As you no doubt have realised I’ve been asked to talk about “Professional Networking” at the RIBA at the end of October.
The audience will be a group of around 80 people from the construction and related industries who in some way help the RIBA, by sitting on their committees, for example. It’s a thankyou to them from the RIBA and I’d very much like to use my 15 mins to share something really useful.
One of the returning themes of my previous “what shall I talk to the RIBA about was stories, and another was cold hard facts. So I’m looking for your cold, hard, factual stories.
What have you achieved for your business (see, I’m talking hard) with tools such as Twitter, Blogs and Linkedin in particular (I think these are the simplest) that you would not have done otherwise?
What is the Return on Investment (if you can calculate it!) remember to think like a cynic. What money have you made? What potential have you tapped into?
Ok, please post your thoughts below, if you’re willing to be identified. I admit I think if you aren’t I’d be surprised, but you can also send them to me privately at su@drvza2n4g1.wpdns.site
I’m going to use the most compelling in my presentation, and if I get a big response I’ll make a separate stack of them for sharing with you all and the universe.
If you have suggestions for visuals and links these will be most welcome – think “PresentationZen”
Over to you!
We are based in Morecambe Lancashire, and Twitter enabled me to find a contact in Dublin. I had been looking to find good contacts in ROI for a while but it was through twitter I found my contact who is now turning up trumps for us. It is still very early in our business relationship but he has already placed our products in the renovation of Trinity College and is now about to order unique wallpapers and blinds for a casino re-vamp.
We also have a client in Dublin who is also on twitter who asked us to produce and install his images (he’s a photographer) as wallpapers for the Royal College of Surgeons in Bahrain! Our fitters loved that!
As regards Return on Investment, obviously a twitter account costs nothing – and we feel that with these two clients we have a good foothold now in the ROI.
Mark Forrest
Thanks Mark, good examples – but can’t help laughing – Hadn’t thought that ROI could be interpreted as Republic of Ireland…
Maybe that’s a theme for a whole new slideshow!
It’s still early in our exploration of using Twitter as a marketing tool. We started about 6 month ago, and have close to 900 followers. The short and simple answer on ROI is a big fat zero thus far. We were invited by a UK firm to joint venture for a design competition in the UK, but were not shortlisted. We have in discussions with a potential client for a historic residential remodel here in St. Louis. I believe we are in a “building relationships” stage right now with several people that could potentially one day turn into a project. We have certainly become connected to many people that we never would have known prior to Twitter. A good example of this is Stephanie Thum, a Health Care reporter/writer noticed one of my tweets talking about an addition we are designing for a local Hospital. We had lunch with her, and she wrote a great article about the hospital in the local business journal. We continue to communicate with her and are confident that more good PR will come of it. Twitter enables you to find, and begin a dialogue with people that might not have been receptive to the standard letter, phone, etc. Just another tool to use to advance exposure and network.
I know that you’re looking for the “cold, hard facts” of quantitative ROI, but I think it’s important to look at *qualitative* ROI as well.
Traditionally, the key developmental assets for a professional services firm are: Ideas, Image, Networks, Capabilities. In addition, we are experiencing a sea-change in terms of Influence — how to achieve it, and how to leverage it. Our approach to the developmental assets will have a major effect on the level of Influence that we can attain.
So I think the core question for your presentation is: How has your social media strategy helped you or your firm achieve your strategic goals in terms of growth, development, and competitive advantage?
Thanks Tom,
Sounds like potential is building.
The first ‘return’ I got on twitter was conversations with journalists. These have lead to online publications which, though not having the kudos architectural print publication has, actually have much more reach, over a longer term. And of course, being on twitter you’re self publishing too.
I’d like to encourage to to keep up the efforts, Tom, and thanks for contributing to the thread.