Are your customers telling you the whole truth?
In recent years, social media has become one of the primary marketing tools businesses use to connect with their customers. Using social media effectively is an excellent way to build relationships, increase brand awareness, generate revenue, and drive web traffic.
Especially in the current economic climate, strategic branding and social media marketing can help your business better engage with leads, form a community, and stay ahead of competitors. In fact, several GuildQuality members who were a part of a roundtable discussion shared that because so many businesses are cutting their marketing budgets in response to the pandemic, their dollars are going even further, resulting in a higher return.
In the residential construction industry specifically, social media is an especially powerful asset. Why? A home service or remodeling project relies heavily on its visual appeal. By displaying your business’ past or current projects on multiple platforms, your target audience will see your work (and its quality) first-hand.
By promoting your projects, your team members, your workspace, etc., on social media, you’ll provide customers and leads with a snapshot of who you are and the way your business operates. In turn, this gives your business a personality, allowing you to form real connections with consumers. One’s home is often a source of pride, so by forming a connection with customers through social media, they’re likely to share your projects and recommend your business!
Though the majority of GuildQuality members use social media in some capacity, this is an ever-changing and expanding industry, so it’s always important to stay up-to-date on best practices.
Social Media Marketing: Best Practices
Create a plan
As a starting point, your business should be mindful of a few fundamental components of a social media strategy:
- Identify your social media goals and objectives. What do you want your business to achieve through social media? Your focus, whether it’s building relationships, brand awareness, or turning leads into customers, will determine the approach you should take. Also, your goals can vary from platform to platform!
- Figure out what your budget is. Social media efforts range from completely free to paid ads or hiring a paid social media agency to create the content you post.
- Plan a content schedule. By creating a structure with key dates, campaigns, and events, it becomes much more manageable to maintain a consistent social media presence.
Stay engaged
Social media is built around engagement. There needs to be a two-way channel of communication between a brand and its audience. The core of building community is reciprocity – if you provide value to your social media community, it is more likely that your community will reward you with support and advocacy.
There are four main types of engagement that you should address on social media.
- Discussions around shared content
- Customer support inquiries
- Negative sentiment
- Proactive engagement
Responding to your audience should ideally be timely, as 39% of social media users expect a response within 60 minutes. Social media is another channel for customer satisfaction, so it is best to strive to answer messages daily. If you don’t have the time to check social media, an alternative option is to hire a social media agency for content and organization. One of our members, Daniel Carrero from House to Home Solutions, noted that they hired a social media company to create 3 social media posts per week.
Focus on quality
While social media does require time and energy, it is still manageable to incorporate into your marketing strategy without a social media team or professional equipment. For instance, when it comes to high-quality photography and video, with the capabilities of smartphone cameras, you can shoot high-quality content from your own phone. Here are a couple of tips to make them look more professional:
- Use a strong lighting source, possibly near a window, or purchase an affordable light ring for clearer and brighter photos
- For stability, smartphone stabilizers are cost-effective and eliminate shakiness from a moving video.
No matter the size of your team or your budget, never skimp on quality. Posting blurry or crooked photos, or forgetting to check your captions or shoutouts for spelling and grammatical accuracy, will only hurt your business.
Ask your customers for help!
Social media doesn’t have to be a daunting, do-it-alone project. If you need more content, simply connect with your customers on social media and ask them to post their completed projects and tag your account! If they follow through with the request, always thank them and reshare. And if they don’t, no worries, interacting with them online still reminds them of the work you did and strengthens your brand.
When you create a plan, stay engaged, and focus on quality, you may be surprised at how quickly you can grow your audience. It’s an easy and accessible way to stay connected with your customer base, so don’t be afraid to jump in and get started today!
