Using LinkedIn as a Communications Tool in AEC Marketing
For AEC firms, LinkedIn is a key platform for showcasing projects, connecting with industry professionals, and promoting expertise. LinkedIn serves as a strategic communications tool that can elevate your brand presence and influence. By leveraging your technical staff's personal profiles, companies can create authentic engagement and reach a wider audience.
Why Leverage Your Technical Staff?
Your architects, engineers, and project managers are deeply involved in the projects that define your company. They possess unique insights and firsthand experience that can offer real value to your audience. When these team members share industry updates or project highlights on LinkedIn, it builds credibility and fosters connections with potential clients, partners, and future hires. Their personal profiles can significantly amplify your company’s visibility and reputation in your markets.
How to Grow Your Technical Staff’s Presence
Optimize Employee Profiles
First, ensure your technical staff have well-crafted LinkedIn profiles that include a professional photo, accurate job title, and a professional summary that highlights their expertise and experience. Encourage them to list recent projects, certifications, and technical skills. An optimized profile establishes credibility and professionalism, making them effective brand ambassadors. Also, make sure all personal profiles are correctly linked through the experience section to the company’s overall LinkedIn page. To maximize reach, the company page should tag technical staff in relevant posts and actively share their content, creating a unified brand voice. In tandem, technical staff should tag the company page in their posts, as well as share firm-generated content on their respective pages.
Create a Content Strategy
Develop a frequency-based content plan that aligns with your company’s goals. Consistency is key here; create a posting schedule that is doable but frequent - we recommend at least bi-weekly. Identify topics relevant to your target audience, such as project updates, technical challenges solved, or innovative construction techniques. Assign specific themes or topics to different team members based on their expertise. This will help diversify the content shared and position your firm as a thought leader.
Encourage Authentic Engagement
Authentic, personally written posts tend to generate more engagement. Provide marketing support by offering to review team member’s posts. Utilize AI content tools to streamline the writing process. Also, remind your team to interact with others by liking, commenting, and sharing posts from industry connections. This active engagement helps build relationships and expands your network.
Track and Celebrate Success
Monitor engagement metrics to assess the impact of your strategy. Share these metrics with the technical team who is posting regularly. Pay attention to likes, comments, shares, and new connections made. Celebrate successful posts by highlighting them internally, encouraging more staff participation. Use this feedback to refine your approach and keep the momentum going.
By using LinkedIn strategically and harnessing the power of your technical staff’s personal profiles, your firm will enhance its brand presence and engage with key industry players. Need help creating a content plan or want to hear how we have supported technical teams in boosting their content? Give us a shout here!