How Plumbers and Heating Engineers Can Use Social Media

Social media is a great place to find new leads, boost brand awareness, and share your knowledge, but what are the best ways to utilise social media as a heating installer? We’ve created this guide to help you navigate the world of social media, discover how to stand out against the competition, and use it as a valuable platform for your business.

 

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR UNDERFLOOR HEATING INSTALLERS?

  • Keeping your business in the mind of your followers – Regularly using social media for business will keep you relevant and visible to customers as they will see you popping up on their feeds. Doing so increases familiarity with your company so when somebody thinks about underfloor heating or plumbing yours is the first company that springs to mind.
  • Generate leads – You can share your knowledge, advertise your services and start conversations with potential clients while also getting people clicking through to your website if you have one.
  • Stay on top of industry news – It’s good to stay ahead of the curve and social media is a great place to do this, not only can you follow relevant industry leaders to keep up with any news, you can share it with your followers as well.
  • Reputation management – If you receive feedback you can respond quickly and maintain your professional image in the public eye. Just installed UFH on a large project? Why not share some photos to spread the word (more on this later).
  • Keep an eye on the competition – You can follow your competitors’ activity to see what marketing approach they are taking and what works for them and then consider how you can apply similar principles in your posts.
  • Talk directly with existing/potential clients – The vast majority of people feel most comfortable communicating through social media, your existing/potential customers can message you easily and quickly and expect a swift response.

 

WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA SHOULD I USE?

LinkedIn

Great platform for B2B if you’re targeting other businesses who would be interested in UFH like hotels and spas.

How to set up your business page on LinkedIn

 

Twitter

Effective for B2C and a great place to interact with homeowners and share relevant content from other companies.

How to set up your business page on Twitter

 

Facebook

More effective for B2C marketing, Facebook is a great place to share content and get engagement, as well as connecting with existing and potential customers.

How to set up your business page on Facebook

 

Instagram

Again, Instagram is more effective for targeting end users of underfloor heating. Did you know that 200 million+ users of Instagram visit at least one business profile daily?

How to set up your business page on Instagram

 

What social media should I use?

HOW SHOULD HEATING ENGINEERS USE SOCIAL MEDIA?

Presenting key information about your business

Particularly if you don’t have a website, social media is likely to be the first place potential customers will go for information. All of the platforms allow you to include a short bio as part of your profile, this is an opportunity to explain what you do, where you’re based, and why people should choose you for underfloor heating installation.

Here’s our LinkedIn bio for an example…

Ambiente Systems UK has been trading since 2001 and specialises in the design, manufacture and supply of hydronic underfloor heating systems. As the popularity for underfloor heating has grown, we have added and developed many new products and systems to stay at the forefront of the market. We are different from many of our competitors, in that we focus solely on Underfloor Heating – this gives you the assurance that your system will perform to the highest standard and that your enquiry will be treated with the highest level of care and attention.

It’s also important to include how you’d like people to get in touch with you, including a business address if you have one, a phone number, and an email address. Some platforms, including LinkedIn and Facebook, will even incorporate a ‘Get directions’ button next to your address, which links to a map.

 

Facebook 'About' section
Ambiente Facebook ‘About’ section

 

Use it as a platform to share your content

If you’ve just completed a job, why not take some pictures of your handiwork and share it across social media? Sharing your successes in an easily accessible way is a great way to advertise your service, plus content that is accompanied by imagery or a video is more likely to grab the attention of customers. You can even write up a brief case study and include what kind of project it was, what you did, how quickly it was completed and even a testimonial from the customer. Don’t forget to ‘tag’ businesses or individuals you have worked with, this is especially beneficial for businesses such as hotels and spas, for whom underfloor heating is a great selling point.

 

You can find instructions on how to tag people here:

How to tag companies on LinkedIn

How to tag companies on Facebook

How to tag companies on Twitter

 

You can also include posts that answer the frequently asked questions (FAQs) of your target audience, for example, at Ambiente we have created guides for installers such as an installer’s guide to underfloor heating manifolds and an installer’s guide to underfloor heating thermostat controls. We then share a link to these articles across our social media to boost awareness. If you would like to contribute your knowledge to any future guides we create then get in touch via Facebook and we’ll tag your business page in the post we share.

 

You could even get in touch with publications like Installer Magazine and offer to write a piece for them that answers a common question. Once they publish the article they can share it on their own social media and tag you, making all of their followers aware of you as well.

 

Share other relevant and interesting content

As well as the content you create yourself, you can share content from other sources. Sharing news, videos, interesting facts and articles from companies you have worked with are all great options, just make sure that it is relevant to your target audience and still professional. If your main target is luxury residential projects, consider what a homeowner would want to hear about, this could span from interior design trends to ways to save energy and the benefits of underfloor heating! Remember that each post should end with a call to action, whether that be to find out more, read a full article, or watch a video.

 

Browsing Social Media content

 

Interact with influencers

Social media influencers are figures within your industry that have a good following and have followers that regularly interact with the content that they share. If a company that you have worked with has a substantial following, be sure to tag them in your case study post, it may be that they end up reposting it or writing their own post on the work you have done for them. The key thing is to build rapport with influencers and encourage interaction with them, this includes commenting, liking and sharing their content (when it’s relevant to your followers). This will keep you fresh in their mind and they may even contact you first next time they need an underfloor heating installation.

If you’ve just completed an installation using an Ambiente UFH system then tag Ambiente and we will share your post, that way you can reach out to our audience as well.

 

Engage in conversations

Use social media as a way to engage in conversations with homeowners and relevant businesses. On Twitter and LinkedIn you can use hashtags to get involved with particular local conversations, like #hertfordshirehour or #kenthour that businesses in the area use at a particular time of day to share information about their products and services with each other. You can use hashtags to participate in conversations if you have something relevant to add, think of how you can be useful to the conversation, can you share advice or provide a solution to a problem?

It’s recommended that you only use a maximum of 2 hashtags per post, as it can look unprofessional and on Twitter, in particular, your post will actually be seen by fewer people if you use more than this.

There’s no need to hashtag separate or ‘standalone’ words, such as ‘#underfloor #heating’ as simply mentioning ‘underfloor heating’ without any tags will still allow the post to be searchable for this term. Instead, make sure to use key phrases that are relevant to your services such as ‘wet underfloor heating’ and ‘underfloor heating installation’.

 

Put a friendly face to your business

Utilise social media as a place to manage your reputation. Respond to instant messages, tweets, and comments where you can to show that you are always willing to give your time and answer queries. Putting a friendly, personable face to the service you provide will appeal to end users. Allow your followers to get to know you a bit, just remember to always stay professional! You could post about how you became a UFH installer, for example, or what training you have acquired and what you enjoy about the job. People would always rather deal with a person than a faceless business.

 

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN BECOMING AN ACCREDITED AMBIENTE INSTALLER?

As an accredited Ambiente installer you’ll have access to installation guides and technical support, as well as FREE project leads from our extensive network of contacts. We’ll even supply you with an accredited installer badge to display on your website.

Become an Ambiente installer today or get in touch on 01707 649 118 for more information.

Recommended articles for you:

Installers guide to underfloor heating manifolds

Installers guide underfloor heating thermostat controls

 

This article was written by Robert Tuffin.

Robert is the General Manager at Ambiente and has been working in the underfloor heating industry since 2012.