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Is A/E/C Afraid of Social Media?

Posted by ablack on Mar. 10, 2015  /  Subscribe 0

Fear of the unknown is scary! It’s the reason why little kids hide under their covers at bedtime, why teenagers cover their faces during a horror flick, and why adults hide behind their podiums when making a presentation to a large crowd. Whether you’re three years old or thirty, the fear of what might be lurking on the “other side” waiting to pounce on you is something that we all share. In fact, fear is an agent that is hard-wired into the psyche of every living thing on this planet with a singular purpose for self-preservation. But when can fear get the best of us?

As a consultant for a number of A/E/C industry clients over the years, I have witnessed first-hand the paralyzing fear that comes with tackling the realm of social media. But where does this shared industry fear come from? When more closely examined, it is plain to see that companies AND people actually share the common thread of fear in both reason and purpose. A/E/C’s fear of social media comes from the exact same place that all other fears come from; a fear of what might be lying in wait. That fear also serves the same exact purpose; an instinct to avoid threats and to preserve one’s self.

When a company commits to a social media campaign and then takes their first steps into launching it, the act itself can feel a lot like an open invitation for criticism. And that is DAMN scary! After all, no one wants to walk around with a giant target on their forehead. This represents the top fear that my clients express to me when venturing into this new frontier (well…new for them). “What if someone says something negative about us?” But here’s the thing: just because a company chooses to refrain from utilizing social media does not mean that they are shielded from the perils of online dialogue about them, either positive OR negative. In this sense, doing nothing only cuts the company out of the conversation.

Have you ever tried googling your own company? What shows up on the first page might shock you. Besides your website, which is typically the first result listed, you might find reviews from a disgruntled former employee or even a previous client who was unhappy enough with your services to write something online about their experience with your firm. Then again, you might find a glowing testimonial! Obviously, you want that ratio to lean more towards the latter than the former. Unfortunately, there’s really no way to get rid of those bad reviews…but there IS a way to minimize them. So don’t get disheartened just yet; I’m about to share some good news with you. And you don’t even need to be a SoMe super-geek to understand it.  

For those of you still hiding under the covers, you’ll be happy to learn that social media can actually help you control the online message regarding what is being said about your company. There’s quite a bit of technical stuff that goes into all this, but for today’s purposes all you really need to know is this: with regular activity, you can actually employ SoMe strategies to push those bad reviews to the second or third results page (you know…the pages that NO ONE generally visits). Because popular sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are trusted sources for major search engines like Google and Bing, increased activities on company SoMe accounts causes the search engine’s algorithms to move your account sites further up their results pages. This, of course, is known as Search Engine Optimization (or SEO).

As a quick sidebar for the SoMe gurus reading this, I fully acknowledge that SEO is undergoing an evolution of sorts right now. I recently read an article on Clickz.com that summed it up quite nicely. I’m paraphrasing here, but today’s SEO calls for “quality content.” Metatags and keywords are out; “content-rich” sites are in. And this article didn’t even delve into the projected effects of an increasingly photo-focused environment on SEO going forward. But the evolution of SEO doesn’t negate the validity of a firm’s efforts to increase their social media activity. What it does mean is that firms should strive to generate regular activity and content of consequence to their readership. I have no doubt that the firms who understand how to leverage these tools will be far better off than those who don’t, especially in the virtual landscapes of the future.  

Now, for those of you still questioning the importance of social media for the A/E/C industry, you might want to consider this. In a recent survey, 60.2% of A/E/C firms chose “attracting and developing new business” as a top challenge for 2015. This trend reflects an industry-wide need for firms to:

• Build awareness of their brand and services
• Increase the visibility and reach of their teams
• Separate themselves from the rest of the marketplace

Savvy companies that are willing to invest the time and energy into strategic social media initiatives can work wonders in these arenas. There are more than a few examples of Corporate America deploying social media as one of the tools used in achieving massive bottom line success. One of the best examples has been Ford Motor Company’s turn-around from bail-out candidate to re-emerged automotive power-house (check out “4 Examples of How Corporate American is Crushing Social Media” and "Ford Motor Company: Greatest Corporate Turnaround in U.S. History”).

Just like the roll out of the first fax machines and email addresses, Corporate America is now leading the way with social media communications. They are also setting the bar AND the public’s expectations for these platforms. And because business trends like these eventually trickle down to the mid-sized and smaller firms throughout all industries, it won’t be long before A/E/C clients have set expectations of their own…especially with the accelerated introduction of younger generations into the workforce.    

What this means for A/E/C is that we really need to put our SoMe fears aside and start thinking critically and creatively about how we can exploit these tools to our industry’s advantage. Maybe it’s time we stop spending our energy on what we perceive as impossible and instead initiate an exploration into what IS possible. After all, everything seems “impossible” until someone accomplishes it for the very first time.  

One of the obstacles currently standing in the way of our achieving this, however, is that A/E/C still sees social media as a “thing” rather than a tool (one of many now at our disposal). To be most effective, social media campaigns should be fully integrated with all other marketing efforts, not separated from them. Although we HAVE come a long way and covered a lot of ground - even since 2009 when the A/E/C companies using social media were few and far between - we still have a long road ahead.

As more and more A/E/C companies jump onto the social media bandwagon in 2015, here are a few motivating factors to help companies stay the course as they take their first frightful steps into the unknown.

1.  Social Media helps build awareness of brands and services. Remember back in the day when we all thought we would never need a website? Those days are long gone! The same now goes for social media. Why is that a good thing? Because with social media, A/E/C companies can drive traffic to their websites, thus building local, regional, national and even international awareness. What is the first thing you do when you hear about a company that you want to learn more about? Google them, right? What typically shows up first is (hopefully) their website. But companies utilizing social media are also going to have Google’s first page of results completely filled with social media links, effectively reinforcing their firm’s virtual presence and prowess. Not only can consumers check out a company’s website, but they also now have access to additional resources like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to familiarize themselves with a company’s brand, services, markets and areas of expertise. This also provides added opportunities for potential clients to learn about new companies of interest when they are organically led to links on social media.

2.  Social media is the online version of networking; it can help increase the visibility and reach of A/E/C teams. I already know what most of you are going to say next; “The people that I do business with aren’t on social media.” Really? According to Pew Research Center’s Social Media Update 2014 survey, approximately 81% of American adults (categorized as ages 18+) use the internet.   When broken out by specific social media sites, 71% of adults were utilizing Facebook, 28% were on LinkedIn, 28% on Pinterest, 26% for Instagram and 23% were on Twitter. When taking into account demographics of the “up and coming” business owners and project managers, these numbers alone should more than motivate a company into action. Of course, social media does NOT replace relationships, but it CAN enhance them. For example, let’s say that you’ve met a potential client at a networking event. Why not invite them to connect on LinkedIn with a customized invitation asking them to meet you for a coffee or lunch? If you did, then LinkedIn just assisted you in initiating multiple touch points with a new prospect with little effort.

3.  Social media helps separate companies from their competitors. Social media can assist with the delivery of tailored messages that reinforce a company’s unique value proposition to a wide audience. Luckily, sharing a company’s “story” is easier now than it has ever been before. Think about how many times you may have written a press release in the past, hoping that one of the coveted industry publications might pick it up. Skip that mess and make your own news through social media; it’s SO much easier to get covered! Not only that, but if your targeted audience doesn’t visit your company’s website on a regular basis, then social media is a great resource to open the lines of communication with them organically.   I mean, you can always update your website, but sharing news through social media outlets helps spread the word AND drives traffic back to your site. And because today’s consumer is prone to conducting online research well in advance of initiating actual contact with a company, it is increasingly important for today’s companies to provide enough content to satisfy this need and pique the consumer’s interest.

Feeling more motivated? Good! But there is one very important rule of thumb that most firms forget when they set their sights on launching a social media campaign…the “Rule of Thirds.” I’ve broken it down for you below:  

• One-third of your social content should promote your firm, convert readers, and generate profit.
• One-third of your social content should surface and share ideas and stories from thought leaders in your industry or like-minded businesses.
• One-third of your social content should be based on personal interactions and build your brand.

For the most part, sharing your own branded content is the third that comes most naturally; it’s the other two thirds that are the most challenging. But even so, there are a few simple steps that companies can follow in order to achieve success and eliminate most lingering fears:  

• Strategy: Be sure to get consensus and buy-in from the leadership/executive team on what they want to get out of social media. What is the message that they want to broadcast and what are their metrics for success?
• Plan: Create a roadmap for how the company is going to meet its social media goals. Get into details of where, when, how often, etc. Define which social media platforms your company will be utilizing and be sure that your company understands how to communicate on each.
• Policy: Create a policy and share it with your team. This should protect your firm from cyber-attacks and reputation damage while balancing your employees’ right to privacy. (Always get a legal consultant that specializes in online policies.)
• Schedule: Some firms find it helpful to set up monthly publication schedules, but at a bare minimum, users should set specific start and end times within any given posting day. Companies might also want to utilize monitoring and scheduling tools like HootSuite or Bufferapp to assist with time management.

After all is said and done, social media isn’t any scarier than its technological predecessors. In fact, when used effectively, social media can serve as a platform for sharing information, creating awareness and optimizing a company’s marketing plan. As audiences increasingly look to social media for information about firms, it grows increasingly vital that A/E/C firms adopt various platforms and integrate their usage closely into online marketing efforts. And at the rate these virtual mediums are evolving, you won’t want to be left behind!

About the Bloggers:  Kimberly Mickelson is a former lead blogger for SMPS Arizona, is a marketer and social media extraordinaire, lover of God, mother to a Shih Tzu (Bella), workaholic and reality television nut. She is looking forward to moving to Denver with Small Giants and getting to know more SMPS members and other industry peeps! She thought she was going to be the sole author of this post, but eventually learned that Amy Villasana-Moore, CPSM (current BeatBlogger for SMPS Arizona) shares her passion for social media and ended up adding WAY more than “two cents” during the editing process LOL!  

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