flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Social media synergy: Revving up your AEC firm’s content engine

Architects

Social media synergy: Revving up your AEC firm’s content engine

Design firms know that just having a website and a blog aren’t enough, but social media complicates how they communicate.   


December 13, 2018

Social media offers design firms and individuals alike the opportunity to tailor their communications to the audiences they hope to reach and influence. Both have pluses and minuses. A firm can gain followers, but social media makes it very easy for individuals to reach others who share their specific interests.

Design firms know that just having a website and a blog aren’t enough, but social media complicates how they communicate.   

So, let’s simplify things. For design firms, only two “strands” of communication really matter.

Strand 1 is how design firms have always communicated. Firms send out information through traditional channels (publications, newsletters, e-blasts, etc.) that convey their ethos and viewpoints, engage clients and influencers, and reach out to potential talent.

Strand 2 is as diverse as the individuals who participate in it. Their means and motives vary widely, but even in a professional or journalistic context, this is first-person communication by individual firm leaders to other individuals.

Tapping the synergy between the two strands is key to revving up your firm’s content engine. From the leaders on down, everyone associated with the firm is a potential contributor. Each is also a conduit to his or her own community, especially if he or she has followers willing to engage and share information.

Synergy is a byproduct of fruitful relationships—in this case, between a firm and its talented members. Individuals are a network of creators whose content you can curate and amplify. By taking communications as seriously as you take everything else, you’ll both set the tone and provide a platform for reaching wider audiences (and the publications that cater to them). By supporting your network of creators—and taking them seriously, providing media training for rising stars, and underwriting specific initiatives—you’ll be seen as an impresario, making It happen. 

 

Influence, don’t control

Social media “flattens” the way your firm looks from the outside. Anyone associated with the firm can sometimes appear to be speaking for it. Simple rules to ensure client confidentiality, comply with workplace rules, and avoid embarrassment—coupled with media training—work better today than “command-and-control” diktat. Encourage not curb enthusiasm is the point.

Social media also increases the likelihood that internal communications will surface online. This is often inadvertent, but it’s a good reason to extend media training beyond traditional boundaries to encompass increasingly diverse forms of communication, from email to texts. And it enables loose cannons—even at the top, as we’re reminded daily. Tweet at your own risk.

 

Aim for substance

Content is still king. Online metrics don’t necessarily gauge true engagement. Don’t discount signs of resonance and recognition from influential others. When a client or journalist shares content approvingly with her own followers, that’s an indicator you can believe in.

Working the two strands creates a greater sum that reflects richer sources of good content and the added power of contributors with their own followers. Firms can add value to their efforts by curating the content and packaging it compellingly for a wider audience. You can also pull content together thematically so it can be pitched to important outlets and venues—just as you’ve probably always done. Individual contributors can then build on what’s communicated, adding their own comments or embedding it in new posts customized for themselves and their followers.   

 

Embrace the new

Social media has also brought podcasts, narrated short videos, and virtual reality into the communications mix. This too is an arena for individual creative expression, with new online outlets actively seeking their output. Within design firms and outside of them, the “serious play” of experimentation is generating new content. There’s more interest in the unfinished—work that’s rough or in-progress. Creators can draw attention to their work and give it the right context and emphasis. Highlighting individuals with their proverbial boots on the ground gives a greater depth and stamp of authenticity to firmwide and individual communications that social media audiences demand. Social media activity by individual creators links their work with your firm’s brand and identity, an endorsement they’re likely to value.

 

Keep it simple—and real

The bedrock verities of design firm communications are unchanged by social media. Knowing and respecting your intended audiences—and editing and curating accordingly—is still your first priority. You can also tap into your network of talented collaborators to generate even more content that’s diverse, compelling, and relevant to their followers and yours.

This “virtuous circle” of mutual reinforcement gains substance from content that contributes to the discussions and debates current among clients and practitioners. Taking the time to identify shared audiences can help firms and their contributors map out strategies for reaching them with content that resonates and, because it emerges from the work itself, rings true externally.

About the Authors
Tami Hausman founded Hausman LLC in 2008 as a strategic advisor on communications to professional service firms and non-profit organizations. She engages architects and designers as clients and through lectures, publications, and active involvement in professional associations.
John Parman is senior advisor to Gensler. Formerly, he was the editorial director of Gensler’s communications studio, 1998–2017, overseeing its award-winning magazine, Dialogue, and its annual Design Forecast. He is on the Arcade editorial committee, and an editorial advisor to ORO Editions and U.C. Berkeley’s Room One Thousand.

Related Stories

| Nov 10, 2014

Clemson, Parsons architecture education programs honored for innovation, long-term impact

The architecture programs at Parsons The New School for Design and Clemson University have been selected as 2014 NCARB Award recipients for developing innovative curricula that merge practice and education. 

| Nov 10, 2014

Herzog & De Meuron unveils plan for National Library of Israel

The library’s new home will be a completely new building in Jerusalem, and will combine the functions of a central research center, a venue for indoor and outdoor cultural and educational activities, and a place for digital experience.

| Nov 10, 2014

Hotel construction pipeline hits five-year high

The hotel construction pipeline hit a five-year high in the third quarter, clocking in at 3,516 projects and 443,936 rooms, Lodging Econometrics reports. 

| Nov 7, 2014

Arts college uses creative financing to build 493-bed student housing

Many states have cut back funding for higher education in recent years, and securing money for new housing has been tougher than ever for many colleges and universities. A recent residence hall project in Boston involving three colleges provides an inspiring example of how necessity can spawn invention in financing strategies.

| Nov 7, 2014

Prefab helps Valparaiso student residence project meet an ambitious deadline

Few colleges or universities have embraced prefabrication more wholeheartedly than Valparaiso (Ind.) University. The Lutheran-based institution completed a $27 million residence hall this past summer in which the structural elements were all precast.

| Nov 7, 2014

World's best new skyscraper: Sydney's vegetated One Central Park honored by CTBUH

The Jean Nouvel-designed tower tops the list of 88 entries in the 13th annual Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Awards.

| Nov 7, 2014

NORD Architects releases renderings for Marine Education Center in Sweden

The education center will be set in a landscape that includes small ponds and plantings intended to mimic an assortment of marine ecologies and create “an engaging learning landscape” for visitors to experience nature hands-on.

Sponsored | | Nov 6, 2014

To build your strongest team, don't hire clones

To attract and keep talented individuals who are different than you, Entrepreneur magazine suggests a few foundational principles. SPONSORED CONTENT

| Nov 6, 2014

Hines planning tall wood office building in Minneapolis

The Houston-based developer is planning a seven-story wood-framed office building in Minneapolis’ North Loop that will respect the neighborhood’s historic warehouse district look.

| Nov 6, 2014

Studio Gang Architects will convert power plant into college recreation center

The century-old power plant will be converted into a recreation facility with a coffee shop, lounges, club rooms, a conference center, lecture hall, and theater, according to designboom.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Great Solutions

41 Great Solutions for architects, engineers, and contractors

AI ChatBots, ambient computing, floating MRIs, low-carbon cement, sunshine on demand, next-generation top-down construction. These and 35 other innovations make up our 2024 Great Solutions Report, which highlights fresh ideas and innovations from leading architecture, engineering, and construction firms.




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021