A picture is worth a thousand words. Grow your business by advertising cleaning services on Instagram and other social media platforms.
Imagine the effect before and after photos can have on your business. People can see firsthand the quality of work your company performs, which means they’re more likely to get in touch. Distributing such a photo used to be difficult, but advertising cleaning services in clever ways is easier now than ever before, thanks to the internet and social media platforms like Instagram.
What is Instagram?
If you aren’t already familiar, Instagram is a social media platform designed to tell stories through pictures and videos. Take a picture of something, post it to the app, leave a caption if you like, and share it with your followers. So if your company has a new logo or you’ve recently completed a job you want to brag about or maybe you just want to post pictures from a holiday party—all of these scenarios (and more) are possible. The best part? It’s both easy and free to use.
The benefit of using social media for advertising cleaning services is that you have an opportunity to connect with colleagues, clients, and those who might one day become clients (i.e., the general public) on a more neighborly level than traditional advertisements. Followers can leave comments, and you can respond to them, initiating conversation and establishing a good relationship with your followers and the general public.
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Types of content on Instagram
Since Instagram thrives on photos and videos, post content relevant to the work that you do. That might be a before and after shot of a job well done, a photo of your cleaning team, pictures that show your brand logo, or a video that shows your team in action.
To fully capitalize on all the benefits of advertising cleaning services on Instagram, don’t stop there. Post content of your cleaning team at work or community events. Sponsor a charity work day and upload content of your team working for a good cause. Demonstrate that you’re more than just a faceless company—that you care about the communities you serve and the people who are a part of them.
And don’t forget the humor! There are plenty of silly pictures, internet memes, and other media you can post to give your followers a laugh—a strategy that often results in more followers. Take a look at Tom Hanks’ Instagram account, for example. He may not run a cleaning service, but he’s a fine example of humor on Instagram.
Hashtags, links, and frequency
One of the most critical components to advertising cleaning services on social media is known as the hashtag, or #. Inserting the hashtag before a word causes it to trend, meaning people can search for that word and find related posts. For a cleaning service, you might want to use hashtags like #businesscleaning, #commercialcleaning or #cleaningservices. You’ll also want to add your city, like #Chicago or #Worcester to get seen locally.
Note that there’s no space between words in hashtags—this is essential for your hashtags to index properly! The more hashtags you use, the more exposure you’ll get. Hidalgo Cleaners in Ontario offers an example of an Instagram account that does a good job with hashtags. (Although, we’ll add the caveat that we don’t recommend the “follow for a follow” type hashtags. Many of those accounts are just collectors and thought they won’t hurt, they also won’t help your business.)
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Instagram won’t let you link to your website in the caption section, but you can include a link in your bio. Doing so is highly recommended because then followers can easily find you online and enlist your services.
Frequency is a tricky thing when advertising cleaning services through social media. It seems more is better, but that’s not the case. If you post too much, you’ll miss out on engagement opportunities with many of your followers. If you want to stay active and visible, it’s best to post anywhere from a couple of times a week to two or three times a day if you have the resources. ProTip: Don’t post all your content at once. Space it out if you’re doing more than one in a day, morning, noon, and night.
Other platforms
There are other useful platforms for advertising cleaning services online. Facebook does a good job of getting content in front of relevant users and Twitter is an excellent way to give your business a voice. LinkedIn is also useful for getting in touch with local businesses and demonstrating your expertise in your industry through Pulse posts and sharing other articles that people might find useful. Just remember that whichever platforms you choose, if you want people to find you, you need to actively post!
For some of you, this may sound like a lot, but rest assured it’s easier than it sounds. All it takes is a little time, a little dedication, and a whole lot of great pictures and videos. Have fun posting!