Social media works for a trades business when the work is visual, the local community is active on the platform, and someone maintains it consistently. Where those conditions hold it produces genuine work. Where it fails, the cause is almost always inconsistency rather than the channel itself.
Matching the channel to how customers choose
Social media is presented as compulsory for every business, which is why so much of it is done without a purpose. It works considerably better when the reason for being there is clear.
Consider how someone actually finds a plumber. They search, they ask a neighbour, or they use someone they have used before. In none of those paths does a social account play a necessary role. Contrast that with a wedding photographer or a landscaper, where seeing the work is the decision.
So the question is not whether social media works, but which platform and which approach suit the way your particular customers choose. Answered properly, it becomes a channel rather than an obligation.
When it genuinely earns the time
The work is visually impressive
Landscaping, renovation, painting, tiling, restoration, and anything producing a dramatic before and after. Here the content is generated by doing the job, which changes the economics entirely.
Your community is genuinely active on a platform
Local neighbourhood groups are where a great deal of trades recommendation actually happens in many communities. Being present, findable, and occasionally helpful in those spaces produces work in a way that broadcasting to followers does not.
Note this is participation rather than posting. Different activity, different result.
You genuinely enjoy it
Not a trivial consideration. An owner who finds it engaging will maintain it, and maintenance is the entire variable. One who finds it a chore will not, and an abandoned account is worse than none.
Where it needs a different approach
- The work is not visually striking. Then the content shifts from finished results to explanation: what went wrong, what it cost, what a homeowner can check themselves.
- Your customers are institutional. Property managers and strata councils respond to a different presence, closer to a credible profile than an active feed.
- You are at capacity. Then the purpose changes from generating enquiries to improving the quality of the ones you get.
- Nobody has time to maintain it. Then it needs to be someone's defined responsibility rather than an intention, because consistency is the whole variable.
What to pair it with
Social works considerably better as part of a wider presence than on its own. The pieces that support it:
- Reviews, continuously. The highest return activity available and covered in how to ask for reviews.
- A complete Google Business Profile with real photographs, which is where the equivalent visual content actually gets seen.
- A website answering the verification questions, per what a plumber's website actually needs.
- Photographing your work. Worth doing regardless, since the photographs serve the website and the profile whether or not they are ever posted socially.
- Following up past customers. Unglamorous, cheap, and consistently effective.
If you do commit
- One platform. Whichever your customers actually use, chosen by asking rather than assuming.
- Photographs from real jobs, which you are taking anyway.
- A sustainable rhythm. Once a fortnight indefinitely beats daily for six weeks.
- Complete profile information, since people arriving there need to reach you.
- Reply to messages. An unanswered enquiry sitting in an inbox for three weeks does more harm than the account does good.
The abandoned account problem
Worth stating plainly, because it is the most common outcome.
A page whose last post is from two years ago suggests the business may no longer be operating. Someone checking you out finds it and forms a conclusion you did not intend.
If you have accounts you are not maintaining, the options are to delete them or to update the profile information and pin something explaining where you are actually active. Leaving them dormant is the one choice that carries a cost.
The summary: social media rewards consistency and punishes neglect, so the decision worth making is not whether to be present but whether you can commit to maintaining it properly. Where you can, it belongs in the mix.
Frequently asked questions
Does a trades business need social media?
Most do not. Customers typically find trades through search, referral, or previous use, none of which requires a social account. It earns its place where the work is visually impressive or the local community is genuinely active on a particular platform.
Which platform should a trades business use?
Whichever your customers actually use, established by asking new customers rather than assuming. For many trades, local neighbourhood groups produce more work than broadcasting to followers, because that is where recommendations genuinely circulate.
Is an abandoned social account harmful?
Yes. A page whose last post is two years old suggests the business may no longer be operating, and someone checking you out draws that conclusion. Either delete dormant accounts or update the profile and pin something explaining where you are active.
What produces better results than social media for trades?
Accumulating reviews continuously, maintaining a complete Google Business Profile with real photographs, having a website that answers verification questions quickly, photographing your work, and following up past customers.
How often should a trades business post?
At a rhythm that is sustainable indefinitely rather than an intensive schedule that lapses. Once a fortnight maintained for years outperforms daily posting for six weeks followed by silence, because consistency is what the account is actually signalling.
Is social media worth it if my work is not visual?
Usually not. Work such as drain clearing or furnace servicing does not photograph compellingly regardless of effort, and the time is better spent on channels where the absence of striking imagery is not a limitation.
West Coast Media Solutions Inc. builds and hosts websites for businesses across Canada and operates a premium domain marketplace, both relevant interests to declare. Nothing here is legal advice; where obligations are described, confirm current requirements against the regulator or your own counsel.
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