Stand Out in the Home Services Industry With an Updated Social Media Look

When it’s time for the kids to go back to school, what’s the first thing you do? Take them shopping for a back-to-school look. Why? Because you want them to make a great first impression.

So why is it that small business owners are content to let their social media profiles sit year-round with the same tired look? Is that the impression you want your home services business to make?

Of course not. So let’s look at a few ways you can update your social media profiles to make your home services business stand out from the competition.

Bonus Content: Get a copy of our 2016 Marketing Survival Kit.

Get Yours Now

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words

The first thing the kids notice back at school is your appearance, and social media followers are no different. If your photos are outdated, out of focus or just plain generic, you’re not going to make much of an impression. But good photos aren’t enough — your social media profiles should also be consistent with your brand.

Let’s take your profile pic, for example. You have one on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Depending on how your home services business is branded, you may want to use the current face of your company (the owner or the top service rep or technician) or you may simply want to use your logo, which can also convey a lot about your business.

But keep in mind that you’ll be pairing your profile picture with your Facebook cover photo, Twitter header image and LinkedIn background photo. Together, these combinations can impart a great deal of information about your business and even serve as a call to action (CTA).

Take this Facebook combo, for example:

The profile pic is a condensed version of the company logo that also includes the phone number and website of the business. This is accompanied by a cover photo that shows the full company logo, the same contact info and the company’s rather cheeky slogan. While some of the information is repetitive, it’s a consistent, memorable look.

Always Have a Call to Action

Take another look at the previous example, and you’ll notice that the Men In Kilts have also included a CTA. Want to book their services? Just click the “Book Now” option to the left of the “Like” button. And that’s not the only CTA Facebook provides for your home services business; you can also use CTA buttons to ask followers to contact you, sign up for email newsletters or download content.

Keep in mind, Facebook’s CTA options are unique — but that doesn’t mean you can’t create similar social media looks on Twitter and LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website.

Bosco Home Services not only displays their website and phone number in the header image on Twitter, but they also include that same information in their bio, making it easy for followers to take action.

Bonus Tip: Twitter allows you to pin any tweet of your choosing to the top of your profile, so you can control the first thing your followers see. Pin your company slogan or a link to relevant industry content that you know your followers will appreciate! You can also pin a promotional offer, as seen below.

Be Recognizable

You want brand consistency across all platforms, but there’s something to be said for using a personal (but professional) profile pic on LinkedIn. After all, when you hand out business cards, this is where those professional contacts come to match your name to a face. If your profile doesn’t feature a recognizable photo of you, your contacts may not feel comfortable making the connection.

Richie’s profile isn’t complicated or fancy, but it makes him easily recognizable to anyone who’s met him in person. Plus, it tells you a lot about him. He’s obviously a family man, as well as a small business owner. His background info gives an almost exhaustive list of skills and expertise, most of which is backed by numerous endorsements.

But that’s not all; Richie’s also done a great job of filling out his entire LinkedIn profile. It’s important to do this across all platforms.

Complete and Update Your Profiles

While Richie did a great job of filling out his summary and skills, he didn’t get too creative with his professional headline. The headline is one of the first things LinkedIn users notice. Try to make yours unique, whether that means highlighting skills, location or niche, or doing like Mel here and adding a sort of mission statement.

On Facebook, you’ll need to update your “About” section.

Here we have the company overview, which maps out the location, gives website and contact info, and even tells followers about the company’s response time to personal messages. Then we have the page info:

Here, the company gets even more in-depth, adding descriptions, hours and basic parking information to the mix. The more information you can add to your “About” section, the easier it will be for potential clients to get to know you.

On Twitter, you’ll want to fill out your bio.

This company not only gives you their website and a 24/7 contact number, but also highlights their specializations using clickable hashtags. Of course, if followers click on the hashtags, they’ll be sent to a corresponding Twitter search, where they could very well stumble across the competition. It’s just something to keep in mind before getting too hashtag-happy.

Wrap-up

Freshening up your home services social media look is all about making the best possible impression. Having great visuals and up-to-date information is important, but you can go further by staying active and engaged, and by posting relevant, interesting, industry-adjacent content. For example, a home heating and cooling company might find late summer the opportune time to post about upcoming fall HVAC maintenance.

Of course, not everyone has time to update their social media looks on a regular basis, much less create and share new content. If you’re finding it hard to make time for your home services social media followers, why not automate the process? Let us show you how we can help!