Retailers reap digital benefits

While implementing social media in your propane business’ marketing and digital strategy can seem daunting, retailers at the 2019 LP Gas Growth Summit prove this trend is not only growing – it’s working.

From marketing to educating to hiring, social media is becoming a more familiar norm for the propane industry.

Ryan Gunderson, president of Superior Fuel Co., says the company uses social media for myriad reasons but mainly for brand promotion and workforce recruitment.

“We use social media to establish our brand and get our name out there to the communities,” Gunderson says. “We target certain areas, boosting some of our ads that we put on Facebook. We also use it as a recruitment tool in certain areas. We can put a Facebook ad together and boost it within a certain market when we’re looking for a driver or technician. It’s become effective just getting our name in front of people but also finding potential candidates and new hires.”

Gunderson says the company has reaped benefits through Facebook ads – many through referrals.

“We’ve actually gotten some hires off of Facebook, and we’ve also gotten a lot of referrals where somebody else saw our Facebook ad and then told somebody directly to reach out to us,” he adds. “We didn’t get the hire directly through social media, but the ad was seen by somebody else who saw it and then referred the individual to us.”

Social media is new to some companies, but retailers believe the platforms will inevitably grow, especially as some begin to use multimedia tools.

“Our social media presence started approximately 18 months ago, and we’re now getting more robust with it,” says Anthony Buck, vice president of Lakes Gas Co. “We’ve done regular posts – blog-type posting – up to this point, but now we’re starting to look at advertising for open vacancies in the company. We’re creating 30-second videos with some of our drivers and some of our service techs, and we’re going to put those on social media, so not only can people see we have an opening, but they can hear what that opening entails.”

Building your social media presence from scratch presents its difficulties, but once you’ve established your brand, it’s a cost-effective way to build your brand, reach existing and potential customers, and find new hires. Several LP Gas Growth Summit attendees can attest to this.

“I think it’s the way of the future, so we’re embracing it,” Buck adds.