While a lot of electricians tend to have some online presence, there are still a few local businesses who rely on more traditional marketing efforts and word of mouth alone. While this may have been sufficient a few years ago, we have entered a digital age where your online footprint is a marker of success, reliability and trust. A regularly updated website is a great place to start, but to really stand out from the crowd, electricians must make the most out of social media.
Here are a few of our tips:
Identify the right channels:
Identifying the right channels is a key part of the process in building a loyal and engaged audience. You must have a holistic understanding of the industry and know where you fit in as this will allow you to identify what social media platform will work best for your business. Do you pride yourself in being a very design oriented electric company? If so, perhaps Instagram or Pinterest would be an ideal place for you to showcase your work! Or maybe you do a lot of work with students – Twitter is a great place to target the younger generation. Understanding what services you provide will help you identify the appropriate channels for you.
Multi-Channel strategy:
Don’t forget, you don’t have to stick with just one channel. Having a presence over a few platforms will give your business even more exposure and allow you to target more than one demographic at a time. However, there is such thing as too much presence. It can become overwhelming having to look after too many channels, and can often lead to diminishing quality of posts or the temptation to recycle content over platforms. So choose wisely!
Optimise your content:
If you are present on more than one platform, make sure you optimise your content to fit the platform the best. For example, a simple condensed text post with a link may perform best on Twitter, with a longer form version for LinkedIn, a rich photo to accompany the post will help boost views on Facebook, and the perfect set of hashtags with increase impressions on Instagram. An example of optimised content could be:
Twitter: Links to your services and retweeting testimonials from happy customers. Answering customer queries can also help showcase your customer service skills.
Facebook: Images of successful installations with a before/after pic to showcase the quality of your work.
Instagram: Images of your offices and employees to promote your company culture.
YouTube: Short clips with electrical tips and advice to promote and highlight your industry knowledge and expertise.
LinkedIn: Sharing news and thoughts on industry updates and events to showcase your professionalism.
Be reactive:
One of the best aspects of being present on social media is having the ability to be in direct contact with past and prospective clients. It can be a great way to build rapport with customers and help you gain their trust. Being reactive on social media and being overly aware of your interactions can help your business stand out as having a customer oriented focus, which can help drive business.
Take advantage of everything the platform has to offer:
Often times, businesses aren't making the most of what different platforms have to offer. All social media sites have features that will help you stand out from the crowd when used right. For example, if you have a great presence on Facebook, it may be worth taking it one step further by making the most of the story feature. Like Instagram you can upload ‘stories’ from a Facebook business account. Doing so will help enrich your profile and put you ahead of your competitors. Many electricians are also taking advantage of local Facebook groups as a way to broaden their reach and target specific demographics at a time.
You can go ‘LIVE’ on almost all platforms these days, and this is another great way to have instant contact with your audience and take them with you on your day.
IGTV is a relatively new addition to Instagram and finding a way to promote your business using it will put you one step ahead of your competition.
Run contents:
All the tips above are redundant if you have no social following at all. Growing organically can take time, so one way to boost followers is to run a few competitions throughout the year. These normally perform best on Facebook or Twitter and are a great way to reach a lot of people really quickly. A small prize as incentive for a share/like/follow is mostly always a recipe for success!
These are just a few tips to help electricians get started on social media. A great online presence can really affect how your business is perceived and can also help boost traffic to your website, SEO and customer engagement. A win win situation!
More posts by Samantha Mager
