When you think of social media, you may think of group chats and holiday pictures from distant relatives, but it’s also a place where you can promote your company, generate leads and win extra business.
But how? Well, we teamed up with On The Tools to get some top tips for getting started on social media and how to use each platform like a pro.
GETTING STARTED
Step one is to set up your social media accounts – of course!
- Think of an account name and use it across all of your accounts for consistency
- Go for something that makes you easy to search and makes it clear this is your business
- You’ll need a bio (the bit where you talk about what your company does), a logo and a header – so people instantly know who you are, what you’re about and can recognise your brand
Everyone knows Facebook. It’s a versatile platform with different ways of posting and reaching your audience.
- You probably check your Facebook daily, and so do your customers so try to give an update every day during the week
- When it comes to how to post you can write a status or use Facebook stories for more informal posts about what you’re up to
- A mix of images and longer videos (over 3 minutes) work best for Facebook. You should post about any promotions you’re running, jobs you’re doing and any exciting news you’ve got to share
Instagram is perfect for high-quality imagery and getting engagements through stories.
- Try to post two to three times a week on your feed and daily on your story
- Post pictures and videos on your feed, through stories or on IGTV
- On your feed, use high-quality imagery and videos (up to 60 seconds). On stories, you can upload videos of you on the job, opinion polls, questions and all sorts! On IGTV, you can upload longer videos
YOUTUBE
YouTube is an ideal platform for longer videos and keeping up with popular trends.
- You should aim to post roughly twice a week, although we know this isn’t always possible if you’re busy on site
- Upload your video to the channel, add relevant tags so people can find it and use a nice, striking thumbnail (the bit people see before it plays) to get people’s attention
- Long-form videos are ideal for this platform, so time lapses of jobs, how-to videos and educational pieces work really well
Twitter is perfect for being reactive, dealing with customer service enquiries and showing a bit of personality.
- This is another platform where you should be posting daily
- Update your followers by tweeting updates about your business, relevant trends and news stories
- Images and videos work well with any tweet, you can also use polls, which are very popular and drive engagement
TIKTOK
No, TikTok isn’t just for kids and celebrities doing ridiculous dances. Tradies can build a real following on TikTok by posting the right type of content.
- If you’re going forTikTokthen try to upload something daily
- You can upload your videos with a wide variety of filters and music to jazz them up a little
- Short videos work best here, with time lapses, completed jobs and educational content being very popular on this channel
WHAT TO POST ABOUT
Between all the different channels, there is a great deal of flexibility about how you can post and what you can post; from a quick tweet about an offer you’re running, to a 10-minute how-to video.
Just make sure you keep it relevant and professional, think about what your audience wants to see and use hashtags to draw in new followers.
The key to any cracking social channel is to let your followers know exactly what you’re offering and how you can help. This way, they’ll always call you first.
For a full breakdown of how to ace social media, watch our ToolKit Talks session with On The Tools here:
