Social Media Management Tips for Contractors

Social media management is worth the investment for construction contractors. Social media establishes consumer trust and greatly influences decision making when it comes to choosing a construction contractor. In fact, 74% of people use social media when making a decision. This article provides social media management tips for construction contractors to leverage so they can close more jobs.  

Understand your customer base: 

The first step to mastering social media to grow your construction business is to know your customer base. This allows you to tailor a social media strategy that targets them. If you’re a new home builder for example, you will want to invest more time in crafting a social media strategy that targets a demographic that can afford your services. Facebook for example is going to be the best social media platform to support a customer that is interested in a custom home. Roughly 43% of Facebook users are aged 25 to 44. This is the ideal market as these are audiences that are getting into the housing market or on the older scale might be upgrading from that first home to a custom built second home. Further speaking to this demographic is Instagram, 50% of Instagram users are 34 and younger. Instagram is less informative than Facebook, but more visually focused. This is why it is a popular platform for millennials and gen z. It provides short form content and opportunities for visually stimulating content that catches your eye. Understanding your customer is the first step as it helps you decide which social channels you should invest your time and energy into, which leads us to our next point. 

Master the most essential social media channels for your business: 

Not every social media channel is going to be essential for your business. As a marketer I often see clients take off in full sprint when it comes to marketing their businesses on social media for the first time. I’ll see an incredible effort promoting themselves on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and then after about a month, there’s a steep drop off in posting and the quality of their content. Not posting on a consistent schedule often sends a poor message to audience members. For example, if I’m on your Facebook page and I see that it’s been a year since you’ve posted, I might think that you are closed. Furthermore, algorithms are not going to feature your content or recommend followers because your frequency is down and they can’t learn anything from your posts. A contractor should focus on mastering Facebook and Instagram first and then branch out. 

Understand the differences and intents of social media platforms:

Facebook: Offers the largest user base and provides the opportunity for more informative content. Facebook’s user base supports an older demographic than Instagrams, who’s user base drops off significantly after 29 years old. This demographic is going to be more likely to be in the market for a contractor or home service pro because they are more likely to be home owners and not renters. 

Instagram: Features the second largest user base, and provides the opportunity to connect and create fans of your work and your business. It is tailored towards strong visuals and short but impactful  content. The user base is younger than Facebook. Therefore, instagram is best used as a platform to create fans of your work through strong visuals and not necessarily the best platform to sell. Since Facebook owns Instagram, you can use Meta Business Suite to manage both profiles in one dashboard and use instagram to create fans and Facebook to help get those fans and leads who are considering your services over to your website. 

LinkedIn: Provides a robust platform for networking and B2B sales. LinkedIn is important to showcase your organizational professionalism and collaborate with industry professionals. However it is not designed for business to consumer interactions. You want to use LinkedIn to build your prestige and professionalism but take a less casual voice than your Facebook and Instagram profiles. This channel can still be used as a sales channel as a contractor, especially if you do commercial work. For example, if you’re a commercial plumber, then networking on LinkedIn with a commercial building group will be a beneficial activity to help land commercial work with that company. 

X (formerly twitter): This platform is best used for engaging followers in conversations about your business and services or topics in your industry. X can be thought of as a town square where you are expressing to the public important information. For contractors though, X has the disadvantage of not being a place to showcase visuals, which is more important than text as your customers want to see your work. Furthermore, I sometimes see business owners get a little heated during responses on X which hurts your brand image. I would recommend mastering Facebook, and Instagram first before you move to X. 

Tiktok: A very popular platform that showcases short form video to provide concise and visually appealing content. Similar to instagram, Tiktok is a powerful tool for creating fans of your business and for offering different or unique content that helps people connect to you and your brand. However, Tiktok is headed for a ban which is frankly why I’m not embracing it and am more active taking my reels to Instagram. Therefore, Tiktok generates excellent engagement but is a volatile platform. I would focus more energy into Facebook and Instagram and see what happens with Tiktok as the year goes on. 

Mix up your social media content: 

Social media should be an honest representation of your business and your services. Customers connect with brands and personalities. Everyone is used to being sold to at this point, which is why building customer connections is crucial to standing out from the pack. In this section, I’m going to outline different content ideas and how to leverage them on our bread winner channels Facebook and Instagram. 

Before and After Photos: 

Please take photos of your work! This is so important for contractors as this is how your future customers will be drawn into hiring you, by seeing what you can do. Facebook and Instagram are excellent platforms to do this. On instagram, you can make short presentation reels that show multiple projects and on Facebook you can be a little bit more wordy in describing what you did and the scope of the project. 

Show a new review: 

I always like to show off a powerful customer testimonial by making a designed post template that highlights what they have to say. Pin those posts so they stay at the top of your profile for all to see. 

A day in the life content: 

This is excellent for reels or stories to show what your day looks like. This provides a valuable insight into what you do and how you work. 

Memes and current trends: 

Use maturity with this and avoid anything controversial, but if there’s a funny new internet trend or meme, use that. Don’t be afraid to be funny. This again shows that you are not just a salesman but your brand is personal and people can connect with you. 

Origin story: 

Everyone loves a good ‘how we started’ or origin story. It’s personal and shows how you grew your business into what it is today. People connect with heroes so don’t be afraid to show that off. 

Causes that are important to you: 

Do you support any charities or causes? Post about that. Show that you're more than just a contracting business but an active member in the communities you serve. 

Big life changes: 

Did you or an employee get married, have a kid, achieve a new goal, etc. Celebrate that. To reiterate, we buy from people so show your connection to your team and your customers by showcasing proud life moments. 

Holidays: 

They happen every year. You don’t have to always have a holiday promotion, but acknowledging the big ones shows that your brand is in tune with the season. 

Business updates: 

Are you adding a new service, new service area, new team member, new product you’re testing out? Let people know that you’re growing and thriving. People want to know that they are putting their money with someone that is growing and constantly improving their craft. 

Sales and promotions: 

Yes, these are important but should not be the bulk of your posts. Rather, you layer sales and promotions in with your other content. Some examples can be holiday or seasonal, referrals, coupons or discounts for veterans, maybe you just hit a business anniversary and want to use a sale to promote it. You can also sell without discounts. Highlight what you bring to the table over your competitors so that way you are selling the value rather than the price. 

Mixed social media content keeps people engaged and hungry for more from your business. We want to keep people engaged so they become lifetime customers rather than selling to them once. That’s why it is important to build a connection to your brand. 

Leverage mentions and tags: 

This is the easiest low hanging fruit, and it is powerful for getting your social media presence off the ground. Having your content tagged or mentioned is basically free advertising. If you’re a subcontractor working for a larger builder, have them give you a shout out, tag or mention on their social media. That way you are linking yourself to someone who has a larger following and you’ll have some of their audience migrate to your page where they can engage with your content. However, why stop with B2B relationships? Have you just completed a big job for a homeowner? Have them mention and tag you on their personal posts. That is unlocking a huge network as  their friends are also seeing your work. Your customer is on social media so make sure you are right there with them. 

Summary: 

This article outlines best practices for building your social media presence and maintaining consistent growth. I did not mention boosting posts or running ads on purpose primarily because your ROAS (return on ad spend) will be much greater when you are advertising after you have an established identity and a proven track record of posting quality content on a consistent basis. To recap, every social media marketing strategy needs to begin with understanding who their ideal customer base is and which social media channels they use. Next, you need to master the channels where your customers are active. This comes from understanding that not every social media channel is the same and your language and approach needs to change. Then, you need to provide mixed content so that you stand out and appeal to the different emotions and feelings of your audience. Finally, involve your customers and business partners in growing your social media presence through mentions and tags. All of these components combined provide a blueprint for building a sustainable social media strategy.  

This article was written by Shane Doudy | Owner | Odyssey Marketing Group