Savvy architects and other professionals are using the Internet and social media as a way to drive brand awareness, connect with people with similar passions and to do what all business owners seek – attract leads and clients.
At a recent Kansas City AIA Chapter meeting, I gave a presentation on social media with Cindy Frewen, an architect, educator, blogger, Twitter personality and fellow Kansas City dweller.
Cindy is nothing short of fantastic. She’s smart, savvy, has owned her own successful architecture firm for many years and now has a Ph.D., travels, consults, teaches, blogs about urbanism and sustainability and is a whirlwind of a talented person doing great things.
Cindy is also the personification of an architect who uses social channels to grow and develop her own brand, make new connections, and gain a reputation as a thought leader.
And that’s exactly why the Kansas City AIA Chapter asked us to speak about social media.
The Basics: Why Social Media, Stats on Usage + ROI
I started off the conversation and took the group through the basics. That included discussing how today’s business website should be the hub of all your business operations and that you should regularly “feed” that hub with fresh content from places like your corporate blog, YouTube, Flickr, social channels, etc.
I took them through some stats designed to show the naysayers that social media isn’t just for kids, and also showed them how inbound marketing can be exponentially more profitable than the traditional outbound marketing tactics that many of us have grown up utilizing. I concluded by showing them how a corporate blog – whether your business is large or small – can have a large impact on your new business development efforts and that, along with a well-designed website and use of social media channels, is the epitome of an integrated marketing strategy
Next Steps: Tactics, Growth, Research, Best Practices for Content
That positioned the audience for Phase II of the presentation, which was presented by Cindy. She took the audience from the basis and the strategic elements covered in the overview, straight to the tactics. She talked with them about how she initially got involved in social media and illustrated the growth process that it has resulted in for her, her practice and career. Ever the educator, Cindy shared tips about with how she uses social channels to gather research and to understand her diverse audiences.
She shared concrete ideas about what makes a blog interesting and how to think about what kind of content you want to create and that your audience might be interested in. Cindy provided examples of some great, industry specific yet very diverse blogs, so that the audience could get a sense as to the wide range of options that exist when it comes to corporate blogging.
Cindy is very involved on Twitter and shared examples of a variety of Twitter accounts of different architects, bloggers and architecture firms, so that the audience could see the many different ways that architects are represented in this milieu – and how they all use Twitter differently. She also shared ideas on best practices for sharing content, at which she’s a master.
Cindy wrapped up her presentation with some hints of what’s to come (after all, she’s a futurist), and our presentation concluded.
The Presentation
The SlideShare presentation is embedded below, and if you have any questions or if you would like more information about anything covered here, feel free to ping Cindy @urbanverse or me @ShellyKramer on Twitter and/or leave a comment here on the blog.
And, if you’re an architect thinking that you need to get change with the times and get on board with an updated website, a blog and a social media presence, you’re absolutely right!
Image Credit: Kansas City AIA
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years’ experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging develoment, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly’s coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”