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Nicole Buraglio
is Director of e-Media for Hanley Wood Exhibitions. She oversees the e-media business, implementing web revenue-generating ideas and technologies, engaging customers with increasingly improved online opportunities and enhancing their overall media experience. In addition, Nicole has full P&L responsibility for Connect, Hanley Wood’s new online networking tool. Nicole has been in the trade show industry for more than 12 years, 9 of which have been with Hanley Wood.
Construction Workers' Surprising New Building Block: Social Media
by Nicole Buraglio
Businesses have a lot of fears and questions about social media:
- If I take my marketing strategies in this direction, will people follow me?
- What if they’re not the “type” of audience that gets social media?
- Can social marketing help my business?
Yes. Social media marketing can (and will) change the way you do business and ultimately exponentially increase your efforts and, more importantly, your results --especially in this age of younger-generation dominance. (I've observed 3-year-olds successfully operate iPhones and it seems kids over 5 have already had at least one cell phone.)
The fact is most people get social media. Grandmothers are on Facebook. Your complete professional history – and future, for that matter – can be tied up in one neat little package called LinkedIn. You learn more about your friends and family from 140 characters at a time than you ever thought or, in some cases, wanted.
I work in the trade show industry and our business is in building/construction. We market to guys who spend all day on a construction site, eating their lunches brought from home, while perched on a tied rebar beam cage. You’d think they would not care much about following an event on Twitter or becoming a fan of a silly web page, but they are. They're totally connected to each other online.
We started marketing much more strategically this past year as the economy spun out of control. A lot of our efforts are now geared toward Internet Marketing. Word of mouth has always been our most effective tool, it still is. Social media is just a new, more viral way to spread your message online.
Our World of Concrete event draws more than 70,000 people every year to Las Vegas to learn about the commercial construction industry, purchase new products, and network with peers and leaders. This group is primarily made up of men who walk the show floor donning their jeans and duck jackets. You won’t catch many of them without a fresh beer; and, they refuse to miss anything about this world-class event.
Of the commercial construction audience to which WOC is marketed:
- Thousands follow the WorldOfConcrete on Twitter
- Fans created a group on Facebook (we didn’t have to do anything!) for the 2008 event and WOC exhibitors continue to post announcements on the wall for the upcoming 2010 event.
- Industry professionals continually RSVP on the show’s LinkedIn account
- YouTube and Flickr both feature user-generated content about the show
If social media can work for a commercial construction audience, social marketing can certainly work for you and your business, too.
I challenge you to make this ever-evolving phenomenon, communally referred to as social marketing, part of your regular (if not daily) promotional program. I promise – it will deliver.
construction worker photo by santafesweets
Upcoming Live Webinar: The Science of Social Media Marketing - Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
| Social media scientist Dan Zarella explain what drives people to share information and opinions online. Reserve your spot now and learn scientifically proven best practices for spreading your content virally through social media.
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