If you’re not using Facebook, your customers won’t find you.

You don’t have a Twitter account for your business?  How do you even get by?

You have to be on Houzz and Pinterest, or your business will decline.

Sound familiar?

Yes, these channels are important to your remodeling business but not just because they are super popular, and there are millions of people on them.  Here’s why social media is worth investing in for the long-term.

Social Proof and Reviews

People today read reviews.  They want to follow a crowd.  They don’t want to take risks.  It’s your job to eliminate the risk of working with you, and it’s your job to showcase reviews of past customers.  If you do this, your social media profiles can be some of your best sales people.  Don’t think it applies to remodeling?  Think again.

Your customers are using Facebook and other channels to recommend local businesses like yours.

Go Where Your Audience Is

There’s a great story I heard somewhere that drives this point home.  A family was going fishing, but they were pretty new to the whole fishing thing.  They threw out their lines at this fish hatchery and didn’t have much luck.  They wasted a few hours trying to figure out the right bait, etc.  Then, they decided to move over to where the pipe was where thousands of fish were being dumped into the lake.  They caught dozens of fish in about 20 minutes.

Moral of the story: go where the fish are.

Social media is where your fish are as remodelers.  You need to be on social media.

• Facebook Users: 1.4 Billion
• Twitter Users: 316 Million
• LinkedIn Users: 97 Million
• Houzz Users: 35 Million
• Pinterest Users: 100 Million
• Instagram Users: 300 Million
• Google+ Users: 300 Million

Customer Research

Social media is an amazing tool to do customer research.  You can go to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Houzz, and Pinterest and look at what your audience is saying.  For example, if you go to Houzz, start reading comments that people are leaving on photos.  And not just your own photos.  Look at everything.  You’ll get golden nuggets of information that you can apply to your process, your designs, and your finished product.

Let’s look at this interaction here from a random photo I found on Houzz.

————–

Instantly, you know people like the flooring, the light fixtures, and the cabinet knobs.  You can see where people are zeroing in on.  What aspects of this kitchen are important to them?  What elements get them excited?  Then, you can weave that into your own website, both in the photos you use and the copy on your content pages.  You can talk about these items on your blog. Then, you can write tons of blog content based on actual questions people are asking.

Think about it.  If someone is asking a question on Houzz, don’t you think there are hundreds or thousands more asking that same question on Google?  And if you had a blog post that answered that question, you could be getting found on Google by all those people.

Now social media is starting to get more exciting!  We’re getting real feedback, real desires, and real goals from prospects.

Even after all of this; part of you still wants to track ROI on social media

I’m a numbers guy.  I like statistics.  I like data.  If you’re like me, the intangibles of social media (listening, being a part of the community, interacting with prospects, sharing company information, sharing helpful content) sometimes don’t feel like enough.  I want actual dollars.

Here are some statistics on the ROI of social media:

• 50% of brands source increased sales and revenue to social media
• 73% of consumers are likely to buy from a brand that responds to them on social media
• 78% of people say a companies’ social media posts influence their purchasing decisions
• Social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound methods
• Social media drives nearly 5% of all leads for small-to-medium sized businesses

For me, these numbers make the difference.  Social media is critical for growing businesses.  If you’re happy just getting referrals and keeping your business where it is, maybe you don’t need social media.

However, if you’re looking to grow, which I’m assuming you are since you’re a Remodeler’s Advantage member, you need to be participating on social channels.

I know what you’re thinking.  How do I track this stuff?

If you aren’t tracking leads and customers you’re getting from social media; you don’t have the right tools in place.  A good marketing automation platform will give you this data.  I talk more about these tools over here.

 Last, but not least

Sometimes, you’ll even get direct requests for business right from social media.  Here’s a great example of someone wanting to make a purchase and asking for a phone call.

Social media is extremely powerful, but only if you’re using it to its maximum potential.