He’s also the owner of Robertson Lawn Care, one of the best-known independent lawn care companies in central Illinois. Robertson founded the company 36 years ago and still very much enjoys running it, judging by his presence and activity on his company’s Facebook.
He uses his firm’s Facebook to come up with fun ways to attract positive attention to his company – and to entice prospects into his headquarters. He (or his staff) regularly updates the Facebook with nice images, great information and some pretty neat promotions that keep visitors coming back. For example, Robertson on March 11 posted a notice on his Facebook inviting viewers to visit his headquarters to receive a free rain gauge and small box of Pease’s Candy. That created a fair bit of excitement. (What about the word "free" doesn’t excite Americans, after all?)
But it was a recent baseball promotion (something he does several times each season) that really it up his Facebook.
On March 31 he posted that his company was giving away box seats at to the April 13 game between the MLB St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers at Busch Stadium. These weren’t just any box seats; these were "commissioner" box seats complete with food and drink, a visit to the Cardinals dugout and special privileges during batting practice. Check out the view in the photograph on this page.
And the winners weren’t going to get just any ride to the ballpark. They were going to go in style – in a limo, to and from Busch Stadium, a 100-mile chauffeured ride.
In announcing the give-away on Facebook on March 31 he reminded viewers that each day, from April 1 to April 5, to be on the lookout for a different "Cardinal keyword" in that each particular day’s Facebook video. To be eligible to win the tickets and the limo ride they had to listen to the videos, select the key words, then visit the website of one of four local radio stations and enter the day’s key word. On the morning of Monday, April 8, the winners were selected announced by a popular radio personality on Sports Radio 1450.
That same day, via Facebook, he invited viewers to visit his company for free St. Louis Cardinal swag . . . "first in, first choice."
"We called it Baseball, Apple Pie and Robertson Lawn Care," says Jack of the day that also featured a local radio station doing a remote broadcast from his offices. "We gave away apple pies, bags of peanuts with either Cardinals or Cubs logos on them and two more tickets to a Cardinals’ game."
Robertson says he views his company’s Facebook presence as a fun way to share some good information with viewers rather than as hard-core promotion. "We’re learning about Facebook and what we can do with just like everybody else," he concedes.
That said, Robertson says he’s appreciative that his Facebook is attracting so much positive attention. He says his company’s customers and his Facebook friends will get several more opportunities to snap up free baseball tickets tickets courtesy of his company this season.
To visit his company’s Facebook, click here.
To read the article about Robertson Lawn Care that appeared in Turf magazine, click here.
