April 2022

Contract Social media Talk
ARE YOU BEING SEEN?
David Glenwright is the Head of Training at JC Social Media and has been a social media
specialist and consultant for over 10 years. Below, he explains the ins and outs of social
media for installers, and what you can do to be seen more.
There’s no escaping the fact that social
media has become an essential marketing
tool for businesses in all shapes and sizes.
In fact, it’s believed that there are over 50 million
small businesses around the world using social
media as a way to engage with their customers.
And it’s working as well – 9 in 10 Instagram
users follow at least one business, and 78% of
Facebook users purchase products and services
that they discover on the platform.
With statistics like this, it can be frustrating for
business owners who are putting time and energy
into their social media presence, but aren’t
generating the results that they expected, or feel
they deserve for their efforts.
When we are so focused on our own business and
content on social media, it’s easy to forget the
context in which people see our posts.
The reality is that it’s rare for someone to go
through a business’s own feed, looking at all their
content in one sitting. Instead, users will tend to
scroll through the news feed, a curated feed of
content that pulls together posts from dozens if
not hundreds of users and brands.
Your post is effectively in competition with all
these other posts to make it onto this feed, and
there is no shortage of competition.
In fact, it’s believed that the average user will
scroll through an incredible 90 metres of content
every single day – that’s a daily news feed the
height of Big Ben. If we assume that your post is
roughly 10cm in size, that makes it one of 900
posts that someone will scroll through.
A great social media strategy recognises that
being seen is more than half the battle, and that
means creating content that is going to stick
out on that newsfeed, capturing your audience’s
focus and attention. Often referred to as ‘thumbstopping’
content, here are three top tips
to creating posts that will help you
increase your visibility and generate
genuine interest in your brand.
describe everything that you’re trying to get
across, it just needs to illustrate it in a way
that is going to draw interest in you and
your brand. Think of it as the hook of
your post – if they are intrigued by
the image, they’ll read the text that
Avoid the constant sell
follows.
It’s annoying when someone walks
up to you out of the blue and starts
trying to sell something, isn’t it? The exact David Glenwright
Respect the algorithm
Algorithms are the beating heart of social
same principle applies to social media.
networks. There is far too much content out
there for us to see everything that is posted by
People go onto these networks to escape the
the people and brands that we follow, so the
world and look at things that interest them and
algorithms decide what content to show users,
add value to their day. In the same way we
and in what order. Think of the algorithm as
hover over the skip button when an ad comes
the bouncer outside the Newsfeed nightclub. It
up on Youtube, if we come across a post that is
decides if you get in, when, and whether you get
overtly trying to sell something to us without first
that VIP top spot.
engaging us, there’s a good chance that we’ll
scroll right past it.
You can’t ‘beat’ the algorithm, but you can
learn to understand what it’s looking for in
It’s important to sell our products and services,
a post. Concise amounts of text, good use of
there’s no denying that, but it doesn’t have to be
imagery, a healthy posting frequency that doesn’t
the focus of everything that we post.
oversaturate (3-5 posts per week on Facebook
Conversations about pricing, calls to encourage
people to apply for a quote and links to your
website can all put people off interacting, so try
and Instagram, not per day!) and content that is
easily likeable are just some of the things that the
algorithm is looking out for.
limiting these kinds of posts, and focusing on
There is a learning process to creating a great social
things that will educate, inform or even entertain
media content strategy, and it’s a process that can
your audience.
take time. But if you pay close attention to what
Visual content excites
When we’re scrolling through our news feeds,
we’re trying to digest as much as possible, as
quickly as possible. It’s somewhat clichéd to say
that a picture speaks a thousand words, but it’s
performs well and what doesn’t, and you consider
what your audience wants to see rather than what
you want to show your audience, it won’t be long
before you really will start to be seen online.
www.jcsocialmedia.com
true! An image or short video can easily convey
to someone in moments something that would
See David at the FIT Show 2022:
take written text seconds to get across, and in the
Tuesday 10th May 12:30pm – 1:00pm &
world of social media, seconds is a long time.
Wednesday 11th May – 3:10pm - 3:40pm
A visually stimulating image doesn’t need to
FIT Show Seminar Theatre
56 T I APRIL 2022 PRACTICAL CONTENT FOR THE GLAZING INSTALLER & HOME IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST