This week’s Ask Amanda question comes from a small business owner in Austin, Texas. He is a contractor and says he has trouble finding time for social media, and also knowing what to post about. This is great, because many small businesses owners have the same hang-ups and questions when it comes to social media. Here is the question:
“My name is Raul and I am a contractor living in Austin, Texas. I run a small business, but I do have a few employees who help me out because we stay pretty busy. We started a Facebook page, but have never really posted anything to it because we’re not sure when to find the time to do so, and we don’t have a professional to help with the writing… Any tips?”
Raul, this is a very common question among small business owners, and it can be a very frustrating process trying to figure out the best time and content to post. First of all, don’t scare yourself by thinking that you need to hire a professional writer to help with your social media posting! It doesn’t need to be that difficult. You can post for yourself, or have a current employee head up your social media outlets and do the posting. It doesn’t need to be professional content or anything fancy. Simple posts reminding your customers who you are, what you do, and how you can help them are good enough! There are a million things you can post about, including: current news in your industry, your business information, photos of your work, updates about your business, current specials or discounts you are running, employee highlights, and industry-related tips and tricks.
Finding the time to do your posting is a different story. As a small business owner, you are extremely busy. That is why I mentioned above possibly delegating the social media posting to another employee within your company. Also remember, the posts don’t have to be time-consuming! You can spend literally one minute updating your Google + and Facebook pages, and be done for the week. There’s no need to post everyday, in fact, you shouldn’t post that often. If you snapped a photo of a recent job you completed, just upload it to your social pages with a small caption and you’re done! If you are running a special, simply post the information and in thirty seconds, you have put your business out there, and made it known that you are offering a great deal.
Whatever your business may be, utilizing social media is very important. For a contractor like yourself, it’s very easy to gain more business through posting images of your awesome work on social media. Don’t stress yourself out about the details, just have fun and get to posting!