fbpx

3 Simple Social Media Metrics

by | Jan 6, 2020 | Marketing | 0 comments

3 Simple Social Media Metrics

You’ve done it. You’re there. You’ve created accounts for your business on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and have begun cultivating relationships with your followers on each. You feel good – this is what all the experts talk about right? Create accounts, show up, engage with your followers, and you’ll get business from it.


But what happens when your engagement drops off? Or your page likes plateau and suddenly you are staring at the same amount of followers each week? What went wrong?


You are not alone. Many business owners make the mistake of assuming that simply have the social media channel will be good enough. However, the human attention span is fickle, and the demand to ensure content is always changing and dynamic is always there.


The good news is, there are ways to adjust and improve upon your social media accounts to ensure that this does not happen to you. Finding ways to measure your social media metrics will allow you to see what works, what doesn’t work, what completely missed the mark, and what is helping your social media presence grow and thrive.


Check out the measuring metrics below to get started enhancing your social media today!


Track Your Post Likes
On average, how many likes do you get on any given post? Regardless of what the number is, start paying attention to which posts receive more likes and which receive less. Craft your content calendar around which posts seem to do better and focus on those posts for the upcoming month. Your strategy should always include posts that you hope will perform well, too! The more diverse content you can utilize, the more you will be able to tell what your audience strongly reacts too and what falls flat for them.


In my experience, posts that contain employees or celebrate an accomplishment always perform better than technical tree care related posts. Be sure to throw in some humor too – no one wants to look at a feed that is only “This is us. This is us working. This is a service we offer.” When accounts become too robotic, people tend to lose interest.


Measure Your Engagement
Begin by observing what an average month of engagement is like on your account. Track how many comments you receive on each post. At the end of the month, compile your data and discuss what worked and what did not. For the next month, create your posts around the content that did work. Tweak the photos you use or the words you include to see if that makes a difference. And, most importantly, set a goal for your business for the month. Maybe you want to try to have at least one comment on each post; or maybe you want to get to 15 comments total for the month. Whatever it may be, focus your posts on this goal and work towards crafting engagement with your followers.


Review Your Follower Count
Start with your baseline of follower count and then set a goal for the upcoming month of how many more followers you’d like to attract. Brainstorm ideas that will attract more followers. Boosted posts or sponsored ads are a great place to start for attracting more likes. There are specific options you can use to target people specifically for page likes. Use your other social media accounts to attract followers to each of your accounts. If you have a great following on Instagram, but a so-so following on Facebook, post on Instagram letting people know that they can also follow you on Facebook. However, if you do this, make sure you give them a reason to follow you on both platforms – people want to see different content; if you are posting the same things on both, this tactic may not be successful because you are not giving them a reason to follow you on both platforms. Inviting your own friends, or asking an employee to invite their friends, has also proven successful for some businesses (although this is more of a quick fix than a long-term solution). At the end of the month, see which tactic worked best for your business and discuss duplication or changes you could make to enhance the strategy.


To grow your social media presence, it is very important to keep metrics in mind and measure them to gain a better understanding of what types of posts your audience is looking for. The more you take the time to observe what is happening on your account, the better you will understand what works and what does not. Ultimately, the more you pay attention to these measurements, the more your social media presence will thrive.

For help creating a social media strategy, contact the ArboRisk team today!

Written by: Katie Petersen

ArboRisk Year in Review

by | Dec 23, 2019 | Marketing | 0 comments

ArboRisk Year in Review

Wow! What a year for ArboRisk! Thank you to everyone who has made 2019 such a success! From all of our current clients, weekly tip subscribers, internal team members and industry partners, I truly appreciate everything that has been done to help the tree care industry this past year!

Because this is the last weekly tip of the year, I found it only fitting to end by recapping some of the highlights and my favorite moments of 2019.

On the business side of things, ArboRisk saw tremendous growth this past year. We added five extraordinary consultants to the Thrive team starting with Jim Skiera and Katie Petersen in January, followed by Peggy Drescher, Margaret Spencer and Dawn Thierbach in September. Their knowledge and industry experience are unmatched in the tree care and has made such a huge impact on the entire ArboRisk program that we are expanding our services even more. Look for a revised menu of services coming in the beginning of 2020!

Being an active participant in the tree care industry is one of our guiding principles here at ArboRisk and this past year we did just that. Overall, our team attended 13 tree care conferences and gave 10 presentations at those events all across the country. We are officially licensed in 25 states with plans to add a few more in early part of next year and now insure over 250 tree care companies!

While being successful at the office is nice, more importantly the ArboRisk team had a fantastic year personally. 2019 brought four wedding celebrations to our team, with Eric & Katie starting off the ArboRisk wedding season in August, followed by Dawn’s daughter in October, Amanda and her husband, Chris, in November and Ryan and his wife, Jill, in December. Malcolm became the first insurance agent in Wisconsin to earn his CTSP designation! Jim and his wife Colleen moved out to Colorado to be closer to their grandkids. Peggy started her own consulting company and is helping even more arborists get home safe each night. Margaret continues to live her personal passion by teaching first aid and CPR to tree care companies.

As you can see, 2019 was an amazing year here at ArboRisk! Again, I deeply appreciate everyone’s contribution to this wonderful year and look forward with so much excitement and optimism about the coming New Year.

I wish you the very best Happy New Year and an incredible start to 2020!!

Written by: Eric Petersen

Creative Benefits for Employees

by | Dec 16, 2019 | Employee Management | 0 comments

Creative Benefits for Employees

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

I’m often asked, “Eric, what employee benefits should I be offering?”

As the case with almost everything in the insurance world, my answer is “it depends.”

Because the world of employee benefits is so complex, I invited Ernie Pearson of Aflac to have a conversation with me surrounding some of the more common problems that he hears from tree care owners when talking about benefits.

Problem: We are constantly understaffed and have a hard time retaining the good employees we do have.

Solution: In a very competitive hiring market with low unemployment a business needs all the tools that it can to set it apart from its competition. Quite often people are looking for a job opportunity that provides a solid benefits program and positive working environment to one that may offer a little more money.

 

Problem: My business is too small to qualify for group plans and I can’t afford it.

Solution: Most plans only need 3 people to establish a group and many of the plans cost less than $2 per day. Some benefits can also be offered completely voluntarily to the employees with nothing but some minor administrative time as a cost to the business. Plans can also be sold direct without the need for an employer group to be established.

 

Problem: I already offer health care and dental insurance so how can supplemental benefits help my business?

Solution: With rising health care costs and often high out of pocket costs for affordable plans, supplemental benefits offer options to help pay for those expenses with locked in rates. Not only that, it can allow you to scale back to a more affordable plan and provide benefits to pay those deductibles with often a lower cost to the business. Also, these supplemental plans can include a variety of things that aren’t covered under some major medical insurance policies.

 

Problem: One of my biggest concerns is how to keep my workers compensation rate in check.

Solution: Because tree care companies have a high potential for on-the-job injuries, they can benefit greatly from offering short term disability paired with a supplemental accident plan. The short term disability offers employees an option to collect some money in the event of an off-the-job injury without becoming a liability or “Monday morning workers compensation claim” if they come to work hurt. An accident plan will pay for injuries that happen both on and off the job, providing employees quick money in their pocket to help cover those immediate incidental costs that arise.

 

Problem: My employees aren’t interested in benefits, all they want is more money.

Solution: Without properly educating employees on what our benefits can do for them, they almost always want more money today. Tailoring your benefit plans specifically to the needs of each employee, will provide solutions to the gaps in their insurance and still allow them to decline if that’s what they choose. As far as more money goes, statistically speaking, employees only remember a raise for about 24 hours.

 

So get creative when looking at employee benefits as there is no one-size fits all answer for the benefit question! If you have further questions regarding what employee benefits you should be looking, contact an ArboRisk team member today or contact Ernie Pearson directly at 920-858-7505 or [email protected].

Better Relationships = Better Recruiting

by | Dec 10, 2019 | Employee Management | 0 comments

Better Relationships = Better Recruiting

Recruiting new employees to your company is typically one of the hardest parts about owning a tree care company. There are so many creative ideas to recruit new employees that one article can not simply cover them all so I want to just focus on one very powerful way; organizations.

What I mean by organizations, are the membership based groups that are well established and have a mission to help their members. Your local ISA chapter, a military veteran organization, a local chamber of commerce are all examples of established organizations whose goal is to serve their members.

Recruiting within organizations does not happen immediately, but when done correctly, will create a long pipeline of future employees for your company. To be successful, you need to create a positive relationship between your company and the organization. Volunteering your time and talents for the organization is the quickest way to provide value and begin to create a great relationship that will turn into a recruiting hot spot for you.

Now with so many great organizations out there, how do you choose which one to invest in to see the best results? Below are the four areas that you should look at when assessing each organization that you are contemplating working with.

– Members – You need to get a feel of what their membership demographic consists of. How many total members are there? What are the ages of the members? Does the organization know what the positions or titles of their members are? All of these questions will help you understand if your ideal employee is a part of this organization or not.

– Events – The best way to meet a potential new hire is in person. So ask the organizations what they have for events. Are there any Job Fairs or specific hiring events? If so, how many potential employees come to them? How about informal networking events? What about any multi-day conferences?

– Marketing – Learn how the organization communicates with its members. Gain an understanding by simply asking the organization if they send out a newsletter or email blast? Would you be able to write an article within their newsletter so prospective employees begin to see your name? Are there any sponsorship or advertising opportunities that you could engage in? The more your personal name and business name get promoted by the organization, the better reputation and more likely it is that new employees will come to you for their next job.

– Leadership – Understanding who the centers of influence are within each organization is a critical task to choosing which organization to partner with. This isn’t necessarily apparent from looking at an organization’s website, so you’ll have to do some digging to find this out. Is there an Executive Director who is a full time position? If so, get to know them personally. Are there long-standing Board members or very influential members who provide advice and direction for the organization? Who is in charge of the events? Each of these questions will help identify who are the movers and shakers within the organization and are the ones you need to connect with to get in front of more new hires.

Learning about these four areas for each organization will help determine which one you should focus on for recruiting efforts. As you know, a solid recruiting plan takes effort to build deep relationships, so do not try to get involved with too many organizations.

If you would like more help with Hiring & Recruiting for your tree care company, please contact ArboRisk today!

Written by: Eric Petersen

4 Tips to Minimize Credit Card Risk

by | Dec 3, 2019 | Risk Management | 0 comments

4 Tips to Minimize Credit Card Risk

Credit card fraud is everywhere and it’s scary, especially for tree services!

Just this past week, an underground website called Jokers Stash claimed to have 4 million credit card numbers for sale taken from fast food chains and that is just the most recent example.

Because most tree services accept credit cards in some manner, I consulted with Spencer Shimon of Heartland Payment Systems, the nation’s 5th largest payment card processor, to learn how tree care companies can minimize their credit card risk.

The first thing Spencer mentioned was that the lowest risk transaction will always be one that done in person by you or your team; via Swipe, EMV (Chip Card), or Contactless (entering directly into a web portal). When doing this you do not keep any of the information as the service is paid for right away.

If you ever write down credit card information, whether taking the payment over the phone or asking for the payment information online, you are subjecting your company to a much higher risk level, ultimately risking higher processing rates.

That said, Spencer’s four tips to reduce your risk are:

Mobile Card Reader – Get a mobile card reader and encourage your team to take payments out in the field. This way, no credit card information is written down or stored by your company and will help ensure you’re being PCI compliant. If you do have to write the credit card number down, you must shred that document immediately after use. It should also help you get payment faster!
Proper Information – Make sure you get as much information as possible when taking a payment over the phone. If you’re only getting the Card Number, CVV, and Expiration, then you’re missing very important consumer verification information. Always get the Zip Code and billing address to go along with the credit card info to ensure your customer is using their credit card.
Verify – Make sure you have a system that’s designed to catch user errors. Mistakes happen, and people give the wrong information and sometimes enter the wrong information. Understand the credit card processing fees that your business is being charged is based on your level of risk. Catching those mismatches will help in paying less fees over time.
Documentation – Keep good documentation on what services were agreed upon and what is being paid for with the credit card. If your gut tells you that something is fishy about the way the customer wants to pay for the services, ask more questions and get everything in writing. You don’t want to have a customer paying for your services with a stolen card.
If you or anyone on your team is interested in finding out how to make sure you are PCI compliant, or interested in reducing your overall risk for processing credit cards, please reach out to a Thrive member today!.

Spencer Shimon is a Relationship Manager for Heartland Payment Systems, the 5th largest processor in the United States. They deliver credit/debit/prepaid card processing, mobile commerce, e-commerce, marketing solutions, security technology, payroll solutions, and related business solutions and services to more than 400,000 business and educational locations nationwide.

https://www.merchantbillofrights.org/

Written by: Malcolm Jeffris, CTSP