Find local customers on social media: plumbers, salons, clinics and shops

Where local customers ask

• Facebook groups and pages for your town or neighbourhood.
• Reddit communities for your city or region.
• Instagram posts tagged at a location, and comments on local businesses' posts.
• Comments under your competitors' posts, where customers ask about price and availability.

Search the way a neighbour would

Combine your service with your place: "electrician near…", "recommend a hairdresser in…", "who fixes… in…". Look at the newest posts first for local requests, because a request from last month is probably filled.

Reply well

1. Answer within the hour if you can, and say what you do and where.
2. Give a useful detail: a rough timeline, what to ask for, or what is included.
3. Offer your phone number or booking link once, politely, and leave it there.

Know the limits

Facebook messages are not sent by Avocado Leads: you send those yourself. On Instagram, messages follow a reciprocated follow. Both networks limit bulk activity, so keep to a small, steady number of contacts a day.

Searches to try today

• Facebook groups: search the group for your service name, such as "plumber", "electrician", "babysitter", "caterer", and sort by recent.
• Reddit: your city or region community, searching "recommend" plus your category.
• Instagram: the location page for your town, and comments under local businesses that sell something similar.
• Everywhere: "anyone know a good…", "can someone recommend…", "who do you use for…".

Example replies that work

For a plumber: "I cover the north side and can usually get out the same day. For a leaking tap the fix is normally quick, so ask whoever you choose for a fixed callout price up front. Message me if you want me to take a look."

For a salon: "We do balayage and have a free slot on Thursday afternoon. If you send a photo of what you like, I can tell you how many hours to plan for." Specific, local, and useful whether or not they book.

A routine that fits around a working day

If someone has not replied after your public answer and one polite follow-up, stop. A short, respectful presence is what makes a local business the one people remember.

1. Morning, ten minutes: search your service and town in the groups and communities where you are active, and reply to anything from the last day.
2. Midday, five minutes: check for replies, and answer questions about price or availability.
3. Weekly: write down which posts brought a call or a booking, and join more places like them.

Where Avocado Leads fits

Avocado Leads does the collecting, ranking and pacing part of this work. You paste a post, a profile or a search, and it saves the people who commented, reacted, followed or match, then scores each person from 0 to 100 on buying language, how recently they were active, how well they fit your business and how reachable they are.

It then runs a paced follow or connect campaign from your own signed-in browser, with a message after where the platform allows one. It never asks for your social passwords, and it keeps to hourly, daily, weekly and monthly caps for each network. The limits that come with each platform are on the platforms page, and the safety page explains what it will not do.

Questions people ask