You’re busy. I get that. But, if you're sitting on the couch scrolling around social media, you have some time to spend growing your own social media platforms and pages.

Now, why would I want to do that? Because social media is a tool that acts as an extension of your brand and business, and it's a great way to interact with your customers.

Here’s how you can build a social media presence that will knock the socks off your customers! And it's not going to eat up all your free time, promise.

‍1. Be present

‍Here are the easiest ways to be present on social media:

1. Listen: Keep your eyes (and ears) out for direct mentions of your company online, customer feedback or any discussion that is relevant to your business. In fact, social listening can be pretty eye-opening.
2. Engage: This takes many forms including liking, commenting or sharing things that are relevant to your business.
3. Ask questions: Social media is a great place to have a discussion. For instance, if you have questions about your business, a new service you want to test, or want to know what your customers think - social media is a great place to open those lines of communication.
4. Respond: You wouldn't walk away from a customer who was talking to you face-to-face, so you shouldn’t turn your back on someone online either. For example: if a customer tags you in a photo of the work you completed at their house, you should take the opportunity to talk and engage with them (as you would face-to-face).

2. Set some social media goals

For example, you might want to get more recommendations on social media, grow your followers, or start posting new types of content.

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Your goals don’t need to be lofty. They should, however, be smart (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely).  

Here’s an example of a goal that puts the smart principle into practice: “I want to share before and after photos of my work 1x per week on both Facebook and Instagram. I will respond to any comments or questions that result within 1 day.”

3. Share something!

‍Now it’s time to share some content.

...Back it up.

What is content, anyway?

Good question!

Content is any material you are going to post on your social media platforms for your customers to consume. This can be text, images or videos, a blog or an article, or audio like a podcast.

Part of understanding what to share on social media is knowing your customers. The best part for service industry professionals is that you know your customers like the back of your hand. When considering what types of content to share on social media, think of your ideal customer and what they would like to see or hear from you.

Is it behind the scenes updates? Before and after photos? Customer testimonials that will help build that trust for your brand? (This is how you can encourage customers to write reviews, by the way!)

Here are some content suggestions for service industry professionals with some handy examples:

1. Before & After photos:

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2. Testimonials or reviews of your work:

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3. Introduce yourself and your team:

4. Ask questions and get feedback:

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5. Educational content: You’re the expert here. Sharing educational content allows your customers to learn something new or see something from a new perspective.

**No matter what you’re sharing on social media remember to represent your brand and business in a professional way, catered to your customers.

‍4. Automating social media

Building a social media presence that will impress your customers doesn’t need to be hard or time-consuming. There are many platforms, including things like Instagram growth services and NiceJob’s social media automation tools that can help automate your social media. BUT, (and that’s a pretty big but) if you are automating your social media consider these tips first:

Definitely do:

• Do use social media automation tools to curate and share content.
• Do take advantage of the features offered, such as timed posts. NiceJob, for instance, will optimize your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn social media posts.
• Consult the analytics offered to have a solid understanding of what content works best for your customers. For example, photos and videos of your work may be engaging, whereas sharing your logo is not as interesting.
  
  

Try to avoid:

• Avoid using automation if you will forget to answer comments and questions from customers.
• Avoid posting the same or very similar posts back-to-back. Keep your content fresh so your customers will stay engaged.
• Avoid using every post as a chance for a hard sell. Try being informative instead.

If you're using NiceJob's social media automation tool and want to optimize that feature, here's a couple of recommendations from our Success Manager, Joel 😀

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5. Have fun with it!

‍Some of the best and most engaging content is simply fun! It’s easy to get caught up in the beast that is social media. At the end of the day it’s a tool you can use to showcase your business, engage with and listen to your customers and have some fun!

*We posted this to the NiceJob Facebook page and it had some funny responses (even with an error in the sentence *oops*). This post performed well because it's relevant to our customers/audience and it's just plain fun!