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Are you constantly being told how important Facebook is to small businesses (like yours), but have NO IDEA what to do about it?
Meet Richard Lin of ShowCar Detailing of Orange, County CA. His Facebook page has one of the largest, most loyal followers among the 1000s of detailers promoting themselves on the 800,000,000 member community. Most importantly, these aren’t price shoppers or tire kickers. They’re passionate and well educated car lovers who pay Richard WELL for his work.
Applied Colors asked him if he’d share tips for other automotive reconditioners, and Richard was generous with his advice:
How did you grow your audience to over 1000?
Richard: ”I am an active sponsor on a number of detailing and car enthusiast forums. I put in my signature on those forums to
visit us on FaceBook which helps. When we got the Fisker account, our fans grew 100+ within days, so having high profile accounts certainly helps. Most of our business is from word of mouth and FaceBook enables us to “share” our work across a large number of communities. We don’t use marketing gimmicks or encourage people to “like us” as we would rather have a fan base consisting of people that are truly interested in our work instead of people hoping to get something for free from us.”
What’s your strategy for keeping your FB page fresh, and how much time do you put in weekly?
Richard: ”I am on FaceBook every day. I receive updates via email and text. I make it a point to keep my fans updated about what’s in the shop and what challenges we face and most importantly, how we solve them. People enjoy seeing the Before and After pictures. We document everything we do with pictures and videos. Knowing how to take good pictures that clearly show the steps is important in winning the viewers confidence that we’re not trying to trick them into seeing something. We don’t process or retouch our photos. We do watermark them however for protection. We also like to talk actively engage our fans by sharing with them some of the crazy phone calls and emails we get. We find this helps educate them about what NOT to do when talking with us.”
What’s been the result of your FB effort? More referrals? More details per customer?
Richard: ”FB lets us stay in touch with our fan base and results in new customers weekly. It lets us reach out to the “local customers” more effectively and immediately. In short, FB is a tool that in combination with other online services like Yelp, helps substantiate our credibility.”
Any other tips for car reconditioners looking to use FB?
Richard: ”Take pictures of everything, challenge yourself, keep notes of your jobs. Respect your clients privacy and blur license plates. Also watermark images to prevent reuse from your competition. Always try to be better and do the best work possible. Engage the fan base and check the FB Insights often to better understand what they find the most interesting. Many new customers will message us through FB, so make sure you have FB Messenger on your phone. Share your work on related FB pages. We share our detailing work on the manufacturer FB pages for the products we use. Make sure to update your FB page daily!”
Learn from Richard. Follow him on Facebook.
Check out Richard’s Facebook page here. ”Like” the page and see why his customers remember and stay loyal to his detailing company.
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Are you constantly being told how important Facebook is to small businesses (like yours), but have NO IDEA what to do about it?
Meet Richard Lin of ShowCar Detailing of Orange, County CA. His Facebook page has one of the largest, most loyal followers among the 1000s of detailers promoting themselves on the 800,000,000 member community. Most importantly, these aren’t price shoppers or tire kickers. They’re passionate and well educated car lovers who pay Richard WELL for his work.
Applied Colors asked him if he’d share tips for other automotive reconditioners, and Richard was generous with his advice:
How did you grow your audience to over 1000?
Richard: ”I am an active sponsor on a number of detailing and car enthusiast forums. I put in my signature on those forums to
visit us on FaceBook which helps. When we got the Fisker account, our fans grew 100+ within days, so having high profile accounts certainly helps. Most of our business is from word of mouth and FaceBook enables us to “share” our work across a large number of communities. We don’t use marketing gimmicks or encourage people to “like us” as we would rather have a fan base consisting of people that are truly interested in our work instead of people hoping to get something for free from us.”
What’s your strategy for keeping your FB page fresh, and how much time do you put in weekly?
Richard: ”I am on FaceBook every day. I receive updates via email and text. I make it a point to keep my fans updated about what’s in the shop and what challenges we face and most importantly, how we solve them. People enjoy seeing the Before and After pictures. We document everything we do with pictures and videos. Knowing how to take good pictures that clearly show the steps is important in winning the viewers confidence that we’re not trying to trick them into seeing something. We don’t process or retouch our photos. We do watermark them however for protection. We also like to talk actively engage our fans by sharing with them some of the crazy phone calls and emails we get. We find this helps educate them about what NOT to do when talking with us.”
What’s been the result of your FB effort? More referrals? More details per customer?
Richard: ”FB lets us stay in touch with our fan base and results in new customers weekly. It lets us reach out to the “local customers” more effectively and immediately. In short, FB is a tool that in combination with other online services like Yelp, helps substantiate our credibility.”
Any other tips for car reconditioners looking to use FB?
Richard: ”Take pictures of everything, challenge yourself, keep notes of your jobs. Respect your clients privacy and blur license plates. Also watermark images to prevent reuse from your competition. Always try to be better and do the best work possible. Engage the fan base and check the FB Insights often to better understand what they find the most interesting. Many new customers will message us through FB, so make sure you have FB Messenger on your phone. Share your work on related FB pages. We share our detailing work on the manufacturer FB pages for the products we use. Make sure to update your FB page daily!”
Learn from Richard. Follow him on Facebook.
Check out Richard’s Facebook page here. ”Like” the page and see why his customers remember and stay loyal to his detailing company.