Risk, Relationships and Reputation

It’s a rarity but it’s true: politics has a lesson for the timber industry - and a potentially powerful one.

BBC Radio 4 Today’s Nick Robinson recently challenged Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on his lack of enthusiasm for appearing on the programme. Mr Corbyn’s answer, respectfully delivered, revealed the adoption of an increasingly common communications tactic: bypassing ‘mainstream’ media to a large extent, and driving public interest via direct engagement through social media.

The highly regarded Edelman Trust Barometer shows that only around 50% of those who consume ‘traditional’ media actually trust what they read.

Research for the 2016 Digital News Project, run by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and Oxford University, reveals that online has just overtaken television as the chosen source for news. Smartphones are beating tablets, with mobile use now 46%.

Yet how does all this affect a primarily business-to-business sector like timber and wood products? Perhaps we should look to our industry’s customers to see whether this new reality offers business benefi¬ts. The emerging generation of builders have grown up with the digital revolution, and are well able to equip and promote their businesses via social media.

Thus the Builders Merchants Federation is rapidly upskilling membership in social media with oversubscribed courses on Search Engine Optimization, B2B social media strategy, and dealing with digitally enabled customers.

Many architectural practices are highly active on social media. A strong presence on platforms such as Twitter is also considered essential by main contractors, who use it as much to underline their reputations – with sustainability, diversity and apprenticeships information – as they do their projects and commercial successes.

They recognise, as Edelman’s UK CEO Ed Williams summarised in the Reuters Institute report; that “when people trust a company, they buy their products, they pay a higher price over comparable products, and they recommend them to friends.”

Social media has rapidly become a more trusted source of information, but only because it is exactly that: it is social. It’s the space in which like-minded communities of interest gather to share helpful, useful, relevant information.

Companies and organisations invading this personal space had better provide information worth sharing. Offering much more ‘helpful’ than sales-oriented information, or promoting issues rather than solely products, helps gain valuable trust in the crowded social media universe.

The digital communications at the TTF/CTI are leading the way in this respect. The stories they curate for their weekly bulletins and Tweets make recipients think: “I never knew you could do that with timber...”, and encourage the sharing of that interest with others.

It reduces risk for the industry and increases timber’s reputation as an innovative material worthy of purchasing. They are building relationships, trust and reputation, on which businesses can then capitalize.

While there are certainly risks in engaging online, the relationships to be built, and the business-winning reputation they create, are worth the effort.