In today’s world, social media can be an immensely powerful tool to market and grow your business. Social media provides a platform not only for networking but also for learning, sharing, and showcasing trends, inspiring and getting inspired, and consumer research. Social Media can be the perfect tool for an architecture practice to reach and convert new clients. The only key to harnessing the power of social media is to be regular and not static, plus a well-worked-out marketing strategy. Not only does social media help you increase your reach, but it also helps strengthen and build your firm’s brand. There are numerous tips, tricks and courses for social media as a tool to boost your business that flood the internet today. However, the following are the top 10 social media tips that will help you boost your architecture business – 

1. Identify your TARGET AUDIENCE   

To use social media effectively, you must know your target audience as this is a field that appeals to a specific portion of the population. Not only will it help promote the relevant content, but it will also help create an informed strategy for marketing your practice. While deciding the target audience, be sure to answer questions such as – for whom? For what? And what do/could you offer? Once you decide on this factor, you can conduct better research on the clients and your peers, trends and inspirations.    

2.  Create a fascinating WEBSITE   

Websites are an effective way to showcase your work to your prospective clients, contractors and other designers. Creating a fascinating and user-friendly website can serve as your portfolio and an insight into your work ethic and ideology. To make your website a successful tool, adding client testimonials to help validate you, your work and your brand is essential.

Rather than providing the essential details on your website, build it into an interactive portal for prospective clients. Architects are good with graphics and storytelling; try to narrate a story full of graphics and essential details in a creative manner that grabs the attention of your website visitors. Consider this as your first step to boost your architecture business. Remember that the design ad interface of your website can attract new clients and even repel them, therefore, one has to be cautious with the interface and content of the website. 

Image-credit-Pexels

3. A grasping ELEVATOR PITCH     

Elevator pitch is more of a quick description of your firm – what do you do? How do you do it? Whom do you cater to? etc. While concentrating on developing a grasping elevator pitch, ensure it is short yet catchy, to the point, and gives it all. You can embed your elevator pitch in quotes, videos or as an intriguing narrative on your social media handles and website. A quirky, intelligent, short and strong elevator pitch distributed across various channels can be an essential marketing strategy to boost your architecture business. It should be drafted so that the potential client would crave more and end up hiring you.    

4. Use the SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS 

Architects like to share things that fall in the visual, technical and intellectual realm. All the social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, etc.) offer the perfect base to share content that satisfies these three realms. There are tonnes of platforms available to users today. One should be clear with the platform selection based on their strategy and the type of content they wish to share. Try to understand various platforms well and what they are. how do they function? and how they could benefit your business.  

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5. PLAN your CONTENT   

Consistency is one of the most essential elements of social media. To be consistent with your posts, you need to plan your content. Decide on the type of content that you would post, including visual, textual, audio, etc. Try to envision the content and quality that would best suit your business. While creating a plan for your content, try to ponder over questions such as – 

• What should be the frequency of your posts? 
• What tools can you use?
• Can you automate the process? If yes, then how?
• What should be the average length of the posts or the captions of the pictures?
• Percentage of the type of content that you would share?
• Will there be interactive sessions with prospective leads? If so, then what should the frequency be?

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Content is undoubtedly the king, as they say, in the digital marketing world, but the way you present it and the consistency that you show it determine the number of profile visits. Whatever your content is, never forget your target audience.  While discussing consistency and planning, one should have content ready for about a month or two months to avoid any irregularity. 

To start with, here are a few broad ideas or heads to plan your posts – share the company’s ideology, tips and tricks, design trends, success stories, work in progress, past projects, conceptual sketches/views, testimonials, team members, site visits, etc. 

Be creative, and you are set!

6. Professional + PERSONAL SNIPPETS    

To increase your engagement with your followers or prospective leads, you should not only focus on sharing professional posts but also share personal snippets from time to time. Personal snippets help your audience create a connection at an individual level. Moreover, they offer a break from the usual ‘work-based pictures or posts’. Personal snippets can also include any pictures from team get-togethers or outings, a holiday, a conference, and so on and so forth. 

7. Get PUBLISHED! 

To build up a reputation and validation for your architecture business, one of the faster ways is to get your work published! There are a lot of avenues for architects to get published. Architect can divulge their projects, write research papers or white papers, participate in competitions, etc., to get appropriate recognition in the field. In addition to bringing recognition to your business, getting published in some form can help build your credibility as an expert. This helps boost your architecture business. 

The key here is to get published on credible platforms or portals!  

8. Research relevant SEO and HASHTAGS 

To boost your architecture business with the help of social media, it is crucial to do proper research and use SEO (search engine optimization) and hashtags to your benefit. For the same, one can even get professional help from the required consultants. Use the most searched-for keywords and trending hashtags to create a buzz. This will lend your architecture business more visibility, leading to a boost in your industry. The secret here is to keep posting, keep in mind SEO regularly, and be patient!

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9. Employ LEAD GENERATION SERVICES      

Identify services that provide efficient lead generation services to boost your architecture business. These can help generate ample leads using various permutations and combinations, thus giving you visibility and boosting your business. While you get in touch with your new leads, do not sidestep your old leads. As in many cases, your old leads lead to new ones.

10. NETWORKING    

Networking is an inescapable attribute of an architect’s life. The more you network, the more visibility you get and, thereby, more leads. With social media at our disposal, networking has acquired a new meaning in today’s business world. Social media networking is one of the fastest ways to network; it usually has efficient ROI. While your network, try to use tools to keep up with the audience engagement. For instance, you could use newsletters to keep your audiences engaged. 

The key to networking is to keep your newer and older acquaintances closer.

These are the top 10 social media tips to boost your architecture business. Social Media is the perfect platform for architects to harness its potential for the advantage of their business. The key is sharing diverse content typologies, not just their completed projects. This is imperative to increase engagement with the target audience. The various platforms can do wonders to boost your business if used correctly. As a rule of thumb, consistency and quality should be adhered to when dealing with social media to benefit your architecture practice. SEO is a sidekick to social media that one should not forget about under any circumstance if you want to reap profound benefits for your business from social media.      

Please feel free to post your suggestions!