Did you know that over 52% of small businesses post on their social media channels daily? An additional 19% are present on social media, although they tend to post less frequently.
But you're a home maintenance business--why pour all that energy into social media? Aren't Facebook and Instagram just for moms and selfies?
Not so fast!
Social media can actually be a seriously powerful tool for any small business. In particular for a home maintenance business. Like your website, social media channels help your company to establish itself as an authority in its field. It helps your business to market and promote its services.
And, even more importantly, it helps to establish a trusting relationship between your business and its clients.
The vast majority of customers will flat-out refuse to do business with companies they don't feel able to trust. Makes sense, doesn't it? Why put money and time into a company you have no reason to trust?
If you're looking for ways to boost your home maintenance business, social media marketing may just be the avenue to head down. Here's how to build brand trust for your maintenance business using social media and thoughtful planning!
1. Be Smart
If you're not willing to dedicate your team's social media efforts to this first rule, you may as well not bother with social media at all. It's crucial to recognize the need for presenting your maintenance business on social media as smart, authoritative, and thoughtful anytime you post.
Use your social media platforms to show your followers and clients how much your business knows. You're experts in your field--why not prove it to potential clients?
Taking care to prove your business to be an authority within its field means keeping up with your industry's developments. It means remaining dedicated to facts and sharing only the most accurate information. When you take the time to be smart and to become an authority on your social media channels, your business's followers will view you as a trustworthy authority.
You'd never put incorrect or incomplete information on a website or brochure. You'd never look a customer in the eye and tell them something you know to be false about your work. Apply these same values to your social media content. Establish yourself as an authority on your subjects, and watch the trust blossom from there!
2. Be Informative
A major element of a solid, trustworthy social media campaign is to remain true to your company and brand's goals. As a home maintenance business, it's not likely that your posts will include regular selfies or beach pics. Stick to your brand and target your goals--which should always be to be informative.
Do you use your social media outlets primarily to promote sales and services? Or do you prefer to use it to promote your website's blog content? A good and trustworthy home maintenance business will use its social media to inform followers.
This doesn't mean that your business needs to reveal "how-to" tips or reveal the tricks of its trade. It just means that each thing your business posts should be intentional and valuable to customers. Your followers get enough senseless posts already. Build trust by being a reliably high-quality account. Stay true to your mission to inform and positively contribute to the internet.
3. Be Helpful
One way many small businesses fail to view their social media and other digital presences is as a resource for customers. While you want customers to give you a call whenever they need work done, it can be a major power-move for your home maintenance business to make efforts to be helpful online, too. Think of your business's internet presence as a 24/7 salesman--and a 24/7 resource.
By sporting a blog or a webpage that provides useful information and frequently asked questions, you build trust with readers. This is because they're allowed to see clearly that you've got their best interest in mind. By taking strides to be helpful on your website and through social media, followers come to value and trust your business more.
A company that doesn't charge for support and miracle fixes?! Now that's a company customers will trust.
Consider using your social media platform to host a short, simple video series called "FAQ-Friday," where you take some time to shed light on common, simple problems. Think about all the ways in which your business's social media can be not only a killer marketing tool but also a truly valuable resource for customers! You'll see the difference in trust almost immediately.
4. Be Personal
As a small business, one of your greatest weapons is built-in: The people and faces behind your company name. With a small business comes the opportunity to take advantage of friendly neighborhood faces and small, personal relationships. It's your job to take advantage of this aspect of your business and use it in your social media marketing strategy.
Post things like staff profile features. Showcase a photo and a brief profile on each staff member's home maintenance specialties. This can help customers put a face to your company.
Posting pictures of your staff at its holiday party can give customers a window into life at your company. Asking permission to feature different home maintenance projects with testimonials from customers builds your portfolio, as well as trust through word-of-mouth.
Social media has a natural potential for personal connection. Take advantage of this by being personal with your followers. If followers are able to see your efforts to connect, and if they're able to feel a personal connection in return, your clients' trust will come naturally.
5. Be Relationship-Centered
Especially if you're a small business in competition with other businesses in the area, it can be a super-lucrative move to use social media to build relationships with customers. Social media marketing is unlike older, traditional marketing techniques because it allows for instant communication with current and potential clients. You guessed it! Take advantage of this.
Social media allows you to respond directly to customers and potential clients. It allows you to send and receive direct messages from them. It allows you to interweave your business within the daily fabric of their lives and conversations.
Show your followers that you care about your relationship with them. Showing followers through social media that you care about your relationships with them communicates the deeper fact that you're customer-centered in business, as well. When followers see you working to build relationships with them, they'll begin to trust in your value of relationships in real life, too.
6. Be Transparent
Thanks to the freedom of social media and other internet platforms, businesses are given ample opportunity to be totally transparent in their posts. Whether it's in response to issues within your company, or simply to the general quality of your services, use social media to be open, transparent, and honest.
You can start on your transparency journey by posting testimonies from actual customers. If any shortcomings are cited, be sure to include these in your posts--as well as how those dissatisfactions were solved. Beyond testimonials, you can work to be transparent in social media. Be honest about your pricing and services by using thorough content.
Be open, honest, and transparent. Address customer concerns, highlight satisfied customers, and be forthcoming with all information possible. Be transparent and outward about complications and services with your clients and potential customers. This might be one of the most powerful ways to make a connection and build trust with your followers through social media. Harness the power of transparency!
7. Be Promotional
After all, isn't that why your business launched its social media campaign in the first place? You shouldn't spend every moment of your social media life pummelling your audience with promotional materials. But it's important to promote yourself in order to establish trust. Your followers expect promotion when they follow you; be honest and meet their expectations.
Be sure to post a wide range and variety of content throughout your social media campaign. Some content may be purely informational--but a solid chunk should be promotional stuff.
Failing to promote your business on its social media pages can become an issue in a number of ways. Followers might become suspicious about a hidden agenda. Your posts will start to come off as directionless and poorly-planned.
Be strategic and smart about the ways in which you use social media marketing for your home maintenance business, but remember that your audience expects you to promote yourself! It's a big part of the reason they're here. If you want your audience to trust in your brand, give them what they expect to receive!
Want More Tips to Build Brand Trust?
Building brand trust can seem intimidating and nearly impossible before you've managed it. But the truth is, with some careful planning, a lot of honesty, and some thinking throughout your business's marketing goals, you can establish genuine brand trust and connection with clients.
Need more tips on how to establish social media and brand trust for your home maintenance business? Look no further! Head over to our page.
