There’s a reason why social media managers are in such high demand these days. Not only is it a necessary part of your marketing efforts, but despite what it may look like on the surface, it’s a lot harder than it looks.
Posting on social media requires planning, writing, knowledge of how to create good images, and proper use of language – even the time of day is crucial to the success of a publication.
And trying to come up with all of this on a daily basis while also wearing so many other hats is nothing short of a nightmare. So, I want to outline a few tips for posting on social media as a contractor, but do keep in mind that you should hire someone for this as soon as possible!
It’s too much work for just one person that already has an overwhelming number of responsibilities. Having said that, most contractors start as self-employed, so you will need these tips to get your social media going.
Plan ahead and automate
The worst way to go about social media is to just wing it on a daily basis. Coming up with ideas, writing, looking for pictures – all of that takes a lot of time.
The much more efficient way to do it is to plan ahead at least for the week. Take one day to plan a few posts and already leave them ready to go, keeping an eye out for holidays or celebrations you might want to highlight.
An even better way to do this is to automate. Most social media platforms allow you to schedule posts, but you can use an app like Buffer to schedule several posts ahead of time with ease.
Note: Buffer is a paid service, but you can use it for free with a few limitations, which is enough to get you started with no expenses.
Use the appropriate language
This is a subtle concept to grasp, but you can learn a lot by paying attention to other social media pages, both from your competitors and other services.
You probably have noticed that many large corporations with mass appeal are opting to use a more lighthearted language with memes, jokes, and emojis. While that can work in some cases, you can always go too far, and for the contractor business, it’s not that appropriate – at least not in most cases.
For a contractor business, you want to be direct, clean, and professional with your language!
Use images and videos
It’s very hard for any post to get traction when it’s not accompanied by an image or video. Nowadays, social media algorithms greatly favor videos and images too, making them pretty much obligatory.
When it comes to videos, most small businesses use the Stories feature on Instagram, for example, to record short clips of daily projects – these videos don’t need audio or commentary. Their purpose is to illustrate the publication with the benefit of moving images, which is more eye-catching.
And when it comes to images, you can learn how to take good pictures of your projects for use here, but there are plenty of copyright-free images out there to illustrate your posts.
A few examples are Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay. The variety will be somewhat limited, but it’s enough to get you started.
Learn from your own experience online
The best way to learn what works and what doesn’t on social media is to study your own behavior online. Pay attention to what types of posts appeal to you, which ones you scroll right past and which ones make you stop. Even the language that is used can be a factor.
That’s not to say what works for a kind of service will work for you, but there are still valuable lessons you can apply to your own business.
Use call-to-actions
The main reason you’re posting on social media is to convince people to act – preferably in a way that gets them closer to landing a job with you.
It’s totally fine to have some posts as filler, but your goal is to create call-to-actions. Whenever you create a post, there has to be some sort of invitation for the reader to learn more – a link, a video for them to watch, an article for them to read… something to take them closer to a potential sale.
For contractors, for example, you can publish an article that explains why now is the best time to paint a house – an inside that article from your website, they can easily be directed to your services should they choose to. You can get creative with call-to-actions, but that’s a general idea!
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