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Intro (Dan): Hi. Welcome. Itís Dan from Wide Bay Social Media. I recently talked to Luke
Harvey from Ace Tennis in Hervey Bay, Queensland. And I asked Luke all about how has used Facebook
successfully in his business. In this interview, youíll find out why Luke decided to use Facebook
in the first place, in what way itís worked best for him, and how heís harnessed the
power of Facebook ads. So letís go to the interview.
Dan: Can you tell me a little bit about Ace Tennis?
Luke: Yes, weíve had Ace Tennis for a bit over two years now. Its tennis coaching, each
tennis club has like a resident professional, like a golf club sort of thing.
Dan: Yes. Luke: So we run lessons, fixtures, social
days, tournaments, all that sort of thing out of the club. That just sort of gives the
members someone there all the time to get advice off or groups or rackets, someone thatís
sort of in the know. Yeah. And then when it comes to events and stuff, you know, we weíre
qualified to run the tournaments. Dan: Yeah. Cool. So how do you get most, like
before social media, I guess, how did you get your customers?
Luke: A lot of it was through schools. So weíd go and do free days at schools. And
Tennis Australia helps us a fair bit with that. They give us packs, tools, I mean, like
prizes and stuff for the kids, so when we see a class, we can deliver a little tennis
program and then give each kid a prize, and from that, a lot of the kids would then come
back and join the club. But yeah, I mean, it was, you know, newspaper ads, which were
not very good for us. I mean, that has seemed like a massive waste of money. Compared to
doing, you know, some Facebook ads, itís, I mean, they just seem to getÖ We have much
reward than newspaper ads. Dan: Yes. Cool. And so I guess what made you
start a Facebook page orÖ Luke: Well, my wife, Lea she started the page,
and she would update it maybe once every couple of weeks. It was justÖ And I had no interest
in it at all until I was just looking on Facebook, and I would, you know, youíd see other businesses
posting results or events coming up, and I thought, you know, we really should be tapping
into that sort of things. So when I took it over, it was probably six months into our
business. And yeah, itís wider than a website for us anyway.
Dan: Yeah. So what have you actually done on it? Like, tell us what youíve sort of
done. Luke: As far as the Facebook page? I try and
update it, if not everyday, every second day and justÖ I always try and do, try and put
engaging thing on there that relate to our customers, and really just try andÖ Because
Iím on call everyday. I donít get to see every one of our customers that comes into
the test center. Iím often tied up doing a lesson while they're there having a lesson
with another coach, so by having a Facebook page, at least those people can communicate
with me by just sending a message or just interacting through a post on the page. And
yeah, we try and sort of highlight some kids that have done well or doing well or even
give away prizes, something like that just to engage the people there more.
Dan: Yep. Cool. So what effect does that have, like what does itÖ You know, what effect
does that have I guess on your customers and them talking about it and coming in and those
sorts of things? Luke: Yeah. I think itísÖ You know, it sort
of bridges the gap. Just going to get to know each other a little more, even though itís
just through Facebook, butÖ You know, Iíll put a post on, say, last week, and then Iíll
have someone come in this week and start talking about that, and weíve got something in common
then to talk about. So it really bridges the gap between the customer and the service provider.
Yes, I always find that good. And even if you want to promote an event, you know, getting
people excited about the event. Theyíre looking forward to it, and they can see whoís nominated
for the event. You know, before they nominate themselves, they can see who theyíre going
to be up against. Dan: Yes. Cool. And youíd get many, sort
of, I guess, inquiries from brand-new customers or things like that?
Luke: Yeah. Particularly around the times when tennis is on TV, and thatís when we
try and run our ads as well. I'm not sure if you're familiar with tennis, but there's
four Grand Slams through the year? Dan: Yep.
Luke: And they go for for two weeks each. And the one in Australia, it's sort of a month
long season starting at the end of December and goes to the end of January. And in those
periods, we always get customers, and then it's pretty well about maintaining your numbers
until the next Grand Slam. Dan: Yep. Yep. Cool. And so tell us about
the ads, like what do you use them for? Luke: Well, first of all, we're using ads
for things like cardio tennis to try and get it out there and get people in interested
in it. But then, the more I've done of those, the more I found just by promoting the page
is enough. When we promote an event or a particular product, we haven't found all that useful.
It's really more about promoting just the page in general and getting people to like
the page, and then they see those events and products coming up all the time.
Dan: Yep. Cool. And so what sort of, I guess, budget do you allow for ads. Do you spend
much on them orÖ? Luke: I think it all just depends on the time,
and they'd lock the period of time that we're at, like the period of time that we are at,
you know, I think at the Australian Open we were doing about $10 a day, and we just figured
for that month, you know, 30 days, $10 a day itís only $300, and it'sÖ You compare that
out to a newspaper ad in the independent. It was $400 or $500.
Dan: Yes. And what do you get for the $300, like how many people does it see or does it
reach roughly and what sort of effect does it have]?
Luke: I can't remember the exact figures on how many it reaches, but as far as new likes
to the page and maybe new engagements, you know, in the 30 days, it'd probably get maybe
four or five a day. Dan: Yep.
Luke: That's it. I think that's worth it anyway. Dan: Cool.
Luke: And we did another one not long ago. I did aÖ I took a picture of our basket with
all the balls in it, and I did a guessing competition. And I don't know why I did this,
but when IÖ I did an ad at the same time, and I think it kept promoting that post. You
know, it kept not just promoting our page, but it kept promoting that post in people's
newsfeeds, soÖ We had something like 80 comments on one post, which, you know, that's way above
what we normally have. Dan: Yeah.
Luke: So I think combining a competition with a promotion of the page works very well.
Dan: So what advice would you give other businesses, I guess. Like what would you recommend they
do with their own Facebook? Luke: I suppose try and be more, try and be
really engaging to your customers. Obviously, answering their, or recognizing their comments,
I think, is a good thing. Dan: Yep.
Luke: Even if it's just liking their comment or what or if you want to reply to it. That
just show that you're there monitoring it, and you're interested in what they're saying
as well. Yeah, and try and run ads around times that you think your business would benefit
from it. You know, in our case, around the seasons of tennis. I suppose, you know, say
if it was a landscaping thing, I don't know, maybe running just on the weekends or something.
I don't know. Dan: Yep. And what do you mean by engagement?
Luke: I treat engagement as people liking your posts and sharing your posts.
Dan: How much time do you spend on it, do you reckon? Does it take much time?
Luke: No time at all, like if I'm at the courts, and say you see a cool rainbow or something
come over, it's a matter of pulling your phone out, taking a photo, and then loading it up
when you get home. Just 30 seconds it takes to load it up.
Dan: Yep. Yep. And do you recommend it for other businesses then, I guess, to use Facebook?
Luke: Oh, definitely. Like I said, for us, it's overtaken the need for a website much
more than aÖ Like the Facebook is way more important to us than a website. It's reached
many more customers, I think, for tennis than our website has anyway. And, I mean, it's
so much easier to keep updated as well than a real website.
Dan: Cool. Yeah. Well, thanks, Luke. Outro (Dan): Thanks for listening. For more
great case studies and heaps of free resources on how to use social media successfully in
your business, head to our website, widebaysocialmedia.com.au.