Social media is one of the best ways to reach out and connect with existing and prospective home service franchise clients. But if you’ve never used social media as a business owner before, you might be looking for guidance on what to post (or even how often to post, for that matter).
You might think of social media as a direct line to your customers—and you want to use that wisely.
We love connecting with people through social media. That’s why we’ve rounded up some of our best tips that you can use to get more out of your social media pages by posting the best content.
What to Post as a Home Service Franchise
The first big decision that you have to make is WHAT to post.
Obviously, social media is all about the content so you want to make good choices about what you’re putting out there. There are certain things that are going to be more worthy of a social media post than others.
Here are some of our suggestions.
Service Information
One of the best places to start with social media posts is to provide more information about the services that you offer. If you’re a new home service franchise owner and just starting out, you might be worried that you don’t have job photos or other information to post.
But you can post about the services you’ll be offering and how they can help prospective clients to enjoy their property more fully. Remember, your clients are going to be more interested in hearing about how your services can help them. Try to avoid posting bragging posts about how great YOU (or your company) are as these don’t resonate the same way.
These types of posts are also a great opportunity to provide education and helpful tips. There are a lot of topics that prospects likely don’t know much about, like proper pruning, for example.
This is a great way to establish your home service franchise as the expert on the topic, setting you up for success.
Before/After Photos (Or Video)
Once you’ve started tackling jobs, before and after photos always resonate with people and can make really great social media posts (particularly when it’s a shocking transformation).
We have also posted sped-up video of a transformation in progress so that viewers could watch the progress take place.
The key here is to remember to take photos and videos!
We know that things can get really busy on a job site and these opportunities can be missed. While you can always return to the site to get an “after” shot, it’s those “before” shots that can’t be recreated. It could be really helpful to designate a specific person on the team who is responsible for taking quick before/after shots to use for your social media efforts.
Community and In-House Events and Volunteering
Posting photos from community events, time spent volunteering, or in-house events is also valuable because it conveys some information about your company culture without coming right out and saying it.
Remember that potential hires are likely also looking at your social media pages so posting pictures from an internal event shows them that you’re a home service franchise that also cares about its people.
For instance, Joshua Tree Experts recently took the team on a river adventure and we made a post about that experience.
We’ll also post photos from our company's Halloween (costume) party. Posts like this not only show prospective hires that we are a work hard/play hard type of company but it gives our clients a glimpse of their technicians out having some fun. We often find our clients also love to see these photos!
Testimonials
Your social media pages can also be a great place to share really amazing testimonials that you’ve received. At Joshua Tree Experts, we like to use “Canva,” which is a free-to-use online graphic design tool. We will turn great testimonials into a graphic and post them to our social media channels.
How Often to Post to Social Media
There is often a fine line as far as how often to post on social media. Posting too often can actually be annoying for some followers. Even if they love your company, they don’t want to hear from you multiple times a day.
Typically, we try to make posts two to three times per week.
But we’d probably say not to post any more than once a day. Various business sources advise that anywhere between once a week and once a day is the sweet spot, depending on what kind of feedback you’re getting.
Keep in mind that it can be really beneficial to respond to comments on your social media pages. If you’re posting too frequently, this might become difficult to maintain.
A good rule to keep in mind is quality over quantity. It would be better to post really great content less frequently than to throw together some rushed posts that aren’t going to do anything to help your home service franchise.
It’s safe to say that some low-quality posts might actually do more harm to your brand than good!
That being said, you don’t want to start an effort of posting to social media only to suddenly disappear and stop posting for many weeks at a time. If prospects (or current clients) get used to hearing from you, going dark might cause them to assume something is wrong. Try to make a point to keep up with fairly regular content (particularly if you’ve set that tone).
Where to Post on Social Media
At Joshua Tree Experts, we focus most of our posts on Instagram and Facebook.
This seems to be where our clients hang out and where we get the most response. We have posted on Twitter before as well but we like the opportunity to post photos and videos on other channels.
On that topic, we do try to include photos (or videos) with every post.
As we mentioned, even if it’s a written testimonial, we will still turn it into a graphic. These types of posts always seem to get the most attention.
Social Media that Supports Your Success
We have found that social media is a really important tool in our marketing toolbox.
The great thing about social media is that it’s one of those “free” (or at least inexpensive) marketing efforts that can still really pay off. Other than paying to boost a post, you probably won’t spend much money on social media and you’ll likely see it play a big role in building your brand.
As people look to learn more about your company, you can be sure they’re going to turn to your social media pages. By filling them with helpful, appealing, and fun content, you can really start to build brand awareness and also make meaningful connections with the people in your community.
At Joshua Tree Experts, we have seen efforts like these benefit our company in a variety of ways. We look forward to seeing them work for you, too!
Are you ready to grow a successful business from strong roots? Joshua Tree Experts has the proven systems and processes in place to help. Request a meeting and begin your journey today.
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