3 SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING TIPS FOR CONTRACTORS

By now you know you pretty much have to have a website for your business. However, that is not the end of your online journey; now you must learn to navigate social media advertising and promotion to drive traffic to your website and to build awareness in a larger audience.

Everything from Twitter and Facebook to LinkedIn, Youtube, and Pinterest hold opportunities to showcase your services and educate potential clients. These are the places you can share your blog entries and run campaigns. But like any marketing tactic you have to use these networks correctly or you will be wasting time and money.

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING
One of the biggest benefits of marketing on social media is the low cost associated with running advertising. Social media networks charge much less for ads than offline outlets (print, radio, TV). In addition, the costs for production don’t have to be high either. You don’t have to hire a media company, actors, or special photo equipment to have an effective online presence.

The size of your business doesn’t matter. Even a small company can compete with the big dogs; nobody will be able to tell the difference as long as your content quality is solid. In fact, you can even out-do those big companies who have yet to catch onto using social media; you can make them look like old fuddy-duddies by showing your prospects you are comfortable with new ideas and technology.

Another benefit is the reach and focus you can achieve on social media. Large numbers of people have joined the main social networks making them a perfect place to build awareness of your brand. Furthermore, social media allows you the opportunity to make highly targeted forays into different customer segments, deploying content specifically for them.

With real time analysis, you can see how your campaigns are doing day to day, allowing you to make changes on the fly until your campaign is producing the way you want it to. Learning these skills now also future proofs your campaigns. When the next social network comes up, you can easily transfer or add it to your stable of marketing tools.

Here are 3 tips to make social media advertising work for you.

POST REGULARLY
Attention spans are short and social networks continue to roll. Even with paid ads yours will only be served a certain number of times. You don’t want to pepper your audience with nonstop content but you do want to produce on a regular basis. Use your analytics to determine the best frequency for blog posting, Twitter entries, and Facebook campaigns.

Content is still king but it must be the right kind of content for the network. Pinterest and Instagram are great places to post images of completed projects, parts of projects in progress, infographics, and other visual material. Youtube, of course, is for your video productions like time lapse photography of laying a floor or putting up a metal building. Others, such as Facebook and Twitter can promote both your content and interaction with prospects.

Don’t forget the put social media buttons on all your content, on and off your website. You want those who appreciate what they see to share it with others who have the same needs.

NO SALES PITCHES
People do not want to be sold to.  Let me repeat that again: people do not want to be sold to. If everything you post is nothing but a sales pitch for your company you will lose attention from prospects and from search engines.

Make yourself the go to person for specific topics. Provide helpful content and interaction without pushing your services. If you build confidence that you know what you are talking about customers will remember and contact you when you are needed.

BE CONSISTENT ACROSS PLATFORMS
You will probably need to advertise across more than one network but you don’t want to post completely different content on each one. You want to use the social media networks to enhance a single message at a time or attention will get fractured. Some of your audience will prefer Facebook while others prefer Twitter. Make sure both groups receive the same information.

Social media has exploded across the internet. People are spending more time on social networks than ever before. You need to be there to interact with them and help them find your other content and your website so that your company benefits from the additional air-time at a much lower cost than in pre-internet days.


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