Why construction firms should be using Twitter
Over the last five years, Twitter has proved itself to be an integral part of the online marketing communications plan for thousands of businesses. Construction companies are seeing the need to build Twitter in to their marketing mix.
Initial concerns that social media marketing is time consuming and that results would be difficult to analyse have been allayed, with some formidable partnerships and actual leads having been formed on this social media platform.
Why every construction business needs a Twitter account
Certainly, not because “everyone else seems to be using it”. Creating and maintaining a social media account is pointless and is unlikely to be effective unless it is understood, planned and executed correctly.
Let’s get one thing clear from the start. Twitter is not another channel through which to push your sales message. So many businesses make this huge mistake, sending out a number of “Tweets” (ie messages) each day, all focusing on a particular product or aspect of their service. Although you may be very enthusiastic about the idea of telling as many people as possible about your latest construction project or the fact that you offer some of the lowest priced services in your local area, they will become bored very quickly and simply not follow you or respond. And after all, do you really want to focus on the consumer in the widest sense, rather than targeting effectively?
What your savvy competitors are doing is actually focusing on the people who could prove useful to the business. Architects; builders, construction and property media; developers; investors; landlords; surveyors, tradespeople – all of these individuals and businesses, whether based in your local area or beyond, could prove useful to you at some point and should make up your target market for social media purposes.
Targeting is an ongoing process but thankfully with Twitter, is relatively easy as there are a number of tools which can be used:
1. Twitter – Twitter itself provides a useful tab on its main screen entitled “Who to follow”. Within this area, Twitter will suggest people who you might find interesting, based on searches you’ve made in the past. Alternatively, you are also given the option of searching by interests, or can invite friends through email. Once you choose someone to “follow” (which means that you will from then on be able to see all their new Tweets in your news feed), Twitter will then also recommend similar people who you might like to follow. Twitter
2. Tweepz – Tweepz is a particularly useful site for finding people to follow. The search engine at the top of the screen allows you to type in any key word, separated by commas, to pinpoint precisely the type of people you’re looking for. So you could perhaps look for “Architect, Edinburgh”, which brings up a number of entries. To narrow down your search, you can also select individuals by the number of followers they currently have (a sign of influence on Twitter), the number of people they are following and language spoken. Tweepz
3. Twellow – Twellow is a slightly more complicated site which works on the same basis as Tweepz. Individuals can be identified and targeted by a similar search facility, although this is further enhanced with additional tabs selecting geography, category, friends and followers. The site will also suggest individuals for you to follow. Twellow
Like Twitter, both of these facilities are absolutely free to use. In my next post we will examine the nature of Twitter for companies in construction. Have a look at these very interesting facts about Twitter.
