Connect

« Back

Living Social in Today’s A/E/C Industry

November 5th, 2018

Whether you are an architect, engineer, or marketing professional, if you live in today’s A/E/C world you have either pondered or heard the following questions:

“Does social media win us any jobs?”
“Is social media really worth our time as a service provider?”

In short: yes.

Social media is vital for EVERY company (Not just A/E/C) in 2018, and there are a million reasons why. Instead of wasting your time with a million, I thought I’d name a few.

Social media is a virtually free way to amplify your voice across multiple platforms. Outside of sponsored ads and premium accounts such as LinkedIn, the majority of social media platforms are free to join. This is a HUGE reason that these platforms are so important, a free way to get your name out there and spread awareness about your brand, what you do, where you do it, and why you are the best at it.

Speaking of amplifying your voice, reach is often a common word used when it comes to marketing statistics; it refers to the total number of different people or households exposed, at least once, to a medium during a given period. In 2019, it is estimated that there will be around 2.77 billion social network users in the world. Obviously you won’t reach the whole world, but it goes to show that whoever you are thinking about targeting, whoever you want to see your press releases, your new projects, your fundraising event, you can bet that they are on social media.

Social media is also the key to staying relevant and keeping and making people aware of your brand. The internet is always the first place people turn to research and a poor presence on social media can easily turn people away from your business and land them with a competitor. Being active on platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. keeps your company in the spotlight, and effectively spreads brand awareness to those who may not know or understand what your firm does.

Going back to those two questions:

“Does social media win jobs?”

Listen, obviously you aren’t going to win an RFP with an Instagram post, but your social media presence is your first impression. Whatever you have available on the internet is what those prospective clients are going to see, and if it is nonexistent, or just a few posts saying “come visit us at booth 35” every 6 months, they probably aren’t going to think very highly of you.

“Is social media really worth our time as a service provider?”

Yes, yes, yes 100 times yes. If anything it is MORE important as a service provider because “what we do” is not always easy to explain. In order to get business it is important that you can convey that message accurately and effectively and social media is an extremely easy way to do so.

As a marketer, I hope that this paints a better picture as to why social media is SO very important, not just for your firm, but for you as professionals too! We are all marketers!

---

Everett B. Anderson, Marketing Assistant at HRP Associates, Inc.