Ruben Ruiz (far right) introduced TapSnap to his financial planning associates in front of this background of the Alamo.Ruben and Richard Ruiz are the first TapSnap franchisees to earn over 1,000 likes on Facebook. What is even more impressive is that they reached that magic number in less than six months of being in business.
How did they do it? There was no big campaign, just social networking consistently well done.
They already had a lot of friends, and they skillfully leveraged their personal Facebook friends to their TapSnap business page (TapSnap 1039).
Here’s how they cracked the 1,000-like barrier
1) Have a lot of friends on your personal Facebook page
This father and son team, based in San Marcos, Texas, are both big Facebook users.
Richard has over 1,500 Facebook friends, and his dad Ruben has over 500. These numbers gave them a distinct advantage when they launched their TapSnap franchise. “With that and all the events we are going to, our Facebook likes just grew steadily,” says Richard.
2) Place a link to your TapSnap business page on your personal Facebook page
Richard placed a prominent link to his TapSnap business page on his personal page so everyone knows that he started a TapSnap business, as well as mentioning his TapSnap business sporadically on his Facebook updates.
3) Make friends who have a lot of friends
In social media terms these people are called influencers. Having even just one person with a large sphere of influence can make a big difference if you get them on board to talk up your business. A lot of Richard’s Facebook friends are like him with a large number of friends and a greater sphere of influence.
4) Send invitations and Facebook mail
“I sent our link to some of my Facebook friends and asked if they have any contacts they might be able to send my info on to,” he says. Often he used a more personal touch –writing a note sharing the page with a friend and asking him or her if they might be able to share it with one or two more people.
Richard Ruiz (left) and his operator Jesse Gilbert Gomez.
Photo credit: San Antonio Express News.
5) Check it at least every other day
Richard uses his Facebook to see what his friends are up to. “When I see there’s events happening or that my friends are working at an event, I take the opportunity to tell them about what we do, invite them to check it out for their event. If not I ask them if maybe they have an event or person in mind who would be interested and I ask them to forward it on,” Richard says.
6) Share
Richard tries to have some activity on his TapSnap Facebook page at least every other day.
“I try to promote the TapSnap business as much as I can, anytime we have something worth sharing,” says Richard.
7) Do events with young people
They’ve done a few university-affiliated events with a lot of young people who live their lives on Facebook. The 18- to 29-year old demographic continues to be the most active users of Facebook, so it make sense that doing events with younger people would help boost your Facebook likes.
Ultimately they are working to get their name out there as much as they can.
The Ruiz family also runs a financial planning business, The Ruiz Financial Group, and Richard has another job as a part-time DJ.
They’ve been melding the three businesses where appropriate, bringing TapSnap to meetings and seminars with financial planners and wholesalers like John Hancock, and introducing the photo system to Richard’s DJ clients.
“We try to incorporate TapSnap wherever we can,” says Richard.
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