Construction Curiosities #42

Authentic Non-Corporate-Polished Social Media Content | Top Contractor's Secret Sauce

Apr 01, 2023

Hey! Happy Saturday! Matt here.

It’s an exciting time of the year. Baseball is back!

Welcome to the Construction Curiosities newsletter.

This weekly Newsletter explores my Curiosities about the Construction Industry. It's meant to make you think, smile, and become a better, more well-informed Construction Professional.

Summary

This week we will look at:

One Musing: “Real” Non-Corporate-Polished Content
One Article: The Secret Sauce
One Quote: Yogi-ism
One Meme: Missed Scope

One Musing

Why are Construction Companies scared of posting “real” non-corporate-polished social media content?

It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot in the last year or so, then this week a post on LinkedIn by Jonathan Cor, really stuck with me.

Excerpt from Jonathan’s LI post:

Commercial construction is WAY too private, secretive, and "safe."

On one hand, we say, "Join the trades! Join our industry!"

And on the other hand, we're saying, "Don't talk about our industry on social media."

How can we expect to shine a light on this incredible industry if your own team can't post about it online?

Absolutely nuts.

And let's assume you go through the right channels to post on social media.

There is a high chance it will end up in the content graveyard.

I’ve talked to a handful of folks and it seems the consensus is Safety is the #1 concern. And not that posting on social media will make the site less safe but that they are afraid someone will snap a pic of a safety issue and throw it on the internet for the whole world to see and to give the Contractor/ Project some really awful attention.

I’ve seen it more times than I care to count. A PR team’s worst nightmare. A couple of guys on a job site are horsing around and generally being dumbasses. (Wearing company-branded PPE of course.) They take an ill-advised video or picture and post it on Facebook/ TikTok/ etc. for the world to see. And in the process gives a black eye to the Contractor, the Project, and the Industry as a whole.

Companies have combated this concern or fear by just shutting it down completely. No social media posting period unless it comes from the Company’s official channels. This content becomes so scrubbed, polished, and irrelevant to the audience you are trying to reach. It just becomes a company “advertisement” showing your ribbon-cutting or groundbreaking ceremony.

Today people can smell that advertisement a mile away and don’t feel any authenticity in the post. The post is all about the poster and provides zero value for the audience.

Recently I was chatting with Dan Polstra from GroundBreak Carolinas, and he recited a quote that I can’t recall who it was from. But he said, “The only thing contractors should keep a secret is their number on Bid Day.”

The construction industry as a whole is terrified of giving out its secrets. After thinking about this a bit I’ve come to a bit of a conclusion.

Like baseball, I think there are many Unwritten Rules of Construction.

There are many things that companies do as “typical” and maybe even train on that they would never put in writing.

For instance, I’ve seen the tactic more than a time or 2 where you go on a Punch Walk and the contractor has left some really obvious easy fixes there. Maybe a big pile of trash right in the middle of the floor. This is done in an attempt to distract from other less obvious issues that the Owner and Project Team would find if they weren’t distracted by the glaringly obvious thing left to distract.

Or how when there is a deductive change order credit, the owner will receive pennies back on the dollar. Everyone knows it happens, but no one writes about it or includes this in a LinkedIn post with tips on how to be more profitable in the Construction Industry.

Instead of being afraid of Social Media and essentially banning employees from posting about all the great things the company is doing. Why don’t Companies leverage their employees’ enthusiasm? It could help with Employee Attraction, Business Development, and the Overall Impression of the Industry.

What if companies gave mandatory training for anyone wanting to post project updates and other construction-related content? This would help ensure the content going out followed the guidelines of the company and generally ensured that folks didn’t post some general dumbassery.

Companies already trust you with devices that connect to the server of the business and with just a short annual anti-phishing video, they pray you don’t click a sketchy link that will shut down business operations.

What are your thoughts? Is Social Media posting as big of a threat as companies act like it is? Or is our industry generally missing out on this opportunity?

Pop Quiz Trivia Question

Which city builds skyscrapers the fastest?

Answer is at the bottom of the Newsletter

One Article

The Secret Sauce: ABC's 2023 Top Performers

What is the Secret Sauce of America’s Top Contractors?

“[Construction Executive] asked a group of Associated Builders and Contractors’ (ABC) 2023 Top Performer companies, who are recognized for being the best of the best in merit-shop construction. Based on their answers, it turns out that the secret sauce has six ingredients.”