‘liking’ your page or favouriting one of your tweets. Any interaction with students and the public will help show anyone
who views your profile a better picture of your personality – whether it’s being well informed,
friendly, committed, funny – or a combination of all of those. So if you congratulate students, share industry information (such as road safety news) and promote your key goals and achievements, not only are you presenting who you are and what you stand for, but you are also providing the opportunity
for others to either support you or state it themselves. Even if someone leaves a negative comment, you can use the opportunity to show how you are dealing with the issue and how you will rectify what went wrong. Demonstrating how you deal with complaints can result in an equally (or even more) positive
reaction.
Your website should be a reflection of your business, but you can use social media to present your personality. With the cost of learning to drive on the increase, concerned parents and eager students will carry out online searches, rather than turning to their abandoned Yellow Pages.
Luckily, most of your younger learners will probably have Twitter and Facebook accounts, so simply ask if they can ‘like’ your page or leave positive comments on their page, suchas congratulating them on their driving lesson that day and complimenting them on how they performed. This simple post will
advertise you to all their friends, who may then check out your profile page. If your Facebook page could do with more ‘likes’, you could incentivise learners to like your page by entering them into a competition to get money off their lesson. The key to using social media is be proactive in engaging your clients: by posting on their pages and mentioning people in tweets, you will draw people
to your social media profiles, which advertises your business for free. Although social media is free, it can prove costly time-wise, as you need to tweet or post regularly – a stagnant page is worse than no page at all. At the same time, it’s important to ensure you have something relevant to say, so only post something interesting, funny or useful to your target market.
Download social media apps to your phone to enable you to send quick messages and updates between lessons – and always respond to comments or messages quickly. Once you have engaged people, keep their interest going, and encourage debate and interaction.
Setting up profiles is easy and quick but if you have any questions on anything from the basics to more advanced digital marketing, feel free to get in touch and we can help you get started and develop your online presence. Oh thats free for our DIA members too!
No comments:
Post a Comment