Twin Cities housing professionals share five tips for boosting your business through social media.
Between Reels and Stories, hashtags and captions, keeping up with ever-changing social media platforms, trends, and algorithms can be dizzying—but having a presence on the sites is critical to building brand awareness, connecting with potential clients, and even creating additional revenue streams through ads and affiliate links. Here, three Twin Cities housing professionals (and Housing First Minnesota members) share their top tips for boosting business through social media in a way that’s meaningful and authentic.
1. It’s all about time and consistency
Don’t get discouraged by a lack of followers or low engagement in the beginning. “It takes a while for people to find you, follow you, engage with you, earn trust in you, and create some loyalty around your brand,” says Katie Kath, who runs Jkath Design Build + Reinvent with her husband, Jesse. “The biggest rules of thumb are finding the time and staying consistent. If you’re not currently using social media at all, start with three days a week. If you’re already posting three days a week, bump it up to five days,” she adds, noting that 90% of their business now comes through Instagram.
2. Know your audience
Understanding when to post is key since the goal is to get your content in front of as many eyeballs as possible. “When is your audience on? Instagram will give you those statistics if you have a business account,” says Kath. “Most people check their phones first thing in the morning and at the end of their workday.” Translation: 10 a.m. on a Monday, when many people are working, is likely not the optimum time to post.
You should also be aware of where your followers are and the type of content they want to see. For Kath, that means imagery of finished spaces on Instagram, while Morgan Molitor, who started construction2style with her husband, Jamie, focuses on Pinterest and Google Stories to drive traffic back to their website.
For Mark Williams of Mark D. Williams Custom Homes, “Instagram Reels are by far the best,” and he tries to create video content daily during special events like the Parade of Homes or Artisan Home Tour to attract visitors to their new builds and remodels. “We’ll do a video showing cool features or we’ll film people as they’re walking through the front door. Followers will respond to a nice picture, but they are more interested in people, anything they can draw a connection to.”
3. Utilize the right tools for your business
Having a robust presence online doesn’t mean you need to be glued to your phone, churning out content 24/7. Many who have mastered the social media game (and demanding algorithms) rely on tools like Tailwind, Buffer, Sprout, Hootsuite, and Later to schedule posts in advance, monitor when their audience is online, and make it simple to engage with and respond to comments from followers. “Obviously, learning the tools takes a little bit more time, but once you know them, they’re pretty self-explanatory,” says Molitor, and now, “I only time-block four hours a week to focus on social media.”
4. Learn from others
When it comes to social media for business, Molitor is self-taught. In addition to a lot of trial-and-error to discover what works best for construction2style, she also routinely listens to podcasts for continuing education, such as Brad Leavitt’s AFT Construction Podcast, Food Blogger Pro, Stand to Serve by Emily Costopoulos, and Why Not Now? with Amy Jo Martin. “I’m constantly learning through other colleagues or partners, and if someone I respect or admire is testing something out, I jump on board right away to see if it works for us,” says Molitor. “I like very simple and straightforward tools. I usually spend a month on new things, and if it’s working, I keep doing it. If not, I jump ship.”
5. Have fun with it
No matter your preferred platform, the content you create should be fun and engaging— otherwise, why bother? “If I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t do it,” says Williams, who has garnered a following thanks to lighthearted captions, behind-the-scenes job site clips, and “thank you Thursday” shoutouts that express gratitude for his team members. “You want to connect with people so they think, ‘Oh, they seem like fun. They work with good people and they do good work. I’d like to see what they do in the future.’ That’s pretty much the goal.”
Written by Taylor Hugo
