Social Media has become an indispensable tool for businesses across all industries to connect with their audience, build brand awareness, and drive sales. While restoration companies may not immediately think of social media as a key component of their marketing strategy, leveraging platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X/Twitter, and LinkedIn can significantly benefit their business in various ways.
It'd be useful to clarify a couple of things before continuing on with this article - mainly explaining the role of Social Media related to helping you accomplish more sales.
The main benefit of regularly posting to your social media accounts (something we refer to as "Social Media Management" as opposed to "Social Media Advertising"), is to increase brand awareness and to help build future sales pipeline.
Social media users aren't necessarily heading to Facebook when they have an immediate need (or when they're "In-Market"), for the services you provide - they're most likely heading to Google for that.
But, even though they might not need your services at the exact moment they see your social posts, they are becoming familiar with your brand and the services you provide. Building that awareness in the minds of social media users can be invaluable for when they do need your services!
They'll think back to "that company" they "keep seeing" on social and elsewhere, and will be more likely to call you when they do have that immediate need.
The Bottom Line:
Social media can significantly help with generating pipeline & sales, but like all good things in life, consistent effort and investment is needed.
At least 39% of all US homeowners are 35 or under. s1, s2.
This is important because anyone under the age of 40 is generally considered to be a 'Digital Native,' meaning they've spent a significant amount of their lives using modern technology, the internet, and by extension - social media.
Digital natives assess a company's credibility from how they portray themselves online far more naturally than older population groups - whether that portrayal is realistic or not.
And regarding commercial property restoration needs - a good chunk of people making the decision about which restoration company to choose are 40 and under as well.
Consistently posting quality content to your social media accounts helps you to be seen as an active, engaged, and trustworthy company. It can send a message that this company has the resources and attention-to-detail to invest in their online presence, so by extension, their services must be of high-quality too.
The Bottom Line:
Posting quality content on social media in a consistent manner for long periods of time increases the credibility of your company.
While your website is a great place to showcase your work (you should absolutely be doing this if you're not), social media can be an effective platform for sharing real-life projects you've accomplished as well, like this example with Royal Restoration.
This can aid with telling a story about how you've helped a homeowner or commercial property owner rebound from a terrible event, or how you've restored a property from normal age & wear-and-tear issues, "bringing the family home back to life, to be safely enjoyed for many more happy years to come."
Don't underestimate the power of telling a story while showcasing your quality work on social media.
People simply like to see before-and-after examples of real-world, tangible things. Posting about a recently-accomplished job on social media, and having it link back to a dedicated page on your website with more photos (or better yet - video), can be really impactful.
The Bottom Line:
Showcase your real-life, quality work on social media, and try to tell a human story along with it.
Social proof (reviews & testimonials), plays a significant role in whether a consumer will choose your business over another.
In fact, online reviews are so important that Google has made it one of the more impactful ranking factors for how well you appear in Google search results.
You can use social media to showcase real customer reviews and demonstrate that you have real-life individuals that are happy enough with your services to go out of their way to write a review about your company - like this example.
There are some ways to make testimonial social posts extra impactful, such as associating a testimonial with a specific project or job (and linking back to a page or case study on your website), incorporating a screenshot of an actual Google Review for extra credibility, or the gold standard - an authentic, recorded video testimonial from a happy customer!
The Bottom Line:
Do good work, ask for reviews on every job from everyone involved (both spouses for residential jobs, for example), and when you get them, don't be shy about letting the world know!
With a robust social presence comes the potential for online engagement with your community. This can mean engagement with your current and prospective customers, but it can also extend much further than that.
For example, belonging to industry-related Facebook Groups can help you learn more "tricks-of-the-trade," and network with other business owners that might provide complimentary services.
If you have an official Partner Program like HLM does, those businesses could turn into revenue-sharing partnership opportunities and mutually-beneficial lead sources.
Engaging with your local community via social can go a long way towards increasing your local awareness as well. This would include things such as local charities you donate to, local youth sports organizations you sponsor, etc.
The Bottom Line:
Leverage social media to build connections and engagement not only with current and prospective customers, but with others in the industry and potential business partners.
YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, with over 1 billion hours of video watched on the platform each day. s1
If you're remotely related to the Home Services industry, one great way to been seen as an expert and build trust and gratitude online is to create short instructional videos related to your craft.
These don't have to be huge productions, and they can be used all over social media and your website - not just YouTube!
The beauty of helpful content like this is that it can be seen as an asset - you create it once, and you can leverage and re-use it over and over and over.
Take it from us - we've seen instances where blog posts written for clients 12+ months ago suddenly receive a spike in website traffic, resulting in an influx of leads.
Think of content creation as investing in "Asset Creation," that can be shared on social for months to come.
The Bottom Line:
Create helpful content to build trust and be seen as the expert online, share on social, and treat that content as a reusable asset.
It's a cliché, but we all know it's true - good help is hard to find.
Social media can help with this.
Whether a potential applicant is initially interested in your company from what they've seen about you online, or if they hear about you through other means and then check you out online - your online presence matters.
You can use social to demonstrate how you celebrate employee promotions, birthdays, work anniversaries, etc., demonstrating that you care about your employees - like this example.
You can use social to promote a recently-completed job, and shout-out & tag the team members involved, like this example.
You can use social to demonstrate your company culture, highlighting company picnics and other social events.
The Bottom Line:
Show on social that, while you need employees that work hard, you also care about your employees, and you provide an enjoyable work environment as well.
Social media can be a very effective tool to increase your brand awareness, connect with current & prospective customers, and network with potential business partners - but it can take time!
If you don't have the time, expertise, or internal resources to handle social media management on your own (or you just want someone else to handle it for you), then give us a call at now at (888) 717-4249, or visit our contact page to directly book a call with a consultant.