July/August 2017

Communities: Private Practice
Getting Social

A Baltimore County engineering and construction firm boosts its marketing and client and employee engagement through social media.

IN 2013, KCI TECHNOLOGIES INC. LAUNCHED A FORMAL SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM TO IMPROVE ITS CONNECTION WITH CLIENTS, PARTNERS, AND POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES.

A/E firms that want to more closely connect with clients and employees are finding that a solid social media and communications plan plays an essential role. KCI Technologies Inc., a mid-sized firm in Baltimore County, is one company that has seen results from putting social media marketing on its priority list.

In 2013, increasing the nationwide engineering, consulting, and construction firm’s use of social media became a part of its strategic planning process. Firm leaders conducted research and set a budget to launch a formal social media communications program. “Our CEO is a visionary who saw the benefits of becoming an early leader with social media,” says Amy Lambert, KCI’s director of corporate communications. “Our plan was to connect and communicate with our clients, partners, and potential employees.”

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and blogs are all a part of the KCI social media portfolio. Each channel has its own defined audience with content targeted toward these audiences based on five major themes, says Lambert.

It’s not unusual for KCI employees to post a picture of a unique aspect of a construction project and tag the company. Last year, to celebrate NSPE’s inaugural Professional Engineers Day, the firm’s PEs joined their peers across the nation in sharing why they became part of a unique engineering community. “They were excited to take a picture and post on Facebook and Twitter. It gave them the opportunity to share their love of engineering and encourage other people to become engineers,” she says.

To reinforce the firm’s brand and establish a position as a thought leader, the communications team will post presentations given by staff members at industry and association events. For example, the firm’s LiDAR technology practice leader gave a presentation on how drone LiDAR technology is changing the face of surveying. That post lead directly to a contract. “A client read it and reached out to him directly. Everything moved forward from there,” says Lambert.

How does the communications team, which includes full-time social media coordinator Whitney Shumaker, get PEs and other technical staff to participate more on social media? Most staff members are social media savvy, according to Shumaker, but the company developed and launched a social media ambassadors program this year to encourage more participation. “We make it easy for them to share our content through our intranet, and there’s a rewards mechanism,” she says. “It’s fun and there’s a competition.”

Content for the firm’s social media channels is also largely derived from employees’ use of the company intranet newsfeed. If someone gives a presentation, earns a PE license, works on a unique project, or wins an award, the newsfeed is a prime location to share the details.

The communications team has also focused on delivering blog content via e-newsletters that are targeted based on client interest areas. “If you’re an architect, you’re only going to see facilities content. You’re not going to see transportation content,” Lambert says. “We’ve seen our engagement numbers increase dramatically following this market segmentation.”

The KCI social media strategy is always changing, says Lambert, to respond to engagement trends. Here’s an edited list of her dos and don’ts and lessons learned to help other A/E firms that want to use social media.

Establish an intense quality-control process.

All content is reviewed by the writer and at least two additional staff members before it’s posted. This quality-control process helps to avoid errors and the posting of content that shouldn’t be put on social media.

STEM content is necessary.

We post a ton of STEM content. We feel strongly that we need to encourage young people to consider STEM careers. Our industry relies on this.

Follow the 80/20 content rule.

Content from other people should make up 80% of your posts, and 20% should be your own content. We post about new industry statistics and content about trending topics, such as autonomous vehicles or climate change.

Define your voice.

We suggest that companies define their “voice” before engaging on social media. They need think about how they want to communicate. Of course, they should be professional, but there are different ways to accomplish this. The tone could range from light-hearted to extraordinarily serious.

Don’t engage with negative people.

Be wary of engaging with people who are extraordinarily negative. It’s not necessary and sometimes if you engage with someone like that, you’ve just opened things up for a conversation that can go very badly.

Set reasonable goals.

Engineering firms aren’t consumer products-based companies, so we don’t have to engage the world. You’re not going to get 1 million followers, and you don’t need to reach all those people.

Take advantage of trending social media campaigns.

Participate in national campaigns on social media such as I Look Like an Engineer, Professional Engineers Day, Engineers Week, and Surveyors Week. These campaigns help you to connect with other firms and clients just by using the same hashtag. They also help to reach new audiences.