Better business

Get savvy with social media marketing

Learn how business owners in the paint and trade industries can use social media marketing to effectively grow their companies.

What are the benefits of social media marketing for business?

• Reaching customers:  There are 4.2m social media accounts in New Zealand, which is the equivalent of 80.6% of the total population¹. Chances are your customers and prospective customers are using social media regularly, so it’s the ideal place to share more about your business, meeting your customers where they’re spending time.

• Showcase work:  Social media gives you a platform to show visual proof of your business services, skills and finished projects. We know that 28.8% of New Zealand social users are using social media to find inspiration for things to do and buy¹. That extends to looking for professionals to engage to bring that inspiration to life!

• Direct comms:  On social media, people can direct message (DM) you, respond to your posts (e.g. like or leave a comment) or find your business website and contact details via your bio. Social makes contacting your business easy – even out of hours – and this modern word-of-mouth is especially valuable for tradies relying on local jobs.

• Cost-effective:  It’s free to post on social media organically, making it cheaper than traditional advertising and marketing channels.

• Builds trust and credibility:  Social media helps customers feel confident choosing you. Seeing real projects, reviews, comments and an active page reassures people that your business is professional and reliable.

• Discoverability:  Social media videos can now appear in Google searches, while public social posts can appear in AI searches and summaries. Young people are increasingly using social media platforms in place of search too, so it’s vital for businesses to be on social media if they want to show up in customer searches.

Why is it key for growth?

Social media helps businesses get seen by local customers. It allows tradies to visually showcase skills, expertise and real, finished jobs, which reassures customers of quality and professionalism. It also makes it easy for customers to contact, recommend and review a business, which can support customer base growth. Social media can help tradies stay visible between jobs, attract local enquiries and build familiarity so customers feel confident getting in touch when they need work done.

How can it work for trades?

Social media works best for trades when it’s simple, consistent and focused on real work. Think showing, not telling. By regularly sharing photos or short videos of jobs you’re already doing – before-and-after shots, progress updates or finished results – you show potential customers what you can deliver and the quality of your work.

What platforms do you recommend for tradies?

Start with Instagram and Facebook. As the platforms are owned by the same parent company (Meta), you can post the same content across both. If you can, also share video content on YouTube and TikTok – New Zealand audiences spend a large amount of time on both these channels .

Can I do it myself?

Yes. All you need is a phone and a business account on each platform. You don’t need advanced skills – most successful trade businesses keep things simple by capturing content on their phone and sharing real work.

Consistency is more important than perfection. When it comes to captions, think about how you’d describe the project or work to someone that doesn’t work in the industry. Aim for conversational and helpful, not condescending or jargon-filled.

Does it cost anything to do?

It’s free to set up social media accounts and post content organically. If you get to a stage where you want to run paid social ads to target and reach more people in your local area, investment is required, but you can start small and scale up as needed.

What sort of things should I be sharing?

Focus on content that shows your skills, reliability and personality, such as:

• Before-and-after photos or videos of jobs
• Finished projects and close-ups of paint finishes
• Short videos explaining what you’re working on
• Tips or advice (e.g. paint choices, prep tips)
• Customer testimonials or reviews
• Team, tools or behind-the-scenes moments

Are there any tools I can use to create the content?

Canva is a great, free tool for creating simple posts, stories and videos. It’s easy to use and has ready-made templates you can customise with your own photos, colours and branding.

If you’re posting multiple times a week (the ideal would be 2 posts per week), all of the platforms have tools that help you plan and schedule posts in advance:

• Meta Business Suite:  A free tool from Facebook/Instagram that lets you schedule posts, reply to comments/messages and view insights for both platforms in one place.

• TikTok Scheduler:  This is built into TikTok’s desktop creator tools for scheduling posts ahead of time.

• YouTube Studio:  You can upload and schedule videos for future publishing.

How do I know if it's working or not?

Review how your posts are performing at the end of each month. You can do this by looking at the Analytics or Insights on each platform. Keep an eye on the following metrics:

• Facebook/Instagram: interactions/engagements (reactions, comments, shares, saves) and views (total number of times your content has been seen).

• YouTube: views (how many people watched your video) and average view duration (how long they watched for, i.e. how engaging and useful they found it).

• TikTok: engagements (likes, comments, shares, saves) and average watch time (how long they watched for, i.e. how engaging and useful they found it).

You want your posts to be getting as much engagement as possible as this can help the platforms prioritise them in people’s feeds. Don’t be rash and change what you’re posting based on one post. Give it two to three months and assess the performance, always prioritising the type of content that is getting the most views, interactions, engagement and watch time.

Source: ¹ Digital 2026 New Zealand, We Are Social x Meltwater, November 2025
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2026-new-zealand