I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I would categorize it under one of my guilty pleasures; although, I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s one of my favourite past times.

There is some pretty cute content revolving around the internet—dog videos, memes, and viral videos, to name a few. Some days, I find myself scrolling a bit longer than I might want to admit.

There are good and bad takeaways from social media as well, just like there is in most aspects of life. Everything in moderation, am I right?

In the business world, I suspect that there is just as much of a love/hate relationship with social media as I have with it. It can, at times, make or break a company’s reputation. The option for our customers to “leave a review” can help grow your company’s clientele, if they are happy with the work performed. Sadly, some customers can never be happy, no matter the amount of good work put in. This is the part of social media that we dread and can leave a knot in our stomachs.

There isn’t much that can be done in the way of this. Even if your company doesn’t have much of an online presence, which it should, people will find a forum or platform to discuss the completed work.

Each social media platform offers a different opportunity for a business. Our company operates a slew of them—Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Some communities have grown larger and quicker than others. Twitter and Instagram seem to be the fasted growing, although LinkedIn has recently been seeing some more progress. For a magazine, it allows us to share our daily articles and product updates.

For a contractor, it allows them to showcase pictures from their latest installs and share in-house blog posts. This is where you get to brag about the amazing work that is being done.

According to recent research conducted by Accountability Information Management (AIM), Facebook is the leading platform of choice amongst contractors. The initiative took architects, interior designers, engineers, and facility managers, and surveyed them online in January 2021.

Of the 153 completed surveyed, 45 per cent chose Facebook, followed by Instagram at 26 per cent, and LinkedIn at 25 per cent.

It is interesting to see that Facebook was voted the highest amongst the various social media channels, especially since to the younger generation, I’ve been told it’s for the “old people.” I am not ashamed to say, it’s still one of my favourite choices out there. Although I was recently told by someone quite a bit younger than me that I wasn’t following the new trends and that apparently Instagram is also for old people and that I should be on TikTok.

For those still wondering if social media is the right choice for your business, 82 per cent of building professionals surveyed indicated that their company was involved in some type of social media. Around 20 per cent said they were actively involved with more than one.

Social media isn’t something that can be half-assed though, and if you are going to put the effort in to create social channels, I’d suggest that some market research should be in store. Analytics can even showcase what time of the day is best to post for each different social media platform. Take a good search through Google to find more tricks of the social media trade.

For those that have already created social media accounts for their company, I’m interested in hearing about what social media has done for your business. Or even, how about which platforms you’ve joined. Let me know!