Increased brand recognition, more inbound traffic and improved SEO: just some of the benefits built environment companies can expect from social media marketing. This week, we’re looking at three heavyweights in this industry to see which one uses social media most effectively.
Let’s see how Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Kier Group are using social media in their marketing.
A massively important social network for B2B companies, Twitter is a great platform for sharing both original and third-party content to reach a large audience.
All three of our focus companies have a strong presence on Twitter, tweeting at least twice a day. As for the numbers:
- Balfour Beatty: 43,400 followers
- Kier Group: 39,800 followers
- Carillion: 24,300 followers
The large followings for these companies – in the tens of thousands – highlight the enormous potential audience Twitter taps into.
Winner: Kier Group
Though Kier Group has slightly fewer followers than Balfour Beatty, the banner image has been used to great effect, promoting the work Kier Group does as part of the UK’s ‘Northern Powerhouse’ economic growth plan. Tweeting regularly with hashtags, video, images and mentions of other companies, this campaign will go down well on social media.
The king of B2B social networking platforms, LinkedIn is perfect for the built environment. With approximately half its user base being business decision makers, a strong presence on LinkedIn is almost guaranteed to return strong ROI.
- Carillion: 76,400 followers
- Kier Group: 59,900 followers
- Balfour Beatty: 38,500 followers
Winner: Carillion
Despite having the fewest Twitter followers, Carillion is the clear winner when it comes to LinkedIn. Posting multiple times per week and striking the right tone for business, Carillion has clearly put a lot of effort into establishing a strong presence on this platform.
Arguably less important for the built environment and construction sectors, an active Facebook presence will nevertheless bring benefits for businesses in these industries.
- Balfour Beatty: 6,300 likes
- Carillion: 3,500 likes
- Kier Group: 1,100 likes
Winner: Balfour Beatty
It’s clear by the number of likes that built environment businesses don’t go over as well on Facebook as they do on Twitter and LinkedIn. Nonetheless, Balfour Beatty has still managed to attain an impressive 6,000+ page likes on Facebook.
Video is well received on Facebook and Balfour Beatty is using this to its advantage.
A strong presence on Facebook will still bring benefits in the construction and built environment sectors, mostly in terms of SEO and brand awareness. However, it’s probably best to concentrate the majority of your social media efforts on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Website
Social media best practice extends beyond the individual platforms to your own website as well.
Winner: Kier Group
Both Carillion and Kier Group have placed their social sharing icons at the top of their pages. Kier Group gets extra points though for clearly signposting its blog in the navigation bar. Having an actively maintained and clearly visible blog increases the chances of views, inbound links and shares on social media.
Overall
All three of these major players in the built environment use social media to great effect. As well as the platforms mentioned above, they all also have Google+ pages which, while less popular, bring significant SEO benefits.
Overall winner: Kier Group
However, all things considered, Kier Group just takes the crown.
Though the company has the smallest number of Facebook likes, effort has clearly been directed into the more important social networks Twitter and LinkedIn. Kier Group has a clear and effective campaign – #KierInTheNorth – which has been adopted across all social media platforms. The message, that the business is generating £2 billion of economic activity in the North of England, establishes trust and credibility in the company and brand.
If you'd like to find out more about how to use social media for business growth in the built environment and construction sectors, download your copy of Building Sales Leads with Inbound Marketing and get ahead of the curve.
