Architects Who Blog: Connecting Online for Influencing, Educating, and Inspiring About Architecture
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Architects Who Blog: Connecting Online for Influencing, Educating, and Inspiring About Architecture. This presentation discusses how architects can use blogging and social media to connect with audiences, develop credibility as thought leaders, and engage communities. Case studies of successful architect blogs like Life of an Architect and Coffee with an Architect demonstrate how being personal, fearless, and honest can help architects build large followings. While blogging may not directly bring in clients, it allows architects to become part of important conversations.
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Architects Who Blog: Connecting Online for Influencing, Educating, and Inspiring About Architecture
- 1. Architects Who Blog: Connecting Online for Influencing, Educating, and Inspiring About Architecture SESSION ID: TH205 Thursday, 5.17.2012, 2:00 – 3:30pm
- 2. This presentation is protected by US and International Copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, display and use of the presentation without written permission of the speaker is prohibited.
- 3. AIA/CES Quality Statement This program is registered with the AIA/CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to constitute approval, sponsorship or endorsement by the AIA of any method, product, service, enterprise or organization. The statements expressed by speakers, panelists, and other participants reflect their own views and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of The American Institute of Architects or of AIA components, or those of their respective officers, directors, members, employees, or other organizations, groups or individuals associated with them. Questions related to specific products, publications, and services may be addressed at the conclusion of this presentation.
- 4. Learning Objectives 1. Strategically select the best social media platforms for engaging particular audiences. Access these platforms and create profiles that will attract people. Link between platforms in order to drive traffic to their blog and website. 2. Develop blogging themes that will build credibility and gain access into influential conversations. Create headlines and key words to optimize search engine access. Format tweets that will be shared repeatedly. Create blog posts that will attract readers and engage people in commenting. 3. Research and find particular communities of interest including design professionals, collaborators, building users, and clients. Engage in those conversations and build a credible voice. Become a thought leader, educator, influencer, or entertainer within particular groups through writing and connecting. 4. Utilize limited time well to gain the most benefit from blogging and social media. Plan optimum times and methods for connecting with particular communities. Analyze the value of cost and time versus benefits of blogging and using other social media tools.
- 5. Speakers Bob Borson, AIA, Life of an Architect @bobborson lifeofanrachitect.com Dallas TX Jody Brown, AIA, Coffee with an Architect @infillnc coffeewithanarchitect.com Infill, Durham NC Cindy Frewen Wuellner, FAIA, PhD @urbanverse urbanverse.net Frewen Architects Inc, Kansas City MO
- 6. has over 845 million registered users wikipedia
- 7. Largest Business Network in the World wikipedia
- 8. More than 80% of companies use social media and of those Use LinkedIn for recruitment Erik Qualman’s Social Media Revolution Video
- 9. has over 300 million accounts Over 1.6 billion searches per day 300 million tweets per day wikipedia
- 10. A blog is social media. Not just another way to push out your best projects. It’s relationship building.
- 11. Why This Matters…. Link Bait. Starts with BLOG
- 13. is the second largest search engine next to Google with 790 million unique visitors per month http://www.reelseo.com/youtube-790-million-uniques/
- 14. 434% Increase in website pages indexed companies by Google for that blog. Hubspot, study of 1,500 small businesses http://bit.ly/11deQ0
- 15. The Agora: twitter for Athenians Flickr creative commons Arian Zwegers http://flic.kr/p/atJzVE
- 16. First -- Know Your Website • Analyze Site Traffic • Do Your Keyword Research • Stalk the Competition • SEO Content For Your Site Shelly Kramer V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing
- 17. In the Beginning Bob Borson, AIA Architect LEED AP Dallas, Texas mow my own grass basic, non descript, regular guy the real me … that no one had ever heard of Launched www.lifeofanarchitect.com January 14, 2010 didn’t know what I was doing didn’t have special technical skills … going to make it up as I went the fake me
- 18. Life of an Architect - World Headquarters home office couch in front of the TV
- 19. Life of an Architect - World Headquarters work office satellite office
- 20. By the numbers 725 Days since launch of lifeofanarchitect.com 3rd most visited architectural blog site in world 2.3 million+ total visits 33,698 people who have visited over 200x 2:12 average time on site 16 posts with over 50 comments 199 most comments on a single post 7,600+ Facebook Fans 5,300+ Twitter Followers … but does it really matter?!?
- 21. By the numbers Where are the people coming from? Worldwide United States “Work Zone” What sort of people are they? Potential clients Other architects Architectural students Vendors awesome people
- 22. How did this happen? Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Platforms for interaction and message distribution different readers different delivery different interaction SAME CONTENT
- 23. How did this happen? Facebook Demographics Content Interaction
- 24. How did this happen? Twitter Demographics Content Interaction
- 25. Advocating the profession Topic Appeal clients architects arch students recruiting Purpose? educational advocacy
- 26. For the Pro’s (behind the scenes) Topic Appeal clients architects vendors Purpose? process oriented
- 27. Promotion & Perception Topic Appeal clients architects recruiting Purpose? firm culture
- 28. Firm Promotion Topic Appeal clients vendors recruiting Purpose? work scope promotional maintain interest
- 29. Humor Topic Appeal clients architects recruiting Purpose? personality for my benefit
- 30. Humor & Personality Topic Appeal clients architects recruiting Purpose? vocational humor
- 31. Personality & Perception Topic Appeal clients architects recruiting Purpose? personality driven
- 32. Personal Topic Appeal clients architects recruiting Purpose? connection and ownership
- 33. Community Outreach Getting the word out 250+ registrants from around the world 19 different countries 31 different states
- 34. Why do I do it?
- 35. What next? I have the same questions that everyone has: Now that I’ve reached this point what happens? Success = time, sacrifice, commitment Success = Personal, interesting and consistent ROI = Return on Investment?? Measure using goals that YOU define: new business? personal promotion/ branding? connecting with others / communicating? creative outlet?
- 37. ARCHITECTS WHO BLOG CASE STUDY: COFFEE WITH AN ARCHITECT I STARTED A BLOG TO FIND WORK I DID WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO IT DIDN’T WORK SO, I GAVE UP AND STARTED BEING MYSELF THEN THIS BLOG SAVED MY LIFE NOW I HAVE IMAGINARY FRIENDS SO, SHOULD YOU BLOG? { SPOILER ALERT: YOU SHOULDN’T }
- 38. I STARTED A BLOG TO FIND WORK I LOST MY JOB IN JANUARY 2009 I LOST MY COMMUNITY OF FELLOW PROFESSIONALS I WAS LOOKING FOR A CREATIVE OUTLET I WAS THINKING ABOUT THE PROFESSION AND MY PLACE IN IT I WAS LEARNING TO START A NEW BUSINESS I WANTED TO NETWORK I WANTED TO BUILD A COMMUNITY
- 39. I STARTED DOING WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO WHAT PLATFORMS I USED: LINKEDIN < 65 CONNECTIONS IN 2009 FACEBOOK PERSONAL PAGE < 85 FRIENDS IN 2009 WEBSITE – COMPANY PAGE <10 VISITS PER DAY SKETCH-BLOG <10 VISITS PER DAY TUMBLR-BLOG <10 VISITS PER DAY COMPANY BLOG <10 VISITS PER DAY FACEBOOK COMPANY PAGE <85 FANS IN 2009 TWITTER <150 FOLLOWERS IN 2009 WHAT I TALKED ABOUT: MY RESUME MY WORK EXPERIENCE THE TYPES PROJECTS I’VE WORKED ON WHAT I’M WORKING ON NOW MY EXPERTISE IN THE PROFESSION
- 40. IT DIDN’T WORK 100% 90% “Isn’t there someone else unemployed 80% out there with something more 70% interesting to say?” 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% MY TRAFFIC MY MOM OTHER PEOPLE
- 41. SO, I GAVE UP AND STARTED BEING MYSELF
- 42. THEN THIS BLOG SAVED MY LIFE Twitter - @INFILLnc - 2400+ followers Blog – COFFEEWITHANARCHITECT.COM (Started blog in February 2010 – now gets 2000-5000 visits/day, 1500+ email subscribers, 2400+ RSS feeds, has had over 500,000 visits to date) Facebook blog page - “Coffee with an Architect” page (started page in 2011 – 5500+ fans)
- 43. I TALK ABOUT BEING AN ARCHITECT “I WEAR BLACK, UNLESS IT’S HOT, AND THEN I WEAR BLACK.” “I HAVE EXCELLENT TASTE IN …. ALMOST EVERYTHING.” “I HAVE WON AN AWARD FOR ALOOFNESS. I DON’T LIKE TO TALK ABOUT IT THOUGH.” “MY TURTLENECK CAN MAKE YOU FEEL INADEQUATE AS A MAN.”
- 44. I TALK ABOUT MY WORK
- 45. I TALK ABOUT HOW ARCHITECTS THINK
- 46. I SHARE MY EXPERIENCES
- 47. I HELP YOU UNDERSTAND ARCHITECTURE
- 48. I HELP YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR CLIENTS
- 49. I TRY TO DEFINE ARCHITECTURE
- 50. I TALK ABOUT DESIGN
- 51. I TALK ABOUT THE PROFESSION
- 52. I TALK TO OTHER ARCHITECTS #ARCHITECTURESOUNDSDIRTY #CONCEITOFARCHITECTS #WHENYOUREANARCHITECT #ARCHITECTVALENTINES #SNIPPETOFANGST
- 53. I TALK ABOUT MY LOVE ARCHITECTURE
- 54. I TALK ABOUT MYSELF I’m an Architect. Maybe I don’t fit the mold, but… My guess is, that most of us don’t fit that stereotype at all. My guess is that we are a diverse group with varying passions and interests. My guess is, that the majority of us were the awkward kid in the corner of design lab. My guess is that my version of awkward is the average, not the exception. My guess is “Architects” are… a lot like me really. Gawd help us. “I’M JUST AN ARCHITECT, STANDING IN FRONT OF AN IDEOLOGY, ASKING IT TO LOVE ME.”
- 55. NOW I HAVE A LOT OF IMAGINARY FRIENDS BECAUSE I’M PERSONAL BECAUSE I’M FEARLESS BECAUSE I’M HONEST AND HOPEFULLY… BECAUSE I’M INTERESTING
- 56. SHOULD YOU BE BLOGGING? WELL, ACTUALLY, NO… • Blogging won’t bring you any business. • No one cares about your press releases or what’s “on the boards”. • No one cares about your “brand” or “corporate mission statement”. • A successful blog is personal, not professional. • Don’t use Social Media to get Clients, just make connections. • IS ANYONE LISTENING TO YOU? IS ANYONE TALKING ABOUT YOU? ARCHITECTS NEED TO BE PART OF THE CONVERSATION
- 58. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” - Charles Darwin
- 59. Twitter: Cities Architecture Sustainability Futures Design Social change Urbanism 10,600 followers 1,066 lists
- 60. Charity: Water
- 61. Kansas City
- 65. A hard lesson learned… with a silver lining. I made a good friend in Bronxelf. She’d like a follow-up blog post. I’ll do it.
- 66. Guest Post @ HOK Life: Trust: The New Golden Handcuffs
- 68. Models for Social Business
- 69. public projects Ilus Davis Park Whittaker Courthouse Interiors City Hall Addition 69
- 70. Davis Park, Kansas City 70
- 71. master planning 71
- 72. Riverview Redevelopment 2nd & Paseo Blvd
- 74. SMCKC Diggo/ delicious bookmarks Twestival URBANVERSE FB .net #futr- URBANVERSE chat @urbanverse BLOG University of Pinterest Houston Teaching via Webcast youtube webinars Slide share Urbanverse
- 75. Architecture is important, but no longer as an autonomous discipline, but as a way of thinking very much connected and aligned with other ways of thinking. REM KOOLHAAS
- 76. Blog: Cities Architecture Design Sustainability Futures Social change
- 77. Ebooks: Future of Design
- 78. Most Read: D is for Disasters, 35,207 readers
- 79. Most Commented: Giving Thanks for Imagination, Creative Genius and Flow, 38 comments
- 80. write it down and then cut out the confusing parts. ~ William Safire
- 81. Ways to tweet the same content 1.Designer: San Fran’s a cool town b/c they created a brilliant long term plan. #design #architecture 2.Researcher: Case Study: San Francisco’s Plan Turns 25 #cities 3.Conversationalist: What did SF’s plan do for you? #cities
- 82. Evolution of an Online Business Strategy
- 83. What do you want to read? Who do you want to read it? Be real Be relevant Be there
- 85. Heads Up display wearable lenses Vernor Vinge Rainbows End
- 86. Times Square NYC Networked Omniscient Exhibit You’ll know the social city far differently.
- 87. Making things new Sydney Opera House Jorn Utzon Architect
- 88. Thank You! Bob Borson, AIA, Life of an Architect @bobborson lifeofanrachitect.com Dallas TX Jody Brown, AIA, Coffee with an Architect @infillnc Infill, Durham NC Cindy Frewen Wuellner, FAIA, PhD @urbanverse urbanverse.net Frewen Architects Inc, Kansas City MO
Editor's Notes
- or 1 out of 3 humans on the net globally
- No border around the box
- In the beginning … I was bored. Work was slow – I felt irrelevant thinking that I had let technology pass me by. A friend of mind and I were having a conversation about on this subject and in a matter of 30 seconds he threw out 5 or 10 words that I had never heard of before.What?By the end of the next day, I had set up my website and written my first post “Who wants to be relevant”I entered this “experiment” without knowing anything. I didn’t know what I was doing, I didn’t have an agenda … I was simply going to make it up as I went along. How bad could it be?I started this experiment just over 2 years ago with no expectations. It wasn’t part of my job, it was simply me trying to figure something out on my own time.
- So where did I do all this work? Mostly sitting in front of the TV in the evenings after my 7 year old daughter had gone to bed. It was just me and my laptop, it didn’t take any new resources, everything I needed I already had or was readily available for free on the internet.
- I rarely write my posts at my work office – it’s their time not mine and as a result my blog is an evening and weekend activity. Then there is the “satellite” office … yes, I’m not above staging photos to make a point
- So it’s been just over two years since I started doing this – and have I been successful? Depends on how you define success … if you define as whether or not people have been coming to my site, I’d have to say the answer is yes. I have experienced some success. Truth is I have been told that people would kill for the numbers I have, and I don’t really know what that means. I would assume that people think a lot of traffic equals success – but that’s only if that’s your goal – which it wasn’t for me. I was simply trying to learn something new – and I did – but I learned a lot of things I was even asking questions about.And that was about how I communicate to people. I don’t know that these numbers represent but I suppose that I’m doing something right.
- So who are these people and where are they coming from? That’s a hard question to answer. I mean, I know what cities and countries people are coming from but I don’t know if they are other architects, students, vendors, recruiters, potential clients … it could be anybody. I put together some graphics so that in a glimpse you can see the geographic coverage Life of an Architect has – In that top image, if it’s green, someone from that country has come to the site – the darker the green, the more people. In all, I think there are only about 15 countries or territories left in the world that haven’t come by, I am going to assume it’s because they don’t have internet access.
- I use a variety of different platforms to help build the traffic to my site and this in and of itself has been very interesting. I primarily use Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook as forums for discussion or to share content. There are many, many more available but I already do a bad job of keeping up with these three, so I try and concentrate my efforts. The thing that has been most interesting about the three platforms I use is that despite the content being the same in all places, I get a distinctly different group of users and a different level of engagement from each platform.
- A quick look at each:Facebook is the youngest demographic group with most users typically under 40 years old. While I place the same content on all platforms, I try and make the presentation of the content a bit more graphic when it goes on Facebook. Instead of it simply being a link to a post I’ve written, it will be a picture that has a link to the post. I only set up my Facebook page about 1 ½ years ago but it quickly became the second largest referrer of people to my website. The users there are very tech and social media savvy.Most – if not all – of the interaction that happens as a result of Facebook – actually happens on Facebook and nowhere else. If you are a Facebook user, that seems to be your main platform. The people who most routinely comment on Facebook – only comment on Facebook.
- So What about Twitter? The first social media platform I used to help promote my site was Twitter – the graphic above is actually a screen capture from a 3rd party provider called Tweetdeck - and it helped build my audience in the beginning. Off all the social media platforms I have experimented with, Twitter was the most rewarding because the exchange of information was the most instant – it was the closest to having a real conversation with someone. I have made some friends as a result of my time on twitter and I would suggest that a great many of the opportunities I have been afforded have in some way been as a result of Twitter. In fact, this panel today was assembled as a result of twitter relationships I had with Cindy and Jody.
- So let’s get to the part about blogging – that is really what we are here to talk about today.Despite the fact that I had no agenda when I started, it is easy to go back and look through the posts I’ve written to see where the appeal might have generated. I typically do not use my website as an online diary but I do try to find a way to make a personal connection with the reader. I generally have a few main classifications that almost all my posts can be categorized. There are the posts I write that probably appeal to the profession but are really advocate pieces for what we as architects really do. We have all been at parties where someone tells us once they learn that we are an architect – that they had considered being an architect but they weren’t very good at math or couldn’t draw very well so … we’ve all been there.
- There are posts that I write that are slanted towards other architectural professionals – but only a little bit. I still try and keep everything simple and easy to follow and avoid getting overly technical in anything that I write. The topics might include how job site photography has evolved or how valuable telling a story to the client as part of the design process can be – surprisingly I have found that there is a lot of crossover interest in these sorts of stories from people outside the profession. People are really interested in hearing how architects do their jobs.
- I also write posts that are specific to me and my job – where and how I work. I don’t do them often but talking about the culture of an architectural office is pretty interesting. Architectural offices function differently than most other offices. In our office, we have shot rubber bands at each other, we have beer thirty, pumpkin carving contests, we go to movies … all sorts of things that speak to the culture of a creative environment. People can read these and see that we like to have fun and that we try and create an atmosphere conducive to personal expression and creativity.
- And then there are posts written about our projects. … but these posts are different than what people are used to seeing. The project isn’t complete, the pictures aren’t perfect – they are educational, interesting, and give someone a reason to come back the site. I have long believed that the practice of architecture is personality based once you get to a certain level. Clients want a project that won’t leak but that’s an expectation – they also want to believe that they will enjoy the process. How did this project turn out the way it did? Where did it start, why was one decision made over another? If you read any of these posts that I write, I do not talk like an architect – and that’s on purpose. People don’t want to about my axis mundi.
- Humor plays a large role on my site and I think it accounts for a large part of any success I have achieved. Trying to explain how you make something funny almost defeats the point – it’s like writing something and adding a “laugh here”. It just doesn’t work that way. While I try and bring humor to most things I talk about, there are times when I specifically write about something because I thinks it funny - like my master bathroom shower which looks like it was designed for a 1970’s key party – or as I wrote in the post –“Bring your own loofah for admittance”
- Part of the reason I think humor is so important is because it conveys my personality pretty well and I think most of my jokes are hilarious. One of the initial objectives I had when I started my blog was to convey my personality – for better or worse – with the idea being that the reader would get a better understanding of what it would be like to work with me. That as serious as I take my job, I like to have fun along the way and enjoy the process as much as the final product.
- These personality posts have historically made up a vast majority of what I talk about – this is my blog after all and since it isn’t the blog of the company I work for, I need to be careful what I talk about and how I portray the things I do. I endeavor to keep things positive, I don’t use foul language, I don’t speak negatively about other architects, projects, or products. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things that I think suck, I just choose not to write about them. Who would want to read that?
- Nothing conveys personality better than being personal – something that my 7 year old daughter loves because she thinks it’s cool that she’s on the internet (something I’m starting to get a little nervous about) and something that my wife hates – probably because she’s not as funny as I am.When I say personal, I’m not talking about treating my site as an online diary, I mean that I talk about every day things and how they relate to what I do as an architect – how being an architect isn’t a 8 to 5 job, how I plan vacations around buildings I want to see, how I look at how the restaurant is laid out, etc. that it defines the way I see and interact with things everyday. These things are important to convey because it makes you a real person that others will be able to connect with, it conveys some sort of personal style, what I bring to the mix as an individual.
- Something that was not on my radar screen when I started Life of an Architect, was how I could use the site to help others. Not just in the thousands of emails I receive over the last two years from panicked architecture students, but that I could talk about the charity that I support – and how I support it by designing playhouses that get raffled off every year. At first I designed them and shared the drawings and construction photos online – you want to build this? Great – here are the drawings .But this year was different, this was the first year that I hosted a playhouse competition on my site – anybody could enter and it was completely free of charge – other than the money I spent on beer and snacks I provided during the live judging round. I received entries from all over the world, from architects, architectural students, craftsman, wood workers, college professors – the list went on and on. I was completely overwhelmed that this stupid blog could actually do something so amazing, helpful and beautiful. This was something different than me sitting on my couch writing about how urinals are dirty. This was something real
- So why do I do it?Primarily it was to learn something new, add a new skill set to my quiver. It didn’t take long before the comments and emails started coming in and I realized that my site was filling a gap that existed. Architects, generally speaking, don’t have blogs and of the ones that do, few are very interesting. Isn’t the point to tell a story, get the reader to become invested, have them want to come back again to see how something evolved or turned out? Being able to tell these stories and engage the readers has enabled me to make so many new friends, visit places that would previously be unavailable to me. Why is that? I am the same person today that I was before I started this social media experiment. Truth is that I am nobody special, I don’t have a skill set that is particularly unique and it’s quite possible that Google screwed something up and that’s why I get a lot of traffic. There are two things I think I have that have made a difference – I wasn’t afraid to make mistakes and possibly humiliate myself, and I made it personal and made fun of those mistakes
- So here I am, standing on a stage at the National AIA convention talking to a bunch of people who I am currently visualizing in their underwear …Where do I go from here? Since I have been making this up as I go, I’m honestly not sure. Should everyone out there be blogging? Absolutely not – it’s not for everyone. I’ll tell those that are really interested that the more traffic and attention you get, the more work and crap you have to deal withI know how to do what I’ve already done, where is the next challenge … ?The first thing anybody who thinks they want to blog needs to do is figure out what they expect to get out of the process of maintaining a blog. Is it to get new business, maybe personal branding … or maybe it’s just a creative outlet that could possibly lead different horizons. My office has gotten two projects specifically from my blog and if that was my measuring stick …. Well, I would stick that stick in my neck considering the amount of time and effort I have put into this thing. For me, I consider this a creative outlet, just another part of the whole and based on the people I’ve met, the experiences I had and the things I’ve learned, I’m pretty happy with how things have gone.