online marketing page, where we will show you how we can incorporate Google Ads, Google Maps optimization, and our missed call text back system, in a way to get you more leads and more jobs. Ad campaigns are powerful but only when they are part of a system that captures all the leads and follows up before the leads go to someone else.

Social Media Marketing Builds Trust and Community

Many Honolulu business owners think social media marketing is about getting likes; it isn’t. Social media marketing is about building trust with potential customers in your neighborhood. It’s about the people who drive by your shop in Honolulu. It’s about the people who are asking their friends for a good recommendation in your field before they ever start searching Google with their phone. Google Business Profile optimization and local SEO are part of this conversation, but they aren’t the whole story.

Here is something we commonly see: a contractor posts a before-and-after photo of a remodel job he did in Kakaako. A neighbor sees it, saves it, and calls that contractor three weeks later after noticing his own kitchen starts to fall apart. The job didn’t come from that social media post; it came from that person’s research process. But that one post led to one very profitable job. That is where social media marketing is truly effective.

Why is Social Proof Important?

You don’t need a lot of followers to see an increase in your lead generation; you only need 200 local people who are confident that your business delivers great work. Social media marketing allows you to show your work over and over again. Post photos of work you’ve finished; post quick videos from a job site; post a photo with a customer in Ala Moana thanking them for their business.

People research online before they call you. According to a 2024 consumer study from BrightLocal, 87% of people read online content about a local business before deciding what to buy. The company’s Facebook page and Instagram profile are part of that process. If you don’t respond quickly, or if your profile has been inactive in 6 months or more, you’re basically losing a customer before the phone even rings. The only thing that changes someone from looking at your Instagram to picking up the phone is trust, and social media is one of the ways to build that trust fast.

What to Post (Seriously, Keep It Simple)

Here’s what I hear time and time again from business owners. It’s this feeling that I have to do a “marketing post” or I’m doing it wrong, but posting on social media doesn’t require any formal marketing training, just an iPhone. You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to be there.

These are the things that work in Honolulu:

• Job photos with a brief caption about the job you did and where you did it
• A customer review and screenshots of it as a post
• Short helpful tips related to your trade
• Things that are “behind the scenes” like your crew working, or your van being loaded
• Post about other local businesses, especially if you’re in Kaka’ako or Ward Village

Each of those posts only takes a few minutes, but they build up over time so your profile looks like a portfolio of work. Someone looks at your profile and starts to think, “ok, these guys know what they’re doing,” which is when they call you.

Social Media Feeds Your Google Maps Ranking

Another thing that most business owners miss is that social media marketing can also improve your Google Maps ranking too! When people view, engage with, and search for your business, Google recognizes those signals, and then Google starts thinking “ok, they’re doing something relevant.”

We’ve seen this happen with business owners right here in Honolulu. We have a number of businesses in Honolulu, and they started posting on a more consistent basis. Over the course of a few months, they started seeing more views, direction requests, and calls on their Google Business Profile. Social media marketing doesn’t replace a solid Local SEO and Google Business Profile Optimization, it makes it that much stronger.

Consider that SEO gets you found on Google, while social media marketing can make people want to choose you when they find you. So if you’re working on building your local presence on Google, you really need to make time for social media marketing as a part of the equation to get a call on the phone in your office.

Community Creates Repeat Business

Honolulu is a small community and a reputation travels quickly around the island. One customer posts you on their Instagram from an excellent job they had done for them, and suddenly their whole social circle knows about your business. And that is the kind of lead generation you cannot buy with ads.

We see businesses doing this in Honolulu, a plumber is doing a job in Makiki, and the customer posts a “thank you” in their social media feed and tags the company. Within a week three neighbors ask for that company’s contact info. No ad money, no campaigns, and no trickery, just an excellent job done that a neighbor heard about and trusts. This is a lot of lead generation social media marketing is good for, since your happy customers are sharing your good work with the world.

Social media also ensures that your company stays in the minds of prospects from the first time that they hear about your company to the time they need you. Sometimes this can be a few weeks or several months down the road. Social media fills this gap by staying relevant and present for those leads.

You just have to be on there consistently. Posting once a month is not enough, but posting 2-3 times a week will keep you in the conversation. Set a reminder on your phone. Take a photo at every job. Write a few sentences. Done.

The businesses getting more calls in Honolulu right now don’t have the flashiest websites, they’re on the sites where their customers are already spending time, showing them that they are capable and making it as easy as possible for them to get in touch.