{"id":146,"date":"2009-12-20T19:17:08","date_gmt":"2009-12-21T02:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.constructonomics.com\/blog\/?p=146"},"modified":"2019-08-21T00:01:31","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T07:01:31","slug":"how-blogs-can-help-or-hurt-your-construction-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/20\/how-blogs-can-help-or-hurt-your-construction-business\/","title":{"rendered":"How Blogs Can Help (Or Hurt) your Construction Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"to_blog_or_not_to_blog\"I think about blogs kind of like that pain in the ass cousin that always wants to go out and throw the baseball, but while you’d rather sit inside and throw back a few stiff ones, you also don’t want to ignore the kid and look like a jerk.\u00a0 Blogs have\u00a0gotten to the point where, as much as some would like to discard them as amateur and hokey, they cannot be\u00a0ignored.\u00a0 And by the way,\u00a0blogs are becoming big business. In fact, companies who have read about the best way to find the most effective way of marketing on Salesforce<\/a> and who have applied it in their business have found that generally, one form of their marketing tactics no matter the time of year always manages to score the highest score. This helps in a massive way as it helps companies focus on one specific section of their marketing and sales strategy to get the best results rather than plenty of them to get mediocre results.<\/p>\n

The Benefits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blogs add a personal flare and dare I say, brand,\u00a0to your business that is much more\u00a0difficult to fake than some rehearsed marketing spiel.\u00a0 Construction still remains a business of relationships and what some like to call, good ‘ol boy networks.\u00a0 The reality is that the good ‘ol boys are having a\u00a0seat on the barstool\u00a0of\u00a0cyberspace and building\u00a0a virtual\u00a0network\u00a0of\u00a0construction buddies to call when they have a job to do.\u00a0 Construction is an industry that is notoriously resistant to change, but I think even the ol’ timers are realizing the\u00a0benefit of internet networking and marketing.<\/p>\n

We are in an economic climate at the moment,\u00a0where not much construction is going on, but when when things start roaring back, companies are going to start\u00a0looking for any way to reach out to new contractors,\u00a0subcontractors and consultants.\u00a0\u00a0They will be in a position\u00a0where they may have dumped some of their old colleagues\u00a0due to lack of work and now they aren’t sure if they want to go back to them.\u00a0 Blogs get\u00a0you in front of people who may be interested in your service, but aren’t quite ready to make that phone call.\u00a0 Remember, people buy from other people they like, and people like blogs.<\/p>\n

Blogs can\u00a0provide value to readers as well as distinguish the writer as an expert in their field.\u00a0 For example, if a construction professional writes a blog about\u00a0a new method of project delivery that saves time and money, the\u00a0readers\u00a0gain knowledge\u00a0about this particular method and may be a bit more likely to hire this company to provide these services.\u00a0 They feel like they know you before they really do.<\/p>\n

This can be some very valuable marketing and there is a whole world of consulting popping up that\u00a0focuses\u00a0almost entirely\u00a0on helping companies leverage their online presence.<\/p>\n

The Downside<\/strong><\/p>\n

While it can be very beneficial to have a blog about\u00a0yourself, your company, or your services,\u00a0the blogosphere is a grassroots and sometimes cruel world of wannabes who may be looking to get their name out there (no comments please).\u00a0\u00a0However, these internet hack-writers may also\u00a0be doing a benefit in calling attention to BS that is going on.\u00a0 Either way, you have to keep an eye on what the blogs\u00a0are saying about you and your company.\u00a0 And of course, the best\u00a0way to combat bad publicity from someone else’s blog\u00a0is to have one yourself and provide credible,\u00a0genuine, and valuable content.\u00a0 However, without this online\u00a0voice, potential customers are left to make their own judgement.<\/p>\n

For centuries companies, especially private companies,\u00a0have had the luxury of carefully strategizing the image they\u00a0want to portray.\u00a0 To the public eye, organizations can look\u00a0squeaky clean while behind closed doors, there is more dirt flying around than a Tiger Woods press conference.\u00a0 Now\u00a0what\u00a0happens behind closed doors can, and most likely will, reach the blogosphere.\u00a0 People are probably going to have to clean up their act.<\/p>\n

Of course you have to be careful with your blog.\u00a0 As easy as it is to start ranting\u00a0in what you\u00a0think is the safety of you and your computer screen, what you\u00a0say can and will be\u00a0used against used against you.\u00a0 Back in 2005 when blogs were first starting to stake their claim\u00a0on the internet, a newly hired Google employee named Mark Jen started blogging about his first few days of work on the Google compound.\u00a0 He mentioned that the Google health\u00a0plan was less generous than that of his former employer, Microsoft.\u00a0 Jen also contended that the free food that we’ve all heard about at Google is really just a ploy to get you to work past dinner time.\u00a0 Jen was fired two weeks later.<\/p>\n

While you can gripe and moan about all these go**amn bloggers foiling the plans of marketers and publicists, the reality is that you are not going to beat them; you must join them.\u00a0 Like in any good blog, I’m going to make a prediction with little or no\u00a0substance to back\u00a0up the claim.\u00a0 My prediction is that blogs and other forms of\u00a0online “amateur” media will\u00a0fundamentally change how\u00a0businesses are\u00a0run, and yes, this change will eventually make it’s way to our lovely construction industry.\u00a0\u00a0And if it isn’t a “fundamental” change it will\u00a0in the least be significant, so you might as well join the party.\u00a0 Trust me, it’s fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think about blogs kind of like that pain in the ass cousin that always wants to go out and throw the baseball, but while you’d rather sit inside and throw back a few stiff ones, you also don’t want to ignore the kid and look like a jerk.\u00a0 Blogs have\u00a0gotten to the point where, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,3,4,5,36],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-business","tag-construction-blog","tag-construction-economics","tag-john-poole","tag-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1826,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/1826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}