Expanding your company’s social graph is critical to being able to reach both consumers and trades and there are some compelling numbers that support the initiative to optimize your brand’s presence. For example, there are 2.7 million professionals on LinkedIn that are identified with construction and architecture in the U.S. alone. On Facebook there are 19.4 million people in the U.S. aligned with architecture, construction and installation.
Your investment in optimizing your social media efforts with images will pay off if you engage where your audience lives and your messaging prompts defined goals such as lead harvesting, brand lift and interaction.
According to eMarketer, photos are the most engaging type of content on Facebook alone, with an impressive 87% interaction rate from followers. And this appetite for imagery is not confined to one social platform or audience either.
Building materials and home improvement companies have a tremendous opportunity to leverage platforms like Architizer, Houzz, Pinterest and Instagram to not only showcase product photos, but installation videos, product use cases, before and afters and other built environment imagery.
Here is a breakdown of the top social media sites for building materials companies to consider using images in posts and how to best use these platforms.
Description: Architizer is an up and coming trade focused social platform designed specifically for the architectural community and those looking for design inspiration. It has over 550,000 active monthly users and nearly 6 million monthly page views.
How to use it: Building material companies can engage the architecture and design community by creating their own brand page on Architizer. Users can then tag the products used in their project photos, which will all link back to each brand page. Architizer also allows its users to “Source Products” from thousands of manufacturers and see the finished projects they were used in. There is an opportunity for paid placement in their product marketplace and through display advertising on the site and email news.
Description: Houzz is a collaborative platform for home remodeling and design, bringing homeowners, home professionals and building material companies together in a uniquely designed community. It has over 20 million active monthly users.
How to use it: Building materials companies can advertise their products within the framework of the site. Advertisements look less like advertisements and more like actual content within the site by using design idea pictures to promote the products.
Description: Pinterest is a web site that allows you to “pin” (save) and organize video and images into different groups called “boards”. Users have the ability to follow other users, re-pin their content and pin other content from outside web sites. It has over 53 million active monthly users.
How to use it: Building material companies can share content with Pinterest users by creating their own branded page and posting directly from their own web site, or by creating and posting Pinterest specific content.
Description: It’s hard to ignore the largest social network with over 1.3 billion active monthly users. Although the site has an aging demographic, this also presents the opportunity to more closely target key audiences relevant to building materials and home improvement.
How to use it: Building material companies can build their own Facebook brand page and use it as a forum to share content and interact directly with their customers. Facebook is also an option for targeted advertising, and offers the ability to reach millions of industry specific users.
Description: Instagram is a mobile first social networking app that allows users to take pictures using their cell phones or tablets, edit the pictures using various filters and share with their followers on Instagram and other social media platforms. It has over 187 million active monthly users.
How to use it: Building material companies can create their own branded Instagram accounts and share photos with their followers and by using hashtags relevant to the audience. For example #painting.
Description: In short, Twitter is a micro-blogging site where users can type up to 280 character “tweets” and post them for their followers to read. Twitter allows it’s users to interact by retweeting, replying to tweets, direct messaging and #hashtaging. Twitter can be a major source of news and an outlet for its users to express their own views and opinions on trending topics. It has over 255 million active monthly users.
How to use it: Building material companies can use Twitter to interact directly with their customers and followers by posting unique content, answering questions and resolving issues. Twitter also offers paid advertising.
Description: LinkedIn is a professional social networking site designed specifically for business users. It allows users to connect with coworkers, colleagues and other users that they know and trust professionally. It has over 187 million active monthly users.
How to use it: Building material companies can use LinkedIn in a number of ways. They can build a brand page and post content to it that other users can follow. LinkedIn can also be used a great sales and recruiting tool and advertising platform for sponsored content and more.
Description: Tumblr is a micro-blogging platform and social networking site that allows its users to post content to a short-form blog and follow other users’ blogs.
How to use it: Building material companies can pay to promote their own content to raise brand awareness to an audience of 199 million active monthly users.
Description: YouTube is a video-sharing website that allows users to upload, view and share videos with other users.
How to use it: Building material companies can use YouTube to promote their brand and products with everything from :30 commercial spots to how-to-videos, to case studies. With over one billion unique monthly visitors, YouTube videos can capture a wide audience. YouTube also offers advertising within the site.
Description: Flipboard is a social media network aggregator that collects content from other websites and displays it in a personal magazine format. It has over 5 million active monthly users.
How to use it: Building material companies can utilize Flipboard to stay up to date on industry news, trends and tracking competitive activity.
Interrupt helps building materials companies understand the value of social media engagement and how to best tie the time, effort and budget to the strategic plan. Contact us for more information about our process and services.
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