We’ve done several posts before on the importance of posting to social media for your repair business. Social media is the perfect platform for enhancing your brand and reaching your audience on a conversational and informative level. Knowing how to post to social media and understanding social marketing is sure to boost your business. Besides, what’s today without someone Googling something on their smartphone or checking in on Facebook?
Today, we aren’t going to just define some terms for you; definitions can be boring. We really just want to talk to you about what you post to social media and what we find successful. Success on social platforms doesn’t come from just posting every day. It’s what, when, and how you’re posting that will really help you see a change.
How to Post to Social Media for Your Repair Business
We recently came across a Facebook page for an Auto Body repair shop and fell in love. The company, Best Body Shop of Wichita, KA, is doing pretty much everything any collision repair shop should be doing. Run by owner, Clay Hoberecht, the page features videos, before and after pictures, repair updates, live and pre-recorded videos, employee spotlights, company highlights, industry perspective, and so much more. The reason it’s so successful? It’s human.
Simply put, these are humans putting forth content for other humans. They’re passionate about what they do and there is no secret agenda behind how they post to social media. They just seem to genuinely want to share their stories with their audience. We’ve said this before so many times – at the end of the day, your inbound marketing strategy should be human centered.
Content for Humans by Humans
Humans are naturally visually creatures. We want to see what other people are doing and have them see us. It’s a form a validation. Images are the perfect way to stimulate this craving. In the automotive repair industry, showing how you work on cars and get things is the best way to show other humans how you operate.
Why Pictures are Important
This might make you shake your head, but did you know the human attention span is less than 9 seconds? That’s less than that of a goldfish. Because of this, images are more vital than ever in sucking someone in. When you craft a post to social media, it’s more likely to be viewed and engaged with when accompanied by a photo.
So, yes, while photos are important, posting any picture won’t get you likes or clicks. What makes Clays pictures work, is the content they show. One of the first things we noticed on Best Body Shop’s page was a lot of before and after pictures of cars they had worked on. This content is what shows the hard work and success of the company. They truly do good work and want people to see it. I know I would be more likely to go to a shop that proves their success then someone who can provide a portfolio of good work. We’ve also seen interesting graphics showcasing sales or upcoming events. Using bright colors and strong fonts are a great way to bring people in.
Social Media Video Marketing is King
According to Social Media Today, video marketing is nearly 600% more effective that traditional marketing strategies including print and email. When done in short blasts or now, live, video attracts audiences like no other piece of content. One of the best features of the videos on Best Body Shop’s Facebook, is that they’re all short. An infographic from IMPACT, confirms that 2-minute-long videos get the most engagements. Anything longer than 3 minutes, and your audiences’ attention span will waver. There are too many things vying for our attention these days to keep someone around watching 5- and 6-minute-long videos every day.
The videos Clay posts to his Facebook page generally get anywhere between a couple hundred and thousands of views. Why? Because they were visually stimulating and showed something fun happening. The employees were engaged, they showed a job being done, and the videos were quick. Using videos when you post to social media can generate 1200% more shares than just posting regular text posts and images. That’s not to say you shouldn’t employ the use of pictures and texts, because those have great interactions as well and work for people who don’t engage with video sources.
How You Can Be a Social Media Standout
We’ve always subscribed to the notion that social media is necessary. We’ve also always subscribed to the notion of hard work taking you places. That being said, if you want your collision repair shop’s social media to standout, you’ll have to put in some effort. There are so many tools out there to get you where you need to be. Research and persistence can get you pretty far. But if you can’t find the time, we can help!
At Stratosphere Studio, we have a team of digital marketing experts to assist you in your journey. If you need help with your social media content creation, let us know! Lately, we’ve been reworking our social media strategies and found what works best. To post pictures and videos from inside your shop, we would need to be onsite at your location all day, every day. And, as much as we would love to get into a body shop, unfortunately that can’t always happen. But, we have good news: All you need is a guy on the inside passionate about his work who may also have an interest in social media. For many of our clients, each month we create a social media posting calendar – a fully stocked list of everything you should post and when. It includes everything from blogs, to pictures. We’ll tell you what you need and how to do everything. If you want to know more, all you have to do is ask!
[button text=”Let’s Talk!” link=”/contact” color=”ff9933″ align=”center”][/button]
