With over 3.484 billion social media users on earth, it makes sense that 90% of brands across the globe use social media to build brand awareness. Of those brands, 77% use social media to maintain brand reputation, while 71% use social media to develop and manage an engaged community. Also, 61% of brands use social media to increase conversions, while 50% use it to gain customer or market insights.
But how does this affect home services contractors? What does social media have to do with a contractor’s success? Read on and discover why foundation repair and waterproofing contractors should use social media for their business.
As of 2019, over 830,000 construction and contracting companies existed in the United States, but only 45% of them continue to grow. Every month, more than 1.7 million online searches for contractors take place. Of those searchers, 97% go online to find a local business or service. Of that percentage, 55% of them run an online search before they even schedule an appointment.
The following statistics for contractor businesses shed light on the importance of an online presence—especially social media.
If your business’s audience uses a social media platform to review your company and its industry, you could miss the opportunity to leverage those reviews. You can also lose the chance to address and respond to negative reviews to professionally gain the reputation your business has worked so hard to have.
Reputation management and reviews have essential importance to your business for the following reasons:
Social media gives contractor companies a chance to respond to their customer’s questions, concerns, and comments. It also provides an opportunity for contractors to address potential prospects and leads who have queries. The impactful influence on 67% of your consumers’ shopping behavior comes directly from reading or writing social media reviews and comments.
Referrals happen on social media every day. In fact, 1 in 3 people who use Facebook look for contractor recommendations and reviews; more people ask for advice related to home services on Facebook in the United States than any other topic. Personalized references can increase conversion rates by up to 5 ½ times. Contractor companies who acquire word of mouth customers retain them at a 37% higher rate than those acquired through other means.
With multiple valuable and qualitative website pages, your company will appear higher in Google’s rankings than other companies with less relevant pages. You want to have your audience view you as the authority for what you do, and without a social media presence, you may lose out on digital real estate. Local searches intersect with social media websites, and many social media channels play a role in the local search ecosystem.
Social media gives your company a chance to reach a different audience type than what you might have otherwise had the ability to reach. When internet searchers enter a particular query, a social media presence organically gets your business in front of a larger referral audience.
People spend a minimum of 2 hours and 23 minutes on social media daily. Of the billions of people who use social media, 98.55% of them have and use a minimum of four social media channels.
The following list provides the user percentages for the most popular social media channels:
Contractor businesses should use social media channels for three specific goals: awareness, customer service, and driving action.
On Facebook, your audience can see your contact information, respond to your posts, and write their queries. This social media channel gives you a chance to run ads as well. Facebook gives your audience a chance to like, comment, and share different posts you publish, thereby providing a significant opportunity for referrals to come your way, resulting in a substantial return on investment.
If you want to have a meaningful conversation with a customer or potential client, Twitter is the channel to use. You can also use Twitter for networking and establishing long-lasting acquaintances with clients, partners, and field experts.
With the ability to post photos and videos of your work, Instagram allows you to tell your brand’s story. Not only can you show what your company can do with before and after pictures, but you can also build relationships before, during, and after the completion of a sale.
LinkedIn helps contractors achieve professional credibility. Contractors can highlight their team members with individual pages and create business pages to emphasize their company overall. In addition, if they need to build their team or cultivate business relationships, LinkedIn is the place to go.
Not only have 93% of marketers claimed they gained customers due to social media videos, but videos continue to be the number one branded content used by marketers. YouTube allows you the chance to respond to questions and provide additional resources. You can create an introductory video about your business, what you do, and how you can solve the problems your audience has.
The key sits with having a social media presence and developing profiles that are both engaging and valuable for your audience. By doing this, you will have the ability and satisfaction to call any number of the 3.484 billion social media users on earth your customers.
Fusebox Marketing is a leading marketing company based in Carroll, Iowa, specializing in website development, SEO, PPC, Social Media, and Email Marketing.
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