Plumber & Electrician and Google+ & Yelp

It was the best of times, it was the …. no not really. I was just trying to be creative when starting a blog post, by riffing on a Tale of Two Cities. A Tale of Two Tradies or Two Social Networks - not exactly Dickens.

What I am interested in writing about is just the differences I observed when reviewing the web presence of two potential customers. I couldn’t find the plumber in Yelp or the electrician in Google+.

Tradesmen are generally ultra local businesses. Yes they can travel far and wide to serve clients and keep their daily rosters full, but most are much better off if they can work locally. This allows them to keep the travel time down (lowers fuel bill) and lets them see more customers in a day (raises revenue potential). Both good outcomes.

Ultra local businesses are usually well served by having a web presence on Google Maps and in directories that support searches by category and location. Google+ feeds directly into Google Maps and Yelp is one of several directories that provide those search facilities.

Worth noting that both of these services support client reviews (always worth cultivating).

At its simplest, achieving online success is about doing lots of things well. They don’t have to be big things, but well targeted is good. Both of these platforms (Google+ & Yelp) are well targeted and are easy to establish. To do one and ignore the other is limiting your reach. Take a shot at both. You may be surprised by the outcome.