Facebook’s Audience
First and foremost, it’s important to recognize how dominant Facebook has been in the last decade for being a social media platform. (MySpace walked so Facebook could run) Due to this, most painter’s target client are more active on this site than others. If you could only run one social media profile, this is the one to prioritize.
Where To Start
I cannot stress this enough, you want to fill out every aspect of your profile when you set up your page. (Categories, Hours, Services, Descriptions, etc) Secondly, you want to choose an appropriate selection of imagery for your profile picture and cover photo. Keep in mind how the cover photos look on desktop vs mobile. When it comes to the profile picture, that’s where your logo typically works best but be mindful of how it appears.
You want your Facebook page to be a simplified version of a website. Pretend there is no website for them to visit to learn more and utilize photo albums as if they were pages on your site. Set up a photo album for every service you offer and feature only the best imagery you have in each of them. You can take this one step further if you have graphics, or stylized text from Canva. You can even create an album dedicated to FAQ’s, Reviews, About You, and more!
What To Post
Typically, a good variety of content is the best strategy because it keeps engagement with your existing following. However, your work is the most important piece of content to be sharing. Here are all the different types of posts to consider organized by what I think is important:
- Before and Afters (photos)
- Finished Projects (photos, videos, lives)
- Featured Testimonials and Experiences (graphics, videos)
- Company Updates (photos, videos, graphics, lives)
- On-Going Projects (videos, lives)
- Sharing Professional Insight (graphics, videos, lives)
- Behind-The-Scenes (photos, lives)
- Community Events (photos, videos, lives)
- Pets On-Site (photos, videos)
- Funny Things
Don’t forget you can always pin posts to the top of your page if you’re noticing they get great engagement or if they’re important. (Want more cabinet projects, pin your best cabinet project post)
For the post descriptions, remember this is social media not advertising media. There’s no need to explicitly say “buy our shit” that’s implied just by being a business page. Save the post descriptions for a chance to be social, be funny, and let your personality shine through. If you can’t come up with anything, use a thesaurus to find a new phrase to use and put an emoji in it.
Lean into your strengths for posting on social media! I’m always a fan of the path of least resistance. There’s no point taking a video of your professional insight on a brand of paint if it feels like pulling teeth to do so! Post something else instead. Quality is most important.
Organic Strategies
Your Facebook page needs a following to be taken seriously. It subliminally builds trust and credibility when you reach that 1,000 follower threshold. Organic strategies for social media are typically a great way to get started because they are cost effective. You have to be your biggest advocate for your business and invite every single person you know to like your Facebook page. I personally don’t like the idea of spamming friends and family but why shouldn’t your friends and family support you?
Another “organic” way to grow your following is by incentivizing growth. For example, a post that says “Tag three people you know and follow our page to be entered in this giveaway.” This is on the border of organic/paid because typically you need something to offer. However, this is where you can be creative! A color consultation is something that doesn’t cost too much other than time of yours so that’s a potential offer.
Paid Strategies
Boosting Posts
This strategy is typically the best option for most contractors because the content is key for any paid marketing on Facebook. Boosting posts allows you to share the content that’s already getting the most engagement.
My standard recommendation for boosting posts is to first post at least once a week on social media. At the end of the month, you then look for the post that got the most interactions from it and choose that to boost. A budget between ($50-200) usually works per boosted post. Set the timeframe for the month and let that post work it’s magic!
Keep in mind you can always increase the frequency of this strategy! It’s also important to test different post types, budgets, and target audiences.
You can’t always expect leads to happen right away (that’s ideal and possible) but the more realistic expectation is to grow your following. It sometimes takes a few months or even years for a social media follower to become a customer.
If you’re boosting more than 4 posts a month, that’s when Facebook ads start to make more sense as well.
Facebook Ads
If you have an expansive catalog of professional-grade content to share, Facebook Ads makes more sense. The problem is that not a lot of people have great content so boosted posts makes more sense for them. If you only have a few professional-grade pieces of content ads won’t work for the long time because eventually the same piece of content will be appearing over and over in your target audience’s feeds. That’s why a good variety of content is necessary so you can rotate what gets shown.
Ultimately videos are the best piece of content to use for Facebook ads because of the level of targeting you can get with them. For example, if someone engages with the video you can have a separate campaign that specifically will show a different post with an emphasis on a call-to-action.
Retargeting Ads
One of my personal favorite and most effective forms of paid advertising on social media is website retargeting. This is when you specifically show ads to people who visited your website but didn’t reach out. For the next 30 days, you occasionally pop up in their feed reminding them what makes you exceptional! You don’t need professional-grade content but it certainly helps. The downside is that you need a lot of a traffic flowing through your website to take advantage of this strategy.
