Next week I’m speaking at an event organised by the Norwich Forum for the Construction Industry (NFCI) called ‘Recession + Recovery – Challenges for the Construction + Property Industries over the Next Decade’.
I’ve been asked to talk about ‘Making use of the Social Network’, so in the last month or so I’ve been giving some thought to what has happened in the last five years, and what might happen in the next ten (by which time we may yet be in another trough).
The focus I’m taking is human and that is for good reason – social networks are all about people having conversations.
Social Networks are about People
Five years ago (October 2008) I had just joined Twitter and started looking for architects and construction people using it. Most of the accounts were overtly individuals, with individual headshot avatars (though there was one dog).
In the years since then I’ve watched as companies have piled into twitter (that is, their agencies have) and turned it into a re-enactment of the Internet boom in the 1990s. Huge numbers of branded accounts grew up, mostly broadcasting the PR their agencies were creating, a little like how in the 1990s (when I was teaching at the University of Liverpool) the internet turned from a hugely rich but badly connected, rather grey set of text documents and interactions, into a garish, over pimped advert for anything and everything that might make money.
But things have changed now, and since I went into consultancy in 2011 many companies have realised that social networks are not about pumping out PR. The next step is to accept that social networks are about people, and they are changing the way people are working.
An Example
One good example of this is how many people have told me that they had overlooked the value of LinkedIn. They hadn’t thought of Linkedin as a ‘Social Media Platform’. In some cases, they had been advised that Linkedin wasn’t relevant to marketing in construction, even though it is the most used and most permitted platform in the UK construction industry. But then Linkedin is truly a human network. You can’t just get an agency in to ‘be you’ on Linkedin.
Others had overlooked Linkedin because they thought it was about people looking for jobs and recruitment agencies looking for people. And two or three years ago it might have been, but not any more. During the recession, Linkedin has been an essential tool for people moving about in our industry to keep in touch with their valued contacts.
How Are People using Social Networks?
The social networks such as Linkedin, Twitter, and latterly elements of Google+, and the many other places online where people engage, are helping us work in a completely different way. For example,
Instead of staying in a job without promotion prospects, young architects and technicians are leaving to work with companies that value their skills set, companies that they found out about from their networks online.
Others have set up joint ventures with people they met online, who live on the other side of the country or the other side of the world, from their back bedrooms.
These new ventures are nimble, flexible, and most suited to take our industry forward into the next ten years.
The people making these changes are following along pathways that were not available to us five years ago. The Social Networks have made the way ahead visible and achieveable.
What is Your Experience?
I’d like to find some examples of people who have changed the way they work in construction, with the help of their social networks.
I’m looking for people who are looking ahead to the return of growth in our industry with fresh, innovative eyes and who have something to say about how that is going to be different. I’d like to share some of your thoughts with the audience in Norwich next week.
- How are you working today that is different from five years ago?
- How are social networks helping you in your work?
- What platforms help you most and how?
- How do you think you’ll be working in the next ten years?
If you’d like to help me talk to the audience next week, please share your thoughts with me in the comments below (or privately if you wish). Lets see if we can blow away the cobwebs!
Nice blog. For me I am a big advocate of LinkedIn. My business has gets increasing numbers of leads and opportunities from people we have never met. These have resulted in revenue from around the world. So if you are a consultancy I think having a LinkedIn strategy is an important marketing tool. If you are a more established brand with many employees the potential power to influence your customers is even greater. If you can mobilise your team to enrich their profiles and provide interesting updates you will steal a march on your competitors.
Thanks for your comment Tim.
It’s an interesting point, that individuals can have a greater reach by using these platforms. Yet the team approach is even better. What sorts of work are you doing that you wouldn’t get without the help of LinkedIn?
I think your words ‘Nimble and Flexible’ are exactly the way social entrepreneurs in the construction industry are working. Working collaboratively to achieve the best for our clients and sharing knowledge along the way. Using technology to aid this and adjusting to suit the needs of the whole team.
And team is a key part of that, we are a team working together all with a common goal, to deliver a project.
That’s true Dayle, team work is essential. Social Entrepreneurship is a concept well worth introducing to the discussion.
What types of people are in your team, and how do the social platforms help you manage to work together?
Now you have me thinking…. do we use Social platforms enough in our collaboration. We use social technology to enhance our ability to communicate and share ideas. Twitter and LinkedIn to share knowledge and gain knowledge from a collective pool of people with the same ideas and interests, but could we use them more to enhance our collaborative approach?
Pinterest is one that area that has help the team collect ideas and share these with the team, also inviting clients to join in. Cloud technology has really changed the way we work. The whole team sharing information from day one, fostering the idea that we are really working together, not just a temporary made up team for one project. This also helps for exchanging ideas. I’m up early this morning putting together the final parts for three presentations today and collecting the information that has been added from Hong Kong and Brentwood.
Are you using Evernote at all Dayle? Russell Curtis’s practice has featured heavily in their blogging, and he’s written about it for snagging and cloud based real time collaboration too –
http://russellcurtis.com/post/53015892505/evernote-in-practice-architectural-snagging
Su
I am seeing a big trend to include social within our business strategy both internally and externally. For example we are using Enterprise Social Networking to enable teams internally to collaborate seamlessly with external (client) teams. This brings about an increase in responsiveness and a decrease in email glare! In turn this ensures a single view of a project an a simple way to get up to speed. Couple this with integration to other back office systems as well as social networking tools such as Twitter and linkedIn is now providing a joined up approach. The use of LinkedIn within a marketers strategy has now become the norm in any comms plan. By ensuring your staff have their own individual approach to using LinkedIn but understanding the overall aims of the organisation can open up doors and point to relationships that you never knew about. Is LinkedIn the new CRM? I am waiting to investigate this further..
Good question David – is LinkedIn the new CRM?
Linkedin obviously thinks so – see http://bit.ly/16AM049
I’ve been working with Contacts (in beta phase) for a few months and its certainly got some potential, though bugs too! The problem is that Linkedin is not the only place, it is one of the more closed networks, and I don’t know if people will be happy to trust it with data enough to make Contacts viable en masse. We’ll have to see.
Su we @ PAD have changed our whole marketing & future strategy based on how accessible the whole market place is through social media! We secured our first commission via twitter about a month ago. Why waste time and money on advertising when all your new client groups exist out there and are accessible through twitter & LinkedIn ? We are getting access to writers , journalists , clients and publishers that we just would not have got 5-10 years ago as SME start up! Obviously your work has to be interesting to gain people’s attention but our EXBURY EGG art project has travelled the worlds archi web sites is due to hit Channel 4 and is currently in KLM in flight mag, Audi ‘s monthly mag and coast mag. We are a small team of 5 people in the new forest!
We also monitor what is current on twitter, LinkedIn, face book, Pinterest and various blogs.
It’s also critical to help others through collaboration on these various social media. I will always make sure we make time for others, promoting their work or just catching up over coffee!
Social collaboration and enterprise must and will be the future of all industries aiming to become innovate entrepreneurs, coming out of the recession.
Hi Darren,
Thanks so much for commenting, what a great story!
Hi Su, I am finding lots of companies and individuals on LinkedIn. Some are really making full use of their profile by giving lots of informationnand really using the tool well. Others are just on there because it seems like the right thing to do. It is obvious, as a reader, who is interacting and using the tools effectively. Social media is great way to communicate to those in high positions within companies that are not usually accessible. As well as reaching small business with smaller marketing budgets.
Hi Tanya,
Yes I think you’re right, use is patchy, and whilst the traffic to Linkedin has grown steadily over the last four years, so that the 12m members are creating 14m visits a month, many are only scratching the surface.
Your point about communicating with ‘those in high positions within companies’ is interesting because for small businesses this seems like a benefit, but for larger businesses it might be seen as a disadvantage.
There’s plenty of fear of exposure in bigger construction companies, even though larger B2C companies have been handling large staff numbers using social media, successfully for some years. But then, we work in a very conservative industry.
What’s your experience of contacting these people? How do they respond? When it comes to Linkedin and Twitter, on the whole I find that people who use them actively are generally good at only contacting people where there is a mutual benefit, and the platforms encourage good behaviour. Do you agree?
I have been very fortunate. In those whom I do send messages to on LinkedIn have been kind enough to respond back. Yes, those whom use social media alot are good at using the various platforms. There is also a difference between their personal accounts and business accounts. Although I have found from speaking to those the industry and those I know working in the construction industry, they do not want to use social media. They do not see a place for it. They would rather rely on advertising e.g Yell or word of mouth. They would prefer to spend their time on doing the actual work rather than sit at a computer talking virtually. For some even network meetings are a stretch to far….
Hi Su,
I started out just using Linked in about 3 years ago and became a total twitter convert about 6 months ago.
I started my business about 3 years ago also, one of the aims being to share some of the knowledge and experience I have collated over 30 years working in the construction industry , seemed a shame to keep it locked away. Very happy that social networking has helped me to achieve exactly that, if nothing else, however also…
Initially I did traditional networking to promote the business, interesting but didn’t really work for me. I love to meet people and chat but greeting strangers from cold for me just doesn’t work, I am an Engineer not a salesperson. Twitter and LI give you a platform and a common ground to work from, it makes me feel as though I “know” people already when I do get to meet them. I have made some great contacts and have opened dialogue with people you would never think The packed conference room in Leeds gave an audible gasp when RT Hon Greg Barker Minister of Dept for Energy and Climate Change told me that he knew of our work on Greendeal from following me on twitter. (LOL)
The discussions I have started on LI on our CIBSE Group have really broadened my outlook about the issues our industry is facing, not just in the UK but globally the problems (and potential solutions) that we all might share. It would have taken me another 30 years to gain this sort of insight without it.
Until now I have just been enjoying myself, but feel now with the insights I have gained that maybe it’s time to take it to another level.
Hope this helps.
Best
Janet
Yes it does help Janet. Social platforms enable us to communicate with decision makers based on our authority and the value of our contribution, rather than the size of our PR budget. In this way influence has the potential to be shared more widely, and politicians can be better informed. Whether they take any notice is another matter, but I think they do.
Learning from our peers is hugely important. The CIBSE Linkedin group has over 10,000 members, and is of a completely different flavour to similar groups for the RIBA and RICS. Think of what an advert for the professions these groups are – I wish I’d been able to read the RIBA Linkedin group before I decided to become an architect!
One important aspect of social networking is knowledge sharing and disperse, broad networking for those of us working in a specific niche – so much so that the niche is becoming more mainstream through extend exposure and coverage via social networking. Previously working in a niche like Passivhaus design would mean networking and knowledge sharing was quite limited and focussed only among interested peers. As people in the UK will have seen over the last 2 years, Passivhaus has exploded into mainstream conversation and understanding, not just in the profession but also in society. This means that prospective clients have heard of it before we introduce them to it.
Great example Elrond, thank you.
Whatever niche you are in, social networks can help you get support from fellow travellers. The people who have used this technique are at a definite advantage as we head out of the recession.
I’m an architect who specialises in design advice around people’s needs and a Research Fellow at the Schumacher Indtitute for Sustainable Systems. Preople and duo life are key to social sustainability and inclusion… LinkedIn in particular helps me stay in touch, works for me as a business contacts manager platform and makes working as an individual with a network of associates much more possible than 15 years ago…
Another example of helping an individual, thanks Steve.
People no longer have to gather together in one place to work, and can keep in touch without having to call, or even email.
I always find it fascinating that whilst a few people appear, apparently out of the blue, when they contact you, but then you realise that they are a few from a much larger group who are watching, reading, dipping in to your news, as they choose. The real audience is silent, but hugely powerful.
Of course this was always the case – think how people gossip about each other in the pub! But social media helps by making the process so much more efficient, helping people to filter out the right people when they need them.
There are lots of interesting comments above. I’d like to share two more points that I believe are going to have a huge impact on the construction industry.
The first is that transparency will become more and more important online. Companies that are transparent will increasingly be the ones that get the business because they make us feel confident in our choices.
The second point is that once you become transparent you have to have a good product. If you don’t, people will tell you as much. Comments are everywhere on the Internet (every business is having to learn to deal with this new feedback) and we are each accountable for them. It is a footprint that reflects as much on us as it does on who we’re commenting about. This is actually exciting because it means we are moving to a place where the best content – or products – will rise to the top.
For example, if volume house-builders became transparent at the moment they would probably damage their businesses. They need to innovate quickly or prepare themselves for a shock. Things move very fast online!
Great stuff Ben!
I think transparency in social media is one of the most misunderstood, and most feared elements.
I’ve often come across the ‘all or nothing’ approach – that is, ‘if we talk about anything we have to talk about everything’, which of course is not the case. There is a level of appropriateness that companies and individuals in many other industries have found suits them, and from which we can learn. Indeed I think that we can learn a great deal from other industries how they manage HR, PR and crises.
I wonder which of the volume housebuilders will make the first steps into genuine transparency. There was a little experimenting back in 2009 before we all went quiet.
The degree of transparency (all/nothing) is a good point Su and one that is very often misunderstood as you say. The flip-side that I think Ben was alluding too also though, is that people will share & publish their experiences, so publicity / feedback can be transparent outside of a company’s control.
It would be an interesting experiment for someone to create a website and/or mobile ap where people can leave honest feedback of living in a new house in a volume housebuilder estate…
Hi Elrond,
Yes, Ben’s point about reviews is important.
In fact such sites already exist in various forms – for example see Snagging.org – here their forum threads on Persimmon Homes.
http://forum.snagging.org/persimmon-homes/
Btw I only chose Persimmon because that category is the most popular at the moment. And of course the classic ‘built my garage too small’ thread!
As the housing market picks up such fora will be very popular I should imagine. No doubt the housebuilders are listening in already.
Social Media can be tough; It can seem hard for construction businesses to put Social Media to work in order to stand out from their competitors, because it needs ingenuity and creativity to help capture their audiences attention.
Before Social Media Marketing a construction business used to be so simple. A simple press of the button to launch an advert in a industry Journal, local press would be their chance to impress and get noticed but, that old chestnut won’t work as well as in todays Social Media Arena.
Nowadays Its key for todays marketing efforts to encourage online participation if they want to shine, if it fails to do so efforts will be ignored and go unnoticed. Let’s not forget that Social Media is a fraction of the cost compared to that of those traditional methods.
So what is the Silver bullet on Social Media there isn’t one. And there is no guide book on how to do it either.
It’s a learning curve for all Businesses from all disciplines, its not a case of getting people to ‘like’ on Facebook its going further; “engagement is key” and measuring the quality of that engagement gleaned from the online conversations across the different Networks. My advice is aim to see which works best for the business.
Amongst many other platforms available our main efforts focus on Twitter, Linkedin and a little bit a Facebook thrown in for Brand awareness of which the results are fruitful.
However, I do see the Social media revolution continuing to burst with new platforms and means of interaction between people developing quickly but, we must not forget the old fashioned face-to-face networking. People do business with people.
Great Post BTW
Rgds
David
Dear Su,
Thank you for inviting us to comment on your site. We are 6 months into our Social media marketing campaign. Before this we were redundant to the opportunities that they could offer our business.
We are a compact, tightly run building company, recognised for our high quality building work and exclusive niche partnership with Mereway Kitchen Ltd, who backed us as a UK first non-retail supplier of their bespoke kitchens directly for the Architectural marketplace.
So having found ourselves partnered with a leading kitchen product with the challenge of sharing it with Architects/Interior Designers. Our only realistic option was to tackle Social Media marketing. The most important aspect for any business begins with planning “Who, What, Where, How” to establish the structure of implementing a successful marketing plan to attract clients, without sounding like a flyby salesman! Content is king for developing “magnetic marketing” benefits.
We have used Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger, Pinterest as our main platforms to communicate/display our services. So far this has been a challenging prospect, as it has taken time to build up reputable followers that regularly engage with us. However, we have gained incredible support from a few high profile Architects and others continue to follow (see our “collaborators” on our website) and we continue to build new relationships on a weekly basis. Thus creating leads, though not immediately, but certainly for the future.
With consistent hard work and a focus on “Content marketing” rather than “Sales” we are slowly establishing ourselves as an industry “go-to” for collaboration services between “Builder & Architect” and a direct supply to Architects for award winning Mereway Kitchens. Something that previously had not been available to them.
My advice to those thinking of using Twitter, LinkedIn ect, be brave, be yourself, be polite and ask questions. Simply posting pictures or website links is not enough. Engage with potential clients, the best way to do this is establish what it is they want from your service, then demonstrate you are a helpful solution to fulfilling that need.
Social media has changed our business marketing completely, for me personally advertising is dead, collaboration and engagement will be where successful businesses prosper.
Hope this is helpful
Kind regards
James Merrick
for True Renovations Ltd
http://www.truerenovationsltd.co.uk
https://twitter.com/truerenovations
http://www.pinterest.com/TrueRenovations/boards/
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/truerenovations/
Thanks for taking the time to comment James. I think as you are taking a collaborative approach to working with architects, platforms like Twitter and Linkedin are ideal because they enable your collaborators to advocate you, and vice versa, and also to demonstrate your collaborative efforts in a public arena.
Hi Su,
This is a great post with equally very positive comments and some great annecdotes. My point of view on this is simple and very much aligns with your opening paragraph… there is only one ‘company USP’ and that is their people.
Allowing your staff to (responsibly) express opinions whether professionally or socially can exend the depth of trust current and potential clients have in your company. Whether it’s via photographs on Instagram, shared on Twitter, G+ and Facebook or blog posts on a personal site announced via your professional LinkedIn account, we can all choose how we share knowledge and experiences and filter those we want to share with family and or our work peers.
I for one am working in a much more fluid manner now than 5 years ago; sharing ideas, working with wider expertise from completely different idustries – not once did i ever think during my architectural education that I’d be discussing data use with companies embedded in Formula 1!
This cross-pollenation of skills and knowledge combined with ‘just throwing ideas out there’ allows much greater possibilties and better solutions to complex issues.
Even as I write this, there’s a cross company/discipline/country discussion going on about construction deliverables all made possible by ‘social media’ (which at some point will simply just be called ‘communication’!).
Despite the differing (and mostly generational) thinking, these platforms ARE a valid business tool for communication, marketting, education and research. A rich source of information, freely availble to all and should be used.
As for my future-gazing to the next 10 years, I can only say one thing – I hope to be there, keeping up with curent thinking. That’s my aim anyway. Technology and business models are evolving faster than ever and businesses need to ensure they’re current – it’s very easy to slip into a staid way of thinking and become stale.
Stay fresh, open and flexible.
Exhortation over!
Thanks Casey. What’s this Formula 1 connection? Intrigued…
The forum may exist and be a place for feedback but I can’t find anywhere to comment on their own website. In future we will steer clear of websites that don’t let us comment. If they believe in their products they should have nothing to fear from enabling comments. In fact, it will generate more sales.
You have comments enabled on your blog! Thus I can speak my mind.
Its a very common fear, the fear of turning blog comments on…
Here’s an interesting post James Austin shared with me on Twitter, about BIM and how it is changing the construction industry.
The BIM/Social Media crossover is particularly interesting to me having met some of the #UKBIMCREW and seen the other frontier they are pushing along
http://bimcrunch.com/features/item/742-looking-beyond-bim#
Hello Su,
Great post as always.
Here’s my take.
Historically, what has been driving business in construction in the last decades is winning bids. In short, to win contracts, you need to 1. qualify, and 2. be the lowest price.
In my opinion, this has been a negative force in an industry that in the past was responsible for pushing innovation and new technologies. Construction now seems to be trailing other industries when it comes to trends. There’s no built-in advantage in leading the way. Social media is no exception.
Having been in the industry for a few years and using social media heavily, I find it hard to convince people of its value. It’s not social media’s fault. It’s not construction professionals’ fault. It’s the system, the lowest-bid mentality that assigns little value to what social media is about: relationships. In fact, relationships are sometimes a problem in the construction industry: you might not qualify to bid on a job exactly because of prior relationships that might create a conflict of interest.
It’s complicated.
But I really believe that this landscape is changing. Initiatives such as IPD are becoming more and more successful and changing the model by which business is provided and hired in our industry.
I have been investing my time in building relationships through social media and through my Construction Industry Podcast (http://constructionindustrypodcast.com). As more and more young people join the ranks of our sector, I believe it is only a matter of time before old models will be done away with.
I plan on being there when that happens. Building relationships through social media is fun and highly rewarding – from both a personal and professional point of view.
Thanks for the great post!
Hi Cesar, thanks for taking the time to comment, appreciated. As you know, I love your podcast!
Hi Sue
When I started using social media my first steps were basically trolling for information to help me stay one step ahead of the competition (whether internal or external) as in my opinion this would help ME do a better job.
Gradually I have had that attitude adjusted, I still use it to gather information, but mow find myself wanting to share that information (she useful and relevant) with my online colleagues.
I am not particularly charitable by nature but having found the attitude of the community especially on LinkedIn and Twitter has influenced how I conduct myself, I think in a positive way.
Boos luck at the Norwich Forum.
Dan
Hi Dan,
That’s a very interesting insight. I think that most people come online for a specific purpose to start with, and once they settle in and establish themselves in the community, other opportunities present themselves.
To me sharing is something that benefits everyone, when a social platform like Twitter or blogging is accessible via search. By sharing, people who search for the topics you write about will find you,where they might not have otherwise. This brings mutual benefits.
I wrote some of the reasons why people share, up into a blog post and petcha kucha slide deck some time ago:
http://www.justprofessionals.net/2010/06/14-reasons-why-people-are-sharing-stuff-online-and-why-you-should-too/
Had a great session at be2camp in Didcot yesterday. Had the great pleasure of meeting Russell Curtis (Architecture Ambassador for Evernote no less!) as mentioned above. He talked about evernote and other collaboration tools his practice uses during his talk, it was very interesting to hear about practical applications and ask him how he felt this has impacted on the work his practice gets to do.
You can find out more about the be2camp event here:
http://be2camp.com/profiles/blogs/be2campoxon-letting-go-of-print
and Search Twitter for the #be2campoxon hashtag.
Glad you enjoyed it Su – your Ada Lovelace Day pecha kucha was a great way tp close!
Also en route to Oxfordshire yesterday had a lovely email from Duncan Reed, now at Tekla, about his thoughts. He’s agreed to let his email be posted up here – so here it is:
How are you working today that is different from five years ago?
More happily (found like minds) better informed and far less trawling to expensive conferences that never resulted in sales – mainly due to social media
How are social networks helping you in your work?
information, trends, support – a thoughtful twitter DM can make your day, sales, reputation
What platforms help you most and how?
Twitter for immediate and fun, LinkedIN for reputation and long term
How do you think you’ll be working in the next ten years?
anywhere I like! Less need for premises, with as much tech as I need, seemlessly collaborating with virtual teams, in 3d
‘Anywhere I like’ – good point Claire…
Thanks to everyone who has commented so far, both here and direct to me via email. Your different perspectives have been really fantastic.
I’m looking forward to presenting some of your views to the NFCI this morning. Of course I’ll be posting up the slides and links in a blog post later, and also encouraging the audience to come over and read more about your thoughts, so if you’d still like to make a contribution it will as always be very welcome.
Su
Interesting blog Su, as always.
The NBS has used social in a number of ways which have been interesting from a business perspective.
We have used our @theNBS twitter from a support perspective such as architects looking for software support on our new specification tool NBS Create to a landscape architect querying if we had any guidance on ash dieback. In each case because we were listening we were able to respond immediately and have a conversation with them to help. It’s important to offer support in whichever way clients want to engage with you.
We also use twitter to listen to what the sector is talking about, what the key areas of interest are and how we could fit in. We do as much if not more listening than we do ‘tweeting’.
We are also using LinkedIn to engage with the market specifically for research purposes. Our National BIM Library LinkedIn group has been an excellent forum for us to get input and feedback on the development not only of the objects themselves but the functionality of the website. We have been engaging with architects, technologists, engineers and manufacturers in this forum and it’s been very valuable. The group is very engaged and we often find that conversations started by members end up being some of the most insightful and interesting from a research perspective.
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4103410&trk=my_groups-b-grp-v