It’s Monday afternoon. You’ve taken care of your morning tasks, caught up on your over-the-weekend emails, returned phone calls, chat with your co-workers, and had lunch… and now you need to get your social media plan for next week mapped out. (If you don’t usually map out your social media plan — start that IMMEDIATELY.) But you’re stuck. Nothing clever or even all that useful is coming to mind.
Writer’s block is just as real for Facebook as it was for that term paper back in English class! And it’s something every marketer struggles with from time to time. That’s why it’s nice to develop a few go-to social media themes (and hashtags), to help you beat the blockage. There are tons of ideas out there, easily found with a quick Google search. But for the purposes of this post, I’ll share some of what we’ve done at White Castle Roofing (generally on an every-other-week basis, so every week we basically already have one post done before it’s begun) — and hopefully, that’ll get your creative juices going!
Employee-based hashtags
- #WeAreWhiteCastle — We created a blog series with employee Q&As, to give people an idea of the person behind the voice on the phone or the dude holding the hammer. Whenever we posted these — every other Monday — we used the #WeAreWhiteCastle hashtag. Having a go-to post twice a month to count on was a big help, and it was fun to see our own employees sharing and interacting with these posts!
- #MondayFunday — After our blog series was complete for the time being, we introduced #MondayFunday posts. We’ve started encouraging our team to have some fun with their CompanyCam pictures, using a custom social media tag, and every other Monday we share a more candid picture with our social media followers. This way we can show off a little more of our team’s personalities, which again makes for fun, easy-to-share content for them (and their social friends and followers) to react and interact with.
Work-based hashtags
- #WhiteCastleWhy — Sometimes you just have to toot your own horn! With this theme, we share a positive comment or testimonial from a customer, with a close-up photo of the work we did on their roof or gutters (thanks, CompanyCam!). We just share the customer’s first name and last initial, for privacy purposes. But this lets us show off a little while giving a little taste of why the customer chose us or why they’re glad they did.
- #TransformationTuesday — This one is kind of obvious! Especially as a contractor, with CompanyCam, this one is a no-brainer. If you use the Before and After filters regularly — as you should — the work is literally already done for you! Just choose your favorite shots and away you go.
- #TuesdayTips or #WednesdayWisdom — These posts are great for either quick one-offs (a short line or two that doesn’t need much explanation, like “It’s 4,000 degrees today! Make sure those plants we installed have plenty of water #TuesdayTips”) or as a set-up for a blog post to share on your social media accounts (we often use these for homeowner education, like about attic ventilation or working with a local contractor). Bonus points if you use video like Facebook Live or and Instagram story to record a quick how-to since those platforms give preference to posts with native video.
Community-based hashtags
- #ThankfulThursday or #FeelgoodFriday — Whether you’re highlighting an award you won or a volunteer project you completed, it’s never a bad thing to share the work you do for your community. These are also great setups for doing something as simple as sharing a quote about thankfulness, community, positivity, or happiness with a pretty photo from CompanyCam, like of a sunrise or a nice landscape or…the possibilities are endless!
- #Community — Similar to the last idea, but doesn’t have to be on a Thursday or Friday; this one is good any time! And before you say it: no, it doesn’t defeat the purpose of working to help the community if you tell people about it. If anything, these are a great way to help advocate for the organization you’re working with! For instance, White Castle Roofing does a lot with Habitat for Humanity, and both our social media and traditional advertising are filled with anecdotes, events, and references to our work with them. And it’s a win for both of us! Habitat for Humanity gets the benefit of some awareness on the airwaves and web on White Castle’s dime, and White Castle gets the benefit of being aligned with a really great, reputable organization in the community.
Bonus: holidays!
We love posting on holidays! We don’t really consider the web traffic we do (or don’t) get on holidays, since the point is really to be with family and friends on those days and not doing much on the phone. But a post of a house with an American flag with a quote from our Founding Fathers on the 4th of July, or a gorgeous sunrise with a verse of Scripture on Easter, or a group of our employees smiling on Thanksgiving — all these are consistent with the brand we want to establish for White Castle Roofing, and are easy as pie to put together. Consider posting on not-so-well-known holidays, too: Veterans Day, the National Day of Prayer, or other fun days like National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day (March 29) or National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day (August 4). Check out NationalDayCalendar.com for ideas, and plot out fun ones in advance.
With a few consistent posts in your arsenal, you can make your social media plan a breeze. Consider how you might include these three focus areas in your weekly plans, find the number of posts that works for you each week (for us, it’s three per week — yours might be more or less, depending on your analytics, but that’s a good balance for White Castle Roofing) and get your plan — and hashtags — off the ground today!
