This article is part of our blog series, Social Media for Landscapers, featuring tips on how you can take advantage of social media for your business.

When it comes to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, there can be a lot to learn.

In order to successfully use social media to better engage with customers and grow your business, there are just a few basics you need to understand and practice to get the most out of these online platforms.

Engagement

Engagement should be one of the core goals of your social media strategy. Social media is a simple, but effective way to communicate with followers, customers and potential customers on a consistent basis to build relationships.

• Do: Talk to your followers. Don’t be afraid of the public aspect of social media. Use online platforms to your advantage to share updates about your business, news and industry-related information. You can also showcase your dedication to customer service by helping customers solve problems and answering questions. You can engage by liking, sharing and commenting on followers’ posts.

• Don’t: Argue or be rude to followers. While getting customers to engage with you online is a step in the right direction, there will be times when followers complain or share information that might not put you in the best light.
  The best thing to do in that situation is to not argue with the follower, but turn it into a positive interaction. Rather than deny the bad press, apologize and work to fix the problem. Remember to take the conversation offline and reach out to the customer via phone or email, if it is a private situation.

Photos

People are highly visual today, so posting photos to your social media feed is a must to help you get better engagement.

• Do: Post high quality images of people and jobsites. Photos of people enjoying the work you’ve done is the best way to showcase your skills and draw in more potential customers. Make sure to post high quality photos with every post on social media.

• Don’t: Post photos without permission. If you’re taking pictures of client’s backyards, you must get their permission to post it on social media. You run the risk of losing customers if you do not get permission. Simply ask your customer if you can share an image of their backyard on your social media profile and avoid any addresses in the shot.

Content

Content is the bread and butter of social media. In order to get engagement, you’ll need to have quality content.

• Do: Create original content. Posting unique content will give followers a reason to come to your page. Posting photos of jobs you’ve worked on, articles you’ve written or anything else that was created by you will illustrate your industry knowledge and skills, which can help you grow your business.

• Don’t: Plagiarize. While it’s perfectly acceptable to share content from other sources, don’t try to pass it off as your own. If it isn’t clear from the link or the text you’re posting, make sure to mention where you got it.

Posting Frequency

Understanding the balance between too much and too little is a necessity when it comes to managing your social media profiles.

• Do: Post regularly. In order to grow your audience, you’ll need to keep your content as fresh and up-to-date as possible. Posting once or twice a week will give your followers enough content to continue coming back to your pages.

• Don’t: Spam your followers. While you do want to keep fresh content on your page, you don’t want to over do it. Posting multiple times a day and filling followers’ feeds with content might cause them to unfollow you. If you want to post as frequently as every day, try not to post more than twice a day.

Professionalism

Make sure to remain professional and work to serve your customers, but show off your fun side, too. Think of social media as a window into your business. You want to show your potential customers that you can do great work, and have a good time doing it.

• Do: Have fun and keep it light. Social media gives you the opportunity to engage directly with followers all the time, so make sure you show off your great work as well as a little personality.

• Don’t: Treat your professional page like your personal page. Although you want to showcase your business’ playful side, don’t forget you’re still representing a company. Don’t engage in controversial topics without the understanding that it might upset some followers.

Social media has a lot of potential to help you grow your business. Even if you’re not the most tech savvy, following these few dos and don’ts will help you grow your audience and engage with customers and potential customers.

If you’d like to read more in depth advice about how to manage your business’ social media pages, check out our other Social Media for Landscapers blogs.

Keep an eye out for future tips on social media to promote your business. Have a question? Post it in the comments.