While many small businesses are abandoning Facebook, I'm always intrigued when I see something unexpected happen there for a client. Believe me, unless they're paying to promote posts… I don't set expectations too high. One of my clients is a family-run home services company that's serves throughout the state of Indiana. They've been here for 47 years and have an incredible reputation.
Recently, a hail storm hit a city just out side Indianapolis, called Greensburg. Amos Exteriors has been doing business in Greensburg for decades and the marketing and sales team went out full force to service customers as well as get the word out to neighbors who may have damage to their home's roof or siding. The team told me about the trip and sent a bunch of photos my way. I've never been to Greensburg so I wanted to be sure that we sprinkled any mention of the city with some local information to better build a relationship with the folks there.
When I looked up Greensburg, I was intrigued when I saw it described as the “Tree City”. The trees in question weren't the forests nearby, it's actually trees growing at the very top of the Decatur County Courthouse tower since the 1870s! A little more digging, and I read an article that the trees were actually removed at one time and still grew back. I worked with Jana, their marketing director on crafting a short blog post on the visit… and it blew up!
I have their publication hosted on WordPress and integrated to publish out their social media feeds. So let's recap… a published post on a Facebook page. All the experts will tell you that there's no way a post like that would get any type of traction on Facebook, right? Wrong!
Come to find out, there's a bit of a controversy to do with the trees. Many natives believe the trees were large-tooth aspens, a claim that's supported by the Smithsonian Institution. However, a more recent study by Purdue University foresters has showed that the current tree is a mulberry. A debate on the tree broke out on the Facebook post, engaging over 50 people!
Not all the comments were great – some trolls hit the conversation, too. However, most of the negative remarks were countered by faithful Amos Exteriors customers – making the company look even better! When the post took off, the Sale sand Marketing VP Chris Sheets saw the opportunity and instantly boosted the post. His boost resulted in the 2,500 person reach expanding to another 5,800 Greensburg citizens, with 175 of them clicking back to the site for more information.
Best of all, Amos Exteriors was able to schedule a handful more roof inspections.
Research Drives Results
We research every article we publish on every client's site. Research has impacted our customer's content marketing, search marketing, and social media marketing. Of course, I wanted to drive some local search attention with this post by defining some geographic landmarks, the zip code, and even some cultural works. However, in researching the city I also found a cool little story to share. Add the photo with the smiling team from Amos Exteriors and it's the perfect combination – bringing it all together for folks to discover on Facebook.
Don't abandon Facebook yet… work a little harder on unique content and you'll see the results you want!
