Getting consistent, quality referrals can be a real challenge when you work for yourself. As an independent contractor with limited experience marketing your skills, social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be your primary advertising opportunity – offering up an excellent source of potential clients and referrals. However, if handled incorrectly, social media can also doom your business before you ever get started. Understanding the unique role that social media plays in the career of the independent contractor can help you build your reputation in your industry while ensuring the success and growth of your business.
Lack of social media presence
When customers are searching for services, their first resource is the internet. Developing a website can seem premature or be intimidating for many independent contractors, so having a social media presence is crucial to helping customers find you.
Social media is also an excellent source of referrals and reviews for independent contractors. Rather than having to collect referrals to distribute to potential clients, social media provides customers looking for your services with easy access to reviews of your services. If you don’t have a social media presence, customers will move on to the next business they find.
Your social media persona
Perhaps more detrimental for your business than not being on social media at all, is a negative social media presence. If your social media page is littered with profanity or inappropriate or irrelevant content, you may be doing more harm to your business than you know.
Establish social media accounts for your business that are separate from your personal accounts and keep any personal conversations from filtering into your business profile. Business pages can typically be set to require the page admin’s approval for comments to be visible to other viewers. If you receive a post comment that is inappropriate, simply block the comment from appearing on your page.
Handling negative reviews
Every business, big and small, deals with its fair share of negative reviews. As you build your business, you’re bound to receive at least a few of these. Addressing these critiques with professionalism and ensuring that issues are dealt with appropriately can be an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive for your growing enterprise.
When you receive a negative online review, don’t engage negatively with the customer. A simple statement of “We’re sorry you were displeased with our service. We will contact you directly to follow-up on any issues” is more than appropriate online. When possible, contact the customer offline to get a better understanding of the situation and to correct any legitimate issues that they may have. After you resolve the issue, request that the customer consider editing their previous comments to address how you handled the situation.
Always show your best face when dealing with customers. Don’t engage in arguments with customers, competitors, or random commenters. These actions can cause a potential customer to look elsewhere for a contractor.
Show off your skills
When you’re doing a job, always ask the customer for permission to take photos of the project to be placed on your social media feed and invite the client to comment on the post. You put a lot of hard work into every job you complete, and your social media pages are an excellent source for you to showcase that work.
You should also make an effort to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Share relevant information and posts from other sources on your pages so that customers get used to coming to your page for information they need on your industry. The more information you provide, the more clients will see you as a trusted source they can turn to when they need services in your field.
A network of skilled technicians
As you build your business, social media can be a valued resource for customers and a source of leads for your business, as well as a potential minefield for your business’ success. In an increasingly mobile society, understanding how to utilize social media to engage with customers and present a positive image of your company to customers is vital to the future of your company.
The Tech-Army is always on the lookout for skilled technicians to help us expand our network of professionally trained and certified installers, engineers, and technicians. If you work in the computer, CCTV, IP security camera, AV/computer rental, or home-builder industry, we want to talk to you! While there’s no cost to join, we only accept serious professionals – so only the best need apply.
