Engineering Inc. - January/February 2010 - 15

W e see tremendous potential for marketing our firm through these sites. DoRIs WILLMER willmer engineering Stepping Out Into Social Media page, they will see that I’ve posted an article. If they’re interested, they can click through and read it.” Concerns Linger Experts advise firms wading into the fluid world of twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others to move slowly and expand their presence incrementally. here is a 12-step process for getting started. 1. Determine your firm’s strategy and goals regarding social media. What do you hope to achieve? 2. appoint a leader to spearhead the initiative. Without a leader, your program isn’t likely to get off the ground. 3. Establish a social media policy. a policy depends on the size and scope of the project and can range from a multipage document vetted by the legal department to the simple dictum, “Don’t do anything stupid.” 4. secure your firm’s name on all the social media sites. signing up is easy and free. on most sites, it takes less than 10 minutes. 5. search for your firm on the sites. If you find people who are talking about your business, follow them. on twitter, that’s as easy as hitting the “Follow” button. 6. search social-networking sites for information about your competitors, vendors, clients and potential clients. Get a sense of how they are using the sites. What works? What doesn’t work? What could you do better? 7. Determine if your firm has the capability to provide a regular flow of valuable information. Without that capacity, any social media effort is likely to fall short. 8. start on one site. Don’t spread yourself too thin. you will get much more value by concentrating your efforts. 9. Join discussion boards on the site that relate to your area of expertise. Rather than jumping right in, monitor the discussions. What are people saying? how does it apply to you and your business? 10. Comment when you feel comfortable. Post as often as you have something interesting and entertaining to say. Engage with the community. Provide helpful content. Don’t pitch. 11. Recommend vendors and business partners to users. 12. Be patient. Give the effort at least six months before deciding whether to continue. Kathe Riley Jackson, PBSJ’s manager of corporate communications. “It is largely a replacement for our in-house newsletter, but employees can participate in it, submitting videos, podcasts, as well as text articles, family photos. The goal is to allow us to share our culture with family, friends and clients.” The firm has had a Facebook page since May, but gaining traction has been difficult. “It’s a challenge to get employees to engage in it,” says Jackson. “This is a very conservative industry. They might get more engaged if it were a personal site, but when it comes to the company, they tend to be more respectful and cautious.” The firm also has seven Twitter accounts. “We made them very industryspecific, setting up individual accounts for transportation, water, waste management, et cetera,” she says. “On Twitter, people want to focus on particular interests.” Among smaller firms, social media initiatives tend to be narrower. Willmer Engineering has a LinkedIn page in addition to its Twitter account. Both pages are invitation-only. “We see tremendous potential for marketing our firm through these sites,” says Willmer. “Right now, though, we are moving slowly. When we complete a project, for instance, we’ll announce it to our employees and clients.” On WGM Group’s Facebook page, Campbell writes a regular blog about happenings in the firm or industry. “It’s a way to circumvent the e-mail deluge,” he says. “When people log on to their Facebook When CEOs look at social media, three issues keep them awake at night: Such sites don’t lend themselves to business-tobusiness communications; results often are hard to measure; and discussions are tough to control. Businesses on these sites have had more success reaching out to consumers than to each other. “Whole Foods will send out a tweet on what specials they are offering and people want to get it,” Mickle says. “You can’t tell me that there is a land developer out there who wants to get tweets from our firm.” Though various social-networking sites rattle off statistics about the size of their networks and user communities—how many followers a site might have, how often they attract new users—these same tools offer few insights for companies (i.e., how valuable each follower or member might be, what products or services they are interested in, or whether their participation in the network is likely to translate into business for the firm). “It’s really tough to get the statistical data,” says PBSJ’s Jackson. “You can’t expect to get direct results.” Among the most pressing issues for engineering firms is how to moderate and control discussions to ensure their business is projected in a positive light. One way is to limit access. “We are trying to exercise some control,” says Willmer, whose firm’s socialnetworking sites are private. “We don’t want these sites to become places where people can become negative.” When it comes to public sites, designData’s Kane says firms are fooling themselves if they think they can exercise control. “You can have the illusion of control, but it’s just that,” he says. “Companies can no longer manage the message.” The fact that there is negative information floating around out there in cyberspace should not come as a surprise. “Things already are being said about your firm online, whether you know it or not,” says Jackson. “If you have an official site, at least you can be part of that dialogue.” Adds Black & Veatch’s Mast, “You don’t want to be on YouTube and not know it.” n Gerry Donohue is ACEC’s senior communications writer. JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2010 ENGINEERING INC.

Engineering Inc. - January/February 2010

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