We’ve all heard about how social media is here to stay – and that it can be a great way to advertise your business. But here’s the part most people forget to mention: your business needs a social media strategy in order for it to work. That’s why we recently talked to Stacy Harris, a social media strategist that comes highly recommended. Here’s some of her advice.
1. A social media strategy guides your efforts
Within your business, anything you do has a purpose. You spend advertising dollars to find new jobs. While you’re on a job, you’re adding extra value and offering additional services to your customers – at the very least, educating them so that they’ll know what to look for.
Being on social media is no different. Because once you’ve got a purpose, a plan, and a strategy in place, social media goes from an annoying, pointless time sink to a goldmine.
Now, a social media strategy is more than just, “hey, I’ll post a few times each week on social media.” It’s knowing what to post, when to post, and how that ties into your overall marketing campaign. It’s knowing how that relates to your customers – and how to post things that will help them.
So if you’ve got a social media manager, you’re doing great. You’re ahead of most other businesses! Now all you need to add is a strategy – or hire a social media strategy consultant to put that into place for you.
2. Having a strategy saves you time, money, and effort
While hiring a consultant will cost you money up front, it’s going to save you so much time, money, and effort down the road. Why? Because you’re going to know what to do, when to do it, and you won’t be wondering why the ads you run aren’t seeing a great return.
Hint from expert Stacy Harris: most ads stumble when they’re too broad and they aren’t targeting the right people. If you run a car wash, for example, target people who live in a 1-2 mile radius of your business location. Ads targeted to friends of people who like your page are too broad – and most of them may not live close to your business!
Plus, when you’ve got a strategy in place, you won’t be posting random, not-useful memes while trying to grow your following. Having a million followers isn’t your goal – while getting more jobs on the schedule is.
3. The only way you’ll see results is with a strategy
Now that you know why the strategy is so important, you can see why the only way you’ll see consistent, regular success (and more jobs on the schedule) is by having it – and using it. Because by having a strategy, you’re actually reaching your existing and potential customers. You’re being noticed – and you’re getting hired more often.
And remember – you’re posting for your audience, not yourself. Stacy gave a lot more great advice, and if you want to hear it all, be sure to watch our Facebook Live video where we talked about all of this in even more detail.
Now, we did want to share one final, fantastic example of how to make your social media work for you: use live video. Consider it a bonus, because it’s an awesome tip.
Bonus: how to use video to promote your service company
It doesn’t have to be super fancy or even very long – a couple of minutes can be plenty! Oh, and Stacy pointed out that using an ear bud and microphone can help improve audio quality, which will ensure more people watch!
Here are some quick, awesome ideas for your next videos:
-
- From the back of your truck, show what tools you’ll be taking in to do your next job.
- Introduce your team, so that people are more comfortable when you show up for a bid or a job.
- Show your community pride – talk about the issues in your area: maybe it’s how to treat carpet stains from dirt from a local park.
- Educate your community. Teach them what to look for so they can recognize quality work when they see it – or when they see inferior work.
- Tell funny on-the-job stories.
- When clients are okay with it, show before and after pictures – or videos.
While we may not always want to watch those kinds of videos on social media, you better believe our clients are. So go make them some videos as part of your social media strategy – and watch your schedule fill up.