The use of social media (#socialmedia) in the construction industry
This article was produced by Olswang LLP, which joined with CMS on 1 May 2017.
As the Twitter IPO is in the news at the moment, Constructive thought that now was a good time to delve a bit further into how Twitter (in particular) is being used in the construction industry now and provide some thoughts on its importance in the future.
The construction industry as a whole is sometimes described as being a little reluctant to embrace new developments quickly enough (third party rights being a good example). However, Constructive has recently had an external consultant come in to give a presentation on the importance of social media (and in particular Twitter) in our industry. I’ve just joined Twitter and in only a short space of time have recognised the benefits it’s brought to me and my practice, as well as the enormous potential it has to become a key part of the industry’s way of doing business. I thought it would be useful to share with you some of the insights I’ve gained:
- The biggest increase in joining up to Twitter is by the people in the 45-60 age bracket (which, very broadly, is the age of many key decision makers in our business today). They are taking it seriously, so should you.
- News now breaks on Twitter first. If you’re not on it, you’re behind on developments in your industry. If you’re not inclined to, you don’t even have to tweet yourself to follow the industry leaders and be the first to know the latest developments in the fields you’re interested in.
- Responding to comments and thoughts by industry leaders is an easy networking tool and a good way to establish yourself as an expert in your field. This is a great opportunity to develop relationships with other people in the industry.
- One of the best examples I’ve come across of the use of Twitter actively developing policy in the construction industry is in the number of discussions over the development of BIM. Recent key topics in this area were, for example, useful debates over whether specific names were required to differentiate the role of the BIM Manager to those who merely make models in BIM authoring software (and, if not, whether they need a specific job title at all) and also (following the CIC’s BIM higher education conference) a discussion over how to best educate the next generation of designers in BIM.
The most cutting edge elements of the industry are being discussed on Twitter now. Ignore it at your peril!
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