Website or facebook

[edwards]

i think most important thing is website than facebook.You show some of your sample work as portfolio and then promote your site on social networking site like facebook or twitter you will feel difference and change.By using social network you will get direct interact with your customers and other people so you will see positive change

[Blurock]

I still have to meet the engineer or professional that will browse on Facebook to buy products. Facebook is kids stuff, meant for people who suffer from either "I miss my friends" or "look at me now" disorder. Serious business is not done on Facebook or twitter.

[wynn]

"I miss my friends" or "look at me now" disorder.

You forgot FOMO (fear of missing out)

[HR Solutions]

Yes you are right in some aspects about Facebook. We have also found that FB does not produce quality candidates. The only time FB is pretty good (for us) is if we need people to do market research for a company for example. We have quite a lot of this where the Market research needs people to do mystery shopping for example whereby they wear a camera etc and go into five banks to apply for a loan. Then it does not matter who the people are, if they have a bad credit rating or not - they are purely doing the research for the banks head office to see how they bank employee treats the client.

[Blurock]

You forgot FOMO (fear of missing out)

Yes, that is the scientific name.

[Wiz]

Nothing beats your own website, its a must for every business owner and later on you can get a facebook page as well. Try to do offline marketing as well as its a bit localized.

[bjsteyn]

Website OR face Book, think rather website and face book.

Facebook and your website should go hand in hand. You should have a like button on website that links to your facebook page and your facebook page should link to your website. You want to grow your presence on facebook, becuase that is were most people chill online in there busy life if they get a moment free. Even during working hours :-)

So how can you make this work to get more business because like @Blurock said, you will look locally or by recommendation in most cases. You give your website a local and personal feeling because your relationship with your electrician is more personal (like your accountant). Like Neville, that is helpfull with accounting stuff on the forum so you can be helpfull with electrical stuff. If you follow @Dave advise and have wordpress site with blog posts on basic eletrical things you can do yourself or interesting electrical stuff. Have that update on your facebook page and all your followers will see you latest posts and start reading your articles if they find it interesting. Add a facebook share button to each blog post so people can share it on facebook. Then mabe start a newsletter where people can subscribe on your website. One of you followers might not now an electrician and one day have a problem and is in your town and give you a call. That again can lead to referrals.

Nothing is for certain with marketing, it is to find the balance, and research your results from previous marketing attempts until you know how to allocate your time and money to the different marketing aspects, to have your marketing time and money work at its top efficiency for acquiring you business. The only way you will you will find your best ROI is by trying everything you can and tracking and anilysing the results.

The reason interenet marketing is so popular is that the internet never sleeps and it can work for you when you are not working. But you have to be more clever than all your competitors in your niche.

As for your website not working for you, mabe you should try chaniging a few things. First off, your domain name you are using should be keyword optimized for google, especially as you are offering a proffesional service, were people are not really worried about your business name. Eg. Your business name is Hotwire Eletricals so you register the domain name www.hotwireelectricals.co.za . This domain will be easy for your existing customers to remember and is your business name so its makes sense. But does it in fact? As your main perpouse from the website is to acquire new business and existing customers are not really going to visit your website.

I would use something like www.hire-an-electrician-east-london.co.za if i was an electrician in east london trying to get work from google. Two reason, one is that is probably the words someone is going to type in google when they are looking for an electrician and you will probably be first on google within a short period of time. Secondly it contains the money keywords. It contains an action keyword. The person googling is already in the mind frame to hire.

Compaired to someone typing in "get a quote electrician" in google. That means the person is looking for the best bargain and is shopping around. Probably not the person you want landing on your website unless you are the cheapest :-)

Just do a bit of brainstorming and come up with intuitive idees. Put a input box on your landing page, where people can send them selfs your number via sms, using webservices, for future references. Have a knock out landing page and they will take your number. They might not need an electrician now, but might later and will not return to your website to look for you unless there was something spectacular on there that they would remember it. Just an example.

Get a white board, right down idees, think about them, scratch them out, come up with new idees, do pros and cons , select your best idees and put them to action in creating your online presence.

Just my 2cents.

[workshop]

I would use something like www.hire-an-electrician-east-london.co.za if i was an electrician in east london trying to get work from google. Two reason, one is that is probably the words someone is going to type in google when they are looking for an electrician and you will probably be first on google within a short period of time. Secondly it contains the money keywords. It contains an action keyword. The person googling is already in the mind frame to hire.

Build a cluster of web sites around your business. Sites on which you list your competitors and on which you can sell them advertising. Another is to build a resource for the Eastern Cape where you recommend two or three preferred service providers in each area. Build sites where you list and advertise businesses that use your services and who you want to build a relationship with. Build sites and list other businesses who can refer clients to you. And before you know it you will be out of a job, sitting on the beach with a laptop and staring into the distance.

[Blurock]

Does facebook really sell your products, or is it a place where grumpies and people with nothing better to do hang out to complain and talk s#!t?

FB may create an awareness. Such as a retail store announcing a new special or product to which customers reply and comment. I doubt however that even one sale is made because of FB.

Social media is social, it solicits attention and comments, but it is not business.

[HR Solutions]

Does facebook really sell your products, or is it a place where grumpies and people with nothing better to do hang out to complain and talk s#!t?

FB may create an awareness. Such as a retail store announcing a new special or product to which customers reply and comment. I doubt however that even one sale is made because of FB.

Social media is social, it solicits attention and comments, but it is not business.

It does work for specific applications. As I said before, we are affiliated to a Market Research Company that also does Secret shopping. They are extremely busy and their biggest problem is finding people to do the "shopping" . They find them quickly and easy on FB, therefore for them it is working. All they need for example is any Joe Soap to walk into a bank for example and apply for a loan, monitor and record the service they get and report back. For that you get paid up to R700 for 20 minutes work !

[Blurock]

It does work for specific applications. As I said before, we are affiliated to a Market Research Company that also does Secret shopping. They are extremely busy and their biggest problem is finding people to do the "shopping" . They find them quickly and easy on FB, therefore for them it is working. All they need for example is any Joe Soap to walk into a bank for example and apply for a loan, monitor and record the service they get and report back. For that you get paid up to R700 for 20 minutes work !

I also do mystery shopping for 2 institutions. It can be quite rewarding, such as when you get to assess a 5 star hotel and stay over for the weekend!

[HR Solutions]

I also do mystery shopping for 2 institutions. It can be quite rewarding, such as when you get to assess a 5 star hotel and stay over for the weekend!

Yes it is quite awesome. And you even get paid to do it. I've done a few of those as well.

[wynn]

where do I sign up? I'll mystery shop in East London if they want.

[HR Solutions]

wynn send me a pm and I will send you the link.

[eina26]

Website is more effective, definitely. You have to focus more on constructing a website than making a facebook page.