Social media for trades

You have just finished a deck in Mount Gravatt. It looks great, the owner is happy, and by the time you have loaded the ute and driven home the photo is buried under 200 others. Nobody posts it. That is how most tradie Facebook pages go quiet, and it has nothing to do with skill.

This page is the whole approach on one screen, with links to the posts that handle each part.

Who is looking, and where

Not many people scroll your page for fun. Three kinds of visitor matter:

• The person a neighbour recommended, checking you are real and still working.
• Someone in a local Facebook group who saw your name tagged under "can anyone recommend a good sparky?".
• A customer comparing you with another quote, wanting to see jobs like theirs.

All three want recent, real work. Set up the basics first if you have not: how to set up a Facebook business page.

What to post

The job you finished today beats anything clever. Before-and-after pairs sell themselves, and the post on shooting them on site with a phone covers the angle and light problems. When you run dry, 50 post ideas from jobs you have already done has a list by trade.

Ask permission before you show a customer's home, and leave out house numbers, number plates and anything with a name on it.

When it suits the season

Southern states and northern states do not share a calendar. Some examples of timing a post to the week it is useful:

• Air con: servicing and installs before the first heatwave, not during it. Queensland and the NT start earlier than Victoria.
• Roofing and gutters: storm season, and the week after a hailstorm when everyone is checking for damage.
• Painters and landscapers: spring, before Christmas parties and the end of year sale push.
• Electricians: smoke alarm and safety switch checks around rental inspection season.

How often

Once or twice a week of real work beats a burst and then silence. Social media for tradies: the 10-minute-a-week system goes through it. If you are weighing doing it yourself against paying someone, what social media management costs lays out the usual prices.

Using AI to help

Tools can write captions from your photos and a line of notes, and some can schedule them. The catch is bland, generic captions. AI and automated social media looks at what holds up. Whatever you use, read it before it goes out and check names, suburbs and prices are right.

Ads are a separate decision

Mitch writes organic posts and does not run ads. If you are thinking about boosting, read when Facebook ads make sense for a trades business first. Ads work better aimed at a page that already has recent posts, but they cost real money with GST on top.

The ten-minute week

Monday to Thursday, one photo and one line per job, ideally sent from site. Friday, look at what is queued and approve it. If you have an apprentice, they take the photos. That is the commitment.