As a home inspector, you know you need a solid social media presence — but you don’t have a lot of spare time to devote to managing your social feeds.
So, how do you get started without a professional marketing team behind you?
Facebook is still one of the most widely-used platforms among U.S. adults, so as a small business person, a strong Facebook presence will give you the most bang for your buck.
A Facebook business page will give you visibility among your current and potential customers. It’s a platform to promote your services, educate your audience, and network with other professionals in your field.
In this post, we’ll give you actionable tips on setting up a Facebook business page for your home inspection company, what and what not to post, and how to network on Facebook.
Let’s dive in!
How to set up a Facebook business page
To have a business Facebook page, you’ll first need to have a personal Facebook profile. Don’t worry, though: you don’t need to be active on your profile to boost your professional page’s viewership.
Let’s go over how to set up your page step by step.
1. Create a new page
On the homepage of your personal Facebook profile, you’ll see a plus sign in the upper right-hand corner. Click that, and you’ll see the option to create a page.
Alternatively, you can go to facebook.com/pages/create. Once you’re signed in, it will take you to a new screen where you can create a brand-new page.
2. Select your company’s name, category, and description
Use your company name as the name of the Facebook page. Check out Facebook’s guidelines for the kinds of names they allow; you may need to tweak your page name to match their rules.
Select “Home Inspector” as the category for your page.
In the About section, feel free to keep the description short and sweet. Visitors mainly need to understand:
- What kind of services you offer
- Your location and hours of operation
- What makes you stand out, or the unique value you bring to your customers (you’ve been local to your area for X years, you’re detail-oriented, etc.)
3. Select a cover photo
Many home inspectors choose a photo of themselves hard at work as their page cover. You can also take advantage of that space by using a graphic containing your logo, any tagline or awards for your business, and even a list of services. A good idea is to use the same image that serves as the main image on your website for branding purposes.
After all, your cover photo is at the top of the screen and is the first thing your visitors see. You might as well use that to its fullest potential.
You can easily create a graphic using free design apps like Canva. Design your cover (the suggested dimensions for a Facebook cover are 2050 by 780 pixels), then upload it to your Facebook page’s cover using the “edit” button in the bottom corner of your page’s cover.
4. Select your profile photo
You might use a picture of yourself or the logo for your business. Many people suggest using a personal headshot because your visitors are more likely to trust you if they can put a face to the name.
5. Customize the buttons on your page
When setting up your account, Facebook gives you several options for the buttons along the strip below your header image.
These buttons include the option to like the page, follow the page, contact the administrator through Messenger, and custom call-to-action (CTA) buttons. Custom CTA buttons are a great way to invite people to interact with you — and you can even make it possible to schedule a booking through your Facebook page.
What to post
Once your page is published, you’ll want to post regularly to get the most benefit from a business profile.
How you want to be seen by customers and potential customers influences how you present yourself on your social feeds. Do you want to be the authority on all things real estate? Post a lot of informational guides and how-to videos.
Want to be seen as relatable and fun? Don’t be afraid to share humorous posts and personal stories appropriate to your brand.
Here are some post ideas to get you started:
- Photos of crazy things you’ve found on inspections
- Thank you posts or testimonials from previous clients (if you’ve gotten permission from them to share that information)
- Any specials you’re currently offering
- Links to your website and blog posts
- Questions or polls to engage your followers
- Tips and tricks for homeownership
- Sharing posts of local industry professionals or community groups you follow (real estate agents, plumbers, appraisers, etc.)
- Things in your personal life that are appropriate to share to create a human connection (a finished home improvement project, your daughter’s new karate trophy, photos of your pets, etc.)
Link back to your website
Your Facebook page should be your lead generation tool, meaning that you’re gathering new visitors who may not come across you from a Google search but might need home inspection services.
So, your Facebook page shouldn’t necessarily be the last stop for potential customers. They need to know where to find your professional presence online.
Make sure you’re linking back to your website as often as you can. The visitors who come across you on Facebook can click through to your professional website, learn more about you and your services, and even book an inspection if that’s something they need.
Most people know that when you create content, like blog posts, you need to share that on social media. But many people make the mistake of typing out an entire post on their Facebook page or their LinkedIn page.
While there is a time and place for creating unique content on social media, blog posts should be on your blog.
The way to share your blog posts on Facebook is to share a link to the blog post. Social media platforms will automatically convert the link to an aesthetically pleasing block containing the featured image, the title of the post, and a link visitors can click through to read more.
Your goal is to get more visitors to click through to your website. This gives your website more traffic and views, which helps your website rank higher in Google when people do organic searches for home inspectors. It’s a win-win!
What not to post
Let’s take a look at a few general things to stay away from when you’re curating content for your Facebook page.
1. Stay away from controversy
While you’ll have to decide what constitutes “politics,” it’s a good rule of thumb to stay as non-confrontational as possible.
Don’t alienate your customers by posting abrasive or offensive things. Most people suggest avoiding religion and politics as much as possible, even on your personal profile. It’s not hard for the curious potential customer to look you up to learn more about you.
If you’re posting rude or inflammatory things, especially about controversial issues, you might alienate many potential customers.
2. Don’t only post about your business
As a home inspection business, your customers aren’t using your services daily, and your services rarely change. Because of this, it’s a good idea to post about more than just your business. Try to spend 20% of your posting time talking about your business and the other 80% about things tangentially related to it.
For example, you might post on:
- Current housing market trends
- How to get approved for a loan
- Interesting facts about real estate in general
- Tips and tricks for home projects and maintenance
3. Don’t post without visual content
Try to include a picture, video, or even a gif with as many posts as possible. Social media users are much more likely to engage with a post if it includes a picture or video.
One note about posting videos: keep them short and sweet. Today’s social media audiences have a short attention span, so try to keep your videos under 3 minutes. And make sure to try to hook their attention right away since people will scroll past a video after the first few seconds unless they’re hooked.
4. Never be argumentative or confrontational
If someone leaves you a negative review, it can be tempting to argue with them.
Please don’t do it.
As with every aspect of your business, the best tactic is to be courteous, polite, and professional — and that goes double for social media, where your every word is public and easily shareable with others.
When to post
Don’t post too often; a HubSpot study found that businesses with less than 10,000 followers get less engagement if they post more than once daily.
According to the HubSpot study, if you have between 100-200 followers, you may get away with posting twice a day. Still, overall, the best strategy is to focus on quality content over quantity.
Thankfully, there are tons of utilities available to automate your posts so that you don’t have to spend hours every week on social media. A scheduler app will help you waste less time and appear engaged and present.
Apps like Buffer and HootSuite will help you schedule your posts weekly or monthly, and they both have free beginner plans.
How to network using Facebook
Networking will increase your visibility and interactions with customers and potential customers. You want to get more followers and build a community of other professionals in the same industry for mutual support.
How to get followers
One of the best ways to build followers is to use 1-3 hashtags on your posts. Using hashtags makes your content visible to new audiences searching for or following something related to that hashtag.
The hashtags should relate to what the post is about (for example, if you write an informative post on how to get your house ready for a home inspection, you might use #homeinspection and #homebuying).
Also, make sure you’re engaging with your current followers. The more friendly and conversational you are, the more your followers will enjoy interacting with you and sharing your posts.
Who to follow
It’s a good idea to follow other professionals in your industry. Try searching for “home inspectors” + [your area], “real estate agents” + [your location], etc. Start following professionals in your community, interacting with their posts, and even sharing their posts that you think your followers would find useful.
It’s also a good idea to join relevant Facebook groups for fellow home inspectors. Here are a few popular ones to get you started:
It might not seem like much, but networking on Facebook with professionals in your industry can build genuine and authentic relationships. You’d be surprised how many referrals you can land by being active in your professional community.
Facebook: The way to level up your home inspection business
A professional Facebook page is a free way to get more visibility for your brand. In an hour or less, you can have a functional Facebook page for your home inspection business.
And with the available scheduling apps out there, you won’t need to spend more than a couple of hours a week scheduling content that will make you seem like a constant presence online.
Facebook makes it easy for home inspection businesses to start interacting with followers and visitors, driving traffic to your website and developing a professional network that can benefit you for years.