Whether you’re a self-employed builder working on conservatories or work for a construction business that’s responsible for new housing estates and commercial offices, the chances are that you’re not using social media to the best of its ability.
Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are great for helping you boost brand awareness and find new customers – but what should you post about to get the biggest response?
Below, we’ve put together social media post ideas for builders and construction businesses to get started…
Updates on building projects
Perhaps the most obvious thing to post about on social media is updates on your building projects.
Whether you build houses, you’re renovating a property, you’re opening a new hotel or you’re in the commercial building market, sharing updates and news about your work is a great way to demonstrate your skills and expertise and get people involved in the process.
Say you’re working on a new community centre of a block of flats, for example. Local people will want to follow your page to track the progress, and know when the project has been completed.
Following through from planning applications right through to the sign-off and opening of the building allows you to tell stories, and bring your followers along for the ride.
This construction company shares regular posts and updates about their building projects.
Interesting building statistics
Interesting tidbits of information always go down well on social media, so consider putting together everything you know about your trade – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and turning it into custom graphics for your business.
You’ll likely get lots of engagements and retweets as a result, and you’ll be able to use those to find followers and potential clients.
If you don’t know where to start, we’ve rounded up some stats to give you food for thought.
- The UK construction industry employs more than 3,000,000 people.
- There are more than 300,000 construction firms across Great Britain.
- In 2017, 2,792 construction firms became insolvent.
- £607 – the average weekly salary for workers in the construction industry.
- Modular construction is expected to increase by 6% by 2022.
- 77% of megaprojects around the world are 40% or more behind their schedule.
- The percentage of young construction workers declined by 30% between 2005-16.
- More than 180 million people work in construction around the world.
- Just 13% of all construction firms are owned or led by a woman.
- 40% of all construction firms still use paper plans on the job.
This construction firm shares an interesting statistic on the Euro, and how banknotes represent different architectural styles.
Promotion of your properties
If you’re a property developer or build new homes, then make sure you’re screaming and shouting about new builds.
In the UK especially, young families are always on the lookout for their forever home, so if you’re posting lots of videos promoting your show home, or you are tweeting about a new development coming to a new neighbourhood, people will get excited.
However, if your main social media accounts are tailored towards the business market, then it may be wise to set up a whole new set of accounts targeted towards house buyers, where you can share interior design tips, talk about the benefits of buying a new build property, give people information on your guarantees and snag list policy, and share offers on your homes.
This construction company has a separate Twitter account for its B2C properties division and shares daily content about their new-build homes with some attractive photography.
Tips and tricks on construction
The chances are that you’ll have a diverse set of followers – some people may follow you after you complete work on their property, some may be local businesses who are looking to network, and others may be other property companies or even budding builders who want to learn from you.
Sharing tips and tricks on construction, whether it’s as simple as installing a new plug socket or as complex as running through how to build the right foundations on a new tower block, allows you to show off who experienced you are in your niche and gain the attention of new followers.
Indeed, you could record videos, create your own graphics, or even write blog posts on your site, and become a hub for everything related to construction.
Check out this graphic we made. It only took five minutes, and it’s eye-catching and to the point. Consider creating something similar, adding your company branding and some tips, or feel free to use this graphic on your social media channels – you don’t need to give us credit.
Industry news and updates
Finally, you should consider posting industry news and updates.
Not only does this help to position your business an authority figure – people will see you as a leading source of news and information – but it offers unique opportunities to network with other businesses, particularly on Twitter.
Set up alerts on your smartphone, or even consider using an RSS feed that will automatically post out news that is relevant to your business as it happens.
If you want to take this one step further, then tie the news article back into your construction business, whether you offer a comment or share some tips and advice.
Again, this reinforces that you’re a key player within your niche, and will make people more likely to consider you when they’re looking for building or construction work, both in the B2C and B2B markets.
This construction business regularly shares news articles on the housing industry and offers some tips alongside it to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise within their niche.
Wrapping up
When you’re on the construction site with your safety goggles and hard hat, the last thing you want to worry about is your social media channels, but by making an effort to create regular content and schedule posts in advance, you’ll be on to a winner in no time at all.
If you’re just too busy or don’t have the interest in running your accounts, don’t fret.
At 99social, we offer affordable social media management from as little as £99 per month.
Get in touch with the team today to find out more, and go from sign up to a sparkling new social media manager in less than 24 hours. We look forward to hearing from you soon!