If you’re a business owner, you’re likely using social media to help market your business. Social media has become a common marketing channel with builders, architects, interior designers, and realtors alike relying on it to showcase their work and connect with potential clients. Many business owners wonder if they should be doing more on social media to stay ahead of the competition. Short answer: it depends on your industry. After working with dozens of small to medium-sized businesses, and seeing the results of a wide varitey of marketing channels, these are the two strategies we use for social media. 

Social Media Strategy No. 1: Professional Portfolio

The first approach to your online presence is what we like to call a “professional portfolio.” With this type of online presence, you have a social media account with regular updates of beautiful professional photography that represents your business well. When someone finds you online, they’re more motivated to work with you because what they’re seeing is trustworthy. This approach takes a few hours a week.

Social Media Strategy No. 2: Highly Engaged Account

The second approach is an account that is highly engaged, interactive, and posting daily to grow an audience. With this approach you are posting to the grid regularly, and to stories daily. You are keeping up with video trends and audio trends. You are following new accounts and engaging with them. This approach takes a minimum of a few hours a day.

Which Social Media Strategy Makes Sense for Your Business?

There are a few questions you should ask yourself to decide which approach is right for you…

1. Am I a small, local business marketing to a relatively small audience?

If you answered “yes,” then the first approach is best for you. 

If you answered no, meaning you are a larger business marketing to a wider audience and looking for customers across the country, then a highly engaged account makes more sense IF…

1. Your business is interesting and/or educational

2. You (or someone on your team) are willing to create content consistently

It can be a rat race out there – it takes good content that is edited and optimized well to show up in the algorithm and capture people’s attention. Once you’ve adopted an approach, there are a few key things to adopt and other things to avoid. 

Social Media Tip No. 3: Professional Photography

Visuals are everything on social media. Whether you’re showing off a stunning interior design project, a beautiful custom home, or the construction site of a work-in-progress, high-quality photography can make all the difference in how your business is perceived online. Hiring a photographer can be expensive – at Clever Punch, we work with the best local photographers in your area and include professional photography as one of the many services in our competitively-priced marketing bundles. 

Social Media Tip No. 4: Don’t Waste Time on Hashtags 

Think about it – if your business is attempting to appeal to a local audience, is your target customer using hashtags to find the service you offer? Probably not. Hashtags look crummy and out-of-place in a caption that should be coming off as human, approachable, and appealing to potential clients. Hashtags don’t attract your target audience but they’re a great way to attract spammy comments from promoters. It’s much better to speak from your heart and write a copy that will compel people to want to work with you. If this is something you struggle with, our team has you covered. 

We hope these tips take off some of that pressure of feeling like you should be doing more. Social media can be worthwhile, but it doesn’t have to take up so much of your time. Let our team help you create and manage a social media account that is professional and consistently updated, and then focus our time and your marketing budget on other efforts that will have better results. All you need is to up the quality and professionalism of your page and spend way less time worrying about it. Schedule a call with us, and let’s discuss the best approach for your business.