The Construction and Property sectors: Social Media and traditional marketing.

Posted by Peter Masters on Apr 5, 2011 in Featured, Features | 0 comments

The construction and property sectors in the UK and how they’ve adapted to Social Media marketing.

The construction and property sectors have both had a pretty rough few years and it’s only because of the banking crisis and subsequent collapse of much of the world’s economies that I moved back to my marketing roots.  I’m very happy that I did, because Social Media has made the world of marketing a very exciting place to be, but it wasn’t through choice!

Since the Web 2.0 or digital and Social Media revolution changed how businesses approach their marketing, things have changed in many ways and even now, not everyone is fully aware of the very significant changes.  The construction and property sectors were always very dubious about intangibles like marketing anyway, and personally, I think that they are much happier with the phrase ‘business development’.  From my experience, most construction people are a bit too macho to get excited about marketing campaigns, Social Media or otherwise.

Many of us are aware that Social Media marketing is currently taking the business world by storm, but it is still not easy to convince a very skeptical and cautious construction sector.  It’s tough to convince them that Social Media is not that technical and it is not that hard to understand.  It seems to me that based on my conversations with the directors of some major construction companies, they consider Social Media to be as technically involved as IT.  We all know that even a medium sized company needs an IT department or at least an IT specialist on hand 24/7 and construction doesn’t like depending on people who speak a different language to them. From what I can see, construction managers and directors see Social Media experts, as the new people they’ll end up depending on and they’re not keen on that idea.

Certainly here in the UK, construction is a very traditional business and despite the radical changes in communication and marketing, the construction managers seem to prefer networking and relying on word of mouth, traditional direct marketing.  What they fail to realise is that many of their old contacts are no longer in business and things have changed dramatically.

About a year ago, I was dealing with a substantial list of industrial and commercial roofing material suppliers, many of whom were based in what’s left of the UK’s manufacturing industry.  I was carrying out some market research by telephone and asking these guys for their email addresses, they just laughed and proudly told me they did everything by fax!! I promise you this is 100% true!  I tried to explain how much quicker and more efficient email is and they wouldn’t listen, good job I didn’t mention Twitter!

So, no easy task convincing those guys about the benefits of Social Media connectivity!

Home builders are a little different and my favorite home builder is Miller Homes.  I have written many posts about Miller Homes and I know them very well.  One of their senior marketers commented on my Blog just yesterday, thanking me for my comprehensive coverage of their Social Media engagement.

Award winning Miller Homes are really into Social Media marketing and they’re using it well!  They have a great website, they have well over 2,000 Twitter followers, they have a series of videos on YouTube, a YouTube TV channel, an active Facebook page and the Miller Homes Blog.  They continue to benefit from being ‘early adopters’ and I’m happy to see them thrive in the Social Media environment, it’s a great advert for Social Media marketing.

I know construction people, I’ve been project manager on residential sites and I’ve been responsible for £1,000,000′s of new build property, if you used words like ‘Blogosphere’, ‘Klout score’ and ‘Permission Marketing’ construction managers will treat you with either contempt or suspicion, or both.  Let’s face it, even before the Social Media revolution, construction managers weren’t that keen on traditional marketing, if I’d have mentioned ‘cognitive dissonance’ or SWOT analysis on site they’d have thought I was from another planet!  Forget the 5 or the 7 P’s!

OK, we know the problem, but what’s the answer?  Based on recent experiences, I really believe that construction professionals need help, they’ve suffered a very hard few years and they simply cannot afford to keeping relying on traditional outdated marketing plans.  They can’t afford to!  The old methods don’t work like they used to!  It’s that simple!

Construction managers simply do not understand the way many Social Media platforms work, they think Twitter is for kids, for saying what’s for lunch and that Facebook’s for college kids, like in that movie!  However, one of the major construction companies here in the UK, Willmott Dixon recently Tweeted about it’s biggest contract ever, with the retail giant Tesco and the construction press picked up on the Tweet and the message became serious headlines!  What’s wrong with that??  Tell me that wasn’t cost effective!

I have also explained to construction managers that YouTube is a great marketing tool and they look at me as though I am crazy!  Look at this video and tell me it would capture a customer’s attention sent as a link!

Some construction managers aren’t even on LinkedIn!  I recently updated my LinkedIn account and was amazed to see all the great new features!  A lot of the construction and property managers I speak to think LinkedIn is where you go when you need a job!! These guys don’t ‘do‘ Social Media, while all the Social Media revolution was kicking off, they were trying to save their companies, they’ve not quite missed the party, but they need to be aware that it is still on and it’s a great party.

Here’s what they’re missing on LinkedIn!

Construction Marketing UK Ltd. Products and Services

(CLICK on the links for more information)

• Blog design and maintenance
• Marketing plans and strategies
• Social Media connectivity
• Website design and maintenance (CMS)
• Corporate video
• Twitter account design and maintenance
• Work wear and office wear, screen printing and embroidery
• Klout score connection and improvement
• Facebook business page design and maintenance
• Professional construction and property photography
• Screen printing and embroidery services (branding)
• Corporate branding
• Hi Viz and PPE

That is pretty comprehensive and what company wouldn’t want that kind of exposure to 100,000,000 other professionals??

That’s pretty much explained where the UK construction and property sectors are right now with Social Media and Social Media marketing!  Why not let me know how your company is coping with all the new developments, I’d really like to know!

If you want to know more about any aspect of marketing or Social Media marketing and branding, call Peter on 01473 435308 or email peter@constructionmarketinguk.co.uk

www.constructionmarketinguk.co.uk

We build the builders!

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