Social media marketing is all the rage these days, but you may wonder if it’s the right avenue for marketing your plumbing business. You don’t have nice photos of products to sell or even glamourous shots of you in action. Plumbing can be a dirty business, after all, and it’s hard to be photogenic when you’re knee-deep in water due to a broken pipe. But social media is still a great way for you to market yourself and expand your business. In fact, some of those photos of disasters can actually help. Here are a few tips for harnessing the power of social media to grow your customer base.
Carefully Choose Which Platforms You’ll Use
There are many different social media sites out there: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram… it can seem overwhelming at first, especially if you try to use every site. Fortunately, you don’t need to. Look at the pros and cons of each site to determine which ones fit your needs the best. Twitter is all about short blasts, while Instagram focuses on images. Facebook lets you add different types of content to one post, while LinkedIn is more about networking. Look at content on each site and compare it to the type of content you will post. If you’re doing a lot of short posts, Twitter may be best. If you want to add a number of photos, videos, links, and longer posts, Facebook may be a better option.
There are also a number of add-ons and other helpful apps that allow you to link profiles on different sites together. For example, Facebook has an app that allows you to connect it to Twitter. Anything you post to your Facebook page is then automatically posted to your Twitter account, letting you handle two profiles at once. Your Twitter posts may not be optimized for the site, but if you’re not focusing on Twitter as your main social platform, that may be okay.
The key is to find where your audience is and use that site. You may want to do a survey of your customers to see which sites they use the most, or you might want to try different social media sites to see where you get the most engagement.
Be Active
No matter what site you choose, you do have to remain active in order to ensure your audience sees what you’re posting. Facebook has a complex algorithm that isn’t always easy to understand, but it is clear that if you don’t post every few days, Facebook stops showing people your content. Even if the site has no algorithm like this, you still need to keep active in order for your posts to get out to people. This means creating content that is helpful, relevant, informative, and even fun. There’s no harm in reposting a cute joke or picture every now and then if you can relate it to your business or to current events.
Break Down Your Content into Categories
One thing you’re likely to find helpful in keeping your social media active is to create a schedule of when you’re posting. Many sites even allow you to create a bunch of posts at once and schedule when they’re published. It can help if you create a calendar of posts, and decide what type of content you want to share each day. For example, one day you may want to share an educational post about plumbing or a tip about how homeowners can keep their plumbing in good shape. The next post might be something different—a photo or video, for example. Your third post may be a promotional post about your company, and then you might want to follow that up with a lighter post such as a joke or fun picture.
If you put down a schedule of what type of content you’re posting, you can more easily come up with posts and avoid overwhelming your followers with too many similar ideas. You might determine that you want to post a tip, a photo, a funny post, and a promotional post over the course of a week. That’s a good variety, and it means you only need to come up with four tips per month. There’s also nothing preventing you from adding another post in there if you find something very relevant that needs to be shared right away.
Look at Paid Advertising Options
Finally, nearly every social media site does offer some form of paid promotions in addition to its free features. These paid ads can be targeted to people in a specific area, age range, income range, and much more. They’re a great way of focusing your ads on people who are likely to be interested in your services. These ads are generally very affordable, so it’s not a bad idea to try them out. Just be careful you don’t get carried away, especially at first.
These are just a few tips on growing your plumbing business via social media. While it may seem like a lot of work upfront to get your social media profiles off the ground, once you’re established, it’s fairly easy to create posts that bring in new customers.
