Should You Invest in Social Media Communities for Your Home Improvement Brand?

Work­ing to pro­mote a home improve­ment brand and con­nect cus­tomers with your prod­ucts, you know the impor­tance of pro­vid­ing an omni-chan­nel shop­ping jour­ney for both indus­try pro­fes­sion­als and home­own­ers who engage in DIY activ­i­ties. One piece that’s emerged over the years as an impor­tant part of a mul­ti-chan­nel approach is social media, and more specif­i­cal­ly, social media com­mu­ni­ties. One ques­tion that home improve­ment prod­uct mar­keters must ask is how the val­ue of Pro-cen­tric social media engage­ment may vary from home­own­er-cen­tric social media engagement.

Considerations Around Social Media Community Engagement Strategies for Home Improvement Brands

On one hand, social media com­mu­ni­ties pro­vide ample poten­tial to raise brand aware­ness, fos­ter cus­tomer engage­ment, employ tar­get­ed adver­tis­ing, pro­mote your home improve­ment prod­ucts, and increase sales. On the oth­er hand, the rise of bots and fake accounts, not to men­tion secu­ri­ty and pri­va­cy con­cerns, can cast a shad­ow of doubt over the effec­tive­ness and val­ue of invest­ing to cre­ate and main­tain­ing a strong social media pres­ences with­in communities.There are numer­ous vari­ables to con­sid­er as you weigh how much time, effort, and cap­i­tal to invest in social media chan­nels, as well as which plat­forms and strate­gies are the best fit for increas­ing share among home­own­ers for your home improve­ment prod­uct brand. For a deep­er look, dig into our full 2025 Home­own­er Social Media Influ­ence on Home Improve­ment Shop­ping study, spon­sored by Miller Brooks.

What Homeowner Demographics are Most Engaged in Social Media?

When con­sid­er­ing social media as a part of your strat­e­gy, it’s good to keep in mind that not all demo­graph­ics are equal­ly engaged in these chan­nels. That’s espe­cial­ly true across dif­fer­ent age brack­ets, with Gen Z home­own­ers and Mil­len­ni­als being the most active in social media com­mu­ni­ties and the most like­ly to trust online shops and links when mak­ing purchases.

Accord­ing to our 2025 Home­own­er Social Media Influ­ence on Home Improve­ment Shop­ping study, social media is seen as a resource that offers a strong spark for inspi­ra­tion and project starts, espe­cial­ly among the Gen Z/Y audi­ence. These users are the most engaged in online com­mu­ni­ties, valu­ing advice from pro­fes­sion­als and relat­able peers alike. Online com­mu­ni­ties build con­fi­dence and encour­age more ambi­tious projects, espe­cial­ly for younger home­own­ers. Our research shows that for more than half, social media con­tent has been the impe­tus for start­ing or accel­er­at­ing a project, and 40% have pur­chased a home improve­ment prod­uct direct­ly through social media, which means there is val­ue in cul­ti­vat­ing com­mu­ni­ties tar­get­ed at these age groups.

We also see some vari­a­tions based on expe­ri­ence lev­els among DIY home­own­ers. Advanced DIY­ers are the most like­ly to act based on some­thing they come across on social media, turn­ing inspi­ra­tion into real pur­chas­es faster than old­er gen­er­a­tions and novice DIY­ers. Addi­tion­al­ly, while a broad­er group of users get ideas and inspi­ra­tion from social media, many inter­me­di­ate and heavy DIY­ers con­tin­ue to revis­it plat­forms for guid­ance through­out the pur­chase and instal­la­tion process.

What Do DIY Homeowners Look for in Social Media Communities?

At it’s best social media pro­vides a vir­tu­al space for indi­vid­u­als to con­nect and engage with oth­ers around spe­cif­ic top­ics, inter­ests or activ­i­ties. This cer­tain­ly per­tains to the home improve­ment indus­try. Social media com­mu­ni­ties pro­vide val­ue to both DIY home­own­ers, espe­cial­ly where pro­fes­sion­als are active and shar­ing advice.

Provide Value to the Users

In order for social media to have val­ue, they should feel wel­com­ing and secure, in addi­tion to pro­vid­ing some sort of mean­ing­ful val­ue to your cus­tomers. In terms of home improve­ment, users will be most drawn to com­mu­ni­ties that act as a resource for build­ing rela­tion­ships and acquir­ing insights, infor­ma­tion, tips and expert guid­ance through relat­able con­tent. After all, our research shows that indi­vid­u­als are pri­mar­i­ly uti­liz­ing social media plat­forms for their ini­tial inspi­ra­tion, as well as research and com­par­i­son. How­ev­er, they can also serve as a plat­form for show­cas­ing build­ing and con­struc­tion prod­ucts, espe­cial­ly if your con­tent explains or demon­strates how to use them.

Look for Spaces Where Trusted Voices Are Active

It’s also help­ful to note that pro­fes­sion­al con­trac­tors or trades­men have the high­est val­ue of influ­ence on home­own­ers in online com­mu­ni­ties, par­tic­u­lar­ly with Gen Z and Mil­len­ni­als. They are seen as a trust­ed source for procur­ing mean­ing­ful knowl­edge that can be put to use when start­ing a new home improve­ment project or even through­out the process.

Remember That Peers are Trusted Over Brands

Addi­tion­al­ly, our Home­own­er E‑Commerce Home Improve­ment Prod­uct Shop­ping Study, revealed that on social media, home­own­ers most trust the con­tent from every­day users, or ordi­nary home­own­ers who aren’t receiv­ing com­pen­sa­tion. Mean­while, labeled spon­sored posts, or influ­encer con­tent marked as paid or part­nered, are con­sid­ered the least trust­ed across age demo­graph­ics. As dig­i­tal natives, Gen Z/Y users are more skilled at spot­ting authen­tic­i­ty on social media chan­nels and val­ue a relat­able, peer-dri­ven experience. 

Participating in Existing Communities vs. Building Your Own

For your social media strat­e­gy, you have the option of being an active play­er in exist­ing online com­mu­ni­ties or build­ing your own that are tied direct­ly to your brand. Each one presents its own chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties, and it’s up to your team to eval­u­ate what will work best for your brand specifically.

Option A: Existing Communities

There is less respon­si­bil­i­ty involved with par­tic­i­pat­ing in exist­ing social media com­mu­ni­ties, and for small­er or new­er brands, that can be appeal­ing. You have the advan­tage of a ready-made audi­ence of DIY home­own­ers and/​or pro­fes­sion­als. Plus, you can build impor­tant con­nec­tions and still estab­lish your­self, espe­cial­ly the most knowl­edge­able peo­ple at your com­pa­ny, as an author­i­ty with­in the field. You do have to be mind­ful of com­mu­ni­ty post­ing guide­lines in these spaces though.

Option B: Build Your Own Community

For brands who want to dis­tin­guish them­selves from com­peti­tors and be more inten­tion­al about craft­ing build more indi­vid­ual brand recog­ni­tion, build­ing your own com­mu­ni­ties may be the way to go. While you’ll have the sole respon­si­bil­i­ty of drum­ming up inter­est and attract­ing users to sup­port robust engage­ment, you’ll also have more con­trol over mes­sag­ing and how your brand is rep­re­sent­ed. An exam­ple of this tac­tic would be cre­at­ing a brand user group and invit­ing known cus­tomers to par­tic­i­pate, shar­ing their expe­ri­ences, feed­back, and advice for peers. Whether owned or not, you can also use these social media com­mu­ni­ties to col­lect real feed­back about your prod­uct and brand.

Which Social Media Platforms Are Best for Homeowner Specific Community Management/​Engagement Strategies?

Either way, it’s impor­tant to look at what social media plat­forms receive the most engage­ment for home­own­er audi­ences. Our research shows YouTube, as well as Face­book, Insta­gram and Pin­ter­est, have the high­est lev­els of engage­ment from those seek­ing home improve­ment infor­ma­tion and advice. If you want to cul­ti­vate a rich and engag­ing com­mu­ni­ty of your own, con­sid­er your options on these platforms.

How Can You Maintain Your Social Media Community for Maximum Effectiveness Among Homeowners?

When par­tic­i­pat­ing is social media com­mu­ni­ties, con­sis­ten­cy is impor­tant. You’ll want to make sure you have the capac­i­ty to post new con­tent and answer direct mes­sages and com­ments on a reg­u­lar basis. That engage­ment will demon­strate that you are atten­tive to your cus­tomers and care about their needs and preferences.There are also cer­tain home improve­ment prod­uct cat­e­gories that car­ry a high­er poten­tial for dri­ving actu­al con­ver­sions based on social media con­tent. For exam­ple, social media’s visu­al nature strong­ly influ­ences cus­tomers’ pur­chas­ing deci­sions when it comes to aes­thet­ic cat­e­gories, espe­cial­ly cab­i­nets, win­dow treat­ments, fur­ni­ture, and coun­ter­tops. Mean­while, accord­ing to our research, social media con­tent has less of an influ­ence on prod­uct cat­e­gories such as lum­ber; hard­ware; plumb­ing sup­plies; adhe­sives, caulks, and sealants; clean­ing sup­plies; land­scap­ing sup­plies; hand tools; paints and stains; and insu­la­tion and weatherization. 

What to Post in Social Media Communities

There are sev­er­al con­tent strate­gies you can incor­po­rate into your social media com­mu­ni­ty to height­en its effec­tive­ness. Home­own­ers place the most trust in home improve­ment retail­ers, con­trac­tors or trades­peo­ple, and brand/​manufacturer con­tent for home improve­ment advice, with Gen Z/Y show­ing the high­est trust over­all. Step-by-step video guides and before-and-after visu­als are the most influ­en­tial for­mats for inspir­ing and guid­ing decisions.Additionally, home­own­ers express high inter­est in expert advice, prod­uct com­par­isons, bud­get tips, and tuto­ri­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly among younger gen­er­a­tions when they are look­ing at social media.Prioritize pro­duc­ing trust­ed, expert-dri­ven con­tent in high­ly visu­al and instruc­tion­al for­mats, such as short-form video, tuto­ri­als and project guides on social media pages. High­light prod­uct com­par­isons, cost break­downs, and before-and-after trans­for­ma­tions to strength­en engage­ment and build trust, espe­cial­ly with Gen Z/Y.

Investing in Social Media as a Marketing Strategy

When it comes to social media and its poten­tial as a part of your omni-chan­nel mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy, there are sev­er­al fac­tors to con­sid­er: the prod­uct cat­e­gories you’re push­ing, the demo­graph­ics of your tar­get audi­ence, and the capac­i­ty of your team. Then you have to decide which social media plat­forms to engage in, what type of con­tent makes the most sense for your brand and your prod­ucts, and how to main­tain con­sis­tent engage­ment. Hav­ing sol­id research to back up your deci­sion-mak­ing process can help. As a mem­ber of HIRI, you have access to prod­uct- and project-lev­el insights based on the shop­ping and pur­chase behav­iors of pros and DIY­ers, as well as mar­ket-lev­el analy­sis and chan­nel-focused report­ing to help you make busi­ness and mar­ket­ing deci­sions for your brand.