“What return on investment do we get from social media?” “Why should we prioritize social media?” These are frequent questions we hear from architecture, engineering, and construction firm management and marketing leaders regarding social media marketing. There are six reasons AEC social media marketing should gain respect from our firms.
1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Our number one reason for implementing a social media marketing campaign is the direct correlation to your SEO. Social media is another tool that can boost SEO. Using social media as an avenue to promote your firm’s website content and increase your firm’s visibility will increase SEO.
While there is not much evidence that search engines are using social media activity to elevate a page’s authority, social media can play a critical role in building the visibility of your content. The more broadly your content is shared, the more you attract organic links, which impact your page’s authority. Increasing your AEC firm’s social media presence will help your pages rank higher in search results. In addition, content on Twitter and LinkedIn is searchable. Your links back to your website in a tweet or on LinkedIn can be found by a potential employee or client through a simple Google search—a welcome opportunity to gain website traffic.
2. AEC Networking at its Best
As marketers, we understand networking in person. It’s a way to meet and communicate with other professionals: existing clients, industry colleagues, or maybe future co-workers. The value of social media networking can be just as important. Social media was originally intended as an online networking platform. When used properly, social media can be highly reciprocal. The key to networking is communicating and sharing leads with contacts. Social media is no different. Contacts expect replies to their tweets, comments, and questions, and there is an expectation that you will share others' content as well as your own.
3. Cost-Effective Content Marketing
Your firm’s social media marketing strategy is based around elevating your reputation, visibility, and brand. Social media is one of the easiest and cheapest “channels” to promote your firm’s content.
- Twitter: Twitter provides an easy way to share blog posts, firm news, website updates, ebooks, and promotions. You can link articles, along with brief taglines featuring value-added content.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is viewed as a professional social media outlet. Your company LinkedIn page can post blog posts, company information, ebooks and promotions. It also offers a chance to join industry groups, where you can use your content to educate clients, potential clients, and colleagues.
4. Social Listening
Think of social media as a tool for your market research program. Just as with a website, social media allows you (and others) to gather information.This could include reviewing information about a company or even an individual. Regardless, social media can tell you a lot about brand, personality, authority, reputation, and visibility. Social media is also an easy way to research marketplace trends and engage with the competition. This concept of market intelligence is sometimes referred to as social listening.
5. Recruiting/Retention
Firm culture is one of the most important factors when looking for a career change. A MARKETLINK client that had previously been very skeptical of the time, effort, and money spent on social media planning just relayed a situation that changed their outlook. This architectural firm had been in heavy recruiting mode for some recent university graduates. They were able to hire for three positions after a competitive search. When asked what made them choose this particular firm over others, they all commented that from website and social media review, they felt the firm culture was a good fit for them.
Social media is an organic recruitment tool, whether you are looking for new employees or seeking out business partners. LinkedIn and Facebook let you post for positions based on a pre-qualified skillset. LinkedIn is known as a good place to search for a new position or to find the right talent.
6. Marketing Mentality
Social media planning and marketing is a great way to get technical staff involved in content creation as well as involved in interacting on various social channels. Social media is reciprocal, and you need to balance self-promotion with the sharing of important content created by other industry thought leaders. While there seems to be no widely accepted standard for how much of others’ content to share, there is a bias toward education. Leave your marketing collateral on your website. Educate, don’t hard sell.
Now can you say that social media has gained your respect?
For AEC firms, social media should be gaining your respect for its ability to play a variety of roles. Like any other type of strategic initiatives, you must have a social media plan and someone dedicated to fostering the relationships. We recommend that you give social media a role in your content marketing and brand building strategy.
