Do you remember when you shopped as a kid? Maybe, you are also the one who followed the advice of your peer group where the cool stores were? Nowadays, the Internet is the most “Cool Store” that we might consider. The Internet started with people sharing information on private networks and social media for business the same way. If you own a home service contractors’ business. It's a must that you are on social media.

All was good until Google started selling advertising space and the big corporates muscled in. Large franchises pushed mom-and-pop caterers’ way down search results, while home service plumbers and electricians started receiving fewer calls. Their answer was to brighten up their networks, but the question is: Where to start?

Drum Roll For The Benefits Of Social Media Please

Millennials today represent the most significant opportunity for the home service business. They know how to use social media and that’s the people born from 1977 to 1995 and busy establishing their homes.  They are less trusting of big corporates than their parents were, and they trawl social media to learn what their peer group thinks.

Did you know? Two-thirds of millennial purchasing decisions heavily rely on the information they receive on social media, including for home improvement contractors. I’m pretty sure you want to know more about how to use social media for your success.

The Basics On How To Use Social Media

We all know that the most important social media sites for marketing include Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, and last but not least the popular TikTok. However, marketing is more than sending out a brief “hello, I am here” kind of message. If you want to use your shop front for marketing, you must leave the lights burning at night to maintain an ‘always-on’ presence.

Social media work precisely the same way. It can help you a lot if you had a marketing strategy that keeps you constantly in your market’s mind. Marketing strategy is a must to prevent slipping down the results pages to the dark world where customers never go, we don’t want that! Social media is a very effective way to reach new audiences with engaging content, but only if you keep at it.

6 Reasons To Harness The Benefits Of Social Media

Benefit Number One: Catch People’s Attention Without Paying a Fee

Keep in mind that promoting your business is always on top priority. Using social media in business correctly means maintaining your presence where they are most likely to be. This remarkable tool is also free to use except for your own time. You will also need a very good website to enhance your credibility and explain your services in broader detail.

Benefit Number Two: Use the Opportunity to Stamp Your Authority

Social Media are a superb opportunity to stamp your authority on your market. Why? because you’ll make new business contacts through your social media accounts. They’ll ask their friends for their opinion and then visit your website for confirmation. Everything you put out in the virtual world should reinforce your expertise as a thought-leader in your industry.

Here is the 3-ways on how to reinforce your expertise

• Build an image as the home service contractor who cares
• Share genuinely valuable tips for local DIY projects in your industry
• Don't market your services; market yourself, and the rest will follow

Benefit Number Three: Establish Yourself as Someone Trustworthy

Competition in social media is very strong. Your millennial market ignores push marketing and self-seeking and they love to work with suppliers it knows and trusts. You need to become consistent in delivering your promises, and when you do it, they start coming to you.

Did you know? A business and its owner are the same, especially with a home service business. Stay direct to the point and be reliable, so your market accepts you as authentic. Let your marketing ‘voice,’ words, and actions are consistent.

These three questions will help you build yourself as someone trustworthy

• What is the persona and character of the market you want to serve?
• Which personality do you want to project, representing your brand?
• Is this true to you and authentically representative of what you indeed are?

Benefit Number Four: Discover How to Use social media to Engage

Why do you need to discover How to Use social media in your business? To Engage more people as long as possible. Do you want repeat business and referrals from friends? To do that, social media like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter are great places to engage and earn positive comments and likes. Spontaneous engagement is one of the most significant benefits of social media. But always keep in mind, if you want a successful presence on social media, you need to ensure your brand persona flows through every transaction.

And these steps are what you need to do:

• Have training sessions with your client-side people.
• Be sure that your client-side people can represent your business as your social media clients expect and still come across as authentic.

Benefit Number 5: Keep Your Marketing Costs Affordable

Why you must keep your marketing cost affordable? Because marketing costs can be a killer if things spin out of control. If you are on a tight budget, you must be on social media. That’s because you could make your images create your content if you are imaginative. Also, you can grow your audience on those social media platforms at the rate you want to expand and you really ought to be on social media because your audience is already looking for your services there.

Benefit Number 6: Integrate social media in your business model

How you can do integrate social media into your business model? Paid marketing became intermittent for home service contractors because of the highly-cost. As owner-driven social marketing, you don’t need to be an outlay when the team manages the post themselves. You need to respond faster than your competitor to source more orders.

You need to galvanize your resources into action and here’s the step on how to do it:

• Log all inquiries. Implement a system for tracking your responses.
• Respond as quickly as possible. Always be positive and helpful.
• Never promise anything you are unable to deliver.
• Hear what your critics say. Let them feel listened to and cared for.
• Know the difference between private and public conversations.
• Enjoy your social media interaction. It does not have to be stressful!

In Closing: The Biggest Benefit Of Social Media Marketing

In this topic, we tackle creating awareness for your business and establishing yourself as an authority. We talk about how to establish yourself as someone trustworthy. Finally, we wrote about controlling your costs and embedding social in how you do business. But there is one more reason why you need to be on social media as a business owner. Marketing is just like business management or something we can delegate. Indeed, if anything, it is the core job of the owner. Special skills are required if you want to market on the internet. But communicating on social media is a natural thing. If you know your business well, do it well, and are proud of it, you are good to go.