Social Media for Construction?
In the last few weeks I’ve had several emails extolling the virtues of social media for the construction industry. Despite my many years of involvement in the industry and in particular the years spent introducing new online construction technologies; I have to admit I think it is still too early for it to have much utility as a construction related business activity.
Some of the available options are clearly more useful to a business than others and we are still in the early stages of figuring how they can be of value to our clients and our business. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Linked In are some of the more notable options to connect and share information about you and your business. Our company has videos on YouTube to help people find us and learn more about our products. I get that. I have an active Linked In account and I find it a useful way to stay connected to colleagues, particularly those that I don’t see that often. We also have a corporate page on Linked In, again to help people learn about our company. So, I get that one too. Facebook is more of a mystery at this point. If your business requires a lot of networking then maybe there is value here. Twitter is the high profile option that seems the least likely of all to have any real use for construction related businesses.
I have had a front row seat on the willingness and readiness of construction professionals to use online tools and technology for their businesses for over 12 years. Based on that experience I don’t expect a mad rush in the industry to sign up for Twitter accounts and start tweeting each other. I’d be interested to hear from others if you are using any of these technologies and how they are helping you in your business.