10 Social Media Questions for AEC Firms
July 20th, 2017
What do you really expect to gain from your business use of social media? Most of us are hoping that prospects will read what we share, recognize the relevance and reach out to talk shop. Most of us are still hoping that will happen because in reality, it very rarely does.
Direct, inbound leads from social media haven’t materialized for AEC firms in any significant way, at least according to all of our experience and research. We regret to inform you that it's no panacea for the challenges associated with prospecting.
PSMJ Resources published an article on “myth vs. reality” with regard to AEC social media use. It’s an informative piece that asks some pointed questions, providing insights into demographic-based user preferences and advice on how to position these platforms within an overall marketing strategy.
Speaking from experience…
Can social media be an effective communications tool? Sure. Can it further the reach of your voice and messages? Absolutely. Will it actually lead to work? Well, that’s debatable...
Our own experience (combined with a few corroborating articles and stories…) show us that time invested in social media marketing delivers comparatively low returns for companies that sell business-to-business (B2B) like ours. Notice we didn’t say zero returns, but low returns, especially when compared to time spent doing other activities like networking, sales prospecting and direct marketing.
So with that said... how much time and effort, if any, should your AEC firm be investing in social media?
Key considerations
We’ve developed a valuable list of questions for your executive team to ponder. They’re designed to help you determine if social media is in fact an effective marketing strategy for your business. By carefully considering each question, you can begin to assign the appropriate level of priority for tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter within your marketing and business development plans.
- What is your real business purpose for using social media?
- On which platforms should your firm participate?
- Does your target audience use these platforms?
- Are they following you?
- Will your messages actually reach decision makers?
- Who should be in charge of managing your pages?
- Who needs to author content and provide editorial oversight?
- What kinds of content will generate desired results?
- Will you use social media to learn more about your industry and market?
- Will you shop for needed services yourself on social media?
You need to think strategically when answering these questions because your social media presence affects your firm’s public persona. In some cases, no social media presence could actually be the right decision.
Connections vs. Friends/Followers
In a recent study of the online marketing techniques of professional services executives, Hinge Marketing found that LinkedIn was by far the most widely used social media platform, outpacing Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
The study also sought to gain insight on which social media platforms professional services buyers used to gather information about their marketplace. Of 1,028 purchasers of professional services surveyed, 70% of respondents reported that they turn to LinkedIn.
You're probably not surprised.
Consider LinkedIn’s purpose from its inception: online business networking. Maybe there’s something to the networking angle of social media. Maybe that’s where its true potential resides for professional services firms.
Don't get me wrong. There may very well be a place for other platforms in the mix, depending on your overarching business objectives:
- Twitter can be an efficent platform for researching, repurposing and publishing content on any given topic.
- YouTube and Instagram have serious marketing communications potential, especially for showcasing project renderings, photography and videos.
- Pinterest can be an excellent mechanism for cataloguing and sharing design inspiration by project type, material or other category.
- Facebook is a perfect place to promote your company's unique culture and share lighter updates.
Your ideal mix depends on your response to the first (and most important) question in the list of ten above: what is your real business purpose for using social media?
Editors note.
Please keep in mind that there are some AEC firms that have this social networking thing down to a science, and could point to it as an invaluable marketing and business development tool. My generalizations apply to the vast majority of businesses that I work with, which vary from large, internationally-operating businesses to one-man start-ups. If you have questions, comments or suggestions for follow up posts, or even objections to these opinions about social media marketing, drop us a note… we’d love to hear from you!
