Use of Social Media in Construction

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Author Message Dale Hurttgam, NCARB, AIA,LEED AP, CSI Senior Member Username: dwhurttgam Post Number: 116 Registered: 10-2005 Posted on Monday, February 09, 2015 - 12:49 pm:    It is kind of late to reach out - but I will. I am moderating a panel discussion at our local CSI monthly meeting tomorrow, and one of the topics is "social media - trends, benefits and effectiveness". Personally, I am not active in social media, although "4Specs Discussion" comes under this category and I do benefit from it. Otherwise I am linked-in, but I have not used twitter or facebook in any way for my professional activities. I was surprised to see that most companies (or so it seems) have twitter accounts and facebook pages. Was curious what is the benefit of using these avenues vs. the Web? Or is there an advantage? Curt Norton, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: curtn Post Number: 202 Registered: 06-2002 Posted on Monday, February 09, 2015 - 01:09 pm:    Dale - Joy Davis did a presentation to our Chapter a while back. You could check with her for some highlights. Nathan Woods, CSI, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 623 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Monday, February 09, 2015 - 01:16 pm:    Think of Twitter as a exceptionally current and topical news feed. You can "follow" various people, firms or institutions, or you can follow trending topics as tracked by Twitter or half a dozen other organizations that sift through the stream and look for issues that are rising in popularity. CSI often uses it to "live-tweet" out bullet points of ongoing seminars and events, so those stuck at work can follow along. I have nothing good to say about Facebook, so I will refrain from saying anything. Liz O'Sullivan Senior Member Username: liz_osullivan Post Number: 174 Registered: 10-2011 Posted on Monday, February 09, 2015 - 02:28 pm:    I don't think Facebook is very useful for people involved in commercial construction. I think Twitter is a great way for people to follow, or join in on, conversations about the construction industry. I use Twitter and Facebook for our CSI Chapter to promote our meetings and events, and our newsletter. I am not sure how effective they are for that. I use Twitter for myself to promote my blog posts and to follow conversations. It can be really thought-provoking to read the aggravating or insightful writing of others (not the 140 character kind - the stuff people link to in their tweets). Some of my blog posts are reactions/responses to things other people wrote, that I read about in a newsletter or an online publication, that I wouldn't have come across if not for Twitter. I've "met" people through Twitter that I follow on Twitter and sometimes have email or real-life conversations with. Sometimes I meet people in real life, and then maintain a relationship through Twitter or LinkedIn. It can be a form of networking, or of maintaining a network. Sheldon Wolfe Senior Member Username: sheldon_wolfe Post Number: 830 Registered: 01-2003 Posted on Monday, February 09, 2015 - 02:40 pm:    I'm still not convinced of the value of Twitter. Although I am a strong proponent of terse specifications, those who frequent this forum know that I am somewhat anachronistic, preferring full sentences and complete explanations to sound bytes. As George Peppard said in Banacek, "It's not a question of old or new, it's a question of good or bad. We've got about...maybe, 10 years of new. And thousands of years of old. Well, the odds are, there are more good old things than new ones." Tweeting is new and cool and sexy, but compared to a well-written article, or a well-spoken presentation, well, there is no comparison. I find no value in tweet chats. Not that they can't be fun, much like writing notes in class is fun, but it seems most of the comments are useless (Here we are! About to start! We have a great speaker! You should be here!) or irrelevant (tweeters writing notes in class, telling jokes, having side conversations), and what appear to be profound statements usually require elaboration (Coordination of subcontractors may be difficult, Don't specify products in Part 1). Storify accounts presumably take little time to create, so they're easy, perhaps too easy. A written summary of a presentation, using prose rather than random thoughts, filling in missing information, and tying points together would be far more useful. A person listening to the presentation will hear what is repeated in tweets in context, while a person who is only reading the tweets will be left wondering what many tweets mean, as they are simple comments with nothing to indicate how they fit in with the presentation. As for the person who reads the Storify account, I have no idea what they could glean from a series of disjointed comments, except that they may need to know more about the topic, and must ask for more information. One exception: Links to online articles (not tweets!) and information. Dale Hurttgam, NCARB, AIA,LEED AP, CSI Senior Member Username: dwhurttgam Post Number: 117 Registered: 10-2005 Posted on Monday, February 09, 2015 - 05:23 pm:    Thank you for your quick responses. What I seem to be finding is that Twitter and Linked-In are more commonly used. Facebook appears to be somewhat in disfavor - especially as far as "professional use". Linked-In can be beneficial for networking and employment opportunities. Will be interesting to see what additional insights I gain tomorrow night. Curt Norton, CSI, CCS Senior Member Username: curtn Post Number: 203 Registered: 06-2002 Posted on Monday, February 09, 2015 - 05:26 pm:    Facebook tends to work better when you are trying to appeal to the masses. If you're selling Coca-Cola or music or news, FB has the largest audience. For B2B, it has almost no value in my opinion. Nathan Woods, CSI, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 624 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Monday, February 09, 2015 - 05:26 pm:    LinkedIn also has excellent discussion forums. For whatever reason, CSI as an organization seems to have embargo'd their staff from participation on 4Specs, (due to SCIP I would imagine), so as an alternative, CSI actively supports many different discussion topics on LinkedIn. For example: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1876627 or: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostRecent=&gid=706547&trk=my_groups-tile-flipgrp John Regener, AIA, CCS, CCCA, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: john_regener Post Number: 731 Registered: 04-2002 Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - 12:46 pm:    What are the benefits to participating with Linked In, other than self-promotion? Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wayne_yancey Post Number: 712 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - 12:54 pm:    Good question. Nathan Woods, CSI, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: nwoods Post Number: 626 Registered: 08-2005 Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - 12:54 pm:    John, the most obvious benefit is to follow the migration of folks we work with as they move from firm to firm, or company to company. There are also some decent articles posted now and then, and the discussion topics are pretty good. There are many sub-forums based on highly focused interest groups. If you wanted to geek about the chemistry of concrete used in a nuclear reactor, there is a group for that :-) Lynn Javoroski FCSI CCS LEEDŽ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1960 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - 12:55 pm:    Linked In is useful in promoting others, too. You can endorse professional colleagues for things they are good at, thereby helping them in their career (presumably). It can also be used for discussions, such as some we've had at the Linked In group CSIsters. It's more public and if treated correctly, can foster greater discussion. Facebook, as has been stated, is personal, although since it too is public, post with care. I have tweeted "lecture notes" (as Sheldon wrote). I try to make them comprehensive and understandable. It's hard in 140 characters, but can be done, I think. But mostly I use Twitter to follow what's going on in space - Mars, comets, ISS, etc. And then I share, via email, with my grandkids. Russ Hinkle, AIA, CDT, LEED BD+C Senior Member Username: rhinkle Post Number: 130 Registered: 02-2006 Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - 01:11 pm:    I have used Linked in to have discussions with other Boy Scout leaders similar to the discussions on this forum. From that standpoint it has been very helpful. Have not found anything (nor do I have the time to search around for) anything that compares to the 4specs discussion. You guys are awesome! Russ Hinkle Wayne Yancey Senior Member Username: wayne_yancey Post Number: 713 Registered: 01-2008 Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - 01:21 pm:    Thank you. Thank you very much. ELVIS Steven Bruneel, AIA, CSI-CDT, LEED-AP, EDAC Senior Member Username: redseca2 Post Number: 468 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - 01:55 pm:    I agree with Nathan. LinkedIn can be your permanent Rolodex. I couple years ago I found a printed office phone list, circa 1990, from the San Francisco office of SOM, where I worked at the time. Within a day or two I was linked with a good half of the names I searched for on the LinkedIn site. James Sandoz, AIA, CSI, CCS, CCCA Senior Member Username: jsandoz Post Number: 157 Registered: 06-2005 Posted on Thursday, February 12, 2015 - 09:03 am:    I agree with Nathan and Lynn about the use of LinkedIn. I may have helped a colleague who is now looking for work in a different city at least get an interview. I know someone at the "target firm" and I was able to recommend this colleague to her. The woman at the target said she would ensure the resume and cover letter would be seen by the right people. This is not a large firm with a "gate-keeper" HR department so I feel confident my colleague will get a fair look. The current economic climate and the nature of our industry causes a pretty fair amount of turnover and moving about. LinkedIn has been a good (of course, not perfect) way for me to keep up with where everyone is. John Regener, AIA, CCS, CCCA, CSI, SCIP Senior Member Username: john_regener Post Number: 735 Registered: 04-2002 Posted on Thursday, February 12, 2015 - 05:00 pm:    Scott Adams, cartoonist of Dilbert, was asked why he chose a cat for Catber, the head of HR. He said it's because cats look non-threatening and don't care if you live or die. John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 1619 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2015 - 02:23 pm:    I've found Twitter to be useful in my pursuits as a photographic artist, and can see it would be useful in design and construction. I use it to find out about events I'm interested in, discover artists I didn't know about, and occasionally connect in other ways with people I find there. As to the many useless Tweets; well, you have to curate your Twitter feed. If you find that someone you follow has posts that are inane, not useful, or overly commercial, just stop following them. There are plenty of users that have good stuff to follow. Dale Hurttgam, NCARB, AIA,LEED AP, CSI Senior Member Username: dwhurttgam Post Number: 118 Registered: 10-2005 Posted on Friday, February 20, 2015 - 11:08 am:    Just wanted to get back to everyone. The panel discussion at our last CSI meeting went very well - about 45 in attendance. The panel provided some interesting dialogue and interaction with the audience. One of the topics of discussion was Industry trends in communication including social media. The indications amongst our group was that very few used social media in business - possible exception LinkedIn. Someone asked for a show of hands of those who even had a twitter account - it was less than 10. In some additional research that I did (including this 4Specs thread) in preparation for being moderator, I found the following prevalent opinions: 1. Few use Facebook in business and feel that it is downward trending. 2. Many feel that Twitter can be a valuable resource for professional organizations to communicate info about meetings, events, etc. 3. LinkedIn can be a valuable resource for upward trending professionals for employment opportunities, networking, etc. This was reinforced by a comment that I heard on a local radio station this morning. They sited some national survey that was done that indicated that 80% of those involved in recruiting new employees did a LinkedIn search of the prospective employee as part of the evaluation process. Major complaint re: LinkeIn was the frequent prompts received from them to linkin with certain groups, to endorse others, potential people to linkin with, etc. Steven Bruneel, AIA, CSI-CDT, LEED-AP, EDAC Senior Member Username: redseca2 Post Number: 470 Registered: 12-2006 Posted on Friday, February 20, 2015 - 12:18 pm:    The saddest thing about LinkedIn, one that gets a lot of discussion with my friends and co-workers locally is their tendency to send you a prompt that someone is having a work anniversary or whatever, and the individual had passed away a year or more ago. Lynn Javoroski FCSI CCS LEEDŽ AP SCIP Affiliate Senior Member Username: lynn_javoroski Post Number: 1978 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Friday, February 20, 2015 - 12:40 pm:    Agreed, Steven. There are a couple of people I know of in that situation. I have emailed Linkedin and told them about someone's death. It is a social media problem, too. Who notifies, who manages, who does take care of one's site after death? Facebook just announced the ability to name a caretaker (for lack of a better word) - someone who will manage your site after death. It's a problem that needs a solution. John Bunzick, CCS, CCCA, LEED AP Senior Member Username: bunzick Post Number: 1622 Registered: 03-2002 Posted on Monday, February 23, 2015 - 11:30 am:    Though this thread is diverging, I want to chime in on the issue of after-death social media presence. People should include their logins for all social media along with their estate planning documents so that heirs can take control of them and decide what to do. These really are part of a person's estate in a way, much like those boxes of family papers everyone has in their attic, except social media sits out there for all to see. Many social media sites require an heir to provide proof of death in order to be given control of sites if they don't have the logins, and it may be difficult to accomplish. Heirs should consult with others in the family about this, too.