The advent of social media has led to new strategy development and various opportunities to do business in different ways. This post will focus on product manufacturers and how they can combine traditional marketing methods with social media to increase brand awareness and purchase intentions. This strategy is referred to as ‘social product marketing’. It is based on the concept of the hierarchy of effects model, developed by Lavidge and Steiner (1961), which argues that people pass through several stages from product awareness, to preference and eventually to purchase. This model can also be applied in a B2B context because company decision-makers go through similar stages when deciding which firm to do business with.Read More
Posts Categorized: Social Media
How social is your construction company?
To start off with, a definition for ‘social’ is needed. Social can be described as ‘interaction’, with each other or the environment around us – either voluntarily or involuntarily. People enjoy engaging with others and like to feel included. This is why we form communities. So you might be asking why this is relevant for construction marketers and B2B companies. The answer is that social media is simply another platform through which we can interact with others and become more ‘social’. The aim of this post is to find out what makes a company more social than another.Read More
5 ways construction companies can use Twitter for business
Twitter is becoming one of the most talked about social media tools. It provides a platform for businesses to connect with each other as well as with industry professionals. By listening and engaging in conversations and also creating and sharing content, construction companies can form long-term relationships, increase brand awareness and establish their presence in the social media world.
Construction companies need to ‘get in on the action’ to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace so I have compiled a list of the top 5 ways Twitter can be used for business.Read More
Do you use social media tools for networking, marketing or both?
There still seems to be a lot of confusion around social media in general and whether businesses should be using the channel for marketing or networking purposes. Companies in the construction industry wonder what social media platforms and tools are the most effective, how to go about forming relationships, what conversations to engage in and how to measure campaign results.
Social media networking is the process of interacting with other individuals through a specific social media tool or community. Networking is crucial for increasing awareness and encouraging people to talk about you and your company whilst listening to what others say about you and your brand. Business leads can be generated from networking on professional sites such as LinkedIn where industry knowledge and expertise can be shared by engaging in group discussions. But is this type of exchange suitable for brands or rather for individuals (employees) representing the brand?Read More
A Guide to Effective Time Management on Social Media
5 reasons why construction companies should be blogging
This is the first in a series of posts which aims to inspire you, the marketer for your construction company, on how you could use social media platforms and tools such as Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to connect, engage and educate your audience and enhance your brand to meet business objectives.
This post was recently updated in April 2015
Firstly, let’s get one thing straight.
Your marketing efforts should always be geared towards business objective(s), goals and targets (K.P.I’s). Why are you doing it? The last thing you want to do is step into the world of public opinions and customer conversations with a blind eye and make a complete hash of things. If you haven’t read Social Media Metrics by Jim Sterne then we suggest you do.
Jim writes that the big 3 business goals for social media are:
1) Increase revenue
2) Lower costs
3) Improve Customer Satisfaction’.
These 3 goals are all that matter in the long run and the goals/objectives which I will relate to for each channel.Read More
Why you need to register your company name on Twitter
I was planning to do another social media analysis (similar to the Construction companies and Housebuilders analysis) this time on the UK water companies but then I come across this little wonderful example of why social media and reputation monitoring is so important in protecting your brand online. Companies whose objective it is to communicate to consumers through many channels need to be on top of the social media game and be able to monitor and act upon brand mentions in online conversations and respond to them quickly. Likely places where consumers converse is on forums, blogs, community sites and…….social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Are you actively monitoring these places?Read More
Social Media in the U.K. Statistics
As social media usage grows and how people share, exchange and source information has changed, marketers are having to change the way they reach out and broadcast their content. If you are still trying to convince yourself on whether social media is a marketing channel, then Hootsuite’s 140+ social media statistics that matter to marketers in 2020 might help you make this decision.
We’ve picked out a few highlights which might help your decision making when it comes to social. One of the main challenges for construction marketers to deciphering whether your audience is actually using social media to inform purchasing.
Well, you’ll be interested to know that people are using social to “research/find products to buy” with around 28% of each age group using social networking sites for this purpose. It’s clear that social media is being used to inform purchasing decisions, and this is apparent in a B2B environment too.
The social path to purchase backs up these motivations…
It’s probably not going to be news that video is still the top format on social. 90% of internet users say they watch video online at least once a month.
With the amount of people on social, it’s also no wonder that companies are increasing their spend on advertising, which is set to increase by 20% to $43 billion in 2020.
One of the other challenges to consider is which social networking sites are right for your company. This is where looking at the audience demographics for each social media is crucial. For instance, you might think you HAVE to be on instagram because that’s the new trend, but when you consider their demographics (predominantly 25-24 year old women) you might end up putting a whole lot of effort into creating engaging content & not get the results you want.
Consider your objectives before launching any social media, and make sure it’s definitely worth it for your company.
Find out more about social media for construction companies on our blog.
Link to Success
If you understand the importance of links – and anyone contemplating social media marketing simply must – then you will also appreciate that creating good quality content is the key to the whole exercise. We discussed this in the last edition of My Digital Insider which looked at Social Media Marketing for construction companies. As the social media network becomes more and more part of our daily activity and the lines of communication between business and personal life become less distinct, so the opportunities for your staff to create these links increases. Which means that – as long as those engaged in link creation understand the dangers of inappropriate or poor quality links – you can share out the job.
Here are just a few link creation ideas. You probably wouldn’t want to use them all, but this does provide a useful checklist if only to remind you that the presentation your MD gave to his chartered institute could be posted to his social networking profile or the video demonstrating the installation method of the ‘pour and roll’ roof membrane product for a major project would look great on YouTube for prospects and customers to view.
Example of using Twitter for Customer Service
Twitter is not just a channel which can be used to promote marketing campaigns or messages it can also be used in many other ways. Such as another channel for your customers and prospects to get in touch with you or even better to improve your customer service levels.Read More