Usually strapped for cash, startups need to prioritize their projects and work ‘lean’ before they can create a comprehensive marketing strategy to include professionally managed social media channels. Early on in a startup’s development, its CEOs and founders have the burden of acquiring clients, marketing their brand, and building every aspect of their business.

Each social media platform has its advantages and ways of reaching different audiences. They also have different algorithms that can be more or less effective in tracking down your key demographic, industry leaders and potential partners, as well as providing accurate data on how much traffic they generate to your website.

With over 400 million users, LinkedIn is a primarily business-oriented social networking site where professionals can connect and stay updated on news relevant to their industry. People with LinkedIn profiles are mostly looking for or posting jobs, or they are using the site to establish useful contacts with peers and prospects. You can add contacts on LinkedIn and create a profile of your own company that describes your field of work, accomplishments, interests and relationships.

The platform is also especially useful for B2B marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2015 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends for North America, 63% of marketers report positive results in using LinkedIn. More than 8 in 10 B2B marketers use the site to market releases of new products or services. Architecture firms and startups can also make use of this potential.

As with any social media platform, there are a few etiquette rules that need to be respected to appropriately use the site. Before we address the best way that archipreneurs can utilize LinkedIn, let’s first focus on some of the undesirable practices that will hurt your brand and yield poor results.

It is considered bad form – and bad business – to send cold pitches to your LinkedIn contacts and spam them with direct messages selling your products or services. In addition, posting funny videos and entertaining content should be kept to Facebook. The general rules of using LinkedIn are pretty straightforward, but there are a few tips and tricks for how to get the most out of your presence on the platform.

Become an Influencer

Update your profile regularly and post updates. Join groups and engage in conversations on topics related to your expertise and areas of interest – this will help you establish yourself as an expert in your field and promote your brand. The best content is original, addresses topical issues in your industry, and helps resolve them.

You can also publish long-form content (longer, in-depth articles) directly on the platform, which may eventually result in an opportunity to become a LinkedIn Influencer. Once you become an Influencer, you will receive a follow button so that people can receive updates from you even if you are not directly connected.

Find the Right People

There are two distinct approaches to building a LinkedIn network. One is to accept invites from everyone; the other involves strategically choosing to whom to connect. Your visibility on the platform increases according to the number of connections you have, meaning that the chances of you showing up in keyword searches (for example, for ‘archipreneur’) will increase the more connections you have made. This can be valuable, since the more first level connections you have, the more second level connections you will be able to see.

The approach that you finally choose will depend on the type of service or product you offer. As networking is one of LinkedIn’s strongest features, you should pay attention to establishing relationships with the relevant people. The first thing you should do on LinkedIn is make yourself discoverable. Customize your public profile URL so that you’re easier to find, rather than keeping the randomized URL automatically generated by the platform. To connect to specific people, you can reach out directly, send connection requests or ask for referrals.

Groups are possibly the best way of expanding your network. Encourage your employees to use LinkedIn. This will increase the likelihood of potential clients learning about you.

Measure Return on Investment

Although it’s very difficult to track ROI on LinkedIn, you can measure the quantitative and qualitative effects that the platform have on your business. Quantitative effects relate to the number of connections, requests, profile ranking, post views and company page followers. Qualitative measurements relate to business proposals, likes and comments on your updates and posts, engagements and recommendations.

You can also measure your website referral traffic from LinkedIn to see if your profile is driving visitors and group members to your company’s website. Keep track of the number of leads from LinkedIn and see which topics people gravitate towards, and uncover the demographics of your followers by accessing your page’s analytics through Google Analytics. Include CTAs (calls to action) in your content, and share links to blogs, webinars, courses and eBooks.

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For anyone trying to expand their influence and establish their brand, LinkedIn is an incredibly valuable resource. How has LinkedIn helped your business to grow?

The post Grow Your Architecture Firm with LinkedIn appeared first on Archipreneur.

The majority of architects still don’t see marketing as a hugely important part of their business. Studio principals often fail to incorporate marketing into their business strategy and underestimate its impact on their businesses.

How can you utilize your past projects to acquire new clients? Does your work speak about your philosophy, way of doing things, your interests and passions?

By taking marketing seriously, you can tell your story and differentiate yourself from the competition. Online marketing in particular has changed the way that small- and medium-sized firms can compete in the AEC industry.

Social media is an important element of your marketing strategy. It relies on the principles of inbound marketing, which focuses on attracting clients by establishing a non-interruptive presence online by educating, building communities and establishing leadership. Although traditional marketing tools such as landing pages, newsletters and emails are still effective marketing tools, engaging social media profiles can make a huge impact on the way your business is perceived.

As architects start to use social media, it becomes important to figure out which of the platforms can be the most effective for their specific niche. The endless sea of options can make it difficult not to waste energy on too many things. Poor social media choices can tarnish your brand and make you invest huge amounts of time without getting results.

Instagram is proving to be a powerful tool in content marketing. It is a smartphone app that people use to share images and videos. You can start your own account by following other architects, clients, and magazine and blog editors.

According to a recent study by Forrester, Instagram users are 58 times more likely to like, share or comment on a brand post than Facebook users, and 120 times more likely than Twitter users. This is largely due to the fact that Instagram is more casual than Facebook, it is primarily visual and doesn’t have the timeline structure that makes people hesitant to like other people’s older content.

On Instagram, image is king. With over 400 million users, the platform has become a global community and one of professional marketers’ favorite tools.

Simplicity makes Instagram effective. Photos, videos, infographics and memes can all be shared to create a type of ‘storyboard’ that can be much more powerful than long-form sales emails and pages. You can offer them behind-the-scenes insight into your daily operations, as well as snapshots from events, travels, construction sites and your personal life. You can present your projects from pencil drawing board to bricks and mortar and expand awareness of your passion projects.

Hashtags can be placed underneath images to help potential fans find your content. You can even follow hashtags yourself to better engage with users and competitors, and figure out how your fans respond to individual words and content. Backlinking is not possible on Instagram, except in your bio, which dictates how you use the platform.

Growing a social media following is a must these days, but unless you are an established architect, it’s going to take a lot of work. You can use various social media growth services that manage to attract potential customers and clients by focusing on specific targets or niches. This usually means targeting the followers of similar designers, your past projects, or influencers that your clients pay attention to.

Instagram integrates very well with other social media platforms. Since Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion in 2012, the two social platforms have integrated their content, allowing users to easily expand their following by merging fans from both platforms.

Plan your Instagram posts. Create a calendar and create content upfront as this saves time. Schedule and automate Instagram updates using one of several tools available online such as Later, ScheduGram and Latergramme. These services allow you to post from a browser or mobile apps, upload multiple images and videos, edit them and organize your Instagram posts. Curate your page by acting as an editor.

Use trending hashtags, but don’t abuse them. Hashtags make your content discoverable and allows you to connect based on common themes and interests, but if you include more than a few hashtags, you might come off as desperate and attract the wrong kind of followers. The more specific your hashtags are, the more targeted your audience will be.

While Twitter hashtags usually relate to a topic, Instagram hashtags are more focused on locations, descriptions of images, tools used to capture them, and a broader story behind the image. Create hashtags that relate to your brand but don’t necessarily include your brand’s name. Hashtags should be as short and intuitive as possible.

You can research large Instagram accounts that operate in your niche and offer sponsored posts. These accounts usually feature an email in their bio. You can contact them and ask for their sponsored posts rates.

You won’t be able to track how much traffic to your website is generated through Instagram. Experts advise using customized shortened links in your bio (Instagram doesn’t allow linking in the comments). You can check the data at the shortener service and make the link lead to your landing page tailored to your Instagram following. You can use the link to offer free content and eBooks, newsletters, blog posts and other social media channels.

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Archipreneur.com has just started its Instagram account and is now proud to announce 1,000+ followers. We share architecture photos, projects, advice and motivation on how to start your own architecture business, and sometimes just our travel pictures – of amazing architecture of course! Follow us on instagram.com/archipreneurmag.

The post How Architects Can Use Instagram to Promote Their Work appeared first on Archipreneur.