Establishing a strong social media presence is critical for spreading the word about your trade business and acquiring potential customers. However, unlike a long-term construction or renovation job, social media is a different beast entirely. To get it right, you need to consider the following tips.
Figure out the right platform for your business
Establishing a strong social media presence doesn’t mean you should be posting on every single platform. Instead, focus on a few platforms to get brand exposure. Here are your options:
- Facebook has over 15 million monthly active Australian users. Facebook is flexible, letting you showcase your business through public posts, videos, reviews, photos, and videos.
- Instagram is ideal for targeting millennials. Visual-centric trades like construction and painting are best suited for the platform.
- Twitter is perfect for responding to customer queries and feedback.
- LinkedIn makes it easy to connect to the tradie community and other businesses that may need your services.
Understand what posts work for tradies
Before posting anything, you must understand the type of content that resonates with your target audience. Most social media users tend to gravitate towards engaging content that adds value to their lives. This may include helpful tips about home maintenance, information about your trade business, or a showcase of your completed projects.
The most successful posts for tradies also incorporate visuals. High-definition before-and-after shots of previous jobs give potential customers clear expectations of your service. Meanwhile, short videos with high production quality are great for engaging your audience. Since you’re competing with so many other posts, it’s important that your content grabs people’s attention right away.
Tell, don’t sell
The golden rule of online marketing is to tell, don’t sell. People are drawn to stories, and a good story stimulates their imagination and inspires them to choose you. Take Nike, for example. Their commercials don’t directly sell their products, but they tell stories of athletes overcoming challenges and winning.
This is the same type of strategy you need to employ when posting on social media. Rather than hard-selling your services, talk about your trade’s origin story and how you’ve grown to serve a particular niche. Discuss the challenges customers faced and what your tradies did for them. Also, use well-composed photos of finished renovations and repair jobs to convince people to start a home improvement project.
Utilise #hashtags
If you’re using Instagram or Twitter as a platform to grow your business, then hashtags are crucial. Hashtags enable the right people and community to discover your posts. For instance, #tradielife on Instagram connects your post to other contractors.
To know which hashtags to include on your posts, search for generic terms related to your business. It could be #tradie, #construction, #plumbing, etc. Look through the top posts using those hashtags and identify the tags that are most relevant to your content. Then, choose hashtags with the largest reach by checking the total number of posts associated with a tag. Try to include five hashtags for each post, but don’t go overboard because social media platforms penalise hashtag spamming.
Post on a schedule
Consistency is key to get more followers on social media. Schedule your posts in a time slot that will guarantee high traffic and engagement. This will require some experimentation on your part with built-in social media analytics tools like Facebook insights. Generally, experts suggest aiming for weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Wednesdays also provide the highest average clicks and engagements for most social media channels.
As for how frequently you post, it depends on the social media platform you’re using. Since tweets tend to have a short life span, posting 3–4 tweets a day is ideal. Facebook posts can be done as frequently as twice a day, but this can vary based on the type of content you share. At the very least, you should post high-quality content weekly.
Encourage reviews on social media
Getting customers to write glowing reviews of your business is a great way to attract prospective clients and win jobs. You can start by making comment sections and reviews accessible. This involves setting up website badges to route visitors to your Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook page.
Next, ask customers to leave a review after you’ve completed a job. If that doesn’t work, offer incentives like free giveaways or a discount on a maintenance job to solicit reviews. When you do receive feedback, be grateful to your customers.
If customers leave negative reviews on your page, resist the temptation to make a knee-jerk comeback or remove the comment. The best thing you can do is to respond calmly and assure them that you’ve acknowledged their concerns. Then, persuade the disgruntled customer to contact you directly about their issues. To appease them, offer a refund or additional services at a discounted rate.
Be authentic
Authenticity is difficult to convey over the internet, but it can make a huge difference in winning over clients. Try to be helpful, reliable, and personal. Your social media should be an honest representation of your company culture and employees. Although there’s value in sharing professional and informative content, you also need to balance it out with something informal. This means you shouldn’t be afraid to post something interesting and/or funny about your day.
Starting social media campaigns can be daunting for any business, which is why WorkBuddy is here to help. Call us to find out how WorkBuddy can integrate with your social media. Our powerful job management platform can also streamline your tasks. Book a free demo today.
