Written by LetsBuild
Last updated October 19, 2023
In this day and age every company should be on social media – whether they’re in the construction business or not, whether you are among most promising startups or just a small local contractro business. Social Media build trust and make your brand more accessible. According to the Construction Marketing Association, social media use also boosts awareness, increase web traffic, search ranking, and more.
Without further ado, let’s take a good look at some of the best practices to follow for establishing a strong online presence for your construction company.
How to build a strong social media presence
Understand your customers
To use social media effectively, you must first understand the people buying your products. Your products/services are not for everyone, but for a specific market segment. Creating a customer profile can help you to focus on what your customer really wants.
Having your target market focused in one personal profile can clarify what should be your next strategy. A customer profile can include age, gender, location, expectations, hobbies etc. The data can be collected from different sources such as: site analytics, feedback analysis, social media research and so on.
Research different platforms
Once you figure out what is your customer profile, examine where your customer is social media active on. Take advantage of websites that cater to your target audience, such as using LinkedIn to reach professionals, Facebook for middle-aged consumers, and Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for the younger generations.
Using social media platforms effectively will help you boost revenue and increase brand awareness.
Use imagery
We all know this Chinese proverb “One picture worth ten thousand words” and there is a reason why it is so popular. We are visual creatures therefore being a little more creative can only satisfy your audience.
Using imagery in your posts has been proven to significantly boost engagement. Unique imagery that gives your followers an inside look at your company, like in the photo beneath, will really set you apart from the crowd. To make your posts even more attention-grabbing, why not use emojis from Picsart library and filter them by device type?
Avoid using only branded content
It is also important to share not just branded content, but also third party materials as not to fatigue your followers with the same type of information over and over. Things like industry-specific information, mentions of your company on other sites, and news articles are just some examples of third party content your followers might enjoy.
Still not sure where to start? See how the companies below achieved success with their social media strategy.
Savvy Social Media Construction Companies
At the moment, the most common social media networks are Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Youtube.
If you are looking to up your social media game and looking for tips and tricks on how to successfully use social media here is a list of people and companies to pay attention to.
With 180,631 followers on LinkedIn, Turner Construction Company is doing something right. Take a look at how often content is posted and which content is engaged with. This will give you great insight for your own LinkedIn strategy.
In the last 65 years Ryan Homes has built over 300,000 homes. Watch home tours, find home construction tips and DIY projects updated daily on their Facebook page.
For 40 years Hanley Wood has provided media, events and marketing services to the residential and commercial design and construction industry. With a variety of resources available and offered to its customers, Hanley Wood needs to be thorough in its social media strategy.
Hanley Wood uses Facebook to share upcoming events and construction information in daily posts. They take it one step further by creating separate Facebook pages for each of their magazines. This lets Hanley Wood dig into each specific audience and post targeted information and ads. Using this strategy is recommended if you represent a lot of different brands or services.
Want To Know More? Top 50 Construction Blogs
This company knows how to properly leverage each platform for maximum performance. For a seasoned company like Hanley Wood, this may come easily. But, if you’re new to social media, start following some social media blogs, like Social Media Today, for hints and tips that will have you posting like a pro in no time.
- Civil Engineer
This company knows how to utilize Instagram. With stunning photos of their jobs and subtle but effective use of branding elements, like their logo, in the majority of posts, they easily capture the attention of their followers.
Looking for an Instagram strategy? CRN Construction has an Instagram flooded with beautiful photos of their remodelling projects and DIY projects. Take note on how simple their posts are, but how much engagement they receive.
Morgan Sindall Group
With 34.9K followers, Morgan Sindall Group is a leading UK construction and regeneration group.Twitter is a strong weapon for Morgan Sindall Group with constant updates from their profile of work on going on projects.
Skanska
Twitter comes easy to Skanska who has nearly 20K followers. Tweeting multiple times per day, engaging with other Twitter uses and incorporating photos in their tweets make this a successful strategy.
With several folders, BAM displays all kinds of project designs that demonstrate their commitment to sustainability create a better user experience when it come to browsing and image selection.
With more than 30K followers, Pinterest has been a huge success for Avilas Construction. Any kind of remodelling information you are looking for and any before/after photos will be found on one of their 20 Pinterest boards. Mimic their strategy and you will see an increase in your Pinterest traffic.
YouTube
Mace Group
Mace Group is a great example of social media interaction on YouTube platform. Before clicking around on their channel, on the front page they have an “about us” video where you can find out about the company and its values. Moreover, they’ve structured their playlists as we can see in the picture above for a better viewer experience.
Gaining 20k active social media followers doesn’t happen overnight. It takes research, time, and a lot of trial and error to hit your groove. Experiment with different platforms to see what resonates with your potential customers. Try using coupons or running relevant campaigns to get more engagement.
Remember, doing social media well can take time! If you are not intending on finishing, don’t get started in the first place!
If you aren’t going to do it well, don’t bother, stick to a website and be done with it. There is nothing worse than a company having a blog page or a twitter profile and the last entry was a year ago.
Best advice is to prioritise the platform that works best for you and for your audience. If you are running a business you probably have a ton of other things to do, so invest in a part-time or full timer to help you with this. Remember to add your logo to your posts!
We would highly recommend this book as a place to get started:
The best advice we could give is don’t give up. If something isn’t working, don’t lose your faith. Try another strategy, get a little daring, ask for help, but don’t throw in the towel.
Follow in the footsteps of these construction companies’ social media strategies to give you a leg up and watch your social media following increase.
What social media strategies have you tried for your construction business?
