Five Social Media Tips for HVAC and Plumbing Businesses
That Want to Rule Their Niche
What does your HVAC or plumbing marketing strategy look like?
Does it include social media? If it doesn’t, it needs to.
Here are the five tips that’ll help you use social media for a service business.
Billions of people use social media every single day.
There’s no denying that fact. Between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and all of these platforms, tons of time gets spent on social media.
You’ve probably already checked your Facebook at least a couple of times today.
So if this is the case, I have a question for you.
Why haven’t you incorporated social media into your plumbing marketing strategy? Why does your HVAC business have no presence on any of these platforms?
Maybe you’re getting a little uncomfortable right now. Perhaps you feel like this is something that you should have done a long time ago.
And you’re right.
But here’s the good news.
Yours is far from the only service business that isn’t taking advantage of social media. Most of your competitors aren’t using it to its fullest either.
That means there’s a chance for you to create a competitive advantage. If you can figure out how to use social media for a service business, you’ve got a marketing tool that so many others don’t have.
You just need some social media tips for HVAC and plumbing businesses. These are five that you can use starting from today.
Service Business Social Media Tip #1 – Choose the Right Platform
There are so many social media platforms out there that it’s almost impossible to develop a strong presence on all of them.
That means you’ll need to be a little selective.
First, you’ve got to know your audience avatar. If you haven’t figured out who you’re marketing to, stop reading and go do that right now.
You need this avatar because it plays into the social media strategy you’ll create. Each social media platform has its own audience. Here’s a very quick breakdown of the major platforms.
This is your jack of all trades platform and probably the first one that you’ll work with. Facebook attracts a varied audience. And the people who use it want to see interesting content as well as interact directly with your business.
Facebook lets you build ads and create long posts to your heart’s content. If you’ve got a more detailed message to share, this is a good starting point.
This is the place to go for short and snappy messages. You’ve got a 280-character limit with Twitter so you’re not going to post detailed content here.
You can, however, share little nuggets that get your audience thinking.
This is the professional platform. If you offer any sort of B2B services, this has to find its way into your service business marketing strategy.
You can use LinkedIn for networking with fellow professionals. It’s also a great place to post more detailed content that helps you to showcase your authority. This platform has an audience that’s more likely to pay attention to details.
Snapchat
The younger demographic tends to gravitate towards this message sharing app. If you’re a visual marketer, it may be a good choice for you.
Use it to send snaps of your best work to followers. You can even add them to an ongoing story so your pictures go straight out to everyone on your list. However, this may not be the platform of choice if you’re targeting an older audience.
That’s just a small sample of the platforms out there. But you get the picture in terms of how important it is to pick the right platform to focus on.
Service Business Social Media Tip #2 – Educate About Your Topic (Not Just Your Brand)
Social media is a great way to help with your business brand building.
You can get your message and vision out in front of a huge audience, which is awesome.
But here’s the thing.
Your audience doesn’t only want to hear your marketing messages. Sure, you need to educate them about who you are and what you do.
But you’ve also got to give them something valuable to chew on.
That means educating them about your topic as well as your brand.
Let’s say that you’re running a plumbing business. Examples of great content you could share include tip sheets about how to find a good plumber. You could talk about common plumbing problems and what people can do to avoid them.
There are all sorts of stuff you can share that doesn’t necessarily build your brand directly.
But what it does is show that you have expertise in your field. Your audience starts to see you as an authority and starts coming to you with their questions. If you keep giving great answers, they’ll fall in love with your brand without you beating them over the head with marketing stuff.
And when they need a service, you’re the one they’ll come to.
Service Business Social Media Tip #3 – Share Great Content (From Clients and Influencers)
Maybe we’re about to damage your ego a little bit here.
You aren’t the only person who has valuable information to share about your industry. There are a ton of people out there who have great insight.
Give them a little spotlight.
Pick out the influencers in your field and start sharing their content. Your followers will love it because they’re getting more valuable information. Plus, you might just end up connecting with the influencer and creating new opportunities for yourself.
This is a great tip to follow if your service business marketing strategy involves LinkedIn.
Then we have your clients.
They can help in so many ways when it comes to social media content. You’ve got the obvious stuff, such as sharing great reviews and testimonials.
But don’t shy away from the negative feedback you’re getting. Respond to it publicly and share it to show that your business fixes the mistakes that it makes.
Plus, your clients and prospects will ask questions. That’s even more ammo for your social media content. Take those questions, share them with your entire audience, and provide the answers that help you build your authority.
Service Business Social Media Tip #4 – Consistent Quality is the Key
It’s easy to say that you need to post regularly to social media. It’s one of the most basic social media tips for HVAC and plumbing businesses.
Regular posting keeps your brand in front of your audience and ensures they’re constantly receiving your messages.
But if those messages bore them or don’t align with what they want, they’re going to go away.
If you post crap consistently, you may as well not even have a social media strategy.
The key is that every post you make needs to offer something of value to the reader. It’s got to hit a certain quality level to make it onto your page.
Ask yourself a simple question:
Is this something that I’d find useful if I was my customer?
If you can’t answer with an emphatic “yes”, you need to revisit that piece before you post it. And you may even need to scrap it and come up with something else.
Service Business Social Media Tip #5 – Use Polls and Surveys
Social media isn’t just a way for you to share content with your audience.
It’s also ideal for helping you to figure out what your audience really wants from you. We’ve already covered the idea of answering the questions directed at you in a public forum.
But you can also encourage feedback from your followers to help you along.
Several social media platforms offer tools that allow you to carry out surveys and polls. Use them to find out more about your customers’ needs.
Here’s a simple question that you can ask:
What’s the most important thing that your plumber should offer as part of their service?
Potential answers might be:
- Regular communication
- Speed/Efficiency
- Professionalism when on site
And you can add anything else that you may think is an important thing.
The answers that you get to this poll tell you what your clients really value. And you may find that it’s an area that you need to work on.
For example, if your clients value regular communication, they’re saying they want more than a call the day before a job. They want updates along the way and aftercare once you’re done.
Leverage the Power of Social Media
You probably already have a presence on social media.
But after reading this, can you really say that you’re maximizing it? Are you providing what your followers expect from you?
Better yet, are you going beyond those expectations to become an authority that your clients love?
Your competitors probably aren’t using social media to its fullest. If you follow these tips, you can get ahead of them and really start engaging your audience.
With CEO Warrior, you can build an amazing social media strategy for your service business. And we have a lot more to share with you. After all, we haven’t even covered how you can use social media in your recruiting.
We’re going to leave you with one last question:
