When you're selecting materials for construction—it must be the best fit for the job. Same goes for where to focus your social media efforts as a home builder. Those likely to want to build a home, or renovation, tend to be in a bracket that have accumulated some wealth over time— that tends to put them in a demographic that currently uses YouTube or Facebook, rather than TikTok.
YouTube & Facebook. Why?
Evidence suggests that for reaching the broad yet specific demographic of prospective home builders—families and professionals aged between 30 to 45—YouTube or Facebook provide access to the most user (Social Media News, 2024). Both offer sophisticated targeting capabilities that allow for precision in messaging, ensuring that your adverts are more likely to be seen by those who count.
Content That Lasts
Facebook: It's suite of interactive tools—think 360-degree tours, your business page timeline posts, and real-time engagement features can take viewers on a journey of your business and reputational history. This is one way prospects can evaluate your business. Plus, Meta ad targeting can really help a home in on those looking to build or renovate their home. (Scuse the pun). You can target those interested in both on Meta, and set your ads to cross both Instagram and Facebook.
YouTube: Depending on the competitiveness of the topic, YouTube's content can last for years, rather than the few hours alternative channels tend to offer. This maximises the resources used to create the YouTube content in the first place. Oh, and it's better integrated to search engines let's face it. So posting content there is basically a dual channel strategy. Nice.
Hot Tip: "Do not... address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium." (copywriter David Ogilvy). When people engage with your content, they tend to be alone.
Both of these platforms offer different means to engage with the same prospective audience - those looking to build or renovate their home.
What about Pinterest & Instagram?
Both Instagram and Pinterest offer opportunity, but the question was "what is the best social media platform for a home builder", particularly for those here in Australia and that tends to be the one that a) has the most users that have some budget to build or renovate and b) functions more like a social media platform than a search engine (I'm looking at you Pinterest)
Yes, in my opinion Pinterest tends to be one you can set up then walk away from for a bit - it's can be less maintenance basically - as long as you set it up right. Here are some tips on using Pinterest to general leads for home builders.
Track the Triumphs
Most digital platforms these days offer engagement metrics. This means you can track what's working for your business. For some business owners they misunderstand this ability and expect at least one post to go viral. Interestingly, going viral doesn't necessarily translate to reputational or business growth—because there is so many reasons your content is going viral in the first place.
Long story short - viral is not really the goal, consistency is. It's a sentiment echoed by many business leaders and marketing experts: Small businesses that grow are the ones that maintain a consistent market presence.
Focus on the channels that will help you do that.
