Most contractors post on social media and get nothing back. No calls. No leads. No one even hits the like button.
When we audit social media pages for home service contractors, we see the same thing over and over again. A happy work anniversary post. Three weeks of silence. A holiday graphic. Another month of nothing. No strategy. No consistency. No results.
And the frustrating part? It’s not because social media doesn’t work for contractors. It’s because most contractors are doing it wrong. At Relentless Digital, we see this every time we audit a contractor’s social presence.
The days of social media being its own separate silo are over. In July 2025, Meta confirmed that Google and other search engines now index public posts from Facebook and Instagram professional accounts, meaning your posts can show up directly in search results. Reddit is now the most cited domain across all major AI platforms, and LinkedIn content is getting pulled into AI-generated recommendations. Your social media presence and your search visibility are now the same thing.
If you don’t have a strategy, you’re not just missing leads on social media. You’re missing leads everywhere. Here’s exactly what to do instead.
Why Facebook Groups, Reddit, and LinkedIn Now Dominate Local Search
Something changed in 2025 that most contractors still don’t know about.
Google started indexing Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok content directly in search results. That means when a homeowner searches “best AC repair in [city]” or “top plumber near me,” Facebook group posts and Reddit threads are now showing up on page one alongside your website and Google Business Profile.
This happened quietly. There was no big announcement. But the impact is massive.
Here’s what the data looks like right now:
- Reddit visibility jumped significantly in 2024 after Google and OpenAI paid large sums for access to Reddit’s data and threads
- Google AI Overview cites Reddit 21% of the time
- Perplexity cites Reddit 46% of the time
- Reddit is a top five most cited domain across every major AI search engine
- Facebook group posts are appearing in Google search results for local service queries
Why does this matter for your business?
Because when a homeowner in your market posts in a local Facebook group saying “I need an AC company, it’s 105 degrees and I have a baby at home” — that post is now findable on Google. And if your name shows up in the comments as the helpful, knowledgeable expert who answered their question, that gets picked up too.
AI search models are scanning the entire web for mentions of your business. The more places your name shows up in a positive, helpful context, the more likely you are to get recommended when a homeowner asks an AI tool to find a contractor in your area.
This is why social media is no longer optional. It’s infrastructure.
The Facebook Group Strategy That Actually Works
Here’s the approach that dominated local Facebook groups when I built a brand new HVAC branch from scratch with no customer list and $10,000 in the bank. It still works today.
Step 1: Join every relevant group in your service area
Search these terms for every city you serve:
- [City] neighbors
- [City] homeowners
- [City] community
- [City] buy sell trade
Join all of them with your personal profile, not your business page. These groups are where your customers are having real conversations every single day.
Step 2: Show up as a helpful neighbor, not a salesperson
When someone posts asking for a recommendation, don’t just drop your company name in the comments like everyone else. That approach gets ignored.
Instead, ask a question. Offer some advice. Solve part of the problem right there in the comments.
If someone posts “my AC is blowing warm air and I have a baby at home, need help today” — don’t just say “call ABC Heating.” Say something like “What’s the age of your system? If it’s over ten years old and running constantly without cooling, it could be a refrigerant issue or a failing capacitor. Happy to help you figure out what’s going on.”
That response does three things:
- It starts a real conversation with the person who needs help
- It shows everyone else in the group that you actually know what you’re talking about
- It gets other people engaging, which means more comments, which means the algorithm shows it to more people
Step 3: Share helpful content before weather events
This is one of the highest-performing tactics we’ve ever used.
Forty-eight to seventy-two hours before a major weather event — a heat wave, a cold snap, a big storm — post helpful tips on your personal profile and share them to every group you’re in.
Not a promotion. Not a coupon. Just genuinely helpful information.
“Here are five things to check before the cold front hits this weekend to make sure your furnace is ready.”
“If your AC is struggling in this heat, here’s what to check before calling a technician.”
This type of content gets shared hundreds of times because people want to help their neighbors. One post during a polar vortex event got shared nearly a thousand times. That kind of organic reach is impossible to buy.
Step 4: Turn good comments into content
When you get five, six, seven likes on a comment in a Facebook group, that’s a signal. Take that comment, turn it into a standalone post on your personal profile. You just created a piece of content that you already know people respond to.
Why Reddit Matters More Than You Think
Reddit feels intimidating if you’ve never used it. But here’s the simple version of why it matters.
The major AI platforms including ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google paid significant money to access Reddit’s data because they needed a source of real human conversation. As a result, Reddit is now one of the most heavily cited sources across every major AI search platform.
When a homeowner asks ChatGPT “who’s the best plumber in [city]” — Reddit threads are a primary source for that answer.
You don’t need to be a Reddit power user to benefit from this. Start by searching your trade and your city on Reddit. Find the relevant subreddits. Join them. When questions come up that you can answer, answer them helpfully and honestly.
The same rules apply as Facebook groups. Be helpful. Don’t pitch. Let your expertise speak for itself.
LinkedIn: The Most Underutilized Platform in the Trades
Most home service contractors either don’t have a LinkedIn presence or they set up a profile years ago and never touched it again.
That’s a significant missed opportunity for two reasons.
Reason 1: AI search visibility
LinkedIn gets cited regularly in AI search results. Having an active LinkedIn presence, both a company page and a personal profile, increases the number of places your business shows up when AI tools are compiling recommendations.
Reason 2: Hiring
This one is underrated. When you consistently post content on LinkedIn that shows what your company stands for, what your culture looks like, and what makes you different, the right people start finding you. People who are looking for a great place to work, not just a paycheck.
We’ve had candidates come into interviews and say “I saw your content on LinkedIn and I knew I wanted to work here.” Those are the candidates who care about more than just the hourly rate. They want to be part of something.
Post as the owner or as a key leader in the company. Individual creator content consistently outperforms company page content on LinkedIn, just like it does on Facebook.
And here’s a simple tactic: if you write a good Facebook post, drop it into Claude or ChatGPT and ask it to rewrite it for LinkedIn. The tools know the difference in tone and format between the two platforms. You get two pieces of content for the price of one.
The Story Framework That Gets Real Engagement
Here’s the single biggest change you can make to your social media content right now.
Stop posting generic content. Start telling real stories from your jobs.
Every completed job in your field service management software has three parts:
- The problem — Why did the customer call? What were they experiencing?
- The diagnosis — What did the technician find when they got on site?
- The solution — What was done? What did the customer end up with?
Add a tip or a call to action at the end and you have a complete post.
Here’s an example:
“Got called out to a home in Mesa last Tuesday. Homeowner’s AC was running nonstop but the house was still sitting at 82 degrees. Our tech found the evaporator coil completely iced over. In our 115-degree summers with older homes in the area, this usually means a clogged filter or low refrigerant. We thawed the coil, replaced the filter, topped off the refrigerant, and cleaned the drain line. If your AC is running but not cooling in this heat, check your filter first. If it’s still not cooling after that, it’s probably your coil. DM us and we’ll walk you through what to look for.”
That post does everything right. It tells a real story. It educates the homeowner. It positions you as the expert. It ends with a soft call to action. And it sounds like a real person wrote it — because a real person did.
People see themselves in stories. They read about the homeowner in Mesa and think “that sounds like my house.” That’s how you build the kind of trust that turns a social media follower into a customer.
How to Automate Your Social Media Content
Here’s where this gets really powerful.
Everything I just described can be completely automated. The job details, the story, the formatting for social media. All of it.
Here’s what the workflow looks like:
- A new completed job is logged in your field service management software (works with Housecall Pro, Service Titan, Jobber, and others)
- The automation pulls the customer information, CSR notes, technician notes, and invoice details
- It filters for jobs over a set dollar threshold (we typically use $500) so you’re only creating stories from real service calls
- It sends that information to Claude or ChatGPT with a specific prompt that tells it exactly what format and tone to use
- The output goes into a spreadsheet where your team can review and select the best stories to post
The result is a steady stream of real, engaging, story-based content — without anyone having to sit down and write it.
If your team isn’t filling out their CRM notes properly, that’s your first step. The quality of your content is directly tied to the quality of the information going into your system. Make sure technicians are logging what they found and what they did on every call.
Record Once, Publish Ten Times
One of the most powerful shifts you can make in your content strategy is moving from thinking about individual posts to thinking about content systems.
Here’s what that looks like in practice.
You record one video. Maybe it’s a four-minute video on your phone about the three most common reasons AC systems fail in summer. That one video becomes:
- A YouTube video
- A YouTube Short
- A Facebook post
- A Facebook Reel
- An Instagram Reel
- A LinkedIn post
- A TikTok video
- A blog post (have Claude transcribe and rewrite it)
- An email to your customer list
- A series of social media captions
One hour of your time. Ten or more pieces of content. A marketing engine that keeps running long after you hit record.
The stats back this up:
- 82% of all consumer internet traffic comes from video
- 78% of people prefer short video to learn about a product or service
- 85% of marketers say short form video is the most effective content format
- LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to share a video than any other post type
You don’t need a production crew. You don’t need a ring light and a professional camera. Some of the best-performing content we’ve seen comes from a phone propped up on a desk with decent audio.
People want to see the real you. In an age where AI can generate polished, perfect content in seconds, authenticity is the competitive advantage. The unpolished, genuine video of a contractor explaining something they actually know about will outperform a highly edited production piece almost every time.
How to Find Unlimited Content Ideas
Running out of things to post is never a real problem once you know where to look.
Ask your team. Every question a homeowner asks on the phone or in the home is a content idea. Have your CSRs and technicians write down the questions they get asked most often. Answer those questions with content.
Use AnswerThePublic.com. Type in any service — AC repair, water heater installation, drain cleaning — and get hundreds of questions homeowners are actually searching for. Export the list and you have content ideas for months.
Use AlsoAsked.com. Similar tool, organized by topic. Great for finding FAQ content that works well on websites and social media.
Mine your call recordings. If you use CallRail, Rilla, or have recordings through your VoIP provider, those recordings are full of real questions from real homeowners. The things they ask and the things they worry about are exactly what your content should address.
Look at competitor reviews. Pull your top competitors’ one and two star reviews. Drop them into Claude or ChatGPT. Ask it to write a video script showing how your company solves those exact problems. Post the video. This is one of the most underused content tactics in the trades.
Want to see the full strategy in action? Watch my full social media walkthrough for home service contractors here.
The Personal Profile vs. Business Page Reality
Here’s something most agencies won’t tell you.
Your personal profile will almost always outperform your business page on Facebook.
Business pages typically get one to two percent organic reach. That means if you have a thousand followers, maybe ten to twenty people see your post. Your personal profile reaches a much higher percentage of your connections — and it feels more human, which is exactly what the algorithm rewards.
This doesn’t mean you should abandon your business page. Post on both. But if you’re only posting on your business page and wondering why nobody sees it, this is why.
The same principle applies on LinkedIn. Individual creator content consistently outperforms company page content. Post as the owner, as a key team member, as the face of the business.
People want to know who they’re hiring. They want to know if you’re local, if you have good values, if you seem like someone they’d trust in their home. A business page can show some of that. A personal profile shows all of it.
A Tool Worth Knowing About: Tap Recon
Monitoring all of these Facebook groups, Reddit threads, and LinkedIn conversations manually is not realistic when you’re running a business.
Tap Recon is a keyword monitoring tool built specifically for this. It scans Facebook groups, Reddit communities, Nextdoor, and LinkedIn for keywords related to your business and services. When a homeowner posts looking for a contractor in your area, you get alerted immediately.
Instead of checking fifteen different groups every day, you get a notification that says “someone in [city] just asked for an HVAC recommendation.” You jump in, add value, and win the job.
It also monitors for your brand name. If someone says something positive about your company, you can screenshot it and share it. If someone says something negative, you can address it before it spreads. Getting consistent reviews across multiple platforms is a separate strategy worth building out.
Your Social Media Action Plan: Where to Start Today
If you take nothing else from this, take this.
- Show up in the right groups. Search your service area cities and join every neighborhood, homeowners, and community group you can find. Do the same on Reddit.
- Post real, relatable content. Use the story framework. Pull from your jobs. Tell real stories about real customers with real outcomes.
- Leverage comments to start conversations. Don’t pitch. Add value. Ask questions. Let your expertise speak for itself.
- Build from there. You don’t have to do everything at once. Pick one or two things from this post and implement them. Come back in a few months and add more. Your strategy gets better over time.
The contractors winning on social media right now aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets or the most polished content. They’re the ones showing up consistently in the right places with real stories and genuine expertise.
That’s something you can start doing today.
Want help building a social media strategy for your home service business?
At Relentless Digital, we work exclusively with HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and roofing contractors to build marketing systems that actually drive revenue. If you’re ready to stop posting into the void and start using social media to generate real leads, book a free strategy session here.
Joshua Crouch is the founder and CEO of Relentless Digital and co-host of the Service Business Mastery Podcast. He spent nine years in the HVAC industry before launching Relentless Digital, where he helps home service contractors dominate their local markets through digital marketing, automation, and AI.
