The document discusses the use of social media in the rental industry. It provides examples from Omeco spa, an Italian rental company, on how they use different social media platforms like Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and opt not to use Facebook. They find Twitter most useful for sharing photos and information about new equipment. YouTube is used to create instructional videos and time-lapse videos of equipment that gain thousands of views. LinkedIn is important for developing trust and showing business connections. While social media is a strategy, other online efforts like search engine marketing, email marketing, and website quality are also critical. Analytics should measure the impact of all marketing actions.
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Social media in the rental industry
1. Socialmedia
In the rental industry (and not only)
Gian Luca Benci
ASSODIMI
ERA Convention 2013, Whats on today?, Paris 15-16 May
9. 09www.erarental.org
ERA Convention 2013 Social media in the rental industry
capabilities
experience
timescales and
deadlines
effects on core
activities,
distraction
market
development
new markets
niche target
markets
competitors
intentions
new
technologies
12. 013www.erarental.org
ERA Convention 2013 Social media in the rental industry
Twitter is the tool we use the most. I
tweet a photo or take videos from our
youtube channel for every new piece of
equipment which arrives.
Tweets are immediate and dont cost
anything and in a matter of seconds
you reach your followers.
And its easy to search for the
equipment, as long as I include its
name in the tweet.
Paolo Napoleoni
Used Equipment
Responsible
& Social Media Manager
at Omeco spa
13. 014www.erarental.org
ERA Convention 2013 Social media in the rental industry
Sometimes we tweet photos of us at
work to show what we are capable of.
Twitter is a great source of
information. You can find out all the
news and information about a trade
fair without necessarily having to go to
it
Paolo Napoleoni
Used Equipment
Responsible
& Social Media Manager
at Omeco spa
14. 015www.erarental.org
ERA Convention 2013 Social media in the rental industry
We use time-lapse photography and
videos on youtube to show the
characteristics of our equipment.
One of our videos has been seen
1,202,958 times!
Paolo Napoleoni
Used Equipment
Responsible
& Social Media Manager
at Omeco spa
15. 016www.erarental.org
ERA Convention 2013 Social media in the rental industry
Linkedin was the first social network
we used. Its important to develop
trust by allowing people to see your
business network, people you know in
common and feedback from others.
Paolo Napoleoni
Used Equipment
Responsible
& Social Media Manager
at Omeco spa
16. 017www.erarental.org
ERA Convention 2013 Social media in the rental industry
We deliberately decided not to use
facebook because we think it is a
waste of time for our business as it
would be quite low profile.
Paolo Napoleoni
Used Equipment
Responsible
& Social Media Manager
at Omeco spa
17. Abbiamo scelto di non utilizzare
facebook: 竪 vero che 竪 il social network
pi湛 diffuso,a lo riteniamo di basso
profilo per il nostro business e
temiamo che per noi significhi solo una
perdita di tempo.
Paolo Napoleoni
Used Equipment
Responsible
& Social Media Manager
at Omeco spa
We preferred to invest in this logo in our
yard so that people who look for us using
google maps know exactly where we are.
19. 020www.erarental.org
ERA Convention 2013 Social media in the rental industry
Outsourcing in social media: not too good
Social media is only one of the possible strategies:
remember search engine marketing, email marketing,
and of course the quality of the website.
They are must be requirements
20. 021www.erarental.org
ERA Convention 2013 Social media in the rental industry
Outsourcing in social media: not too good
Social media is only one of the possible strategies:
remember search engine marketing, email marketing,
and of course the quality of the website.
They are must be requirements
Analytics: measure every marketing action
#2: Good morning ImGian Luca Benci, Responsible for External Affairs at Assodimi, the italian association of equipment distributors and rental companies.In my professional life Im the managing director of ALIAS, a web agency located in Italy. We have been working with Assodimi and rental companies for over 12 years
#3: Are social media a fad? Or are they a revolution? Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle. Lets see some figures however, through this interesting video that you can find on youtube and that is regularly updated.
#5: Besides figures there is a sentence I like in this video (repeat sentence with ENTHUSIASM)In order to do our best with social media we should:Choose some tactical and strategic objectives; Understand what our strenghts and weaknesses (in relation to social media) are with an internal analysis; and what the thrEats and opportunities (always concerning social media) are with an external environment analysis
#6: Lets start from objectives:These are examples. Usually Iteasier to start from tactical ones.The first objective is the most usual. As far as the second is concerned, we should remember that social media are not only important as content that we have to fill but also as tools for listening to the market.The last objective is not related to marketing: in fact social media strategies are not only related to marketing.Social media are about conversations. So they are important in internal relationships too, and in staff recruitment
#7: This Is the evolution from tactics to strategy. Some KPI as number of followers or email subscribers should be accompanied by the control of the quality of these figures. If you outsource some social media to an agency, and the agency is paid according to the number of followers, it could be tempted to buy low quality followers.The magic word is engagement. Its not important to have a large number of fans, or followers. What IS important, is the number of people engaged, how many people are sharing YOUR content, what the click and conversion rate of your direct email marketing is.
#8: The final strategic objective should be related to the grow and to the the profitability of the company. One of the big issues is to measure the social media ROI.
#9: You can find it useful to use the SWOT analysis in social media strategy. The SWOT analysis takes the external and the internal environment (internal referred to the company) into consideration, together with what could be helpful and harmful to achieve the objectives.Crossing the 2 factors you can define your strengths, your weaknesses, the opportunity given by the market and the threats.
#10: a typical weakness concerning social media in my experience is the time you need to spend in this activity in order to get a good result.Social media actvity also opens interesting opportunities in terms of market development and niche target markets. Lets think about a generalist rental company: social media can help expand the niche of the B to C market, reaching more private customers
#11: And finally, we have to consider the channels: the actual tools. The suggestion is to choose few and concentrate our EFforts on them. This should be done considering the objectives and our SWOT analysis. Not all social media are similar. The general characteristic is that they have user generated content. From this content, conversation (and relationships) develop. There are some social media which specialise in networking, others in publishing, others in content sharing and others still in discussing.
#13: Now I would like to show you a case history on how social media have been implemented in a small italian family run company. Omeco Is located in Rome and specializes in the rental and sale of used equipment in the earth moving sector.
#14: Twitter is the social media which omeco uses the most. Paolo Napoleoni, co-owner and social media manager at Omecotweets a photo or takes videos from theiyoutube channel for every new piece of equipment which arrives.The biggest quality of twitter is its rapidity and the fact that you can search for information in the tweets easily.
#15: Twitter is also a great source of information, Napoleoni says. For example, if you are interested in a fair, but you cant go to it, you can follow the official voice of the fair on twitter, and also what people attending the event are saying (or better, are twitting)
#16: Youtube is frequently used by omeco because videos are researched by users inn order to see how a machine works and also because videos are sometimes shared between users.This virality is a free advertisment for the company. For example one video uploaded by omeco has been seen more than 1 milliion times.Omeco also uses the technique of time lapse, a series of images run in a few seconds, to show for example how a piece of equipment can be partially disassembled and then loaded. It is very important that videos on Youtube are short because people these days are used to having information at their fingertips and they do not have time to wait to receive the information!
#17: Social media can be used in order to increase the trust that a potential customer may have in you. Internet makes the business more impersonal and less direct: you need to show not only what your professional background is but also your network and the feedback you have received from others. This can be done thanks to LinkedIN
#18: Facebook is the most used social network but Paolo Napoleoni decided not to use it because Omeco is in the BtoB market while Facebook gives its best in the BtoC market.Paolo Napoleoni considers facebook a low profile sm and I agree with him if we focus in the BtoB industry
#19: If you search for omeco through a satelite view, like Google Maps, you find the company easily because they have drawn their logo (actuattly their web address) in their yard.I think its a very intelligent form of marketing as many people search for the location of a company through Google maps
#20: These are my conclusions and suggestions for the use of social media in general.First: outsourcing in social media is not a great idea. If you choose to delegate an agency you can only do branding and your presence could be felt as cold by the users, because the agency is not at the heart of your company.
#21: Social media must come AFTER or at least TOGETHER with a general web strategy. Search engine marketing or an easy to use website are core requirements that we should not forget. These also affect the results we may achieve with social media.
#22: And finally, the ROI.Internet in general has this characteristic: you can (and you should) measure everything.So, choose the methods of collecting data, choose the metrics, the Key Performance Indexes and of course, your goals. And choose the social media which is most suitable for achieving your goals.