Having drifted off the theme in the last two issues, this month I’m returning to the review of the most important marketing topics discussed in this column over the past four years. This time I’m taking another look at social media. It’s an area of marketing where I still find myself at odds with many of my peers.

I’ve written about social media several times and I maintain the position that, while we should certainly embrace new technology, we must ensure we get a valuable ROI (return on investment).

The ROI doesn’t necessarily need to translate into immediate new orders.

Whether you’re using social media or any number of other channels to promote your products and services, an immediate upturn in orders is rare. But it must deliver something of value to help you meet your objectives.

Before I continue, I must point out that I exclude LinkedIn from what I say about social media. For me, LinkedIn stands alone as more ‘business media’ than social media and I would suggest in most cases it makes good sense to have an active LinkedIn account. I also want to say that my comments are aimed at building product suppliers and contractors rather than architects.

While there is no doubt social media is a valuable marketing channel for well-established consumer brands such as Nike or Apple, can the same be said for much smaller, not so well known companies providing building services and selling building products? Personally, I doubt it.

It is significant that the multinationals have multimillion pound (or, more likely, dollar) marketing budgets with social media forming a very small part of the mix. Compared with the millions they spend on advertising, endorsements and product placement, their social media spend is probably minute.

For me that’s the key. If you have a cohesive brand and a comprehensive marketing plan incorporating the key marketing fundamentals, then (depending on what you sell and who you sell it to) social media might make sense. But I believe that for most of us, devoting limited marketing resources to the likes of Twitter and Facebook before you have the fundamentals in place is putting the cart before the horse.

While writing this, I did a quick search on Google for ‘social media marketing examples’. Give it a try yourself. You’ll see dozens of pages with titles like ‘The 30 Most Brilliant Social Media Campaigns of 2014’ and ‘7 Examples of Killer Social Media Marketing Campaigns from 2014’. They talk of great campaigns by Oreo (they make cookies), Dove (toiletries) and Tiffany (posh jewellery). Of the 40 or so companies I saw, 39 sold to consumers (B2C). Just one of them supplied products to other businesses (B2B).

Of course, many of the most successful building product manufacturers do use social media – Rockwool, for example, has an active Twitter account although no Facebook page. I mention them because you should see their website! It’s outstanding. Have you seen their exhibition stands, their PR and their adverts? Social media is only a part, and possibly not even a very big part, of their marketing strategy.

While most of the large contractors also have a presence on social media, most of them don’t really engage with it. More often than not they just use it as a means to broadcast their presence.

Here are few KeyNOTES to remember about social media:

1. Social media is more effective for B2C than B2B marketing
2. Companies may have a presence on a particular platform but to be effective they have to engage with their followers
3. It’s not free – time is money
4. View it as the icing on the cake not the cake itself
5. Use social media to drive traffic to your website
6. Make sure your website is set up to convert visitors into customers
7. Be consistent and keep everything updated.

Alan Gayle has worked in sales and marketing roles in the construction industry since 1993. Following a successful career with some of the UK’s leading building product manufacturers, he has worked in the stone sector more than a decade. He now runs Keystone Construction Marketing, a marketing agency specialising in the construction industry. The agency works with building  contractors, subcontractors and building product suppliers to help them increase their sales and improve their margins.