Get connected with social media

Now is the time to be submitting entries for the 2012 TTJ Marketing Excellence Awards. Traditionally winners have been selected because of their creative excellence. As a two times winner, I believe creativity is essential. But in 2012, media selection could be as important.

The 2012 winning entry ought to be a multimedia campaign. One that integrates digital and social media with the TTJ and other print media. Ideally TV, still the most powerful media channel of them all, would be on the schedule too but not many ad budgets in this industry will stretch that far.

Why social and digital media? Smartphones and tablets (along with Twitter and Facebook) have produced a tsunami that has reshaped the media landscape. Digital versions of magazines ensure these titles are instantly available on the move as well as in the office. Google on the IPad and iPhone provides the most powerful, always accessible research tool ever known. Twitter (on the desktop or mobile) enables professionals (especially in construction) to know what’s happening, right now, through the people and organisations who are the leaders in their field.

No surprise then that architects and specifiers are flocking to Twitter in their droves. And that’s why you need to be there interacting with them, ensuring you are part of this burgeoning information exchange and in a dialogue with them.

Then there’s LinkedIn – surely no-one goes to see a new customer without checking their free-to-access work history. And if you’re selling to consumers, then a Facebook page is essential; it’s also a means of staying in touch. I’ve won contracts as a result of Facebook.

What should appeal to those in the timber trade is that these social media activities don’t need big budgets; just time and very smart thinking. Don’t think of it as advertising; instead think about ‘mobilising’ these channels.

Yet recently when I was speaking at the Plywood Club of London, I was surprised by the resistance to these new marketing channels. Lack of familiarity made some sceptical, even hostile. Yet today more time is spent on social media than on any other internet activity. The problem often for senior (hence older) managers is they haven’t had the time to discover and understand the extraordinary marketing power of social media. But the timber industry ignores it at its peril; timber’s competitors are busy building social media networks.

Early adopter advantage means there’s a unique window of opportunity to grow rapidly social media networks of specifiers who will follow and dialogue with your company. Ask your agencies about social media; if they’re not enthusiastic (or competent) find a specialist to propel you into having a dialogue with specifiers.

Research tells us that in the current market, specifiers simply don’t have time to see sales ‘execs’, they access product information through ads and articles in specialist magazines and now increasingly via digital and social media channels.

Social media is becoming the leading contact tool with specifiers, as valuable as phone numbers or your email database. It’s not too late to start but there’s not a moment to delay.

• Entries for the TTJ?Excellence in Marketing Award and other judged award categories close on July 31. For an entry form click here.