I noticed this question on Quora yesterday – here it is in full:
Will the UK construction sector finally embrace Social Media Marketing in 2011 and what will be their strategy?
What Social Media platforms do you think, apart from the obvious Twitter, Blogs, YouTube & possibly Facebook do you consider suitable. Quora? Behance?
I thought it might be worth thinking about how things have panned out, so here’s my answer:
2011 has been very uncertain for construction, what with the hiatus in planning legislation, cutting of funding to various public building projects and slow down in the economy (again). These circumstances produce effects of risk aversion and lack of funds. They also may make construction companies look at new, more cost effective ways of marketing, but this doesn’t mean they will do it wisely.
Look at the sector in different parts, because they do operate in different ways:
Construction Consultants – Architects, Engineers, Surveyors
Firstly you have the consultancy sector which is notoriously averse to spending money on marketing or strategising about it. Traditionally consultants like architects and QSs did not advertise and obtained all their commissions through networking and referrals, though they don’t use this process very intelligently on the whole.
Social media is an excellent way for construction consultants to extend their networking reach, but if they aren’t doing it properly in the traditional manner they won’t necessarily do it properly online either. They are also strapped for cash.
Building Contractors and Subcontractors
What about contractors? Squeezed by falling budgets and cutthroat tender processes, clients are playing them off against each other. Events and Corporate Entertainment were always the mainstay of a contractors marketing budget, and these can be expensive, but social media can help extend their effectiveness through online promotion and signup, virtualisation and live blogging, and post event self publishing of photography, video and writeups.
The question is, before anyone has some big success on the back of these techniques, will any of the naturally conservative contractors breaks ranks and take a six month stab at widening their influence like that? I’m not convinced they would be able to commit to it with margins as they are.
Construction Product Manufacturers and Suppliers
Then there are the product manufacturers and suppliers. Here a popular marketing technique, aside from traveling sales representatives, print advertising and trade shows, is the CPD seminar. Making seminars attractive to busy, hard pressed specifiers smarting from recent redundancies is difficult to do, but the internet can help, as can some sensible tactics like blogging and putting your content online so it can be shared properly, instead of hiding it behind an email form.
I think product manufacturers are probably the most likely part of the industry to take a punt at social media. They still have reasonable marketing budgets, and whilst they are very traditional in their approaches, at least they have the wherewithal to make a commitment to saving time and money on the print bill and mileage and thinking more intelligently about what they do spend.
Will any of this happen in 2012, as it hasn’t much in 2011? I hope so. I’m banking on it.
What do you think?
Image: Social Network on a Course by Hans Põldoja [Creative Commons]
I think you talk too much about things you will never understand!
Its people like you that put construction companies off social media.
We are hardcore and your just a wannabe leach.
You want to suck your percentage out of our blood.
Go away and annoy someone else!
You’ll not feed here!
Ian,
I think you’re being too harsh here. As Su has said, she hopes ‘the UK construction sector finally embrace Social Media Marketing, therefore it is an opinion. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, especially on their own blog.
If you want my opinion, I’d retract that statement if I was you before it gives your business bad press.
Philip
Su I like your style and would agree with the majority of what you have said. It is reality that most of us are adverse to spending money on marketing!
I am assuming the your business has benefited from social media marketing for you to be championing it in such a way?
Hi Mike,
Yes, most definitely.
I see social media as a natural extension of the kind of traditional networking successful professionals do – the tools simply help you find the right people more quickly and keep in touch with them in a more efficient and effective way. The practice I managed until recently (I now consult for them) benefited in many different ways, including obtaining qualified relevant leads directly attributable to our online activities. Keeping in touch with conversations about our industry online has also encouraged people to send us information about opportunities (one of the reasons we won a large 100+ unit housing commission in Norfolk recently was because we’d originally entered a competition that I was told about via social media). The process has also raised the profile of the practice hugely and thereby attracted the interest of journalists both locally and nationally.
Have you seen the recent writeups in the Architects Journal about twitter? There were several examples from other architects who had also generated new business from it.
Hi Su,
many thanks for the reply. Firstly thank you for your hard works so far in promoting social media to architects. You are doing a fantastic job and are a real pioneer in this respect.
As of yet I have not seen the article article in the AJ will take a look and get back to you with my thoughts!
Hi All
I think one of the key factors as far as building product manufacturers go is that some of the companies they advertise with in print online etc will already be adapting there stock pr for use online, be that on a blog which is then sindicated to twitter facebook et al as we at bpindex do, if you want to see this in action please visit our site and blog at http://www.bpindex.co.uk and bpindex.wordpress.com respectivly or follow on twitter
Hello, @bpindex
Good point about making your existing material work online, its a good starting point.
I’m afraid I can’t find your blog from your website – have you got a link?
Hi Sue
My Blog is at http://www.bpindex.wordpress.com come and have a look, I think I will be opening it up for submissions soon if you are interested.
paul
it’s alright down playing the importance of social media in construction, or indeed any other industry. But how are our clients, customers and specifiers consuming media, advertising and how are they communicating? Generations X&Y are certainly not taking any lessons from the ‘Baby Boomers’, so ignore the social media revolution at your peril!
Any industry can use social media marketing to promote their companies. It’s an easy way to connect with people or prospective clients without spending too much.