Work is picking up across the landscaping industry and creating unique social media content can happen as you work. From showcasing landscape designs produced in design software, to instructional videos for how to keep weeds down, and showing the transformation of backyards from rugged unused spaces to million-dollar living spaces, the ideas for social media content are endless.
Landscaping by nature is visual, so landscapers and designers should have the mindset that all the work they do is potential content for social media. Vibrant colors, beautiful transformations, and unique designs should be published across social media platforms as a way to draw attention to your work and business.
As part of any good social media strategy, it’s important to be using the proper applications. With so many to select from, it can be difficult to figure out what apps are best for landscapers and landscape designers. How often do you need to post? What kind of posts attract people?
Your potential customers are spending upwards of two and a half hours a day on social networking sites. If you want to hit a new market and aren’t currently on social media, then here are some platforms and apps you should be considering this season.
2.91 billion people have accounts on Facebook, making it the largest social media platform in the world. Facebook can be incredibly impactful to your business if you have the time to commit to posting one to three times a day. Facebook allows you to create your own page, where you can list your business information, including: address, phone numbers, hours of operation, and services you offer. In fact, many businesses simply use Facebook as their website.
Facebook might be the most work of all the social media platforms, but that’s because it’s the most engaging. Landscapers can target specific areas with Facebook ads, which can bring in a new grouping of followers. However, there is a downside to Facebook. Its algorithm does not allow everyone following you to see your posts, meaning constant updating and monitoring is required to ensure success.
On the other side, Facebook does allow for video, photos, and text, and offers the ability to embed links back to your website. Share the work you are doing as well as any designs clients allow you to share. Content of on-going project work will have people coming back to see the progress.
Be sure to interact with your followers by responding to messages and comments from your followers. Engagement is one of the easiest ways to turn a consumer of your content into an actual customer. Don’t just post and walk away– it could be a missed opportunity to gain a possible client.
If you’re all about visuals, Instagram is the place for you. People will get on the app and scroll endlessly through photos, digesting hundreds of pieces of content at once. So, that means your content needs to be very appealing in order to get people to click for more info. Videos get 21.2% more interactions on Instagram than standard images, so make smaller videos to show your audience. String photos together to show progress of a project, such as laying paver stones in a unique pattern, or the before and after of a garden.
People will go to Instagram for inspiration for their own projects, so you want to increase your chances of them finding your business. In fact, 83% of people who use Instagram discover new products and services, and 87% said they took a specific action, like making a purchase after seeing production information.
For landscapers and designers, it’s the perfect ‘from start to finish’ application. Go from the design, to the original backyard, to the finished project all in a few images or a video. Show the process and tell the story of how you built the backyard of someone’s dreams. That’s the kind of content people engage with and what will make them consider making a purchase in the future.
The business platform doesn’t sound as fun as some of the other applications, but LinkedIn has a specific audience that buys high-end landscaping projects – business professionals. With more than 800 million active users, it has a strong audience, but more importantly, purchasing power. 44% of LinkedIn users take home more than $75,000 per year, and those are the types of people who are more likely to purchase landscapers.
It also comes with the added bonus of being a professional website, so you can avoid the harassment or trolling you might experience on other sites. Professionals will openly share and converse with each other in a positive way, making it a great tool to share your work.
You only need to post once per day to stay active. Your business page can act as a hub for your company listing plenty of information and details about what you offer. With the ability to post video and photos, it has everything you need to be highly visual, with the major perk of a built-in audience that can afford your services.
YouTube
You shouldn’t look at YouTube as just a video platform. It’s the second largest search engine globally. YouTube videos show up as results on Google, and it has a built-in audience of 2.5 billion people, putting the app behind Facebook.
Considering 54% of all people want marketers to put out more video content, this is a great place to begin loading that video content. For landscapers, it’s a great place to house your library of how-to videos, showing off your knowledge in the industry. People want to watch a video of how they can solve their landscaping problems, not read a how-to guide.
For landscape designers, produce 3D videos of your designs and show fly-by-style videos of your designs. Let people experience your drawings in motion. It will have a larger impact on their buying habits. YouTube does require a once a week posting, but keep to a strict schedule and you can grow your account to large numbers. Video is king, and YouTube is the ultimate video platform.
TikTok
TikTok has exploded with users, reaching 1 billion active users this year. No, you don’t need your crews in the field performing their best dance routines, though it’s not a totally bad idea to bring some fun to your account and extend your following.
TikTok is best used for storytelling. So, show videos transforming your clients’ spaces and it will show people what you can do and wow them at the same time. If you can partner up with other influencers, you will get the extended reach of their following which could lead to more sales.
TikTok might not be for everyone in the business world, but it’s such a fast-growing platform that it can’t be ignored. Twitter isn’t even on this list anymore because TikTok took its place as the social media platform for the younger generation. Everyone is going on TikTok, not just to see the latest dance moves or viral trends, but to learn as well. So, utilize the platform as a space to be an influencer in landscaping or design and grow a following for your business.
Selecting The App That Works For You
It’s not easy to select which app works best for you with so many social media platforms to choose from. You don’t need to be on every single platform. You may not have the capacity to post every day or be logged into multiple accounts. So, focus strongly on one and build that audience, then move on to another, and grow your social media accounts one at a time.
To learn more about how social media can help influence your marketing and sales funnel, download our guide on social media strategies for landscapers, and make social media a part of your work this summer.
