Crafting Social Media Strategy for Architectural Design Firms
A succesful social media strategy should serve to amplify a firm’s branding message and deepen connections with industry thought leaders, support future recruitment efforts and connect with potential clients. In this essay I will lay out some basic methodologies to craft a compelling social media strategy and create content tailored to tell stories essential to marketing architectural services.
In order to start the planning process, firm leadership should be comfortable with the overall branding message of the firm. The point of social media is to amplify the message, not to reinvent it on the fly. A clear mission statement allows social media strategists to focus on building a content strategy that is sustainable over time. Without a defined message it is impossible to create the content you will need to showcase your firm’s expertise and really drive engagement with the audience you want.
Once you have your message (Who are you? What do you do?) either a selection process of which media channels to use or an audit of existing media channels should take place. If you are starting from scratch, you should decide which channels are right for you based on your target audience. Some research should be done by your social media strategist to help you understand where your message will play the best. Are you a commercial architect who wants to engage with real estate developers or are you an urbanist who is interested in connecting with local grass roots organizations? Remember the flow of information goes both ways, so researching which platforms are more popular with your target audience helps you position your firm correctly, but also opens up opportunities to follow targets, (and competitors too!) to give you a well rounded understanding of how the ecosystem of content production, thought leadership and industry trends will influence your planning.
If you need to audit old accounts, the same methodology applies. Not all channels are right for all firms and it is better to use less than let old accounts go dormant. Any channel that is not going to align with your new plan should be deleted and any accounts that you want to continue should be refreshed with new bio information, mission statements, profile imagery, etc. Consistancy is key and all firm profiles and images should be consistant across all platforms to reinforce and amplify the mission.
Now that you have both your mission and an understanding of where you will build your social media presence, you can start to plan out what you will be posting and why. Planning your content in advance is very important and it is a common misconception that Instagram must mean ‘insta’. When you are trying to build a coherant story about your firm you must look at the big picture and how the story will hold together over a period of time. Building a calendar is very helpful in being able to see how all the posts might look as a continuous story and also to make sure that who ever is doing the posting is aware of meaningful dates like project openings or holidays that might fit in with your narrative.
Now, for Content!
Creating content that is compelling and fills your feed with enough ‘story’ to make an impact need not take an unreasonable amount of time. Your firm probably already has a large image library of built projects and inspirational images from old presentations. The key is in sticking to a strategy and assigning the responsibility to someone who has the time and expertise to execute it properly with meaningful oversight from the studio leadership. This is a comittment of resources, but the value is huge and should not be underestimated.
Once you have your social media manager assigned (or engaged a consultant) it is OK to tell a couple of different stories that interweave, as long as they still reinforce your main mission statement. A good rule to consider is called “The Rule of Thirds”. This is a rule designed to help strategists plan out what types of content will work well together to create a lively feed that still reads like a coherant story. This rule can be modified in the following ways to support the specialized storytelling requirements of architects.
- 1/3 of content supports the ‘personal brand’. This might be modified to showcase built projects that focus on expertise that needs to be amplified per the marketing plan. What you do best.
- 1/3 of content is ‘curated’. Curated content means finding posts or imagry to promote that are already out there to connect your brand to a defined culture. This might take the form of posting inspirational images that support a specific project or work from a mentor that is especially interesting. This is a nice addition as you are not creating anything new here. Always give credit!
- 1/3 of content is “conversations”. This might be interpreted as connecting the firm with ongoing cultural and professional trends. This is an important one to any strategy as this means that the content posted can not just be a selection of favorite projects all the time, but must connect directly to a movement that is happening within the industry. Sustainability? Urban re-development? Whatever is supportive of the firm’s philosphy & expertise that will also drive new business opportunities and spark innovation within the firm and without.
The bulk of new content created will be dependant on the resources of the firm as well as its mission. Not every firm has the means to create films or virtual reality fly throughs. Maybe this is an integral part of your mission or maybe not. This is where rapport needs to be created between the social media strategist and the firm’s leadership to manage expectations, but also get at the real meaning behind the work and discover the best way to tell the story. If building up thought leadership awareness is key, maybe post interviews with design leaders periodically that link back to blog posts, conference appearances, etc. If technical expertise needs to be amplified, maybe showcase the best projects as case studies with an emphasis not just on fly over imagery, but really get into the details. The defining value of social media is its ability to tell a variety of stories through a variety of different mediums. This will allow architects to be much more responsive in their approach and not be dependant on updating a website or getting a print article published to tell their stories.
The main point of all of this is that architects should take social media seriously as an integral part of any firm’s marketing plan and devote the necessary resources to managing and creating content. No one can execute a successful social media presence with only occassional bits of news. Feeds should be lively with a variety of content ranging from project imagry, to custom created stories that showcase a firm’s expertise, thought leadership and/or special people within the firm. It should be simple and align with the values of the firm. It should all be obviously tilted towards amplifying a defined message and not look out of step with the other more traditional marketing materials like websites or brochures.
