June 1, 2020 quick update
The
is reporting 6,246,042 confirmed cases, 374,452 deaths and 2,687,848 recovered.
1.8 million US cases and 105,003 deaths with 458,231 recovered as of 3:33pm on June 1.
COVID-19 SPREADING IN THE US IN JANUARY
The US CDC COVID-19 Response Team published findings from a study that indicates that limited community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States may have begun as early as January, based on a variety of disease surveillance data as well as genetic analysis and case investigations. This would place community transmission in the United States weeks earlier than the first identified domestic transmission, reported in late February in California.
US PROTESTS
against racial injustice and police brutality continued over the weekend, drawing crowds in cities across the United States that numbered in the thousands. As we speak, there is a curfew in effect tonight in Washington DC. There have been curfews across the country over the past few days.
The large-scale events have raised concern regarding the
associated risk of increased community transmission
of coronavirus. Mass gatherings, including these protests and recent
celebrations, can create conditions that can facilitate SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and health officials are closely monitoring new cases in order to quickly identify any indication of increasing community transmission. Several media outlets published
for reducing transmission risk during the protests, and there are multiple reports of masks, hand sanitizer, and other materials being
.
June 1 Topic: Instagram Marketing 101 with Alexa, Natalie and Roland
Instagram for home service businesses is largely an untouched marketing platform. What does that mean for you? You have the opportunity to do it and do it right before your competitors. We’re going through the basics of marketing your home service business on Instagram.
Getting Started
Create Your Goals & Objectives
The very first thing you need to do is define your goals and objectives. Ask yourself, “why am I on Instagram?” That’ll give you a good starting point to formalize what you hope to accomplish by being on Instagram. Your goals and objectives will shed light on every other step in the process.
Are you looking for brand awareness or direct bookings?
Setup Your Account & Optimize
Once you’ve defined what your goals are, it’s time to put together your profile. Instagram bios don’t have a lot of settings or forms to fill out. But it’s often the first impression people will have of your brand, so you need to make the most of the space you do have. In this step, we’ll walk you through how to create an engaging bio that compels people to follow.
When building your business profile you are limited to 150 characters
Make sure to let customers know your status of open or closed during COVID-19
Don’t add unique text and keep it simple with emojis
Don’t forget to turn your Instagram account into a Business account so that you can leverage business specific tools and call to actions.
Strategizing
With your profile setup for success, next you need to create a strategy. This will include what type of content you want to publish, a publishing schedule and everything in between. Essentially, you’re going to plan out how you’re going to reach the goals and objectives you set.
Figure out what your goal is, this is really the first step because everything builds from this
WHen you look at your metrics, your feed is a brand or booklet, so don’t get stuck
How many posts per week, when are you going to post, who is going to post?
Will you require your technicians to submit a certain number of photos each week?
Think about a tech takeover where a technician takes over your Instagram account for a day and posts/does a live story
You can do this by giving your technician your login or a safer option would be to use a tool like
or have your technician send you their content in real time and post yourself.
Think about your posts in advance and remember that people like repetition so use scheduling tools to be consistent and assign a theme for each day of the week you post
You want to have 5 categories or themes of posts on your Instagram Feed
Think about your products/services, your community, and partnerships, behind the scenes, before and after photos
Remember that no one wants to engage with deals, they want to engage with other people’s faces
Research & Find Popular Hashtags
Hashtags are a key function on Instagram. Their entire search functionality is built on them. As a result, using the right hashtags in your Instagram captions can give your posts more visibility and organic engagement. However, it’s not as simple as using the first hashtags that come to mind. You need to use hashtags people search for, and analyze which ones are driving the most engagement.
Hashtags are boosting your post for free through their algorithms to people who follow these tags
Shy away from the large generic hashtags like plumbing. You want to use hashtags that have anywhere between 100,000 -1 million followers. If under 100,000 you won’t get any exposure and if over 1 million, the hashtag is too saturated.
To find out how many followers search the hashtag you are thinking of using and you will see how many followers it has
How many hashtags should you use per post?
10 hashtags
Where can you add hashtags?
Comment on your post with “….#xxx#yyy#zzz”
Include hashtags within the post itself
Don’t forget to add a location hashtag
Implement & Analyze
It’s time to put your strategy in motion. Succeeding on Instagram comes down execution. It doesn’t matter how well thought out your strategy is if you’re unable to implement it properly. You also need to analyze what you’re doing and be willing to make adjustments when necessary.
Link your Facebook page and Instagram page
Make sure to post unique content on each platform though, don’t rely solely on double dipping the same content on both platforms
Give your customers a reason to follow you on both
Start Sharing Content
The star of Instagram is visual content. The images and videos you share will mean the difference between growing your brand on the platform or falling short. It’s time to decide what and when you will post.
What do you already have to get started
There are templates for Instagram posts on Canva so use these to create on brand graphics
Engage With Influencers & Your Followers
There are local influencers in your community
Mom groups, little league and local sports teams, PTA groups, chamber of commerce
You want to make sure you cater to them and message them
Build your loyal fan base by leveraging the Instagram algorithm
Create a DM group (engagement pod) with 15 people, ideally local influencers in your community and other home service companies
When one person in the group posts, everyone in that group will then like and comment on that post
Instagram algorithm is looking for quick engagement with posts so that they think it is a trending post and will
Don’t overlook the importance of engaging on Instagram. If you simply post your videos and images and ignore your comments, you risk alienating your audience. Engagement also means interacting with other users by liking and commenting on their content. Focus on building a community rather than just thinking of Instagram as a place to distribute content.
Collaborations and Partnerships
Collaborate with another business where you each post about one another’s business
Do a joint giveaway to get in front of their audience as well as your own
For Father’s Day coming up, think about collaborations within your local community that benefit both organizations
You can find lots of resources online for how to create a contest or giveaway
You can always buy traffic, but building your community is key
Giveaways are investing in your community of followers
Community isn’t built overnight and you have to consistently work on building your community
Boosting Instagram Posts
Work very similar to Facebook Boost Posts
Instagram announced that placing ads before IGTV is coming soon
You can boost your account or a particular post
Monitor Your Progress & Results
You’re putting in a lot of work to grow your Instagram presence. Now you need to monitor your effort to see what’s working. You can track key information like your top posts, audience growth and even do competitor analysis.
There are tools out there to track your Instagram growth
Additional Ways to Engage with Your Audience
Utilize stories for 24 hour offers
Support local stickers
Add this sticker to your stories and this acts as a free boost
For your website, use a
link so that you can track that traffic to your website or directly to your online booking page through a bitly link
Don’t Forget to Join Us Online
Don’t forget to join your regional meetup and learn more about how to navigate this crazy time, with marketing, sales and operations tips.
Network with other professionals in your area and receive a $15 Grub Hub gift card, just for participating. Register today!
Keep Your Industry an Essential Service
We’re making it easy to write to your government representatives and send them a letter urging them to classify your industry as an essential service during this time of uncertainty.
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Legal disclaimer
Housecall Pro is offering the Coronavirus Evening Update for Home Service Businesses for informational purposes only and to foster thoughtful communication and discussion regarding the COVID-19 pandemic; Housecall Pro is not offering advisory services or otherwise advising or representing any members of the group invited to participate. Housecall Pro is not offering legal, medical or other professional advice in the Coronavirus Evening Update and makes no representations or warranties regarding the content of the Coronavirus Evening Update. Participants should obtain independent advice relating to their businesses and their particular circumstances.
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