Tip #1: Do an inventory of Social Media tools you have.

This was the first thing I did upon learning that I was thrown into a competition by a well meaning colleague. My instinct was, this could probably be won through the power of Social Media. I immediately assessed the tools and skill set I could use.

1. The Skill Set

Last May, I spoke at the American Institute of Architects’ National Convention about “How to Leverage Social Technologies for a Sustainable Practice”. It was selected as a featured course in the 2011 Virtual Convention. It was also chosen as one of the “Best of New Orleans AIA National Convention”. I thought to myself, this Curbed competition could be a great opportunity to demonstrate and practice what I preached at that convention.

Image from AIA website

Image from AIA website

2. The Tools

Facebook. In Facebook, my audience is a mixed bag of friends, clients, colleagues, and family. This is also the platform where I’m most active. This account has a network of more than 1,000 friends.

In addition to my own personal profile, my company maintains 2 business pages: “Frankly Speaking It’s The Wright Way” and “Aspen/National Geographic Environment Forum Scholar”. Each page has an audience of nearly 500 each.

 

I am also part of 3 Facebook groups, 2 of which have nearly 2,000 members each, and 1 with 1.4 million members.

Twitter. In Twitter, my audience is mostly in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction industries. According to Klout, the standard of influence, I am influential about 1 topic: Architecture. My style of engagement is that of a Specialist where the content I share is industry-specific that is received by a highly-engaged audience.

Image from Klout

 I’ll elaborate more on this later for Tip #3. Overall, I grew my following organically--meaning I didn’t start following hundreds of people immediately in order to be “followed” back. Right now, I have earned more than 1,200  “followers".

Image from Klout

LinkedIn. In LinkedIn, my audience is strictly business contacts. I have nearly 500 contacts in this account.

Google+. This is a new tool for me and I’m still discovering and learning as I go. I’m not nearly as active in GPlus as I am in Facebook, simply because most of the audience I interact with on a regular basis have not caught up with this new kid on the block.


So there you have it. These are the tools I leveraged during the Curbed competition.


Here's a recap of the 7 Tips.