Blogs, Twitter, social networking: your new business tools

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If you believe construction is all about face-to-face interaction, then think again. Many businesses are switching on to the commercial benefits that online networking can bring

Cancel the summer party for clients and bin that glossy corporate brochure – there’s a whole parallel universe of online marketing opportunities out there. Construction’s early adopters are already using social media – such as Twitter and Flickr, Facebook and YouTube – as business tools. Together, these can raise your company’s profile among people who don’t know you, build loyalty among those that do, and even electronically link a project supply chain.

Capita Symonds digital marketing manager Louise Reed (pictured), who heads a team devoted to blogging, Tweeting, and posting on Flickr and YouTube, says social media is becoming an alternative communications channel to conventional marketing channels. ‘While there’s always going to be a place for print media and face-to-face meetings, the industry is definitely moving toward online communication,’ says Reed. ‘It’s about breaking down formality and creating more of a bond, which is particularly important in a recession.’

There are many good reasons for moving into social media, from brand management to recruitment to networking for new contacts. Social media tools also let you re-establish old contacts, and pick up on ideas from colleagues and other professionals all over the world. And the pioneers have also discovered another important benefit of social media as a business tool – it’s almost cost free.

So far, there do not seem to be any cases of construction clients posting invitations to tender on LinkedIn or Twitter. But one contractor is about to start using blogs and Twitter to keep in touch with its supply chain. Hull-based contractor Hobson & Porter has used free blog site Blogger.com to set up blogs for each project (http://hobsonandporter.blogspot.com) and will be encouraging its supply chain to sign up to Twitter for progress updates and tender information (see below).

Compared to networking in the real world, social media exponentially increases the number of contacts an individual can make.

Su Butcher, officer manager of Ipswich-based architect Barefoot & Gilles (pictured), uses Twitter to spread the practice’s brand online. ‘In our industry, people move in quite small circles.

But going online explodes those limitations – you can network with people all over the world, many with expertise not in your field,’ she says.

And contacts often cross the line between the virtual and real worlds. By marketing yourself as an expert, invitations to speak at events or contribute articles to publications might follow. Butcher, for instance, has been invited to present the practice’s affordable eco-houses at two property industry events.

It’s easy to get started on social media, but experts warn that it might not be suitable for every business. ‘If you’re a business that doesn’t use the internet much anyway, you might not find Twitter, LinkedIn or blogging very useful,’ says PR consultant Liz Male (pictured). ‘But if you’re established in researching information online and passing it on, it’s hugely useful.’

Freelance consultant Paul Wilkinson advises that any construction company thinking about social media for business needs to think carefully about its marketing strategy. ‘What do you want to convey to your markets? Are they potential recruits, clients, customers, or influencers of customers? If marketers aren’t knowledgeable about it, you might not get the integrated approach that’s required,’ he warns.

Social media certainly puts the ‘social’ back into business communications. In researching this article, I (CMElaine) posted a link to last month’s leader piece on women in construction on Twitter. ‘Follower’ Martin Brown then called to tell us about a construction course he runs for the wives and partners of small builders. And when Stephen Cousins (CMStephen) called Kirk Smith of Liverpool’s 4K Construction about his blog, it resulted in an entire blog posting dedicated to his query.

CM’s dip into social media highlights the possibilities of building online relationships.

Of course, what works for journalists isn’t necessarily going to work for business-to-business contacts in the construction sector. But once you have developed new business relationships, new contacts who know your firm’s name and a new audience for your products, you’ve opened up a possible route to new business.

Twitter

Twitter is bit like having the social to and fro of a networking event happening at your desktop – 140 characters at a time, in real time, all the time. You can ‘follow’ other participants who catch your eye, see who they’re talking to, and eavesdrop on what they’re ‘tweeting’ to each other. Soon, you’ll be able to follow multiple, multi-sided conversations full of social chit-chat, requests for Building Regs information and weblinks to site photos, pdfs or informative sites.

Twitter is searchable via keywords, in the same way as Google, with the difference that you can send a message to the people with expertise on a subject and they’ll talk right back to you.

There is an unwritten code whereby participants are challenged for shameless product-plugging, self-advertising or ‘spamming’. But anyone joining in a spirit of sharing information will be welcomed as a new convert. ‘If you give access to some of your knowledge for free, people will then ask you for more – there’s a culture of putting things online for people to access,’ says Su Butcher of architect Barefoot & Gilles.

From a business development point of view, Twitter is a slow-burner. ‘Twitter won’t suddenly create sales leads, but it is an enabler for face-to-face meetings out of which you might get more work,’ says freelance consultant Paul Wilkinson.

Jonathan Moreels, architectural designer and Twitterer-in-chief at Niven Architects, adds: ‘We haven’t had any new projects so far, but we have had a couple of enquiries and we’re using it to find out what other people are doing.’

Niven uses Twitter in conjunction with its Facebook page and postings on Flickr. ‘It’s difficult trying to build relationships in 140 characters!’ says Moreels. ‘So it’s useful to use Facebook and Flickr to point people to sources of more information. If they’re interested and hooked, then they’ll contact you.’ Since the firm started using the site in March, visitors to its website have doubled to around 300.

Kirk Smith (pictured, left), director of Liverpool contractor 4K Construction, says: ‘I can’t say Twitter has been tremendously successful in drumming up great business, however, we do receive more visitors to our blog and that can only be a good thing.’

The latest phenomenon is known as ‘tweet-up’, where people arrange to rendezvous in the real world. PR consultant Liz Male arranged to meet some Twitter contacts at the BRE Insite exhibition. ‘We’ve established shared interests and concerns, and will see if there are business opportunities we can collaborate on, perhaps as partners on projects,’ she says.

Twitter is also spawning smaller sub-groups, such as the Architects Twitter League and the Architects Engineers and Constructors Network. By posting a ‘tweet’ to all 300 or so members listed in the directory, for example, you can get up to 300 responses. These groups can also bypass real-world industry bodies by sharing consultation papers and technical forums.

Andrew McCormick / business improvement manager / Hobson & Porter

There’s a lot of people talking to themselves on Twitter, but we’re trying to make it work for real. We’re encouraging the supply chain to use the blog as the primary source of information about Hobson & Porter, and Twitter as the signpost to our blog. We’re using them to communicate with the supply chain, the client chain and our internal people.

We’ve set up blogs for all our projects on blogger.com, and the site went public last week. At the same time, we sent an email message to all the subbies, consultants and clients in the supply chains, inviting them to view the blog and follow our updates on Twitter. Twitter will drive people to the blog, so it doesn’t sit in isolation.

Then we need to get people in the company talking to each other on Twitter. People don’t really use intranet sites for social networking, so we want to tap into people’s natural interest in social networking for business reasons.

We want people to answer the classic Twitter question: ‘What are you doing right now?’ For instance, the procurement manager might tweet that he’s just let the steelwork package to ABC company. So that tells me, as business improvement manager, that I need to talk to them about business improvement, several weeks before the name of the company might show up on the invoice system.

Or I might tweet that I’m looking at web applications for file-sharing, and other people might be interested in that.

Or a subbie might tweet that it’s revisiting its site waste management processes. It’s all about engaging with the supply chain.

But it will be interesting to see if we can actually get people to use it – most people in construction aren’t part of the Twitter generation.

Tips

Remember everything is public and can be overheard
To search other people’s tweets, type search.twitter.com into your browser, followed by a search term such as cladding
Follow 100 people that interest you to get ideas on how to use Twitter
Build up your own list of followers, who will be able to answer your questions

In contrast to the open style of Twitter, LinkedIn is more like a gentleman’s club: the protocol is stiffer, the etiquette more formal and there’s even an entrance fee if you want to contact people you don’t have a business relationship with. You need to register and write a profile, then search for other people to link into your network. You can also join interest and discussion groups, regional-based construction groups – such as the London Architecture Network – and post questions and answers on technical topics.

James Goddin, a senior consultant at BRE, says online conversations in discussion groups can be converted into new business initiatives. ‘It’s been a great resource for sister company BRE Ventures,’ he says. ‘It has helped match new ideas with the people that need them, as well as find people with ideas that can be developed.’

The site’s knowledge-sharing function can also help anyone whose job has a technical aspect. Willmott Dixon planner Rubas Kutty has tapped into the collective database to find tips on construction, planning and project management. ‘Previously I’d have had to find my technical information in the building press, but I get many of my questions answered here in a simple one or two-hour session each week,’ he says. Kutty uses the site with the blessing of his employer, which sees its business-only profile as preferable to Twitter.

But most users focus on the site’s main function of creating new business contacts and rekindling old ones. Architect Dieter Kleiner, director of small practice RCK Architects, uses LinkedIn to contact former clients. ‘I don’t think it’s had any commercial effect on our business yet, but as a small young practice it’s useful for reinforcing our image. In the current climate, it’s a case of “get out there or die”, so we are using any avenue to get our message out, in the virtual and real world.’

Dan Jarrold, head of marketing at Morgan Sindall Fit-out, has a similar view. ‘I’d say it’s limited from a business development point of view, because it’s not widely used yet, but I expect it to develop over time. It’s certainly better than other forum sites I’ve tried like Facebook or Friends Reunited, as it’s purely business focused. I’d definitely recommend it.’

Gail Gillatt / marketing manager / Shepherd Construction

I trialled Linked In for a week, spending about an hour on it in the morning and 1.5 hours in the evening. The basic service is free and really addictive. I’ve become obsessed with trying to get more people in my network than other users!

I set up a profile detailing my current job responsibilities, education and career history so people can search for me through the site. The idea is to get relevant people to join your network, which then allows you to share knowledge, identify possible business opportunities and make and receive recommendations for employment.

I imported contacts from my Microsoft Outlook address book, which LinkedIn searches for in its database. I also searched through Shepherd Construction’s LinkedIn network and contacted people I hadn’t met before. Once you’ve made contact with these people, they can introduce you to their colleagues and so on.

It hasn’t yet been beneficial for me in terms of winning new business, although it’s only been a week, but I have sent invitations to about 70 people and now have 36 people in my network. After
I posted my profile several people found me almost instantly. Many of these were colleagues from previous jobs I did in Holland, Canada and the US and LinkedIn is great for maintaining contact with people you wouldn’t ordinarily see face to face. I couldn’t believe it when I was contacted by a Dutch colleague I hadn’t seen for more than 10 years.

I’m a member of the Target Construction & Property Marketing Group, and was pleased to see that they have a discussion group on LinkedIn. I’m going to get more involved with this as it should be useful for sharing marketing best practice.

Many people seem to use the site for recruitment, and you can see why. The profile page is very succinct so you get a quick picture of a person’s qualifications and experience without having to trawl through a CV. And if someone in your network recommends a person for a job it’s like a testimonial, so you can be fairly sure that the candidate will be trustworthy and reliable as opposed to a complete stranger.

It’s definitely a useful site, but it will never replace face-to-face networking events. And I simply don’t have time to search for contacts in LinkedIn during working hours. A networking event is more targeted so your time is used more efficiently.

Tips

Companies need to be aware of the information staff are posting, especially if the company logo is uploaded
Be aware that conversations are either open for everyone to read, or entirely closed to the two parties
Use it to establish local professional networks that can cross-refer work

Blogging

Blogging is the art of starting a one-sided conversation in the hope that it will become multi-sided – either by readers sharing their comments directly, or indirectly showing their interest by visiting your company’s website. It’s often used by website owners who want to increase their rankings on Google searches: Google calculates website hierarchies by the frequency of updates and the number of links.

‘If you have a company website, you can provide a link to this which will also help the search engines find your main “pitch” page,’ explains says Kirk Smith, director of 4K Construction in Liverpool. ‘Also remember to keep your blog posts keyword rich with any particular phrases [to be picked up on searches] to help promote your business. People will soon start to recognise you as a reliable resource and your blog posts will begin to carry weight.’

Consultant Paul Wilkinson (pictured, left) says blogging is an important tool for business: ‘Corporate blogs can be used to help promote a strategy or change the external perception of a company: from stuffy to casual; traditional to switched on.’

By conveying an idea of the company culture, it can also be used as a recruitment tool. ‘We can provide a view into the company, and show we’re an attractive place to work,’ says Louise Reed, digital marketing manager at Capita Symonds. ‘We don’t want to be seen as another faceless company.’

Architect HOK has also entered the blogosphere, putting together a team of 34 young professionals worldwide to help change its public image from ‘HOK the big company’ to ‘HOK the creative people’ to help attract new employees, clients and partners. ‘The direct benefits for our business have been the dozens of requests through the blog email box about job opportunities,’ says John Gilmore, associate. ‘The blog has also built our presence in the news media, having been linked to by many online publications.’

It is left up to individual bloggers to decide what to post and when, and blogging during working hours is permitted. Content can range from a photo of the blogger’s breakfast to news of new projects. The site – http://hoklife.com – averages several hundred hits a day, with a steady increase since its launch last October.

John Keleher / IT Manager / Crittall Windows

We’re running two blogs on the free blog hosting sites Wordpress and Blogger. Both are good if you want to set up a straight blog with no fancy stuff, but for more serious users Wordpress allows you to upload images.

The main reason for doing this was to improve our page ranking on the Google search engine – our main UK competitor had a higher ranking – as well as to drive traffic to the website.

The content uploaded is mainly case studies of our completed high-profile projects, but I’m planning to add more input from specialists. There’s currently no plan to let general employees blog, as we want a consistent company message.

When updating blogs, my advice is don’t be overambitious but be regular. There’s nothing worse than people who blog a few times to begin with, then leave it blank for a few months before posting again. Try to do it every two to three weeks.

Unexpected contacts turn up from time to time. We recently had a guy in Shanghai posting comments complaining bitterly about how Western architects are ruining the city’s aesthetic by replacing steel windows with uPVC. I sent him some images of our Shanghai-based steel window factory from the 1920s, which he’s now posted on his website. Who knows, it might lead to new business.

Tips

Blogs can be created easily and for free using a free hosting site such as Blogger or Wordpress
Younger staff may take to blogging more readily than directors
Use blogs to highlight your take on a topical issue, but don’t simply repeat old news