Using Content To Find New Four-Legged Clients

Yesterday I spent some time talking to a new client (whee!) about what seems to be a very common problem for small businesses.  And it looks like I’ll be doing some work with them, and actually using them as a case study of sorts.

It’s the Wateree Animal Hospital in Camden, SC.  I found them because one of our little pugs had a sore leg, and I just wasn’t happy with the big “shopping center vet” that we’d been going to — so I asked my Twitter peeps for a recommendation.  They sent me to a town about a half hour from my house, that’s even smaller than Columbia.  Tiny.

Why did I go there?  Well, because my pets are very important to me, and I wanted someone who’d really care about them.  And take good care OF them. (And it didn’t hurt that their web site had a HUGE picture of a pug on the home page.)

I ended up spending time talking with the owner, with the Practice Manager, and several other members of the staff after Max got his leg taken care of.  They had a pretty decent web site, and had just set up a Facebook page.  But were a little confused about what happens next.

(If you tell people you’re a nerd, you probably have this conversation as often as I do.  And find it just about impossible to explain how to use social media effectively in ten minutes.  Unless you’re Chris Brogan.)

So I offered to come back and spend an hour or so showing them around the Interweb and give them a few pointers, in thanks for getting my doggie back to top condition.  That led to lots of talking, and now we’re going to spend some time adding good content to their site, doing some SEO, sharing out what they know on Twitter and Facebook, etc.  All the basics.

Will I get rich off this?  No.  But it will be lots of fun, I’ll be able to write a heck of a case study, and who knows — someday I may need to get a pug taken care of at 2AM on a Sunday.

Just feeding the Karma machine.