Small Town Business Spotlight: All American Fuel
All American Fuel is a small, family owned, home heating oil business based in my hometown of Feasterville, Pennsylvania. Coincidentally, I’ve been working for All American Fuel since I was 17 years old. I’ve grown very close to the owner of the company, Greg since I started way back in 2013.
Up until recently, word of mouth has been the primary way of reaching new customers all over the local area. Friends of friends, family members, and local members of the community have all spread the word about our business. Word of mouth has been amazing for our company, but as there is always room for improvement.
Greg has tasked me with the task of growing our companies Facebook page to try and reach a broader audience of customers in our servicing area. There’s a few things I believe would be small, but effective practices that we can utilize that would help accomplish our goal of extending our reach to new potential customers.
As you can see, our page has a very small amount of followers. The first thing I would like to do to improve our social media strategy on Facebook, is to expand our potential reach. To do this, I would begin by inviting more “friends of friends” to “Like” our page.
For a small business like All American, the numbers aren’t going to grow to be insanely high. Even a reach to another 100 new customers or home owners could do a lot for business in terms of potential new delivery addresses. Most of our customers are homeowners, renters, or business owners between the ages of 25 and 75, that have homes that are heated by oil.
Unfortunately, since not every single one of the neighborhoods/areas we serve are ALL heated by oil (some are electric or gas heat), we have to be more broad in the way that we advertise what areas we serve. Thats why we rely so heavy on word of mouth advertising. BUT Facebook is a quicker, more efficient, and timely way to get people physically on our page and looking at the information they need in order to get in contact with our office. For our particular target market, Facebook seems to be the social media channel that our customers use the most- so it makes the most sense to focus on this channel as opposed to another such as Instagram.
The second thing I would like to implement is a consistent posting schedule. In the office, there is 3 Receptionists, as well as the owner Greg, who runs the business out of his home office. My idea would be to post 3 times a day once we get our account up to over 200 “Likes”. Below, is an example of what I would ideally have office staff post at 8 AM when we open, 12 Noon when our customers typically take their lunch breaks from work, and 4 PM when our office closes for the day.
With a consistent posting schedule, our staff can engage more quickly with customers if problems were to arise.We want to be fast, efficient, and to the point, but also show that we truly care about our customer base because we are providing a service to their homes, one of the most important things you can have in this world!
Being consistent, but also understanding the publics and customers in which you serve, is an integral part of any brands social media strategy. For small businesses like All American, it’s best to just be consistent with posting, and start small. One small change in your social media strategy can make a huge difference in your customer base.
