Social media platforms are a powerful tool for many businesses and brands, but when it comes to construction and homebuilding, many companies worry they just aren’t a fit. Here at Zeeland Lumber & Supply, we’ve been making changes to our own digital platform, and we’re noticing how our social media is helping us reach new clients and customers, and building awareness for our company.
As partners and a resource for our homebuilders and remodeler clients, we thought we’d share some of the insights we’ve gained using social media in the last few months. Here are a few of the platforms we’ve found most successful, and how your homebuilding or remodeling company can use them to engage with potential clients, and raise greater awareness for the beautiful homes you build.
Perhaps the most well-known social media platform, Facebook sees a lot of engagement from most homebuilder’s target demographics. We use Facebook as one of our primary social media platforms, where we share posts about recent projects, community events, and company news. To make sure we’re posting relevant content our followers care about, we also share articles and blogs from industry influencers about construction, and about the state of the industry.
Since Zeeland Lumber & Supply works with suppliers, homebuilders and remodelers like you, and occasionally end consumers, our social media platform has to offer up content that speaks to each of those groups. As a homebuilder or remodeler, your Facebook page will primarily be for one target group — homeowners looking to build, buy, or remodel a new home. They’ll appreciate content like before-and-after pictures of any renovations you do, and step-by-step pictures that show the progression of a new home build.
Twitter can be a tricky platform for many brands because it’s easy to get lost in the noise. There’s a lot happening on Twitter, so it’s good to know exactly who you’re speaking to and to post often at times you know your target buyer is listening. We primarily use Twitter as an update platform, to direct followers to our site, to an event that we have coming up, or to link to a post on another platform that we think they’ll be interested in. Twitter is another great platform to engage with your followers, but you have to be invested in it.
If your homebuilding company is considering boosting their Twitter presence, start by just paying attention to the conversations happening with other homebuilders and industry professionals. Then, when you feel comfortable with how everyone else is interacting, go ahead and jump in! Don’t be afraid to retweet content you think your followers will appreciate, or comment on tweets relevant to your business. Twitter users thrive on engagement and quick back-and-forth conversations.
YouTube
While YouTube does take a greater investment of time, at Zeeland Lumber & Supply we’ve found it to be a successful way to provide our followers with helpful content, and we’re seeing quality engagement on the videos we’ve created. We use YouTube to put out videos of our events and to post “How-Tos” for some of the supplies and materials we offer.
Helpful how-to videos can go a long way for your home building company, and they provide you with quality content that you can share to the rest of your platforms. When you make a video of the start-to-finish process of your latest home building project, you can post it on YouTube, but you can also share that video to your blog, on your Facebook account, your Twitter account, and any other platform you use regularly. Because videos are so engaging, they help you increase your digital reach, and can help you accrue more relevant followers.
If Pinterest works for a lumber and supply company like us, you can bet it will work for your home building company. Pinterest is a social media platform that’s often forgotten when we think of social media marketing, but when it comes to homebuilding, you won’t find a more relevant target market.
40 percent of Pinners have a household income of more than 100k, 81 percent of Pinterest users are female, and 93 percent of active Pinners use the platform to plan for a purchase. Read: They use Pinterest to plan their next dream home.
Our Pinterest page sees a great deal of traffic heading to our boards that advertise, “Kitchen Inspiration,” “Basement Remodeling” and “Countertops.” Pins on those boards link to either our suppliers’ websites, or to our website, where people can then make those purchases directly from us, or learn more about the product from the manufacturer.
Imagine if you were pinning home inspiration from previous homes you’d built yourself. You could turn all of that monthly Pinterest traffic into legitimate lead traffic headed to your website. With those attractive demographics, a little bit of posting and pinning can go a long way to spread the word about your home building business, and drive new, qualified leads to your website.
At Zeeland Lumber & Supply, we think of ourselves as partners with our homebuilding and remodeling clients. We want to be a true resource for clients and partners like you, which is why we do our best to share what’s been working for us, and let you know how it could help your business too.
As you start building your social media presence, new customers will flood in. When they do, we have everything you’ll need from lumber to building materials like windows, doors, decking, roofing, siding, trim and cabinets. We also manufacture trusses and wall panels and offer customized turnkey solutions. For more resources and insight on the construction industry, head to our blog or resources page, and if you have more questions or need to order supplies, be sure to get in touch!
