Pressure Washing Instagram Tips

Instagram is without a doubt one of the top ways to get more pressure washing business.

Mainly, because it costs you nothing to use the platform, and thus you can acquire free leads. 

The problem is most of you are probably not using Instagram to it’s full potential or not at all.

A Bonus tip for you guys, stop using only #pressurewashing #softwashing and #housewashing hashtags. Ill talk a little more about this later. 

But before I tell you why you want to be more selective with your hashtags, let’s first talk about content!

If you don’t have leads flowing through your Instagram inbox id bet $5 you’re posting the wrong kind of content. 

Let me guess,  if I went to your page I would see a concrete before and after picture, a vinyl house wash before and after picture, and let’s not forget that deck you did, those always look nice after being cleaned. 

You have to stop posting only before and after pictures.

So while that’s “okay” content. That’s not all the people who follow you want to see. 

Sure you should be posting that kind of stuff occasionally.

But your followers want to see the behind the scenes stuff.

They want to see a picture of what you had for lunch. 

Or a short video of you repairing your rig. 

Throw in a picture of you standing on a ladder or a roof. 

Take a step back for a moment and think about this logically. If you came across an instagram profile that looked like this…would you follow it? 

Probably not. 

Why? Because there is no real connection there. It’s basically spam. 

You see the two biggest mistakes a pressure washing company can make are. 

1. Thinking they need to create a barrier between them and their business to seem more professional. 
2. And posting content that is just before and afters, not behind the scenes content. 

While some of these things may seem boring to you, the consumers of your content find it highly interesting as to what a day and the life of a pressure washing business owner looks like. 

So give them more of that. 

But enough about content. The take away is start documenting your day, don’t just post before and afters, don’t worry about taking the perfect picture, and  remember the ones who post the most content win on social. 

But enough about content, let’s talk about the hashtags.

If you don’t already know hashtags are clickable word in your post, that allow for people to see all of the posts in the world that used the same hashtag. 

As you can see when I click on the hashtag #pressurewashing

I can now see all of the posts that used this particular hashtag.

A quick tip about hashtags, don’t use more than 15, and never use the same set of hashtags over and over again. 

My rule of thumb is I have 4 sets of hashtags in my notes of my phone. 

Each time I post, I copy and paste a set, and recycle until I’m back to the first set. 

The reason you don’t want to use the same 15 hashtags is because Instagram knows you’re trying to circumvent the system and will shadow ban your posts from being seen. 

But what hashtags should you be using, or rather not use. 

So why shouldn’t you use only the hashtags #pressurewashing #softwashing #housewashing

Because hashtags are global meaning by using them the only people seeing your content outside of your followers is everyone around the world who clicks on them

So what good does that do you?

Your goal is to grow your business and audience on local level, not a global level. 

So instead use local hashtags. Find out what people are using as hashtags in your market. 

I live close to Columbus so my hashtag profile for pw would like something like this

#columbus #columbusohio #chamberofcommercecolumbus #cbus #columbusrealestate 

To get a better idea of what hashtags you should use to create your hashtag lists, start by typing in the hashtag of your city, and see what other local hashtags people are using

With this strategy, now anyone in your market who goes looking at the content with those local hashtags will see your posts!

The take away here is create ¾ local hashtag lists and store them somewhere like the notes of your phone, when you post, cycle through these 3 to 4 lists, but make sure they are local related hashtags.

So now that we’ve covered content and hashtags.

Let’s talk about how to automate this process so you never have to worry about not posting, or forgetting to post. 

The first step here is that you want to accumulate a ton of content. Enough for once post a day, for a month so about 30 pictures/short videos. 

This might sound like a lot but if you make it a point to pull out your phone for 3 seconds, a few times a day and snap a picture and get back to work, you won’t even be bothered by it. 

So once you do have this content ready in your phone. 

Head over to hoot-suite or download the app and make an account.

So lets recap this, now you know the kind of content to post, the proper hashtags to use so that you can be seen in your local market, and now a way to automate the process 

the only 2 things you need to do to put this in motion are: 

1. Each day, a couple times a day, take your phone out, snap a picture or short video, to store for later. 
2. Once you have 30 or so pictures and short videos take an hour out of your day once a month and schedule out posts for the following month. 

Looking at this from a time perspective you’re trading maybe an hour and a half a month of your time, to be able to stay consistent and post to, lets not forget. Both Facebook and Instagram. 

Do this for a few months, and watch your instagram page blow up!