Free Contractor Social Media Course

Curious what’s on the course? 

Here’s a sneak preview below!

Week 1: Preparation

1. Themes
2. Challenger Hook Points
3. 10 Referral + Content Partners
4. Take Inspiration from 5 Bigger Market “Competitors”
5. Keyword research and Strategy

Weeks 2-7: Daily Prompts

1. Before/After
2. In Progress Shot
3. Industry News / Highlights
4. An Award you’ve won (sustainable award)
5. Giveaway Contest
6. A day in the field
7. Company History
8. Hot take – challenge a dominating idea in the industry
9. Trick of the Trade video – 
10. Client Testimonial video 
11. Who is Inspiring You
12. Share a Recent Blog Post
13. Finish projects/ glamour shots 
14. Swag post
15. Event upcoming
16. Highlight an employee
17. Culture / Event
18. Design a testimonial / Canva template
19. Meme
20. Referral partner / feature them.
21. Highlighting specific products (S9 was Cambria)
22. Super Easy DIY tips
23. ‘What we’ve been saying lately” / Trends post
24. Dispel a common myth you see home owners buying into. 
25. Interview someone from another related business about their expertise.
26. Poll people – share the results later (FB, Twitter, LI, Instagram stories)
27. Ask for referrals (video?)
28. Make a customer look cool / family pic / tell a story
29. Have your followers to get something cool (will only work if its an actually good giveaway)
30. White board video explaining a concept. 

Day 1 – Contractor Social Media Course: Create Consistent Themes

This first week we’ll be walking you through SHORT exercises that help prepare you to get the most out of your company’s posts on social media. 

Before you just post to your heart’s content to get more business on your company social media accounts – I strongly recommend that you figure out what your company ‘THEMES’ are for your marketing efforts. 

Some examples of themes might be:

• Remodeler: The party you’re going to throw after you finish your kitchen!
• Roofer: Thorough checklist-driven processes that lead to consistency and quality assurance.
• HVAC Company: You save huge money in the long-run by having a service contract and having a technician come check your systems in spring and fall.

Themes are better when they’re opinionated, related to a pain point of customers – and draw authentically on what your companies REAL STRENGTHS are. 

What do people tell your sales people and technicians “Thank God you _________” (example: actually took the time to measure before giving us a quote.) Hammer on the real relief you give customers in comparison to other contractors or home service providers they’ve talked to. 

So the ONE action for today is:

• Write out FOUR themes that you know appeal to customers based on your own sales experience, or talk to people on the sales team to boil it down to 4 themes you can use to guide your social marketing campaigns like a lantern! 

Come to terms with the fact, it’s better to use these themes over and over again (if they actually are good) than to constantly come up with new ones. Keep them loose enough that you can keep on coming back to them. About the time you’re sick of saying something online, that’s about the time it will finally be breaking through to people. 

Day 2 – Contractor Social Media Course: Challenger Viewpoints

Themes are great – but what actually gets customers to BUY from you. 

#1. Pleasure = “Look at these before and afters – our kitchen would look so gorgeous with these cabinets”

#2. Pain = “My roof is straight up leaking right now… The A/C is out… This landscaping is embarrassing compared to my neighbors.”

Challenger ‘Hook Points’ challenge your ideal customer to think about your services differently – and dig into either pleasure or pain. 

In the book ‘The Challenger Sale’ a group of researchers studied the types of salespeople and ‘The Challenger’ was far and away the most successful persuading people to do business with them because ** they REFRAMED the way the prospect was thinking about their services. **

This isn’t just deliberate car salesman tactics – it’s often related to the passion the salesperson feels about THE RIGHT WAY to do things. 

So how can you communicate the passion your company has about doing things THE RIGHT WAY on your social media, challenging prospects to think differently. 

Examples: 

• It’s just plain wrong for you to pay for the whole house, but end up with an unusable basement (because it’s unfinished.) 
• Homeowners deserve a contractor that actually *listens* to them.
• Watch out for Angie’s List + HomeAdvisor – as they take big cuts from contractors and drive the quality of service down. Work with highly-vetted, trusted local contractors directly instead!

So the ONE action for today is:

• Come up with 3 ‘Challenger Viewpoints’ that you can use regularly in your social media campaigns. It’s ok to have righteous anger at people that are ripping homeowners off – it’s ok to challenge the way it’s always been done in your industry. 

Talk with your best salespeople and the owner of the company (if you’re not them) to ensure you’re on the right track. Have them read this e-mail to get more context on what a ‘Challenger Viewpoint’ is if it’s useful! 

One challenger view point I have is: It’s really important for you as a marketing manager (if you’re not the owner of a company) to have AUTONOMY & FREEDOM to post on the company social accounts. So if you don’t have that trust with the person that could veto something – go talk to them today, and get their trust and try to get autonomy to post freely (having the company’s best interests at heart.) Great ROI on social media can quickly go south, if every post requires a second eyes for approval – online, stuff moves fast. As long as you’re kind, and smart – the person who makes the final decisions should be cool with you having “freedom to play” + post regularly with constant approvals and back and forth (which can turn into time-wasting.) 

Day 3 – Contractor Social Media Course: 10 Content + Referral Partners

You’ve created 4 themes + 3 challenger view points to use on your social accounts. You don’t have to stick to ONLY those topics, just think of them like the chorus of the song… or the refrain that you keep coming back to. 

Now you need other players for your band! On social media, I love to think of our referral partners as content creation partners as well. 

1. Who refers you the most business? How could you be useful to them by featuring them on a video, or promoting their services on your social accounts. Do consider whether they also are active on social and can be part of the fun.
2. Who COULD refer you business? Think about the service providers that also work with homeowners like your best customers. If you’re a roofer that doesn’t do gutters or soft washing – those could be the first two. Otherwise branch out further – landscapers, realtors, public adjusters, remodelers, hardscapers. Whatever you do – look for adjacent service providers that you could feature on your page, and get great insights from to feature in your content. 

So the ONE action for today is:

Write a list of 10 service providers that have or could refer you business! If you need to pick the brain of the sales team, or a company leader do that now, or set a half hour in the calendar to do that. 

Google if you need to, recognize small to mid-sized businesses are often better at referring than huge ones who have corporate rules for much of that stuff. 

Next to each of your possible referral/content partners – put a “Next Step:” and say whether your next step is to email, call and introduce yourself, or if your companies are already acquainted – set up a 30 minute call to brainstorm topics for a joint video, or to film a video showcasing something that would be useful to your audience. 

Just showing up and filming a “look at this service” video might not be interesting enough to your audience. 

1. Try to make it something that would be really useful, like DIY tips, maintenance tips, or something entertaining. 
2. Make sure the thumbnail makes the company featuring look cool and professional. (As cool as you can make it.) Don’t get caught up here – DOING IT, is better than being perfect on all this stuff and waiting months to get started. 
3. Promote the heck out of the video once it goes live on 2-3 of your best social channels. Tag them, tag individuals if you can not just the company, and if you need to put $100 bucks in Facebook promotion dollars toward making it blow up as much as it can. 

The key is – we want that referral partner to think of you as an ALLY. 

Not just a cute little referral partner, but someone they want on their side. 

Someone that they want to promote as well, someone that is worth referring more business to. 

Rinse and repeat 10 times over this next year with different amazing referral partners in your area.

Maybe you need to try doing this with 20-30 people, but in the end – working with 10 companies more than once, and long-term that you’ve determined can refer real business is one of the best ways to drive business that is available to us as marketers. 

Day 4 – Contractor Social Media Course: Bigger Market Inspiration

The first thing we do when we start marketing oftentimes is look at the closest ‘competitors’ we think matter in our market.

We Google them… we sometimes think we can beat them.

We sometimes get intimidated by them… but the shine wears off, they stop looking so cool to us. 

We know too much. We care too much – and discount everything they do in their marketing, we don’t really want to be like them anymore. And it’s probably good – because if you just copy people in YOUR MARKET, people won’t be able to see the DIFFERENCE, and we want to be DIFFERENT than other people so there’s a clear reason to choose to buy from us.

Enter – looking at bigger markets, and R&D. 

“Ripoff & Duplicate”

If you’re a roofer in Duluth, Minnesota – hunt for one badass roofing company in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles to study and take inspiration from (or whatever other markets.) 

So the ONE action for today is:

Find 5 contractors in bigger markets that actually are crushing it on their social media channels, their website, videos, and blogs – to try to take big inspiration from. Don’t settle for “decent” – keep hunting til you find 5 amazing ones and follow them on every social channel. 

Note one thing you’d like to try on your content + social media, and keep a little running R&D list. If you’re ever struggling to find topics, take inspiration from them! mnm

Day 5 – Contractor Social Media Course: Keyword Research

You know what makes coming up with topics for content soooo much easier?!

Keyword research. Consistently doing keyword research around what people are searching on Google and Youtube, will help you understand the CONTENT DEMAND, and help you find topics you’re audience will love.

Best of all? It’s super easy to do. 

Just pull up SemRush.com, or Ahrefs.com and pop in competitors (or contractors in bigger markets) to see what blogs they have that are getting a lot of traffic. 

You can also ‘guess’ topics by searching them on Google – and taking the top couple results and putting those URL’s into SemRush or Ahrefs and see what THEY’RE REALLY RANKING FOR.

Why do these keywords / phrases matter? If you put those phrases that have a lot of ‘search volume’ towards the beginning of your video or blog titles, you’re more likely to show up when people are actually searching. 

So the ONE action for today is:

Find 20 Keywords that contain topics you could do posts or videos about! Look at competitors, take some some guesses, and put the URL for the top ranking result in the tools, and use your own creativity and the data to get a list going. 

This should be a weekly or monthly habit to continually refresh your list – and your research here will inform your sensibility about the types of topics people are looking for more generally as well. The more you do it, the better your radar will be. 

Blend this approach in with the other approaches you’ve learned so far, and use them for the upcoming prompts (next week!) Get ready to start posting – we’re so close! 🙂 

Day 6 – Contractor Social Media Course: Before/After

It’s time to post! 

If you don’t have access yet, get access to the social media accounts, and do a pic-stitch or Photoshop of a before and after. 

That’s it! If you have access to a before picture – go get one today on a job that hasn’t started yet, AND post a picture of a completed project. Get out of the office! The more time you spend away from your desk in marketing like this, the better results you usually will have. 

Make it aesthetic – and have fun! Here are a few other tips to drive engagement:

• Ask a question people will actually respond to: “Open or closed kitchen?!” etc. Lead with the question to get people involved. The more people comment on that picture, the better it will show up in other people’s feeds.
• Keep it relaxed, recognize no-one really cares that much, so it’s going to be more about volume (not really about any one post.) 
• Don’t get disheartened if tons of people don’t interact. 

Last action of the day… 

Comment on and like 3 other peoples’ posts, and follow 10 people on your companies top 3 platforms. 

I’m not going to say this every day, but realistically don’t expect hardcore results from this course, if you’re not commenting, liking and connecting with new people on these platforms every day. That’s the game, involve yourself – it’s a 2-way conversation, not a megaphone!

Day 7 – Contractor Social Media Course: In Progress Shot

Finished work is great, but people love to see the process!

Post a photo that shows someone from your team working on something cool. Whether that’s someone digging gravel, installing some insulation, or sawing wood – hype up your teammate. 

Absolutely ideally they’re smiling 🙂 

That’s it! That’s the prompt for today. 

Day 8 – Contractor Social Media Course: Industry News

What’s going on in the world of [your niche] today?

Examples: 

Pool Installers – 23% increase in pool installations this past year

Roofing – Price of lumber going up again

HVAC – In-door air quality demand surges because of COVID. 

Go to the news blog websites for your industry to look for interesting surges in the market. 

But always remember – most homeowners don’t care if it’s super “Us focused” so spin it in such away that it’s about them. 

Feel free to link off to the blog article that gives more context – often though, I post a picture related to it, and sum up the article in 2-3 paragraphs or perhaps bullet points, then say “link in comments.”

Why?

Because the social media algorithms don’t want people to leave their platform so they often play down posts that link directly in the post. 

To me – industry news is something to post about every 2-4 weeks, and not all the time. Mix it in, and you seem like the authority on your services. 

Day 9 – Contractor Social Media Course: An Award You Won

Gratefulness – plays really well on social media. 

So today – share an award the company has won and express gratitude for the opportunity. 

Don’t just post the raw PNG of the award per say, you can use Canva.com to put a dark or colored overlay on a picture of a great project your company completed, then put the award over the top of it. This way it feels branded, and integrated with the rest of your social media feed. 

If the company is super new – sign up for BBB – the default level is A+ for companies, and you can use that on social. Feel free to wait on this one if you absolutely have to and don’t have an award, but try to post today if you can. 

Well it’s true – the “customer is the hero” of the story here – smart customers hire a company like yours so make them feel smart by sharing this with a tone of gratitude. 

Don’t be too cheesy about it, but share if there was criteria that they were basing the award on, and if there were any other suppliers or contractors that collaborated with you on that project tag them!

Day 10 – Contractor Social Media Course: Giveaway or Contest

It’s time to give something away on social media 🙂 

Whether it’s a branded yeti cooler, a fishing pole and tackle, or a Free Gutter Cleaning – I want you to try to give something away. Take a picture of it, or post a related picture and then say – In celebration of spring… or in celebration of our new maintenance program (or whatever you choose) WIN [the item] just comment, and like this post and tag a friend you’d like to share it with! (or something cheeky here) 

Share more about the SERVICE you’re trying to promote – and have a fun and playful tone. 

Yes! This type of thing costs money, so you’ll want to do these few and far between, but if you can find something that’s both super cool to giveaway (that people want,) and that isn’t super expensive – it can be a great way to get algorithmic favor. 

Respond to every comment with an emoji or something on every platform (good general rule) even if it feels redundant. 

Day 11 – Contractor Social Media Course: A Day in The Field

Get out of the office! 

Have someone (a sales person, a carpenter, or a technician, for instance) let you shadow them for half a day, and have them do whatever they normally do. 

Then just take the occasional video, or photo. Posting them on Instagram and Facebook stories with a funny hashtag or something (Ex. #TagalongTuesday.) 

I always say nothing is boring, if you look at it close enough. That’s a good approach to a half day tagalong. Ask good questions – use this opportunity to find out more about the intricacies of that position, and yes, at the end of it you want to make them look kind of cool, and the company look good. 

• Go to the store with them!
• A Customer interaction 
• Checking out a problem, or working through an issue on-site.
• Asking them about their job, driving around in the truck.

I strongly suggest making getting out of the office a habit, because everything’s more interesting when you’re on an adventure. And everything’s easier to understand when someone DEMONSTRATES it in real life, ‘on the job.’

I like to call that ‘Adventurestration.’ 

The more you can make this kind of content part of your life, the more engaging it will be in compared to those dead videos back at the office. 

You’re in an industry (construction or home services) where there’s an abundance of visuals and interesting things people are doing. Capture it on video, and get on the move with your other teammates!

Day 12 – Contractor Social Media Course: Company History

Perhaps you’re part of one of those companies that has the history plastered on the wall in the office, or perhaps the company is more recent and there’s barely a history yet – but today’s challenge is to share a piece of that history. 

I think zooming in on one component will be the easiest way to make this feel like a ‘human interest piece.’ Examples:

• A picture of the original office where it all started. 
• The first truck… 
• The founder by themself, vs. The founder with a big team around them.
• A early job that you completed, and a little story about that. 
• A long-time customer and why they worked with the company when it was smaller. 

No matter what – don’t use this as a promotion as much as… use it as a little story about the passage of time, gratefulness, or how things change. 

Make it fun, and don’t assume everyone cares about the company – but they might ‘see themselves in the story’ of growth and self-discovery. 

Day 13 – Contractor Social Media Course: Challenge The Industry

Today I’m asking that you share a ‘Hot Take’ / that you make the post you put out a little ‘spicy.’

What does that mean? 

Well – I basically want you to post something that you know someone will probably disagree with. 

You see – we often have ‘challenging’ thoughts towards the industry that we don’t share because we’re scared people will Disagree With Online™️ (Heaven forbid)

But if we’re honest with our audience – these posts can make for some of the best content you put out (because they’re interesting, take a stance, and actually stand for something) – a few examples: 

• It’s just plain wrong to re-use flashing if you’re a roofing company, unfortunately some do to cut corners, watch out for this. 
• It’s better to have your contractor be part of your plans phase – because then they can share if something is logistically difficult earlier, or will increase the cost. 

These are just 2 examples.

I want you to challenge the industry, and post a ‘hot take.’

Sure – make sure it aligns with your company leadership’s real opinion, but don’t back down. 

This is going to be fun. (Expect haters – and be ok with it.)

Day 14 – Contractor Social Media Course: Trick of The Trade

Today is simple – ask people or (if you’re a contractor / or the owner of a company) share one of your ‘tricks of the trade.’

Do you have a way to cut trim down super easily?

Do you know how to make doors open level?

Do you have a trick for anything that you think would interest homeowners, or that you share anyways in person a lot?

Share that! Make a little short video showing the #lifehack, and share it on Instagram, Facebook, and hell – even tick-tock! 

Day 15 – Contractor Social Media Course: Client Testimonial Video

This one may take a little more planning, but either way – get the ball rolling today.

Get a client testimonial video. These have to be the #1 most important video to your marketing efforts, they can then be re-used on many future videos or clips for social in the future. 

Ask a customer that had a great experience if you can set a time to come out and interview them, and if they’d just be honest. 

Set up the camera off to the side, and ask them questions about stuff that’s unrelated first – ”How long have you been in the house,” etc. etc. and then slowly transition to their experience with the company “What did you like about working with [our company]” and then edit out the questions, and focus on the customer in the final edit. 

While you’re there get footage of the finished job, and splice those clips in over the audio of them sharing their experience. 

If you’re not familiar with video – check out our guide to getting started! Your iphone on its side is serviceable – it’s not about having perfect equipment, as much as it is about getting good content. 

Day 16 – Contractor Social Media Course: Who is Inspiring You?

I believe following 5-10 awesome pages that you want your page to be like regularly can really help you stay ‘swimming in great content,’ which will give context and color to your content.

So if you’re not doing that yet – do that (on your personal profile, and the company page) and post about someone who is really inspiring you / the company. What are they doing that’s so great for the community, or what work are they doing that’s amazing?

2 tones on social media that will never go out of style: Gratefulness, and Praise. 

Day 17 – Contractor Social Media Course: Share a Recent Blog Post

Sometimes blog articles are more for ‘SEO’ / getting found on search, and some are more appealing as a post to put out on your social media channels as well. Go find a recent blog post (or write one!) on your website that is in line with your core brand themes, and tell the audience why they should read it. 

Sometimes that’s giving a little excerpt and leaving off on a cliff hanger, sometimes thats including an infographic with a few key points from the article, and sometimes that’s ‘leading with the problem’ that the piece of content helps solve to get their attention – and giving an overview of what they can expect if they take the time to read it. 

Not everyone clicks through – but by sharing content from your site, you are positioning yourself as a thought leader and a useful company. It’s really about the rhythm of doing this once or twice a week that has compounding benefits over the long-haul, and you’ll get better at getting people excited to click, with experimentation and doing it regularly. 

Day 18 – Contractor Social Media: Finished Projects / Glamour Shots

It’s time to show off your work!

Maybe your company does *aesthetic* / good looking work, and you know exactly what to post. Do that now! Glamour shots are a big piece to how many contractors catch people’s interest as they consider this type of work #lifegoals! 

We work with a ton of ‘non-aesthetic’ trades as well – and what I will say, it’s still worth it to post finished work. Trends online that may relate: People love ‘Things arranged neatly’, and there’s even whole blogs dedicated to making these kinds of photos. Also – some of the process is ‘satisfying’ people like to see a clean line of nails go in – or something dirty get clean, anything that gives that feeling of completion. 

Use what you’ve got – and spend a little time getting a great photo, or a great little video. Just remember, people have short attention spans – they don’t care about you – they care about some little nugget of value or entertainment for their lives, in this moment. 

Day 19 – Contractor Social Media Course: Swag Post

Show off new swag – with a company culture post! Show 3 technicians in their matching Polo’s or branded mugs that you’re giving out to clients, or whatever SWAG that you’re really proud of. 

I love ‘swag’ as a way to get the word out about products and services, but it also can be great fodder for social media, as it demonstrates a certain amount of legitimacy and pride in your brand. 

So take a picture of swag in action, and don’t forget to try to include a smiling face in the shot! 🙂 

Day 20 – Contractor Social Media Course: Upcoming Event

Going to be at a trade show, a country music festival, an event where industry speakers will be, or any other event. Whether you’re attending, exhibiting, speaking or just there with a few teammates, post on social! If you don’t have any at the moment, find one that would make sense to show up to. 

Get out there – take pictures with adjacent service providers, and remember – marketing is not just about getting new leads, but about making new connections and sometimes stoking referral partnerships. 

If you don’t have an event today – RSVP for one today, and post about it on social telling other people you and your company will be there representing!

Day 21 – Contractor Social Media Course: Highlight a Teammate

(video)

If your company’s most valuable resource is your people… why not share a picture of one of them today, and what they mean to the team?

I like to get a picture of them smiling or hard at work – and pen a little appreciation post to go along with it. You can do these probably max once or twice a month without exhausting the audience, but it’s a great way to involve your people and share a little excitement. 

Once again – do your best to make it fun, and not boring. Tap the people that work closely with them, and ask “what makes this person a great teammate” and share those things, or share a funny fact and their interests. Make your team feel human through this! Just sharing our humanity is actually great for the business. 

Day 22 – Contractor Social Media Course: Cultural Moment (video)

What a better way to capture attention than to co-opt a surge in attention towards a cultural moment. Examples:

1. During a surge in crypto: “You’ll invest in crypto-currency – but not in improving the home you’re in every day?”😱
2. “During the flooding in Louisiana – we’re giving 20% off of waterproofing services, this week only.”
3. Start of fishing season – “Fishing opener this weekend! What’s your favorite lake to fish on?” – with a picture of a team member fishing in your company’s logo apparel. 

This method is endless – because it doesn’t assume they care about your company. All it does is allow you to branch out and talk about what’s going on in the world. 

Just get better over time about clicking into what your audience actually responds to – and come with some refreshing perspective, or something funny to get the conversation started. You don’t want to just ‘announce’, you want to get some back and forth going ideally. 

Day 23 – Contractor Social Media Course: Design a Testimonial 

Grab a snippet from a really nice review on your Google My Business or Facebook page and turn it into a nice looking design, using Photoshop or Canva. If you’re good at design use Photoshop – otherwise there’s no shame in using a pre-built template in Canva.com, and swapping out the colors and fonts to match your brand. 

Day 24 – Contractor Social Media Course: Share a Meme

Today – I’m suggesting to follow 10 meme accounts that focus on your industry on Instagram! 

Look through them for 20 minutes (like and comment if you want), but find one that’s epic or hilarious and re-share it on your account, giving credit back to where you found it or the original creator. 

Ideally – you’re not ‘self-roasting’ too hard – but that you find something that reminds your audience of their need for the service, or the problem with hiring a low-quality provider. Shoot for relatable, and not too hard to understand. 

Day 25 – Contractor Social Media Course: Feature a Referral Partner (video)

Who has been sending you a ton of referrals lately?

Feature them on your social today! Share a picture of them doing really cool work (or a picture of them with you or your company owner) and why they are good at what they do. 

Tag them – try to do it at the best time of day to get a lot of interaction. Perhaps even consider boosting the post, sharing it on personal accounts etc. because it will raise the profile of your company with that referral partner. It will help them realize that you care very much about that partnership. 

Many times when I post I throw it into our Slack (internal communication system) and ask people to like and comment to increase engagement. Feel a little phoney? I don’t care – it works! By driving up the algorithmic engagement, more people will see your post and more people will come to know your company. 

So try that for this post – and give it a little bit of an extra advantage to help drive the point home to your referral partner (that it’s nice to be associated with your company), for many reasons – including your efforts on social media. 

Day 26 – Contractor Social Media Course: Highlight Specific Product

Today – I want you to highlight a specific product on your social media. Whether you love Marvin Windows, LP Smartside Siding, or a particular type of sink – zoom in on a company and product that your company swears by. 

Ideally you can be honest, sharing pro’s and con’s – but generally being positive, because I want you to tag the manufacturer in the post and hype them up a bit. 

Funny enough – I’ve seen this strategy net contractors free product, or higher priority in their manufacturer’s rep’s queue. Wield your influence on social to get better deals! But your number one goal here is to be useful to your customers, and introduce them to products (that you are great at installing, or working with!) 

Day 27 – Contractor Social Media Course: Super Easy DIY Tips

Today – talk to people on your team to share a ‘super easy ‘do-it-yourself’ tip in the form of a ‘story’ on social. If you’re on Tik-tok there, because they have great ‘creator tools’ to make making step by step content easy – otherwise just do it on Instagram or Facebook stories. 

First get the topic:

• What’s a fun little tip that your technician often shows to home-owners or property managers?  – or
• What do they wish every homeowner or property manager knew about maintaining their home or building? – or 
• What’s something they get called out for a lot that’s actually relatively simple and that homeowners can do themselves?

Once you have that – just make it into a quick and entertaining 1 minute – 3 step video, and put it out on your company stories! If you did it on Tik-tok, export the video and share it on Instagram and Facebook as well. 

Day 28 – Contractor Social Media Course: Style Trends 

I talk to a lot of contractors – and I always hear some variation of:

“We keep on saying the same thing to a lot of customers” – often relating to current trends / and style. 

Share a style opinion in the form of a video or a little graphic today! Examples:

• Complementary colors for the type of work we do
• Farmhouse ‘Barn Doors’ are out of style – do this instead
• Laminate vs. Wood – our ‘hot take’

You have style – now get out there and share it. First step is finding a style perspective with the help of your team, or your own experience, and the second step here is making a piece of content that asserts that opinion (the more specific the better!) 

It’s style – so people can disagree. Or you can ask it as a question – the great part is, either way, you get more comments from a post like this. 

Day 29 – Contractor Social Media Course: Dispel a Myth

What myth do you see home owners or property managers buying into? 

Today – create a post on why that’s not true. Perhaps bullet point all of the reasons why it’s not true, and see if you can find compelling image to accompany your myth-busting. 

Day 30 – Contractor Social Media Course: Interview Someone (video)

It’s time to get out of the office! This time, to someone who is in a related business. Ask someone if they wouldn’t mind you asking a few questions about what they do – and why it’s important. 

If you’re  a roofer – interview a pressure washer.

If you’re a landscaping company – interview a tree service company owner.

If you’re a home builder – interview a realtor. 

So on – and so forth, but along your travels you get all kinds of questions about adjacent things, your job is to act like an investigative journalist digging up all the interesting stuff that surrounds what you do. 

Do you think it’s too boring? Nothing is boring if you look closely enough. Be fascinated, be intrigued, be a listener – and your audience will be too. Make the person you’re interviewing feel cool, and give your audience the inside scoop today!

Day 31 – Contractor Social Media Course: Conduct a Poll

Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook all have options for polls – so put out a poll on social today, because they get great engagement. 

A few fast facts:

•  Instagram Stories only allows two options on the poll so you might have to modify your approach there. Yes, No type questions. 
• Linkedin basically counts every vote almost like a “like” in it’s algorithm, so polls are featured prominently when you post them.
• You want your poll to be ‘accessible’ meaning – most people will have an opinion on it, don’t make it something too obscure.

If you – like me, have a lot of success with posting polls – this might be something that you can do on a weekly or at least monthly basis. 

Day 32 – Contractor Social Media Course: Ask for Referrals (video)

Today I want you to simply ASK for referrals!

That’s right, put out a text post with a picture… or shoot a short video that says something a long the lines of. “We’re so grateful for your referrals – please keep them coming. Could you connect us with ONE person THIS WEEK that could use our services? As a small business we depend on folks like you that spread the word about our dedication to customer service and our commitment to quality. Thank you! Whenever you hear someone in need of [OUR SERVICE] think of us, and let them know we’d love to help.” 

Big Smile, and *scene*

This is something you can do once a quarter – and it’s not desperate, it’s smart. Even if we aren’t in need of a ton of new business at the moment, we keep our pipeline healthy when we make our marketing more about REFERRALS than just trying to create 5x leads for the week or whatever our goal is. 

Day 33 – Contractor Social Media: Make a Customer Look Cool (video)

Today – post a picture, or tell a story, that makes a customer look cool or look smart.

“This customer advocated for themselves with their insurance company and got their roof completely paid for.”

“This customer chose this absolutely gorgeous banana leaf print wallpaper to go along with their wet bar and made their basement into a cabana.”

The whole idea is making the customer into the hero of the story. Your company is just the guide!

Day 34 – Contractor Social Media Course: Whiteboard Video

Have a bit more of a complex idea that the owner or a key person on the team wants to explain? Have them explain it with a whiteboard!

I like to take a little bit of time, and draw 3 icons up on the whiteboard to explain my top 3 key points, and then either write in the 3 main points as I do the video, or do those before I start as well. 

Then in 2-3 minutes explain the concept in as simplified way as they possibly can – so that homeowners can follow along.

The key here is to choose a topic that a homeowner will be excited about and interested in. (Lead with their pain point, and how this video will help solve it.) 

Day 35 – Contractor Social Media Course: Post a Thank you video

Post a thank you video to someone who’s help you or the company achieve something awesome. 

Personally – I want to say, CONGRATULATIONS!  If you posted every day for the past 6 weeks – you’ve probably learned a ton about what DOES and what DOESN’T work. If you’d like a badge / certificate of completion. E-mail me at tim@hookagency.com and say ‘I posted every day for 6 weeks” – and I’ll check your work, and send you the CONTRACTOR SOCIAL MEDIA certificate if you finished.