Social Media Marketing for Construction Companies: Strategies for Success

Social media has become an indispensable tool for businesses across every industry, including construction. With its unparalleled reach and ability to engage target audiences, social media marketing strategies offer construction companies a personalized marketing channel to showcase their projects, connect with clients and establish their brand’s online presence and personality.

Harnessing the full potential of social media marketing requires a strategic approach tailored to the unique needs and characteristics of the construction industry. In this blog post, we'll explore effective strategies and best practices for construction companies that want to leverage social media effectively and drive business growth.

The construction industry is inherently visual, and social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn offer the perfect digital, visual canvas to showcase completed projects, highlight ongoing work and share industry insights. 

By establishing a strong presence on social media, construction companies can:

1. Build Brand Awareness. Social media provides construction firms with a platform to showcase their expertise, highlight their unique selling propositions and differentiate themselves from competitors.

Understanding each social media platform’s algorithms will expand your construction company’s reach and provide insight into what kind of content (video, static images, livestreams, stories, reels, text posts…etc) performs best. Social media algorithms change frequently and they differ from platform to platform, so remember to stay on top of changing trends and pivot your construction company’s social media content strategy accordingly. 

2. Engage with Target Audience. Through engaging content and active participation in relevant conversations, construction companies can connect with potential clients, industry professionals and stakeholders.

Social media is just that, social. If you can’t find an ongoing construction industry conversation to be a part of, create one yourself. Adding a slightly new angle or perspective to a long-standing industry debate can give your construction company an edge over the competition and an easy way for social media followers to add their unique point of view. 

3. Generate Leads and Drive Sales. By showcasing past projects, sharing client testimonials, highlighting a relatable brand personality and promoting special offers, construction companies can attract potential clients and convert leads into customers.

Lead generation from social media marketing is an increasingly important marketing skill. Younger generations are using social media search functions like traditional search engine browsers, so it’s important that your construction company be ready to capture those leads on social media.

Learn more about lead generation for construction companies: 9 Strategies To Attract More Construction Leads Right Now

4. Establish Thought Leadership. By sharing valuable content such as industry news, trends and expert insights, construction companies can position themselves as authorities in their field, gaining trust and credibility among their ideal audience.

Thought leadership marketing on social media builds the most important currency in business: trust. Niche down and advertise what your company knows and what it’s best at to maintain and build a positive reputation and trust. 

To create an effective social media marketing strategy, construction companies should develop a comprehensive, multi-channel strategy that aligns with their business goals and target audience.

Here's a step-by-step guide to crafting a winning social media strategy for your construction company:

1. Define Your Goals and Objectives

Before diving into social media marketing, it's crucial to identify clear and measurable goals. Whether it's increasing brand awareness, generating leads or driving website traffic, having defined objectives will guide your social media efforts and help you track your progress.

Your construction company’s social media marketing goals will inform everything about your strategy from the content calendar to branding and beyond. It’s easy to think about goals such as increasing followership, likes and comments, but your construction company will feel the benefits of social media marketing on its bottom line when your social media strategists begin aiming to convert those followers into loyal customers and brand evangelists.

2. Know Your Audience

Understanding your construction company’s target audience is key to creating relevant and engaging content. For construction companies, your audience may include homeowners, property developers, architects and other industry professionals. Conduct market research to gain insights into their demographics, preferences and pain points and tailor your content to address their needs.

Once you understand your construction company’s ideal customer and target audience, it’s important to create social media content that doesn’t just sell to them and talk about your business. Social media marketing is a highly personal and connected marketing channel and should be treated as such.

Your construction company’s ideal customer is browsing social media for a variety of reasons. As long as your business adds value to your target audience’s unique social media experience with every post, you’ll see positive performance.

Recommended read: 10 Branding Tips for Construction Companis From Experts

3. Choose the Right Platforms

Not all social media platforms will serve your construction company’s social media marketing goals well. It's essential to choose the social media platforms that your business’s target audience frequents the most and that offer your construction company the best tools to effectively advertise and engage.

Instagram and Pinterest are ideal for showcasing visual content such as project photos and design inspiration, while LinkedIn is perfect for networking with industry professionals and sharing thought leadership content.

Facebook will offer your construction company access to a variety of individuals and families who might need different services from your business. Young, growing families, empty nesters and retired couples all have different needs and Facebook effectively provides both visual and textual communication options to reach those customers with value.

Twitter is an excellent channel for dispersing news, awards and philanthropic endeavors that your construction company is involved with (similar to LinkedIn). 

4. Create Compelling Content

In the highly visual world of social media, compelling content is king. Share high-quality photos and videos of your projects, behind-the-scenes glimpses of your team in action and informative blog posts on industry-related topics. User-generated content, such as client testimonials and project reviews, can also be powerful in building credibility and trust. 

Here are three content pillars to keep in mind when creating your construction company’s content calendar: 

• Entertainment 
• Education 
• Sales & Brand Personality  

By posting free entertainment and educational content regularly, your construction company becomes more human and approachable to customers. Sales and brand personality posts are then more welcome and receive higher success rates than if they were to be the bulk of your construction company’s posts. 

5. Maintain Consistency and Frequency

Consistency is key to maintaining follower engagement and building brand recognition on social media. Create a content calendar to plan your posts and maintain a consistent posting schedule to keep your audience engaged. Experiment with different posting times and formats to see what resonates best with your audience.

Consistency will please both the social media algorithms and your ideal audience. Consistent posting signals to the algorithms that your construction company is active on the platform and invested in growing. Additionally, it keeps your business top-of-mind to your followers who are seeing and interacting with dozens of other brands and businesses on social media regularly.

Depending on your social media marketing team’s bandwidth, test creating monthly and quarterly content calendars, complete with specific campaigns and goals. There are many tools to help create content calendars and make posting on multiple social media platforms at once efficient. A few popular social media scheduler platforms for construction companies are:

• Hootsuite
• Sprout Social 
• HubSpot
• Later
• Buffer

6. Engage and Interact

Social media is not just about broadcasting messages: it's about building relationships and engaging with your audience in ways that add genuine value to their life and social media experience. Respond to comments and messages promptly, participate in relevant industry conversations and actively seek out opportunities to connect with potential clients and industry influencers with contests, polls and complementary service collaborations.

There are two main ways to effectively engage and interact with your construction company’s ideal audience on social media: batch responses and real-time responses.

Batch responses involve setting aside time to review and respond to any comments, direct messages or tags on your construction company’s social media profiles. You can choose to batch respond once a week, every day or another cadence that works for your social media team and that adds value to your construction company’s followers.

Real-time responses involve setting up notifications so that every time there’s customer activity on one of your construction company’s social media profiles, a member of your social media team can reply right away. AI chatbots can be useful for responding to FAQs in direct messages and in the comment section. Always be sure to monitor the chatbot to ensure brand consistency and information accuracy.

7. Measure and Analyze Performance

Track the performance of your social media efforts using analytics tools provided by each platform. Monitor key metrics such as engagement rate, follower-growth rate, shares, saves and conversions, and use this data to further refine your strategy and optimize your content for better results.

Avoid measuring metrics such as likes, comments and follower count. These metrics are known as ‘vanity metrics’ and offer very little insight into your construction company’s social media strategy and platform success.

Social media marketing presents a wealth of opportunities for construction companies to showcase their expertise, connect with clients and drive business growth. By following the strategies outlined in this blog post and staying attuned to the evolving needs of your audience, your construction company can harness the power of social media marketing to stand out in a competitive market and achieve your business objectives.

Success in social media marketing for construction companies lies in understanding your target audience, creating compelling content, maintaining consistency and actively engaging with your followers. By adopting a strategic approach and leveraging the unique features of each social media platform, construction companies can establish a strong online presence, attract new clients and cement their reputation as industry leaders.

Need help using social media and other marketing channel to generate more construction leads? Check out construction marketing services we excel in or get in touch if you need a effective custom marketing strategy for your construction brand.