Social Media for Contractors: Best Tips & Tricks
Selfies in hard hats. Ground auger tutorial Tik Tok videos. “Guess the decibel level” Twitter polls. What exactly makes for compelling, engaging, and successful social media content and performance for general contractors?
It’s easy to look at the general contractor industry and assume that social media is irrelevant to your company’s marketing efforts and strategies. But the fact of the matter is that social media management has become an integral part of any company’s digital marketing strategies, regardless of what industry your business serves.
Whether you personally utilize social media or not, odds are your target audience sure is. Which means if your contractor company lacks any sort of social media presence, you can all but assume you’re missing out on precious business opportunities to local competitors putting in the necessary energy into developing a sufficient social media strategy.
There’s a reason why 97% of Fortune 500 companies are on social media. From enhancing your brand to reaching more eyes online to separating your business from the competition, the list of digital marketing advantages social media provides goes on and on.
So how do you experience social media success? Here are a few essential social media tips and tricks contractors can use to boost their social media presence, increase their following, and generate more projects in the process.
Tip 1 | Define Your Goals
The biggest mistake most companies make when deciding to invest more time, money, and resources into social media is failing to figure out or know what they want to get out of it.
Like any project, process, or long-term strategy, you need to define your goals from the get-go, as knowing what you want to set out and achieve will have an impact on which social media strategies you want to implement.
Some common goals any general contractor could establish and strive for via social media include:
- Drive more traffic to your website
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate more leads and sales
- Increase online reviews
- Generate more community, local awareness
- Develop an authoritative presence
- Share intriguing, informative, relevant content
- Showcase products or highlight services
- Track and document your company’s progress
Only after you’ve established your goals can you set out to create and implement your social media strategies.
For example, social media paid ads are a perfect strategy for increasing brand awareness online, or investing in photography or video services is worthwhile if you’re focusing primarily on the quality of your social media content.
Tip 2 | Establish Your Voice
Another attribute you should sort out before officially executing your new social media strategy is establishing the voice, tone, and message of your social media content and writing.
If you’re struggling to approach this topic, the key is to be as authentic and relatable as possible. Your social media posts should come across as just how you would talk to a client in person, and it’s important to keep in mind that you don’t want to be overly self-promotional with every post you make.
Some questions to answer when trying to establish your social media voice can be:
- Are you striving to be professional and formal, or down-to-earth and casual?
- Is humor important to your company’s image, or do you wish to be more straightforward and honest?
- Are you trying to establish credibility or become an informative resource?
- Are you loud and boastful with clients or sincere and humble?
The voice and tone you use in your social media posts reflect your brand, so be sure to stay consistent and true to your word with every social media post.
Tip 3 | Post Consistent Content
Far too often, contractors create social media profiles, only for them to remain dormant and almost entirely inactive. When it comes to posting and sharing content through your social media channels, consistency is king. Long periods of inactivity or significant gaps between posts will only come across as negligent and unprofessional in the eyes of potential clients.
Whether it’s consistently sharing behind-the-scenes photos and videos highlighting your construction process, or it’s a weekly post showcasing the results of your latest construction project, it’s worth considering creating a content calendar that outlines exactly when and what you’re posting to social media throughout the year.
This also doesn’t mean you need to bombard your followers' feeds with content every five minutes. Posting every other weekday at 10:00 am is an ideal sharing strategy for being consistent with your content without going overboard.
Tip 4 | Cater To Your Audience
It’s safe to say that certain social media platforms aren’t exactly the most applicable to certain industries. As a general contractor, knowing which specific social media platforms are relatable and relevant to your target audience is another imperative part of any successful social media campaign.
Maintaining a Facebook profile is an absolute must for any contractor, as it provides the most potential when it comes to reaching new audiences, retargeting previous customers, and managing your online reviews and presence.
Outside of Facebook, it’s important that you don’t spread yourself too thin with social media. Rather than having several social media channels, stick to a select few, like Twitter or Instagram, depending on what type of content you want to share with your followers.
If you’re going for a more credible, authoritative image, then perhaps creating a YouTube channel to share tutorial videos on is worth your time. If you’re looking to increase awareness of your business with other local companies within your community, then LinkedIn is an excellent social media resource for connecting with other businesses in your area.
Wherever you think the majority of your target audience is, that’s the social media platform you need to focus on.
Tip 5 | Stay Connected With Customers
Finally, consistently posting content isn’t enough when it comes to establishing and enhancing your social media presence. You need to remain engaged with your online followers and customers, which will create a personalized business-consumer relationship with them that will only work toward enhancing your brand.
- Respond to customers when they comment on your social media posts or tag you in any post of their own.
- Get active in Facebook groups or any social media threads that are relevant to your industry and services.
- Engage with any social media mentions or online reviews of your business, whether they’re positive or negative.
The more engaged you are with your social media following, the more trusting followers you’ll continue to accumulate, which will convert into more leads and sales.
Contact Triton Commerce For Superior Social Media Management
At the end of the day, maintaining an active social media presence can prove quite costly in terms of time and energy. That’s why it’s never a bad idea to consider hiring a professional to create compelling social media content and stay active across all of your platforms.
At Triton Commerce, we specialize in helping general contractors boost their brands and create a more established, credible social media presence. If you’re looking to increase your followers and enhance your image, contact Triton Commerce today to learn more about all of our social media management services, or call us at 651.321.0578 for immediate assistance.