Roofing Social Media Management – Top 5 Fails
Many roofers love to see images and video of roofing “fails”. Whether it’s a ugly repair job done by a homeowner, or a botched install by a “chuck in a truck”, these type of posts often get a lot of attention. While roofing fails can draw a crowd, unfortunately, social media account fails have the opposite effect. After reviewing thousands of social media accounts over the past few years, I have seen a number social media account “fails”. While the buck ultimately stops with the business owner, sometimes the fail is caused by an employee, family member or social media manager who is running the account. If used properly, social media accounts can be a very effective and economical way to generate roofing leads. When not managed properly, they can waste valuable time and money, besides missing out on connecting with potential customers.
While there are numerous mistakes that can be made when running a social media account, here are the top 5 fails I have seen in the roofing industry, in no particular order:
1 . NOT POSTING FOR THEIR CUSTOMER
While this should be obvious, many roofing businesses on social media don’t seem to know who their audience is. Roofing business social accounts will often post images and videos that will draw a lot of attention from other roofers (through love or hate), but these same posts have little or no meaning whatsoever to a homeowner.
It is important to research your target audience (age, gender, location, economics, residential, commercial, etc.). If you take the time to develop a customer persona (avatar), you will have more clarity when deciding what images, video, and text should be posted. Don’t fall into the trap of posting what you personally enjoy or what other roofers will like. If you want to do that, create a separate influencer account aimed at roofers. For the social media account for your roofing business, create posts with your potential customer in mind.
2. NO POSTING STRATEGY
Another social media mistake some make is not putting much thought into what, when, and how they post. They will post various images or video throughout the week or month, seemingly without any rhyme or reason. These social posts may not even include any descriptive text or hashtags.
Planning and consistency are important for effective social media outreach. After developing a customer persona (mentioned above), creating a social posting calendar can help in organizing a variety of post types and content. With proper planning, content for a whole month (or more) can be created from just a few roofing jobs. When and how often you post can help improve the chances that a customer will see your post.
3. NO SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
There are some who may actively post quality content, but never make the effort to interact with their audience. They post, and then disappear from their social account until they login to post again. Comments (negative or positive) are ignored, and they don’t even check their DM’s. Basically, they aren’t very “social” on their social media account.
If you are going through the work of creating high-quality content aimed at your audience, you need to do everything possible to prompt them to see your content. Be active on the social platforms you are posting on. Respond to comments, and definitely be checking your inbox regularly (although you may have to weed through the marketing spammers). Interact with your potential customers on their accounts, and on other primary accounts they are following. Responding to their posts with genuine comments can help build a relationship not only with that account owner, but also their followers.
4 . TOO MUCH SELLING/SPAMMING
Some fall into the trap of always using social to only promote their business. Their posts mostly consist of asking people to hire their roofing company. Their “engagement” on other social accounts is what most would describe as “spam”. They are more focused on trying to force an instant sale, than on first building a relationship of trust. They are constantly bombarding others with their sales pitch.
There are many creative ways to use social media to build brand awareness and trust rather than annoying customers by always trying to get them to hire you. Try to provide genuine interaction with customers without including any sales pitch. Contribute valuable input when posting or responding in social groups and on other business and personal social accounts. Building trust through relationships takes time, but is a much more effective sales strategy in the long run. Many top marketers recommend that only 20% of your social posts should involve promoting your business and the remaining 80% should be used to educate and entertain your prospective customer.
5. NOT STUDYING ANALYTICS
One final mistake is to be working hard to consistently create and post content, and taking the time to engage with your audience, without knowing the effectiveness of what you are posting. Social media business accounts (along with some personal/creator accounts) provide helpful analytics which many business owners have never looked at, much less studied. Likes, comments, and views can easily be seen under a post, but they don’t necessarily give a complete representation of the impact a particular post has.
Don’t just focus on vanity metrics, or even “going viral”. There are other important metrics to study including impressions/reach, saved posts, shares, and the demographics of your viewers. You may be discouraged that a post doesn’t get many likes, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. You may have more potential customers checking out your business than you think. Most people aren’t going to be actively liking and commenting on posts from their local home improvement contractors. Don’t be discouraged by that. Instead, focus on increasing reach/impressions in your local area to draw attention to your business and build brand awareness.
Need help developing a solid social media strategy for your roofing business? CONTACT US
A call to action along with contact information on every page is very important. SEO (search engine optimization) will give your website an edge that other roofers may not have. Search algorithms are constantly changing, so SEO is not a once-and-done thing. Make sure the company you hire to do your SEO uses “white-hat” techniques (methods Google deems non-spammy). Otherwise, your site could be severely penalized.
Other ways to possibly get featured are providing roofing-related information such as reasons to get your roof inspected, how to avoid a roofing scam, preparing the exterior of your home for winter, etc.
This will help you maximize your time and effort in order to attract quality roofing leads. Also, it is important to post regularly (at least once every week or two at minimum) to let prospective roofing customers know the account is active.
Another tip is to only buy tools as jobs require them. This will help keep you from going into debt for tools and equipment you may end up never using. Some of the tools and equipment you will need will vary according to what roofing services you plan to specialize in.
Make sure you are following proper protocol in your region. This means having necessary insurance, following tax codes, getting proper licenses and permits, etc. This applies even to a part-time roofing business.
