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Hey pros, it’s that time again!
We have been seeing you all share some great tips, and we want to keep this momentum going with another contest.
To enter, respond to this post with your answer to the following prompt:
Social media can be used socially, but it can also be a valuable tool for growing your presence. As a business owner, how do you use social media to your advantage? In what ways do you utilize social media to help grow your business?
The contest will be live until Wednesday, February 18 at 12pm PST, and winners will be announced on Friday, February 21st.
We will be selecting 2 pros to win:
The first winner will be the pro whose post received the most kudos so if you see a post you like, give it a thumbs up! This pro will receive $100 in Thumbtack credit.
The second winner will be the post of our choosing that we feel has a particularly inspiring lesson that other pros can learn from. This pro will receive $50 in Thumbtack credit.
Happy posting!
Fine Print
I have found more and more customers are using social media as ways to find help for various jobs. I think having a good social media prescence helps, espeically if you can get reviews. I use social media to post photos of my work; I think apps like Facebook and Instagram are popular places for scrolling so having some good, clear photos of before and after shots has been really helpful. A simple photo editor can allow you to put photos side-by-side and potential clients can quickly see the difference as a result of my work. I've found that longer posts and a lot of text aren't as effective. So my social media advice is use images and highlight what a difference you can make! I do landscaping, so I look for both big and small changes so that potential clients can see what they can do based on their budget.
Instagram stories is definitely underutilized by businesses. Sometimes picture perfect Instagram can draw in new clients but some of them want a more authenetic experience, the behind the scenes, the not so perfect moments, the 300 other photos from the wedding not just the 2 perfected ones that you choose to share and instagram stories is perfect for that. It also gives the potential client a chance to "meet" and get to know you and not just your work since sometimes people rather work with the person they like the most rather than those who present "picture perfect" instagram posts. A lot of my recent clients who found me on IG said upon meeting me in person like they've already known me cause they've watched my stories and seen my behind the scenes style/work with other brides.
Go get yourself someone in their 20’s who knows how to do social media and give them the keys!
When I started in 2013 with $500, Thumbtack was everything. Even as a Millenial, I didn’t quite see why Social Media was so important. My company is only slightly bigger now, clearing about $1500 profit every month after paying myself, my assistant, my two interns, and a few independent pros who help out.
Social Media is everything to us now… How does Social Media help us? I’ll give you the special sauce...
We celebrate our employee’s success (I have them write me essays about themselves when they sign up, and I turn that raw fish into sushi). We celebrate our students’ successes. People who love our service love our stories. TONE makes them want to share our stories. We are always thanking our customers with special deals. We want them to know we’re taking care of them. Tone, Tone, Tone, and Location, Location, Location. I used to call each of our customers randomly to ask them how our service was doing. I can't tell you how many people thought something was wrong or were straight up NOT interested in talking to me, becuase I was talking to them in the wrong place -- the wrong format. I set the wrong expectations. Now, from day one, we set the precedent for what kind of service we are. That expectation is further established by our social media presence. Social Media is telling the world what is inside. The bigger we get, the more we make our organization social… Social Media helped me grow from a part-time hustle on Thumbtack to a legitimate small business.
Go get social!!!
When we started our business, we depended 100% on Thumbtack. Our goal was to conquor one platform at a time. I still remember the first day when we opened with zero jobs booked for the day. We remained very active that day on Thumbtack and managed to book 3 same day jobs and were off to the races. Fast forward 90 days and we're now a Top Pro (that was a big moment for us) and ready to invest in other means of getting the word out. Now that we've grown we've started experimenting on how to optimize our marketing spend. Here's a few things we've learned.
Practice Your Story
In our industry (Hauling/Demo/Moving) customers see our services as a last resort (vs. doing it themselves) particularly for small jobs. We work very hard to educate each of our customers on how we're trying to improve the industry, but we only meet these customers after they've already hired us. We use this time to perfect our own story so that when we go on social media we have a strong narrative to follow.
Set Up a Brand
Social Media is a good way to grab customers, but without more behind the curtain it is very challenging to convert customers using just a few social media posts. Make sure you have a website (SquareSpace, Wix, Weebly) that conveys your story in a longer more detailed format so users have somewhere else to go to read more. A lot of our customers do their research once they start a conversation with us. They read about us on our website and they go through our Thumbtack profile and our reviews and responses. When we arrive we always ask why they picked us. More often than not it's because of how we engaged them during the booking process. As we've started building a brand we're noticing the deciding factor has switched to our reviews or our mission which they learn about by reading up on us.
"Social Media" Where You Least Expect It
When people think of social media they immediately think of Facebook or Instagram. These are great platforms, but they don't always have direct funnels back to getting hired. There are however several platforms (including Thumbtack) that leverage social media features to allow you to engage customers with your story on the same platform they're already using to hire pros.
Free Platforms
Paid Platforms
Depending on industry these platforms may provide varying results, but we've seen the biggest rate of return by sticking to platforms that funnel users back to our phone number or website so that they can make a buying descision after having read our story and learned about our business.
Happy Monday everyone! Just a reminder that you have until this Wednesday, February 18th to share your tips for a chance to win $100 in Thumbtack credit.
Remember that the post with the most kudos wins, so if you see a post you like, give it a thumbs up!
FB Ads and Instagram are used daily by so many individuals and businesses. As a graphic designer social media is perfect for allowing me the opportunity to promote my clients and myself as well. Once it's out there and you get people and places on board, the skies the limit!
This contest has been closed, thank you to everyone who participated. The winners will be announced this Friday, so stay tuned for that!