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AEC Marketing To Construct Marketing, Social Media relates to one thing: ROT.
No not Rule of Thumb, Reign of Terror, Republic of Turkey or Right Offensive Tackle.
It is "Return on Time".
The scariest thing to construction industry company principals is that social media is an open faucet through which time for sales, production and billable hours can potentially gush unabated. Therefore it sometimes goes unaddressed like the proverbial elephant in the room. So how do you get comfortable with the idea that the time spent on social media is time well spent?
Expectations
Different social media vehicles will serve different purposes. While a large company may have a Communications department coordinate and manage various efforts in service of an overall marketing plan, smaller companies may use social media solely for lead generation, relationship building, just getting the name "out there" or one or two of the above. Its important to define, without tying the hands of the effort, what the organization expects from the 230, 1300 or 5000 some-odd hours spent by the end of the year on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. etc. etc.
Individual v. Organizational Use
As an example, LinkedIn does have some very definite benefits when it comes to finding someone who knows someone about something that you need help with. The LinkedIn Groups are particularly helpful for this reason. In this event, LinkedIn can make anyone better at what they do by widening their resource base. Obviously this can help the organization and ought to be encouraged. Twitter can be similarly helpful in this way. Organizational use? A discussion needs to take place over who exactly is speaking for the company including a dialog on the hierarchy the individuals that will marshal the organizational message. Obviously your company does not want 10 different "tweets" (read: announcements) from 10 different origins about what your company is doing.
Who?
This depends on the size and culture of your organization. While a larger organization with a marketing team can lead the social media marketing effort, a smaller organization may not have this luxury or resource. However it needs to follow a similar centralized model. You can take out much of the efficiency loss and worry over the social media elephant and maximize the ROT by spot picking your savvy employees, across the disciplines perhaps, who have time to take ownership of the message and stand as one voice for your business, in mind of the company marketing plan. (You do have a marketing plan don't you?)
What?
Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn et al all serve different purposes. Often, as with most marketing components or channels, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Integration of a mix that works together with your existing traditional marketing elements is the key to a social media effort. The trick is to do so in the most efficient and cost effective manner, all with a consistent message and in service of your stated goals.
This advice is worth what you're paying for it...
#1 Take the bull by the horns on the social media issue. With your social media team, discuss what you expect from the effort. Be sure to include IT department personnel and the marketing department of course. Don't build an island! Social media will work best integrated as a component of the larger marketing effort, rather than as a independent program, or worse as an unwieldy assortment of independent tiny solo programs.
#2 A Policy or Guidelines? Probably a good idea. But every company is different and it's got to work within your company culture and practice.
#3 Keep your effort moving and be consistent!
More Learning Resources:
Wikipedia: Social Media Marketing
HubSpot: List of 37 Social Media Articles
I Don?t Have Time For Social Media!
Explaining the value of social marketing
Hubspot:What Gets More Traffic Than Google? Facebook.
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http://Twitter.com/ConstructMktg
Slideshare.com: View Construct Marketing's 2010 Portfolio
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