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While day-to-day tasks such as building customer relationships, managing the office, hiring employees, and working to grow sales are among the more standard expected duties, the role of social media manager is one that many business owners may try to avoid. However, it’s now a part of doing business that simply can’t be ignored.
"September 9, 2021
by Star Building Systems
If you’re running your own business, you bear a lot of job titles – each one subject to whichever issue happens to be the day’s most pressing. It’s a reality that most business owners just consider a part of the job. While day-to-day tasks such as building customer relationships, managing the office, hiring employees, and working to grow sales are among the more standard expected duties, the role of social media manager is one that many business owners – understandably – may try to avoid. However, it’s now a part of doing business that simply can’t be ignored.
Whether you designate a qualified staff member or hire an agency or specialist to oversee social media for your construction business, you can be sure the return on investment of an effectively managed plan will be worth the effort. According to Pew Research Center, seven-in-ten Americans now engage with social media through a variety of platforms. That’s a lot of potential customers looking at devices on which your brand could appear.
But is it truly possible for a construction company to leverage social media as a business-growing tool? Yes, it is. And we’ll cover a few ways to do it well.
First, it’s important to recognize that regardless of whether your company works directly with customers or not, having a social media presence should still be a priority. As marketing firm Evenbound explains, “…remember that even if you’re strictly a B2B construction company, every company you work with is made up of people.” Those people interact with social media, and if your brand isn’t visible, you’re missing opportunities to stay in the conversation, build trust with consumers, and make your business more accessible.
Social media for businesses includes marketing and advertising efforts. The simple difference is marketing includes all unpaid efforts such as blogs, Facebook or Instagram posts, and LinkedIn updates. Paid activity is considered advertising, and that includes paying to boost a post, running a promotion, boosting your page to attract more followers, running ads on any social media platforms, and more. A good plan uses a mix of both strategies to create cohesive messages that enable customers to build a relationship with your brand.
Star builder Lee McCoy, of TMC Engineering Ltd., is the company’s social media manager and has seen impressive results from their efforts over the years: “We get a lot of referrals from people who say they’ve seen our social media. It’s an effective way to get our name out there,” he explains, “There are a lot of people who haven’t committed to a project yet, but they’re looking online, and they find us, and they can see the different buildings we offer.” TMC’s plan includes a mix of both marketing and advertising on Facebook and Instagram.
As with any plan, the most important first step is to understand the goals you want to reach. While every business will have their own unique set of goals and business factors to consider, there are some general guidelines to follow when developing a social media strategy.
It may sound obvious, but primarily: know who your customers are. There are reasons your current customers chose you and stay with you – and prospective customers are looking for specific attributes as they’re researching. Knowing your strengths and focusing on the people whose needs and values align with what you offer is a more efficient communication strategy than trying to be all things to all people. It’s a common mistake business owners make, often out of fear of losing potential customers. But businesses who spend their energy trying to be everything to everyone end up losing their identity – and losing those potential customers anyway.
Understanding who your customers are is also valuable in selecting the right social platforms for your business. In the initial stages, starting with the most widely used options – Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram – is a safe way to ease into building your presence. In fact, marketing firm Construct Marketing reports that 50% of construction industry professionals who use social media find Facebook and LinkedIn to be the two platforms that deliver the most effective results. Give yourself time to learn what resonates with your audience and fine tune as you grow. Look around at other construction businesses in the marketplace and see how they are using social media to build their brand, then consider how you can adapt those tactics to fit what’s unique about yours.
Once you’ve decided where to post, it’s time to think through what to post. Successful social media campaigns are not a one-way conversation, with a company simply making statements or talking about themselves; it’s about engagement. People do business with companies they like – and that means your messages should feel human, not mechanical. Make your customers and followers a part of the conversation and work to build a relationship with them. One straightforward way to start to make your brand feel more personal is by using images instead of text only. The general rule is images are more engaging than text only, and video is even more engaging than photos. Use a mix of photos and videos with text as your budget allows. Be sure to think about variety in your posts, too. A mix of diverse types of posts, such as employee highlights, recent project features, industry tips, shared blogs or articles, recent awards or recognition, and other items relevant to your business will keep people interested and engaged.
Lastly, as you consider who you’re sharing with, what you’re sharing, and where you’re sharing it … plan for when to share. Figuring out frequency can be tricky, as you want to find the right balance for your unique audience. As professional marketer, best-selling author, and digital influencer Neil Patel puts it: “If you post too infrequently, your audience will forget that you exist, and you will quickly fade into the deep dark recesses of their minds. However, if you are posting too often, you will become a complete nuisance and they will dread seeing your posts overcrowding their feed.” So how is a business owner to know? There is no scientific data regarding the best times to post and how often, but there are some accepted guidelines:
It’s helpful to know that there are tools available, such as Buffer, Hootsuite, and Later, that allow you to schedule posts in advance and automate sending, so you can plan and not have to worry about daily maintenance.
Building a successful social media presence is a process – so don’t rush and try to make it happen overnight. Be thoughtful about creating a two-way conversation with your audience that feels genuine, sincere, and reflective of who you are as a company. They want to know the people behind the brand – so let them get to know you and when the time comes to decide about who to do business with, you’ll have a favorable place in their hearts and their minds.
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