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Social Media in the Service Industry

In today’s world, social media is everything. With multiple platforms to utilize and reach an audience, social media has become the best tool to use for free advertising. However, being in the service industry, it is harder to draw those followers to your business without having a tangible item to give them in return. So, here are some of the tips and tricks we have used that work to engage and acquire that follower. The majority of our social media presence is on Facebook, but other options could be Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc.

Building Your Social Media Presence

First and foremost, a Facebook Business PAGE will give you more flexibility to attract a following. With a page, you have the ability to schedule posts and reach a greater number of people. You are also able to “promote” your page to a specific demographic following that you choose whether it be location, age, or gender. This promotion can run for as long as you want, or you can set a spending limit and it will promote your page until that limit has been reached. Compared to a Facebook GROUP, a page is more public with less privacy options, so your content is able to be viewed by anyone, not just members or followers.

When creating your page, it’s important to be very detailed. No picture, a vague description, missing information, etc, will ultimately turn people away from your page. Many people turn to Facebook for contact information for businesses, especially with phone books being a thing of the past. Having a profile picture with your business logo or picture of your staff assures the followers they are following the correct page. With many businesses having the same name, but being in different states, you want your follower to know they are at YOUR page. Like mentioned above, be sure to list as many details about your business as you can – address, phone number, email addresses, hours of operation, what you offer (what types of insurance your agency writes). This will allow your business page to be a “one stop shop” where potential customers can find all the information they need.

Consistent posting is key to attracting people to your page. Facebook uses algorithms to decide what it shows to people when they are scrolling through their news feed. The more interactions a person has with your page, the more posts they will see from your page. In order to achieve this, make frequent posts that a person can comment on or “like” so Facebook sees their interactions with your page. While it is important to share information about what we can do for our customers, it’s equally as important to not be too “salesy”. Be real and share personal stories or some of your favorite inspirational quotes. Remind your followers you are human too! We also share a lot of posts from the companies we write with, the National Weather Service Station from our area, our county Emergency Management page, our schools and our local Chamber of Commerce. In my personal opinion, sharing these types of posts shows your business is community oriented and that is something many people want to see. 

Utilizing Your Business Page Features

I’m going to touch on two specific features – post scheduling and appointment scheduling. Both of these features are incredible and FREE!!

Post scheduling allows you to create content to post onto your page, but schedule it to post at a later date and time. The advantage to this is that you can schedule out a day, a week or a month in advance and know your business page will show activity without you needing to do something every day. Generally, we like to post about every other day, at various times of the day. I sit down and plan for a month’s worth of posts and write them on a calendar with the scheduled time they will be posted. Facebook does send a notification to the admins of your page that the scheduled post has successfully posted. I like to alternate our posts, so some graphics I make on my own, some I grab from the Trusted Choice website, some I get from our companies and some I find on Google or Pinterest. Definitely take advantage of holidays or events happening in your area for your posts. Again, this shows you care more about your community and the events happening than making sales.

Appointment scheduling is a tool that minimizes your work load, while keeping things professional. By using the appointment scheduling, you are able to set appointments with customers, send a reminder for your meeting, send a follow up message hours, days, weeks or months after your originial appointment and keep track of your day digitally. For many, this works because it can be done from a phone or computer rather than having a paper and pen planner to keep track of. In order to set an appointment with someone, you will need to create them as a contact. By doing this, you are able to enter their address, phone number, email and birthdate, along with adding notes or a label (such as prospect, new business, follow up, etc) to their contact screen. Then, when you create the appointment for that customer, you can add notes for other staff members to see that the customer will not see. This is great if you have CSRs who schedule appointments for you. After scheduling the appointment, you can choose to have reminders sent via text to the customer, otherwise, it will send the message through Facebook messenger. 

If you would like further information or assistance with creating or utilizing your business page, feel free to contact me at smday@ruraltel.net!

Skylin Day is an Agent for TWI Insurance Services in WaKeeney, KS.

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