Social media for home builders can be tricky. Smith Homes had the craftsmanship, the reputation and the portfolio to prove it. What they didn’t have was a brand and online presence that brought the right people through the door. Their Instagram was mostly other industry professionals, their website wasn’t converting and too many inquiries were for renovations instead of new builds.
This is how I used social media for home builder growth (plus a full brand and website refresh) to help Smith Homes attract more show home tours, fill their open houses and sell more homes over $1 million.
Meet Smith Homes
Smith Homes is a luxury home builder serving St. Albert and the Edmonton area. What makes them different is simple: they build functional homes for busy families. Homes that look beautiful, sure, but that also work for real life, with its school runs, hockey bags and chaotic weeknight dinners.
That’s a powerful message. The problem? Nobody was hearing it.
The Challenge: Great Homes, Wrong Audience
When Smith Homes came to me for social media for home builders, they had two big goals:
- More leads to their open houses and show homes
- More new home builds and fewer renovation projects
Renovations can keep the lights on, but new builds are where a home builder’s business really grows. To book more of them, Smith Homes needed to get in front of families who were actively thinking about building, and convince them Smith Homes was the builder to trust.
But a few things were standing in the way:
- Their brand didn’t clearly say what made them different from every other builder in the community
- Their website looked fine but wasn’t designed to capture leads
- Their Instagram audience was full of industry professionals, not buyers
In other words, they were talking, but not to the people ready to sign a build contract.
Step 1: A Brand That Sets Them Apart
Before I could build a social media strategy for a home builder, I had to answer one question: why should a family choose Smith Homes over anyone else?
The answer was already there. It just needed to be front and centre. I created a new logo, refreshed their visual brand and wrote new targeted messaging that positioned Smith Homes as the builder for busy families.
In a market where a lot of builders talk about the same things (quality, finishes, beautiful design), having a clear, specific message is what makes people remember you. And being remembered is the first step to being hired.
Step 2: A Website Built to Convert
Your social media can do everything right, but if people land on your website and don’t know what to do next, you’ve lost them.
I updated Smith Homes’ WordPress website with:
- New messaging that matched the refreshed brand
- SEO copy so local families searching for a builder could actually find them
- A conversion-focused layout designed to capture leads, especially show home tour requests and build inquiries
The website became the landing spot for everything else. Every post, video and ad had somewhere to send people, and a clear next step once they got there.
Step 3: Social Media for Home Builders That Educates, Not Just Impresses
Here’s where the fun started.
Most home builders post pretty photos of finished homes. And look, I love a good kitchen reveal as much as anyone. But pretty photos alone don’t build trust, and when someone is spending over a million dollars on a home, trust is everything.
So I leaned hard into video. I visited construction sites, wrote scripts and created walkthrough videos with them that showed not just what Smith Homes built, but why they built it that way. That meant explaining the strategy behind the layouts, the functional design choices and how each feature made life easier for a busy family.
That kind of content does three things at once:
- It educates buyers who are new to the building process
- It creates authority, showing Smith Homes really knows their stuff
- It creates interest, because people want to see the home in person after watching it on screen
(My background in TV and film definitely came in handy here. Scripting and filming on a construction site is basically a mini production, just with more hard hats.)
Changing Up The Audience: Swapping Industry Peers for Interested Buyers
Smith Homes’ Instagram had around 1,300 followers, but a lot of them were other builders, trades and industry professionals. Great for networking, not so great for booking builds.
I did a full audience changeover, shifting the content and targeting to attract families who were actually interested in building a home. The account grew from 1,300 to over 2,000 followers, and more importantly, those new followers were potential buyers.
That’s the thing about follower counts: 700 new followers doesn’t sound flashy, but 700 families interested in a $1M+ home is a very different story.
We also added Facebook and TikTok to that strategy…
Facebook: Waking Up an Old Audience
Smith Homes already had an audience on Facebook that had gone pretty quiet. Instead of starting from scratch, I brought it back to life with video content and graphics that showcased both the beautiful designs and the strategy behind the builds.
An existing audience that already knows your name is a goldmine. Sometimes it just needs a reason to pay attention again.
TikTok: Reaching a Brand-New Audience
Since I was already creating all this video content, it would have been a waste to leave it on just one or two platforms. I repurposed the videos for TikTok, choosing the pieces that fit the platform best.
That opened up a whole new audience for Smith Homes, and it generated fresh interest without having to create a whole separate content plan. Work smart, not hard.
The Results: More Tours, Fuller Open Houses and $1M+ Sales
With a clear brand, a converting website and a social media strategy built around video, Smith Homes saw:
- More show home tours
- Higher open house attendance
- More sales of homes over $1 million
- Instagram growth from 1,300 to 2,000+ followers, with an audience that shifted from industry pros to interested buyers
- A reactivated Facebook audience and a brand-new audience on TikTok
Most importantly, Smith Homes was finally reaching the families they were built to serve.
What Other Home Builders Can Steal From This Strategy
You don’t need a massive marketing budget to make social media work for your home building business. Here’s what I’d tell any builder:
1. Get specific about who you build for. “Quality homes” isn’t a message, it’s the bare minimum. Smith Homes owns “functional homes for busy families.” What’s yours?
2. Make sure your website can catch the leads. Social media gets people interested. Your website needs to make booking a tour or starting a build the obvious next step.
3. Show the why, not just the wow. Pretty finished photos are great, but explaining the thinking behind your designs is what builds trust with big-ticket buyers.
4. Get on site with video. Walkthroughs and construction site content give buyers a behind-the-scenes look that makes them feel confident in your process.
5. Check who’s actually following you. If your audience is mostly other builders and trades, your content is speaking to the wrong people. Shift it toward buyers.
6. Repurpose everything. One great video can work on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Don’t let good content live in only one place.
Ready to Fill Your Show Homes With Social Media for Home Builders?
If you’re a builder with beautiful homes and a social media presence that isn’t bringing in the right leads, let’s fix that. I’ll help you build a brand, a website and a social media strategy that gets families through your door and signing on the dotted line.
