Going Home Doesn’t Mean Going Dark
Going Home Doesn’t Mean Going Dark
Most of us by now have been sent home with our laptops, with projects slowed, postponed, or put on an indefinite hold. This means your clients are also out of the office, and they won’t hear from you until everyone returns to work and projects resume as normal. However, while project progress may be limited, client interaction doesn’t have to be.
Perhaps as a member of the A/E/C community you thought social media had little to no value for your company. After all, you’re not selling a good or service direct to consumers, why would you be on social media? If you are not currently on social media, you are missing a huge opportunity to position yourself as an expert in your field. Resources for decision makers have changed and expanded. Think of social media as the new word-of-mouth. They may still seek white papers, but they are more likely to read the 300-word article in their social media feed with the eye-grabbing headline, than a 3,000-word paper about a successful project. As workloads are lighter, this is the perfect time to launch your social media pages and kick off a strategic campaign.
International social media marketing giant Sprout Social offers valuable statistics on LinkedIn, a social media platform for professionals. LinkedIn is different than its other social media brothers and sisters, making it ideal for members of the A/E/C industry, who often are marketing business-to-business, or B2B. These numbers really make the case for why you as an individual and your company should have a presence on social media. There are 303 million active users on LinkedIn and 63 million are decision makers for their organizations. According to Sprout Social, LinkedIn has proven to be an effective platform for lead generation and customer acquisition. In fact, it’s 277% more effective than Facebook in generating leads.
Social media marketing falls into two categories: organic, meaning you don’t pay for advertising, it truly is word-of-mouth; or paid, self-explanatory. Again, according to Sprout Social, 95% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for organic content marketing, with 76% of B2B marketers using it for paid ads, making it the top-rated social media platform in both organic and paid marketing categories. Why? Because LinkedIn is 10% more effective in each category than its social media counterparts.
If you already have active social media accounts, this is an opportunity to increase postings as people will have more time to scroll through feeds. Also, it may typically be the last portion of your marketing efforts to receive attention. Now is the time to create posts and showcase your more recent, successful projects. While there are not yet statistics on how the number of people working from home has increased social media engagement, social media management company HootSuite recently published an interesting statistic on employees and LinkedIn. Employees are 14 times more likely to share content from their employers than other types of content on LinkedIn. When your workforce has been sent home, staying active on social media can work two-fold: it keeps your employees and your clients engaged.
Maybe you and your company are active on social media, but you are unsure how to navigate these strange times. LinkedIn itself offers Learning Paths on working from home, staying productive and staying connected. Last week LinkedIn surveyed members and found nearly 30% plan to increase learning, if they’re able to find the time to do it while working from home. This is also probably a good time to educate yourself on one of LinkedIn’s newest features, LinkedIn Live, launched just last year. You have to fill out a short application to become a “broadcaster,” but if done correctly, this can keep you in front of clients and reinforce your position as an expert in your field.
Regardless if it is launched during a pandemic or during normal business operations, a social media campaign should be done with strategy. Regularly, it’s a great tool to help reaffirm your expertise status and generate new leads. In uncertain times like these, it tells clients your company is working, and while projects may be on hold, your availability to them is not.