How AEC Marketers Can Use Twitter

Twitter is about creating conversations between people. In most industries, including AEC, conversations are often the result of sharing value with your connections.

In my opinion, one of the easiest and best ways to share value is by creating relevant content for your connections. The content can take the form of photos, videos, podcasts, white papers, articles, presentations and the like. For example, you could report on industry trends using an infographic.

The key is to reduce your non-value tweets–such as press releases, new hires, awards, etc.—because seriously, your prospective clients don’t care. Think of the person in a networking event or a party who does nothing but tout how awesome they are. Don’t you want to avoid this person? Now think about the person who tells jokes or has captivating anecdotes. He/she is the one you want to hang around.

Twitter also can help you find out what topics and trends are worthy of being the basis of your content. Search relevant hashtags (especially from industry conferences), follow other industry leaders and see what your connections are discussing.

Don’t hesitate to share relevant content from other people. Some marketers suggest a 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 ratio of sharing others’ content-to-sharing your content; however, my experience has led me to believe that as long as you’re developing original, relevant content, you don’t need to follow any ratios.

Of course, we’re just providing you a snapshot of what you can (and should) do on Twitter, especially as part of a comprehensive content or in-bound marketing campaign. But this is certainly a good first step.

Welcome David!

University of Wisconsin senior and Life Sciences Communication major David Bartscher has joined Revelation as an intern. In addition to his strong writing background, David also has experience in video production and social media management.

Super Bowl ads 2014: staff opinions

BRIAN:

Anyone who knows me personally knows I’m love the 80s. So, it should come as no surprise that my favorite commercial was from Radio Shack. The first line set the tone: “The ’80s called … they want their store back.” I loved seeing Mary Lou Retton, Hulk Hogan, Alf, Kid N Play, Teen Wolf, the DeLorean, Chuckie and other icons from the best decade ever. If you search on YouTube, you’ll find a series of these ads with the characters, another avenue for the company to engage with its customers. And good for Radio Shack for finally revamping its admittedly boring store layout.

AMY:

What has stuck out to me is all the controversy online over the Coke ad. Yes, they chose the song “America the Beautiful” but I viewed the ad as the song being played in countries around the world not just different cultures here in America. Coke is an iconic American brand. And the happiness Coke brings to us is spread all around the world. Consumers get too worked up about little things that don’t matter. If they only had Caucasian Americans in the spot, people would have been just as outraged. And I am sure they missed a prominent culture to represent that somebody else is mad about. Does drinking Coke make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Then drink it and enjoy.

KATIE:

I had high expectations each time the Super Bowl commercials came on, but it always seemed by the time the game resumed I was disappointed. None of them impressed me too much. That is, until the Esurance commercial right after the Super Bowl ended. The fact that John Krasinski blatantly pointed out how much money Esurance saved and then proceeded to engage people all over to country to win that money was extremely clever. Of course no one flips off the TV right after the game ends – at that point, people are celebrating or complaining about their team with their phones in hand, texting their friends. Esurance saw that opportunity and grabbed it, making for a memorable and successful after-Super Bowl ad.

DAVID:

I look forward to the Super Bowl every year and to say the least, Super Bowl XLVIII didn’t meet my expectations. Complementing a Super Bowl blowout was the reserved Super Bowl ads. Of the select few good ads this year, I’d have to say my favorite was Budweiser’s “Puppy Love.” I enjoyed how Budweiser played sort of a sequel to last year’s Clydesdales slot and thought it demonstrated a great narrative arc. How the Clydesdale and the puppy generate this friendship really hits home on Budweiser’s slogan, “Best Buds.” In general, you really have to appreciate what Budweiser had to do to make this ad. It took a lot of effort from a wide range of people to create this to get the horse and puppy to interact as they did.