Our Social Network
What does social media mean to acla:works?
A couple weeks ago I watched The Secret and was reassured of the validity of the statement: “The future is what we make it.” Back In 2008, before news of the global financial crisis hit, acla:works embarked on a forward-thinking marketing strategy. We felt that, although the previous administration had been a major driver in the Trinidad and Tobago economy, it had also cultivated an attitude against engaging local consultants and contractors for the design and construction of the state’s ambitious development goals. In response, we decided to create a forum where the local design community could publicly share ideas and expertise.
We redeveloped our website as an evolving, interconnected and dynamic site that works more like we do – drawing from our previous work, engaging on various levels with different groups or individuals, speaking about the things we care about, and pursuing different themes. We approached new technologies much as we design – in the present, acknowledging the past, yet for the future. The last thing we want is to become obsolete!
With that in mind, last week we invited Mark Lyndersay – iconic tech guru and professional photographer, and Melanie Archer – acla:works graphics and marketing consultant to give short presentations on social media, which forms a major part of our website and is connected to our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr pages. [Text continues after images]
Melanie presents
Mark talks about his networks
While discussions were quite heated and digressed a bit on some of the more controversial elements of the SlideShare presentation Melanie showed, it became clear that social media is less filtered and censored than traditional marketing and, as such, holds a greater potential to offend. While we strive to be careful with our content in this media, at the same time, we try not to distill our emotions too much from our stories – we're human, after all.
Some of us see social media as a bit of an experiment, as it differs so much from traditional marketing [i.e message to public – public reception]. As head of Marketing at acla:works I am aware that social media is growing at an incredible rate and has tremendous influence as users of the internet spend considerable amounts of time on social media sites. Given this, it's obvious that it is a trend that will not disappear anytime soon.
Mark Lyndersay made the point that "social media" doesn't exist anymore . . . it's just media. Public opinion is now at our fingertips rather than in the hands of statistic or market research groups. Mark took us through his process and showed us how he uses feedback to continually improve his sites and how important it was for him to be authentic and have his sites reflect his personality.
So as we embrace social media and as Mark reminds us that we must continue to give so that we can receive, we open ourselves to comments from our visitors. Through our social media dialogue we hope to improve our work towards improving the global built environment through architecture, and have some fun at the same time.
– GT
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