This one is a no brainer!
Being on social media is a must if you want to take advantage of a simple easy tool that you can keep updated at the click of a few buttons, as well as it costing absolutely nothing to start! Unlike creating a website, there’s also no ongoing costs which is definitely appealing if you’re just starting up.
As tradies, you know word of mouth is some of the best types of referrals and it isn’t unheard of for some businesses operating solely on word of mouth referrals. Social media is just like a virtual word of mouth! When someone is loving what you’re doing, or wants to show off your handy work, people use social media. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to be recognised and referred.
Of course, you can get all fancy with your content later on down the track, by creating a content plan and strategy, refining your photography, and learning all about hashtags and the best time to post in conjunction with the latest algorithm (this is changing alllll the time). But don’t let the thought of all of this prevent you from starting. Something is better than nothing on social media.
Want to know where to start? Or have a social media page but want some extra tips? Then read on…
Where to start on social media…
Create
Create a facebook page and Instagram page (you’ll need a Facebook profile yourself to set this up).
Yes, we’ve recommended you create both a Facebook and an Instagram page. But that doesn’t mean double the work. Via Instagram, you can link your pages together so you only have to post once to get on both platforms (maximise the chance of being seen with no extra effort). You’ll then use Instagram as your main posting platform.
- Facebook tip: It’s important it’s a business page (where people ‘like) your page, and is not a profile page (where people add you as a friend).
- Instagram tip: Make sure you switch it to a business profile in your settings.
Update your profile image
Upload your logo as your profile images on both platforms. And upload an image of one of your amazing jobs as your Facebook cover photo.
- Facebook cover photo tip: Check how this looks on both desktop and mobile of your page as some images will appear differently on the different devices.
Complete your bio
Complete your bio with your all important contact details and a short bio. It’s also handy to write what your specialise in your bio so people can see what you do at a quick glance. E.g. decking specialist, handyman, building designer, custom home builder.
- Tip: If you have more than 1 page or website you’d like to link to, e.g. a gallery of your jobs, plus an enquiry form, you can add a mini-site like a Linktree or Milkshake app which allows you to easily navigate your potential customer direct to the right place right from your social page. Check out the NHS Instagram page URL to see what this looks like.
Follow others
- Have a search on social media of any pages that may provide some inspiration or tips for your business and give them a follow. Everyone on social media is trying to build up their likes and followers. So often, especially if they’re local, they might give you a follow or a like back. I know, we will
Creating content
Search through your phone for any jobs that you’ve taken photos of and pick the ones you’d like to post.
Once you’ve created some new habits of posting, and you know how to use the tools, you can take the next step and improve your posts down the track when you’re ready. Sometimes the first step to creating a social media feed is even just remembering to capture the content on site! One way to start developing this practice is taking before and after shots.
The main thing is to start somewhere and then develop the practice to create some solid habits (it’ll pay off in the long run).
Start Posting
Once you’re ready to make your first post, you can do it straight from your phone or via desktop using Facebook Creator Studio (which also lets you see the interaction stats). Upload your image (the higher the resolution, the better), write a caption (doesn’t matter how big or small or in any particular format to start off with), and post away! You can get more detailed with all the other stuff later on down the track.
Written your caption and find once you’ve posted it all, the formatting is out of whack or using lots of full stops to move your hashtags down a few lines? This is a particularly annoying bug on Instagram, especially when you use hashtags and you don’t want it all caught up in your actual message (I’ve had a few customers DM me about this issue). Here’s a very handy tool that removes the stress. You simply write your caption in the web page, copy and paste it into your social media post and TA DAH! It’s all formatted. You’re welcome https://apps4lifehost.com/Instagram/CaptionMaker.html
You’ll notice that when you post in your Instagram feed, it displays only a short section of the caption you’ve written is displayed and then you have to click to ‘…more’. So it’s important to state something that people will see at a glance and can expand the caption to read on.
Cool story, bro.
Capture content for your stories! Sometimes taking a quick progress snap and posting straight to your stories is quicker and easier. These only last 24 hours in your story. But can help you be seen and can drive views to your feed.
Tag away!
Increase your chance of exposure and tag in any brands or suppliers who helped you do your job. This will mean these other pages will be alerted of your post and may also share to their pages as well. This is also one of the main ways we know when you’ve done a job with products purchased from NHS, so we can share it too. You can tag the corresponding pages, and also include any hashtags of their brands as well.
There’s no need to go overboard with the hashtags. 5-10 max. Keep it simple and #hastagresponsibly
Here’s our handles and hashtags:
– Instagram @nhs.trade
– Facebook @nhs.aust
#easyasnhs #nhstradie #nhstradetip
It’s important to note, that there’s a difference between mentioning someone’s handle in your caption, and tagging them in the photo.
When someone tags you in an image, all the images will appear on the other tab of your profile (see below pic for reference) for easy access. So if someone wants to see all your work which other people have tagged you in, they can go to this tab of your profile.
If someone mentions you only in the caption, it’s not easy (sometimes impossible) to pull up the history of all these mentions.
Whenever we make a post, we play it safe and just double up and do both a tag and a mention.
When you tag someone in the image, it will sit on their feed in the 'tagged' section permanently and won't be lost.
And remember to add your location to each post.
Consistency is key
Be as consistent as you can with your posts (social media algorithms love this). It’s great to start with 2 posts a week at minimum to start building your content and following. Half the battle is just remembering to post and capturing the content.
Notifications Turned ON
Make sure your notifications are turned on so that you can interact with your followers and respond to enquiries in a timely manner. This is especially important for when you’re tagged in stories, as these disappear after 24 hours. So you don’t want to miss an opportunity to re-share these ones.
ALREADY UP AND RUNNING AND WANT TO KNOW HOW TO TAKE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
Here’s some tips to improve your social media:
Plan and schedule your posts
Schedule your posts in advance in conjunction with your social media strategy/plan. There’s lots of apps on the market that can help with this, like Planoly (there’s tonnes of others on the app store), where you can also view the aesthetics of your grid layout before you post. Otherwise you can just use Facebook Creator Studio for free where you can draft, schedule and publish to both facebook and instagram. You can get pretty fancy here by using different apps and software platforms.
Save some stories to your highlights
Save some of your stories to your highlights and create different highlights for each job or types of jobs. E.g. Particular jobs to a viewer can see the journey to do the build, or even categories of your builds like a façade transformation or decking jobs.
Boost your posts
Boost some of your existing posts to help gain some attention and more followers. A lot of the time, the best ones to do this for are the posts that you originally get good engagement in. These are the ones you’ll see on social media that have ‘Sponsored Post’ above the post, and next time you look at your feed you’ll actually notice that every 4th ad is a Sponsored Post. Crazy huh!
Social media strategy plan
Create a social media strategy plan. Think about who is your target audience, so you can be more strategic in the types of posts you put out, your wording, and also the times of day you post can increase your exposure.
You can even enlist some social media assistance. There’s lots of companies that specialise in this who can come up with a plan, and even assist with some posting for you.
Video
Start taking more video and getting creative. Video is such an effective way to showcase your jobs. And there’s some simple video editing software available via some Apps even just on your phone.
Get creative with your stories
There’s now some pretty cool apps that turn your ordinary stories into some amazing video-like content which allow you to get really creative.
Check out apps like Adobe Spark, InShot, Unfold and Canva.
Hashtags
You see them used everywhere. But do you even actually know what a hashtag is? A hashtag is a label for content. It helps others who are interested in a certain topic, quickly find content on that same topic. They do this by searching on any social media platform for something using, generally some ‘inspo’. Try searching #easyasnhs and you’ll see all the posts that have that hashtag in the caption
Do your hashtag research and add hashtags to your posts in line with your brand and post type.
There are also some brands of our suppliers who use specific hashtags which can help your content be discovered, whilst also increasing your chances of being reposted by them.
View your Insights
Take a look at the insights and statistics of your different posts and stories. Facebook Creator Studio shows you all of these. Or if you’re on instagram, when you click on one of your posts, you will see ‘View Insights’ under your image.
Create a theme for your feed
Create a ‘theme’ for your feed so it’s consistent in colour and feel to your brand that look appealing to the eye when someone views your Instagram profile page
Highlight cover images in line with your theme
Add some highlight cover images in line with your theme. There’s even some apps that can help you with this here.
Run a competition
Run a competition to entice more followers and likers. Please note, it is always best to look into the T&Cs of running a competition on social media and any lotteries and gaming agent to ensure it is a legal and fair competition.
- Here’s the conditions for running a promotion on Instagram https://help.instagram.com/179379842258600
- Here’s the conditions for running a promotion on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/policies/pages_groups_events/#promotionsguidelines
The world of social media has a huge potential, and it can be daunting for some (especially the lesser tech savvy). Photo editing, creating GIPHYs, using fancy fonts and colours are pretty cool. But they aren’t necessarily what will get you the most out of the time you’re investing into developing content.
The most important part is to just getting started.
Standing on a job site right now?
Once you’ve finished reading this article, open up the camera on your phone, stand back so you can get your job in view, and take a pic! (You don’t need to be a pro photographer) There you go! You’ve just started.
It’s a visual story teller!
Create the habits of documenting your jobs so a potential customer can see the quality of your work and the types of jobs you do. Don’t be afraid of posting things that showcase your personality as well. It’s beneficial to show a potential customer the types of people who they would be working with to help turn their visions into reality.
What’s even better is that once you’ve built some great content and really got your social media underway, it also makes creating a website even easier as you’ve already got the content (which is often harder to go back and get when the time comes to doing it)!
We hope you’ve found this information useful for you and your business.
Feel free to send us a direct message via either of our platforms (facebook, Instagram, linkedin) if you have any questions.
Amanda McKee
NHS Marketing & Communications Manager
(and the face behind the NHS social media pages)
Connect with me on LinkedIn