Social Media is both fascinating and daunting, creating a sky rocket of activity amongst construction-related companies in the last few years. Fascinating because of the wonder of the visible functionality of new marketing media and daunting because of the learning curve and time investment required.
And the pace quickens! Each month there seems to be some new app or technology appearing in our in-box. Our relatively new friends in the guise of media technologies have been developed to reach or communicate with a very wide audience. These amazing technologies available for architects and builders today will harness huge benefit for your own business. If we neglect them we are going to lose out on the potential to connect and engage with both an existing client base as well as a previously untouched audience.
Look Before You Leap
But beware, before you run headlong into trying to use the myriad of technologies available within the social media arena – stop and think!
What are the best and most effective tools for your building company or engineering practice? Use them well and use them wisely. Implement and then test the results. Review the available media and then either learn to use them or outsource to those in the know. It is certainly more cost effective and will be up and running in half the time.
You should start by drawing up your social media plan of action (another post) and then research the capability of each technology and how it fits in to your business plan (yet another post).
Social Media Is Social
I feel it is important to stress here that it is all about social media. Social media is about engaging, connecting and networking with others. Builders engage with architects and architects with engineers and so on. As people connect with you and you with them they will begin to discover how much they can trust you. We do business with people we trust. That’s my point.
A Social Media Revolution
We are seeing social media grow at an exponential rate. In my opinion we are not going to be experts in all of these technologies. So, my advice is to choose the best media for your own practice and run with it. If you choose Twitter and it best suits your business then learn how to use it well and develop your network. When you are reasonably proficient move on to learn another platform.
The Benefits
It is always good to do your homework when measuring if it is worth taking the plunge. In my personal opinion it is vital that social media becomes a part of your marketing mix. It provides excellent networking possibilities with work providers as well as with your peer group in construction.
I have researched some figures to help you understand the social media footprint in today’s world. Facebook has over a billion users with customers embracing social media as part of their lives including the over 50s who are adapting at staggering rates. In the UK alone over 30M active users on Facebook, 32M users on Youtube, 15M Twitter users and 10M using LinkedIn. If we conservatively say only 10% of business uses these platforms we have a huge audience and potential people base we can connect with and ultimately call customers. After all, that’s the aim of marketing. The world awaits you!
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John Langford
www.cmmuk.com
@ConstructionMM
Contact John on 0782 515 5165
About CMMUK
One of the best ways to market your business is through the nurturing of good working relationships.I guess that is why social networking and social media marketing is so popular today. It is a feather in our cap when we get a referral and hopefully this will happen often. However, in reality, relationships need to be cultivated and this will take time. This is where you might consider bringing in a freelance marketing consultant who will become a part of your team and help to develop your client base.
CMM will work with you in this process of developing good relationships with work providers. There is no hard sell here only the persistent and consistent contact process to achieve the purpose of new business opportunities. You can then get on to other aspects of business development and leave the marketing to us.
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