Construction and Social Media

by Jonathan McGaha | 13 December 2012 12:00 am

More and more companies are joining social media platforms such as Facebook[1], Twitter[2], YouTube[3] and LinkedIn[4] all of the time. Being involved with social media myself, and writign about the construction and metal building industry, I’m always interested to see how construction companies and architects are using social media.

So much so that earlier this year, I wrote an article[5] looking at how three general contractors are using social media to connect to clients and the surrounding community.

This past September, the Construction Marketing Association[6] conducted a national survey of construction professionals regarding their use of social media.

They asked:

1. Do you employ social media in your marketing program?
2. Do you manage social media marketing internally or outsource?
3. Which social networks do you employ?
4. Do you employ blogging?
5. What social media is MOST effective in achieving results?
6. What social media is LEAST effective in achieving results?
7. What results have you achieved via social media marketing?
8. Which category best describes your company?
9. What is the approximate size of your company?

According to the survey, 90 percent of participants said that they are using social media. However, only 61 percent are blogging. In terms of where people are concentrating their social media efforts, LinkedIn take the lead with 88 percent, with Facebook and Twitter not too far behind. Half of the respondents are using YouTube, while only a quarter are using Google Plus and less than 20 percent are using Pinterest. Not too surprising, LinkedIn was considered the most effective, followed by Twitter and Facebook, but when asked what was the least effective, Facebook led the way, followed by Pinterest and Twitter.

When it comes to social media results, awareness leads the way at 69 percent, followed closely by website traffic at 65 percent. Improved search ranking and sales leads are lagging behind.

Check out all of the results below, and let me know your thoughts. Are you using social media? Which platforms? Has it been effective? Will you continue to use it? Is there a platform that you’re interested in getting involved in, but don’t know much about?

Source URL: https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/blog/construction-and-social-media/

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