I’ve been asked to speak to the CIMCIG Marketing Conference in November about getting social in your marketing, and so I’m looking for recommendations of companies in the construction industry using social tools well.

Things are changing and in the last six months there have definitely been some new players coming on board and plenty of new examples out there to be found. I’m looking, but I wonder if you’ve seen some good work?

Here are some examples of what I’m looking for:

• A construction products company who are engaging with specifiers online;
• Consultants (architects, engineers, QS etc) who have created a community around their area of expertise;
• Social media campaigns in the construction sector that have been particularly effective.

If you specify products, do you go online to get advice? Which companies use the internet well to help you get the answers you need?

If you work in construction, who do you know who helps you do your job better, using social media and interactive tools?

Who do you think are the influencers online in the construction industry at the moment, and what are they doing?

Any suggestions for firms and individuals I should look at would be most gratefully received, and of course I’ll credit everyone who helps as usual, and share the slides from my talk.

Looking forward to seeing your favourites!

Every day hundreds of architects all over the world share dozens of articles and blog posts from all over the internet through their messages on twitter. Now you can see a daily newspaper of what they have shared.

I’ve collated the shared links, articles, blogs and comment of over 1000 architects on the twitter league into an online daily paper, which you can see here every day.

The latest issue is summarized in the widget on the right of my blog. Just visit the blog and check out the widget.

Or you can follow the link below to see the latest issue

Read The Architectleague Daily

If you visit the paper, you can choose ‘Alert Me’ to be emailed when it is updated every 24 hours, or follow @architectleague on twitter to see the latest issue tweeted as it happens.

This has been made possible by paperli, a great new service.

Click here for a fully functional version of this map

Where are all the architects who use twitter based? As you know I’m keen to demonstrate how architects use twitter and who uses it. In the past I’ve found a Yahoo Pipes mashup with twitter and a map which shows up to the last 500 of the tweeting architects I follow with the league – follow the link to see it, but it is a bit flaky.

Unfortunately I do follow over 1000 architects, practices and emerging professionals now and I don’t believe that the yahoo pipes format will support this, but I’m still looking for a map of all our architects so you can zoom in and find some in your area.

Today I found another web application, Here be Twitterers, produced by Slovenian based @marandlab which will theoretically plot all the architects I follow, though they are at present stymied by Google’s API limit. Nevertheless I’m sure you’ll agree that it is a lovely map, and very useful.
To see a selection of the architects on a map click here – the screenshot above shows only 245 of them.

I’ve also found a few more web applications which aren’t so useful, so I’m on the lookout for the best Twitter/Googlemap mashup, do let me know if you find one!

One evening in April whilst cooking dinner, I stumbled upon a conversation going on amongst members of the Architects Twitter League which I just had to join in with. The members of the league were discussing what architects do and how the profession can retain young architects, and they were having the discussion with anyone on twitter using or search for the hashtag #AIAchat.

Over the course of an hour hundreds of architects and non-architects discussed a range of questions posed by the American Institute of Architects twitter account @AIANational. It was fascinating, positive and educational, so to find out a bit more about it, I asked Sybil Barnes, director of social media at the AIA, to give us a run down:

What is #AIAChat?

Sponsored by the American Institute of Architects (@AIANational), AIA Chat is a monthly online discussion that helps architecture professionals connect with each other in real time on Twitter. Finding a community on Twitter can be challenging, but a thriving community of architecture professionals is developing through AIA Chat. Each month AIA Chat participants delve into a specific topic, learning from each other and discussing key issues affecting the architecture profession. Participants gain access to new insights and opinions.

Why do we host it?

AIA Chat started in April during National Architecture Weekas a way to include the AIA’s Twitter followers in the week’s activities (the hub of activity centered on the AIA’s Architecture Week 2010 Facebook page). Based on the positive feedback received from the initial chat, AIA Chat was launched as a monthly chat to advance online conversation about the profession.

When is it?

AIA Chat takes place the first Wednesday of each month at 2-3 p.m. EST. The next chat is set for Wednesday, June 2. For UK readers this is 7-8 p.m. now we are in British Summer Time, and its 11am-12noon PST if you’re in LA.

How do we host it?

Anyone can follow and join in AIA Chat, using their own Twitter account. Participants sign into their Twitter account or Twitter chat tool and follow #aiachat, a unique hashtag for participants to add to their tweets. This hashtag marks the tweets as belonging to the chat so that all chat participants can easily follow the conversation. Such apps as TweetChat, TweetGrid, and Twitter Search help to easily follow the conversation, too.

AIA National moderates the chats and begins each chat with participants introducing themselves and then AIA National poses questions or topics for participants to discuss. Typically 10-15 minutes is allotted for each question. Topics cover a range of issues for focusing on the practice of architecture, from sustainable design, retention of young architects, and disaster recovery to licensure, BIM and emerging technologies, design projects, and much more. Participants may also suggest discussion topics by sending a direct message to @AIANational on Twitter or an e-mail to Sybil.

Although participants may initially find it a bit challenging to make their point in 140 characters, especially when those characters include the #aiachat hashtag, eventually a conversation begins to flow-just as if you were talking to someone in person.

You can read more about #AIAChat and how it works on the AIA website, and search the archive of twitter messages from the What The Trend Page

Thanks Sybil, I enjoy hearing what US architects are talking about and picking up ideas from participants across the globe. I’m looking forward to the next #AIAChat on 2nd June.

So what do you think? Are you going to join in, and do you have an idea for something similar?

Last March I was approached by the RIBA Journal and asked if I would write a short article about Twitter for their practice pages.

Of course I accepted and you can read the article about Twitter and Architects in the May edition of the RIBA Journal.

I’m not responsible for the corny title and subtitles though!

The great advantage of a blog is that people can respond to what you write with relative freedom (unlike in printed media when maybe one or two letters might be published a month later).

So with that in mind, I’d be very interested to hear what you think of the article and in particular get your feedback if you are an RIBAJ reader who does not use twitter. Did you find the article helpful? Do you have questions or concerns?

Over to you…

Image: Twitter T-shirt by Threadless

As we reach towards 1000 architects, students and practices in the Architects Twitter League, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on how far we have come.

In January 2009 we set up this blog as a place to find architects on twitter – with a post on 16 January entitled Architects on Twitter – Where are They?

Two weeks later I had a list of 27: Architects on Twitter – Here they are! and you can see by teh 43 comments that more and more started coming out of the woodwork.

By the end of February there were 74 architects in a league and two months later there were 250.

In May and June hundreds more architects joined twitter (and thats just the ones I know about) as the platform went viral and takeup across the US and UK exploded in what is known as a ‘hockey stick’. Architects followed this pattern as we discovered by mapping the members of the league by the date they signed up to twitter.

Whilst we now think that the largest numbers of architects joining twitter was in the Spring of 2009, this doesn’t mean that twitter is over. Things are just beginning as the platform passes the ‘novelty’ phase and those who stick it out start to learn how to use it for networking, collaboration and research.

I’d like to say a big thank you to all the people who have helped me put together the league, spotted architects for me, helped me find technologies to represent it, and supported my efforts by publicising it. I hope it will act as a useful resource not just for architects but for the many people within and outwith the construction industry who are interested in what makes our profession so fascinating, frustrating and inspirational.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to use twitter and other social tools as a professional please visit my other blog, Just Professionals, where I’ve started to write about this subject for a professional audience.

Cheshire Cheese, Tower Hill, EC3

Originally uploaded by Ewan-M

In two weeks time I’ll be running a twitter workshop at the Emap Construction Marketing Conference in London.

Whether you’re able to be at the training day on Wednesday 3rd February or not, fortunately be2camp are organising a tweetup (a social event organised via twitter) afterwards at this charming pub under Fenchurch Street Station.
We’ll be there from about 5 till about 9 – Paul, what about food??
Anyway, why not join us?
Here’s a map

And if you’re coming, let me know by replying to this, or if you’re a be2camper, on the be2camp site.

Welcome to the 162 new additions to the Architects Twitter League. I started the league at the end of 2008 as a way of putting architects on twitter in touch with each other, I hope you meet some new contacts via the league.

You can see the full league of Architects on Twitter here.

Each architect in the league is also followed by a dedicated twitter account @ArchitectLeague and since Lists came in on twitter by the Twitter Lists: ArchitectLeague and ArchitectLeague2 so you can follow them there as well (or instead).

Since the league was created I’ve been looking for ways to learn more about architects on twitter. One recent project was to look at when all the architects who joined twitter.com. You can see the most recent results on this blog post: Architects joining twitter peaked in Spring 09

If you’ve got any suggestions for the league, or the twitter account, do leave a comment here or on twitter. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Three months ago, with the help of Rob Annable (@eversion on twitter) I analysed the signup dates of all the architects in the Architects Twitter League. The plot showed a huge growth in architects joining twitter in early 2009, but dropping off before the summer.

Since October, another 79 architects have been found and joined the league. It was thought that the peak in use might change as new architects were found, but it appears not:

The largest proportion of the new finds (19 out of 79) joined in March and April 2009, reinforcing the sharp peak in the graph. And although more new joiners have been added to increase the count for recent months, the numbers are still tiny compared with the 92 who joined in April.

So are fewer architects joining twitter, as the graph suggests, or is it simply that we aren’t finding them? I’d like the title of this post to be wrong!

And what about general twitter use? Has that fallen off so markedly? I’d be interested to know.

If you come across any architects on twitter, send me a message and I’ll check and see if they are in the league already and add them if not.

When this entry is posted I’ll be giving my talk at the RIBA, entitled ‘Why Take Your Network Online?’. Putting together the presentation has been an education in Crowdsourcing – asking my network to help me devise the presentation.

One of the many people who helped me is Angela Carr, a Dublin Architect who has a blog at Living:Room. Angela has kindly consented to me using her story as an example in my talk, and also has agreed to share it here with you.

Hi Su,

Angela Carr

Lovely to hear from you! You’re very welcome to feature the blog in your talk to the RIBA – I’m flattered! Your post about doing the talk generated a lot of interesting responses and I enjoyed reading the various takes on professional networking. It’s been a very interesting journey for me over the past year and I often wondered along the way if the time I put into things like the blog, Twitter & Facebook was productive.

To give you some background, I was made redundant last year – in many ways a blessing, as it gave me time to assess my options and set up my business before the falling housing market and financial crisis really hit at the end of 2008. Here in Ireland, approx. 40% of architects were unemployed at the beginning of 2009 and that’s expected to increase to between 50 – 60% this year, as existing projects are coming to an end and few new commercial projects have started in the intervening time. Living:room harnesses my own extensive housing design and planning experience to respond to the changing needs of homeowners – helping those who can’t afford to move make better use of their homes and helping buyers identify properties with potential to add space for long-term added value.

I launched and received positive national media coverage in Oct 2008 – two months later, everyone went to ground as the banks failed and stayed there until around June 2009. I felt there was no point in trying to publicise a business at this time, particularly one associated with housing, as people’s feelings about their homes changed dramatically over that 6 month period.

I’ve also felt for a long time that architects do not communicate their value to potential clients, particularly in the residential sector – we’re seen as an expensive luxury rather than an essential service. This situation isn’t helped by the fact that registration of the title ‘Architect’, was only introduced in Ireland last year – prior to that anyone could call themselves an architect and, believe me, anyone did! It’s difficult to explain to a potential client why they should pay an architect a reasonable fee for their services when a local technician or engineer operating under the title of architect offers to do a planning package for a much lower fee. Part of my commitment with living:room is to help homeowners understand the value of good design and how it can help them make more of their homes and protect their investment. Although, I can’t claim to have a social media networking strategy, it was the possibility of getting that message across that first piqued my interest!

I started exploring these tools during that down time when there was little else happening in my business. I joined Twitter in Feb 2009 and it took a couple of months to get the hang of it and start interacting with others – the Facebook page grew out of that, as a way of posting interesting housing projects for everyone to see. ‘Oh, I love Grand Designs!’ is the most frequent comment I hear when I say I’m an architect – the viewing figures for programmes like ‘Grand Designs’, ‘Property Ladder’, ‘The Home Show’, indicate a huge public interest in home design. People love looking at other people’s houses – it’s the entry level to architecture, and I wanted to harness this interest.

Through Twitter I’ve found all kinds of interesting people – yourself included – talking about architecture and design and related subjects. It has led to my blog being linked to other blogs / web-sites and also to being featured in other home design related blogs. For example, one of my tweets about ‘The Home Show’, was picked up by Channel 4 and used in their 4Homes blog – my first Twitter success!

The blog was prompted by my web designer as part of the Search Engine Optimisation for the site and, when I started out, I saw it as a tool for answering common questions clients have about planning issues. As I read more blogs on various subjects, I realised it could do more – be the human face of the business where I could talk about the aspects of housing design that I was interested in, point out common problems etc. The SEO benefit is real and quantifiable – my blog comes up more prominently on relevant web searches than my web-site, as it is regularly updated with keyword rich content.

There has been another unexpected benefit to the blog – although the market for my business seemed non-existent for part of the year, the blog stats told a different story. There was a steady stream of visitors to the blog between Feb – May 2009, followed by a sharp upswing in June, doubling from July to August and now there is now approx. 3 times as many visitors per month. This information allows me to guage public response to different posts, see what information people are searching for online and ultimately target my message more effectively. It also helped me decide on the right time to promote the business.

There’s an old joke: Half my advertising is a waste of money, now if I only knew which half. A couple of weeks ago, there was a small piece about the business in the Irish Times. On the day of publication, I had over 200 hits on the blog – in the days that followed the number climbed to around 500 – the blog stats gave me direct feedback on the success of the article.

But does it actually create business? I’m happy to say that I’m now reaping the rewards of all the time and effort that went in throughout the year. I have 3 new clients who found me first on the blog, then saw the newspaper piece and made contact. And there are new enquiries coming in all the time. Blogging gives people the opportunity to find out a bit more about me, my approach to design and to build up a relationship, that doesn’t necessarily come across in pictures or drawings of previous work. But as I commented in your post, it’s like any form of networking – you need to put in time and cultivate these potential relationships. There are no quick fixes.

Although it might seem counter-intuitive, I’m as happy to promote the work of other architects on the blog as my own – I’m interested in how social media and new creative disciplines like web-design, thrive on sharing information as a way to improve overall quality and the industry benefits as a result. I think the ‘hive’ mentality of social media – specialization, sharing, seeing how different people take information in different directions – might offer clues as to how architects can re-group and strengthen as a profession.

I hope all this is relevant and helpful and if there’s anything else you’d like to ask, please just drop me a line or give me a call.

Best of luck with the talk!

Kind Regards,

Angela Carr