Stop selling! Social media is for creating awareness and developing relationships

Social media marketing is very different than traditional marketing. You shouldn't login with the intent to sell your roofing services. Instead, look to create relationships. If people feel you are part of their community they will support you and recommend your company to their colleagues, family and friends.

Here are 5 tips for getting started on creating relationships with existing and potential roofing customers using social media:

Dedicate Resources
Building relationships in social media requires both time AND people. At least one person needs to be responsible for communicating with those you are connected to, including reading status updates, Tweets, and blog posts; writing comments, joining groups, uploading photos and videos, participating in discussion forums, writing and sharing blog posts, responding to questions, etc.

Be Real
Building relationships in social media is predicated on trust and familiarity. Be yourself, and let your employees be themselves as representatives of your roofing company. Creating a stale, robotic profile and only posting sales messages and links to your website or blog are pointless activities, and honestly a complete waste of time. You want to discover a suitable mix of personality and professionalism.

Communicate Early & Often
It doesn't matter if you send email newsletters, write blog posts, update your status, send Tweets, or post to a group discussion - just be sure you are actively communicating. Get a jump start on topics that are hot in the industry and respond to them earlier than your competitors. Communicating often helps to build relationships with your audience so they can trust you will be there and will inform them of the valuable information they need or are looking for.

Get Involved
Engage your connections with questions and provide relevant context to what you post. People will start to ignore you if what you post isn't a two-way conversation. Get involved - if people are looking for assistance, point them in the right direction when you can or introduce them to someone who can. If someone posts something funny, interesting or personal, "Like" it, comment on it, re-Tweet it, etc. Show them you are interested in what they have to say as well.

Remember to Listen
Building a relationship requires that you listen more and talk less. As much as you want to spend time promoting your roofing services, that is actually the last thing you should do on social media. It is amazing what you can learn just by listening to what your customers are saying. Take the time to read their posts, the comments they leave on your blog, their Tweets, what they say in reviews, etc. This will help you understand their needs, concerns and interests.

If you have any questions about creating relationships with roofing customers on social media or would like help coming up with a social media strategy for your roofing company, please feel free to contact RoofPal any time.


This episode of the RoofPal Marketing Podcast is brought to you by The Contractors Alliance. Diversify your service offerings by integrating Conklin reflective cool roof coatings, foam, single-ply and other systems into your roofing business. For more information please contact Stan Volkman at (612) 750-6639, via email at Info@TheContractorsAlliance.com, or by visiting them online at TheContractorsAlliance.com.