It’s taken a year of patience and posting under the guidance of a social media expert, but Steadfast United’s founder Philip Tudor can now win a lead just by broadcasting video from a job site on Facebook. Here, he shares the three-step social media process he used to elevate his New Jersey construction, painting and landscaping business to help you do the same.
1. Begin with a strategy.
Tudor and the social media expert he hired met weekly to decide on and develop content to post to Steadfast United’s page. To build and engage an audience of existing and prospective customers, they narrowed down the types of posts they’d make and how frequently they’d make them, ultimately landing on a strategy that included:
- Posting three times a day, seven days a week.
- Posting job–related photos and videos.
- Creating timely graphics for holidays or other relatable experiences.
- Sharing messages that represent Steadfast United’s values as a company.
It took almost a year. But then, Tudor started to book new jobs.
“Now the branding is in place,” says Tudor “it’s as simple as going live for 2–3 minutes from a job site, showing them some work that we completed and somebody seeing that through the outreach.”
2. Build trust by sharing your company’s values.
Not every picture or message should be about the work you do, explains Tudor. It’s important to build trust through authentic posting if you want to drive customers to make an appointment through your website. And the specific content you should post to build trust depends on the culture of your business.
“80 percent of the time, we weren’t asking for a sale,” says Tudor. Some of his highest–performing posts are related to Steadfast United’s values, including joy, faith and hard work.
“Whatever it might be your company is good at, consistently weave [it] into content,” he adds. This helps create a relationship between you and the customer that encourages them to tune into your page — whether you’ve posted before–and–after photos from a job, or just an inspiring quote.
3. Use data to refine your strategy.
The final step is learning about your online audience, and then using what you learn to create content that is valuable and interesting to them. Tudor and the social media expert he hired used data from Steadfast United’s Facebook page to improve posting times and content engagement. In particular, they were looking to understand:
- Which posts performed the best (i.e., got the most clicks).
- How many people each post reached.
- Demographic details about their followers.
- Days and times when prospective clients interacted with content.
- How many new followers they received on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Steadfast United has seen clear results from their efforts. Tudor says more than 1,500 people watched a recent video he posted from a job site, and one of them booked a job with him.
“I’ve done golf course ads, radio ads, I have done yard signs, and none of those give you the return that social media gives you,” says Tudor. “It’s hands down the best way to market to your customers.”
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