(This article is part 2 of our 2-part series on social media marketing. You can find the first article here.)

In part one of our series about social media marketing, we went over a few strategies to help businesses gain more followers. Increasing this follower base is important, it's just as important to keep those followers engaged with your social content.

We’ve got some tips on how businesses — especially those in the home services industry — can create a sustainable and engaging social media strategy. Oh, and because we know you’re limited on time, this can all be done in ~5 minutes a day. 

First, talk about some logistical stuff, like what platforms you should be active on and how often you should post. Then we'll dive into what content you should be posting. Ready? Let's do this.

What platforms should I be on?

Facebook? Instagram? TikTok? YouTube? MySpace? 

There are a lot of social platforms out there, and you might not know which ones to focus on — other than not MySpace. Here’s a quick rundown of which platforms to prioritize (in order):

1. Facebook: Facebook has been around for so long that some think its best days are in the past, but it’s still the most popular social media platform by a large margin — and not just among older audiences, either. 
2. Instagram: Instagram is the third-most used social app. It is solidly established but still growing (grew 6% from May 2022 to January 2023); we recommend making it a priority after Facebook. As you probably know, it is a image-based platform, a main reason our recommended social strategies are driven by images and short videos.
3. YouTube: YouTube is the second most popular app and can deliver big results but it demands more of a time commitment, which is why we’re ranking it third on our list. But maybe at least have an account and occasionally post videos if you can.
4. TikTok: TikTok is growing fast, but with ongoing regulatory concerns and an audience that skews super young, it’s not necessarily a platform you should prioritize.
5. Everything else: Platforms like Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are popular but usually aren’t the best fit for home services companies. 

How often should I post a week? 

There is no exact consensus out there for optimal posting frequency, so you'll find many different answers online. For instance, Hubspot advises to post on Facebook 2-5 times a week. For home services businesses, we believe that 3-4 posts per week is a realistic goal, with the acceptance that there will be some variance depending on your workload (i.e., some weeks you might be extremely busy and able to post just once or twice, and that’s OK).

OK, now let’s talk strategy.

Strategy #1: Showcase your work

Time commitment: 5 minutes a week

One of the top strategies we highlight in our article about content marketing is to take pictures of your work, such as before-and-after shots. And social media happens to be the perfect place to share these photos. 

Snapping these shots is a quick endeavor and only requires a phone camera; the most important thing is to remember to do it consistently. If you do, you’ll be rewarded with at least one or two highly engaging posts per week.

Why is this strategy effective? Three words: “seeing is believing.” Humans are highly visual creatures so when prospects see what you can do with their own eyes, they’re more likely to realize that they need or want your services.

Strategy #2: Bite-sized content 

Time commitment: 5-15 minutes a week

You are an expert in your industry and you know exactly what your local customers need. This gives you a tremendous opportunity to educate these customers on problems and opportunities they may not know about. 

If you have the resources, we recommend in our content marketing guide that you create bigger “foundation” pieces — think educational videos or articles — that you then turn into smaller, bite-sized pieces for social media. 

For example, if you created a 3-minute video on how to winterize a home, you will want to post the whole video, but you’ll also have several nuggets of information in there that you can turn into 5-6 short Instagram Reels or static posts. 

And if you’re short on time, you can skip the foundation pieces and directly create the shorter Reels or posts directly. 

The creation and/or editing process for this strategy might take you 15 minutes a week to get 5+ high-quality posts out of it, but one or two short videos should only take you 5 minutes or so.

Strategy #3: Share content from other sources

Time commitment: 5 minutes a week

Posting mostly your own content on social media is a best practice, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ever share content related to your field from other (reliable) sources. 

Finding and curating interesting and relevant content to share can provide a ton of value to your customers, while increasing your own credibility. Plus, it’s a lot faster than creating something, so it’s an especially good strategy during the busy season. 

Strategy #4: Share company news and promotions 

Time commitment: 5 minutes a week

This one is easy. Is there anything new with your company that might be of interest to your audience? Have you expanded your service area? Are you offering new services? Let your customers know on your social feeds. 

The news don’t have to be earth-shattering either; social media is the perfect platform to share smaller (personal or professional) developments that show off your company’s human side.

Also, if you’re running a promotion or a contest — such as a contest to boost customer referrals — make sure to post about it as well to give it extra visibility. 

Strategy #5: Engage with your audience

Time commitment: 5-10 minutes a week

This strategy isn’t about posting content per se but is just as important.

One of the biggest benefits that social media can offer your business is the ability to interact with — and impress — customers. For example, someone might have a question about your pricing and send you a direct message. Or you might get a comment asking for more details on a post where you’re sharing expert advice. Make sure to back to them.

Ideally, you want to take at least a minute or two a day to reply to comments and DMs. Responding to customers in a timely manner shows commitment to good customer service and reflects well on your business.

Frequently checking comments is also important because you might find unwanted ones that you’ll need to remove — such as spam or excessively rude comments.

That being said, don’t delete a comment just because it is negative. If someone is legitimately sharing a bad experience, try to make things right with them or to explain your side of the story. 

Bonus tip: Schedule your posts

Almost every social media platform allows you to schedule posts ahead of time: Facebook and Instagram allow you to do so up to 75 days in advance, while TikTok gives you 10 days. 

This is great if you prefer to front-load your work and have enough content to do so. It's Monday morning and you have three or four posts ready for the week? Simply schedule them in advance and your social media duties are done until next week! (Mostly, you still need to check for DMs and comments — but that’s the easy stuff.)

If you follow our strategies, there will probably be weeks where you’ll get enough content to create 7-8 (or more) posts; those weeks can net you several weeks’ worth of posts and are prime for early scheduling.

25 to 40 minutes a week is all it takes.

Hopefully, after reading this article, social media marketing feels a bit less intimidating to you. The strategies we’ve provided should only take you 25-40 minutes a week (or 5-8 minutes a day five days a week) to execute and will make your social media initiatives that much more effective.

In fact, even if you have less time than that — say 10 minutes a week — just implementing one or two of the strategies can still make your social feeds more appealing and engaging. 

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