How to tell if your social media is working: the numbers a home-service owner should check each month

Most advice on social media metrics for small business is written for online shops and influencers. You fix furnaces and rewire kitchens. Your question is simpler. Is any of this bringing in calls?

A social media metric is a number Instagram or Facebook counts for you, like how many people saw a post or tapped your phone number. Both apps show these for free, so you can start today without buying anything.

It's worth the look. BrightLocal found that 1 in 4 Gen Z consumers use social media as their main way to search for local businesses. And Pew Research Center reports that 71% of US adults use Facebook, and 37% of adults visit it several times a day.

Where do I find my Instagram and Facebook numbers?

Instagram

Your account needs to be a professional account, either business or creator. Switching is free in Settings. Then open your profile and tap Professional dashboard, where Insights sits near the top. Set the date range to last month.

For a single post, open it and tap View insights. You'll see its reach, saves, shares and the profile visits it drove.

Facebook

Page numbers live in Meta Business Suite, on the phone app or on desktop. Tap Insights to see reach, Page visits, new follows and your audience. Messages from Facebook and Instagram both land in the Business Suite inbox, which makes them easy to count.

Meta moves menus around now and then. If a button has shifted, search for Insights in the app's help.

The numbers that matter for a local trade business

Six numbers tell you most of what you need. Write them down once a month.

Accounts reached

How many different accounts saw your posts. It tells you if anyone is seeing your work at all. Judge the trend over a few months, since one busy week can swing it. If reach is low because you rarely post, the fix is more posts from real jobs. Here is how NanoFlow makes social content from your photos and reviews.

Local followers

The share of your followers who live in towns you serve. This is the closest thing you have to a billboard in the right neighborhood.

Saves and shares

A save means someone wants to find the post again. A share means they sent it to someone, often a partner or a neighbor deciding who to call. For a trade business, these count for far more than likes.

Profile visits

Someone saw a post and wanted to know who you are. That's usually the step before a call.

Call, website and directions taps

Instagram lists taps on your contact buttons under profile activity, and Facebook shows similar actions. These are people trying to reach you. Check that your buttons are switched on and your phone number is right, or this number will sit at zero.

Messages

Count new conversations from people who aren't already customers, and note how many asked for a quote or a visit.

Numbers to ignore or treat with care

Likes on their own

Likes come easy. Your cousin likes everything you post. A post with a handful of likes and three saves from homeowners did more for you than one your friends piled onto.

Follower count on its own

A big following spread across the country won't book a single water heater install in your town. A small following that lives nearby can. Buying followers makes this worse, because it buries your real audience.

One viral post from outside your area

Now and then a post takes off. Before you celebrate, check where the viewers live. If they're mostly a few states away, enjoy it and move on. Don't rebuild your plan around it.

Who is actually following you

On Instagram, tap Total followers in the professional dashboard. You'll see your top towns and countries, the age range, and the days and hours your followers are most active. Facebook's audience section in Business Suite shows cities and age as well. Instagram only shows this once an account has enough followers, so a new account may see a blank screen for a while.

Check three things.

• Location. Are your top towns the ones in your service area? If your top city is two hours away, your posts are missing your customers.
• Age range. Does it look like the people who own homes and pay for repairs around you?
• Active times. Post when your followers are on. If they peak in the evening, schedule for the evening.

A local audience beats a big one for a simple reason. Your service area has a fixed number of homes. A follower inside it can hire you, send you a neighbor, or remember your name when the AC quits in July. A follower outside it can do none of that.

How many jobs came from social media?

Every other number here points toward this one. It's also the one neither app can count for you, so you track it yourself.

Ask every new caller

Ask "How did you hear about us?" on every new call and write the answer down. If they say Instagram or Facebook, ask which post they remember.

Note it in your job software

Use the lead source field in your job software if it has one, or a tag or a note on the customer if it doesn't. Add Instagram and Facebook as options and pick one every time. At month end, filter by source and count.

Use a link only on social

Put a link in your Instagram bio and on your Facebook Page that you use nowhere else, such as a booking page set up just for social visitors. Anything booked through it came from social.

Then add up what those jobs were worth. A month with few likes and two water heater replacements from Instagram was a good month.

A fifteen-minute monthly check you can copy

Pick the same day each month, like the first Monday. Open Instagram, Meta Business Suite and your job software, and fill in this table. These are the social media metrics for small business owners that point most directly at paid work.

Spend about five minutes in Insights filling in the top rows, five in your job software, and the last five deciding what to change.

How to act on it

• Find your three posts with the most saves, shares and messages, and make more like them. If a before-and-after of a panel upgrade got shared around, shoot more before-and-afters.
• Find your three weakest posts. If the same kind of post keeps landing at the bottom, drop it.
• If reach is up but local followers are flat, post more about your own area, such as streets people recognize, local weather and the towns you serve.
• If taps and messages are up but jobs are flat, look at how fast you answer. A message answered the next day often loses out to whoever replied first.

When you would rather not run it yourself

NanoFlow runs social media for service businesses. It makes reels and carousels from your jobs, photos and reviews, and posts each one only after you approve it. On the Growth plan you also get a monthly report on how your posts did. You can compare NanoFlow plans when you're ready. Either way, keep asking every new caller how they heard about you.