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Future trends in the construction media
- 1. Future trends in the construction media Will Mann 18 March 2010
Editor's Notes
- Background about me. 16 years in publishing, of which I’ve nine on Contract Journal, and the last three as editor of the website. So I know construction pretty well. Will start with a bit of context on print vs web, run through the development of the CJ site, the main features of the other media websites, and then look in more detail at how the construction media landscape is changing. Finally, I have included an appendix section which runs through a few more practical dos and don’ts in relations to video, features, press releases etc. I may cover some ground which you know already – so if I see your eyes glaze over, I’ll skip through to the next section. Is there anything particular that you would like from this?
- What do you think of the future of print? Long-term view: CJ was 32,000 when I joined in the early 00s, was down to 21,000 when I left. CN, 45,000 in the early 1990s. Now down to 14,000. Web stats: CJ was 250,000 when I started as web editor in May 2007. It climbed to a peak of 1.3m in March 2009, and thereafter was around about the 1.1m to 1.2m mark each month. More on analysis when I come to CN. Design – Building (and AJ) are examples of how a print title can still look great. But online design is and will continue to get better.
- RSS feeds a big feature of the site – the thinking being that depending on your specialism, you can sign up for whatever is your particular area of interest. Similarly, they have several different specialist newsletters. Analysis is the big push for CN. News breaks daily, so a weekly newspaper is quickly out-of-date. The idea of analysis is to say what the news means. Nick Edwards stated Construction News is now hiring people with high analytical ability . He sees the printed construction press becoming a source of “actionable content” supplying more relevant stories that people can “pick up and use in their jobs”. Is that true? What do you think? CNinsight. Click on contractor name for recent contracts activity - could be useful. Contractor profile – essentially information you would get on company’s website. Technical coverage less. Nick Edwards doesn’t see the community as being important.
- Possibly there is need to know – contracts information. But this is covered by Glenigan. A lot of construction news is a ‘commodity’, as Paul Mason notes. You can find it on other sites like TCI. As we’ve seen with CN, there is a move towards analytical, or premium content. But there is no history of this market having a particular appetite for that kind of content, let alone paying for it. Online advertisers have been sold a message based on high traffic. If you consider that roughly one third to one half of all visits to those sites will come via search engines, that is a lot of traffic that is likely to be lost. How will advertisers respond? Particularly when there are free alternatives. We may see a change in approach to pay walls, with a micro-payments system coming in, which would allow payments from ‘casual users’ who have come from search engines but only want to access 1 or 2 articles a month. So they might be charged 20p per article view, rather than say, a £10 a month subscription. Various forms of this are under consideration by the FT and Murdoch’s US sites. But I think this would require a recognised pan-internet system, similar to Paypal, for it to be adopted widely.
- What type of content do you like Cemex to be featured in most? News accounted for 80% to 90% of all editorial traffic on the CJ.com (not including jobs or UGC). Most of it is ‘managed’ – by government departments, through OJEU notices, by press officers such as yourselves. In many weeks, the biggest story is likely to be ‘on diary’. Which is why Paul Mason thinks it is becoming a ‘commodity’. Journalists get to choose what goes on their sites or in their magazines. But they’re under pressure. And online, volume means more traffic. So the good press release is one that needs minimal work done to it, almost be copied and pasted. But of course – this makes the journalist effectively a middle man. So why not miss him out entirely? Here’s the press release upload website. Advantages: it is a content provider; journalists/customers subscribe to its services; it is good for SEO, eg. south east consortium asbestos. (Liz uses Industry Today.) Different angles on stories. How about some research? Something that addresses the problems of your customers, where you can attach some data to the story? Law firms often do this sort of thing before a new piece of legislation, about the industry’s readiness for it, and then subtly plug their services. I liked the pallet recycling press release. Could you do the same for, eg. contractors’ willingness to use recycled aggregates? Top 5 and Top 10s are good too – tips for recycling packaging waste? Q&As. Work well online. See appendix.
- Do any of you use social media for your Cemex work? Vast number. Twitter, forums, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn. So if you are going to engage with social media, don’t spread yourself too thinly. But I think certain forums and blogs will become increasingly influential. Appendix - Forum examples. SkyscraperCity.com (nearly 400,000 members). Classic Machinery Network. HSE forum. Building Network. Appendix - Blog examples. London Reconnections. Hindhead. Elemental. Should PRs engage with them? Depends on resources. Examples of HSE and NFDC on asbestos debate on CJ forum. If there was something inaccurate about a Cemex product on a forum being read by thousands, is that something you should do as you would in a trade mag? Why not post on a forum – same as writing a letter? But chance of more, and immediate feedback. Twitter is a good way of networking with the press. Follow them, find out what stories they’re chasing, have conversations with them. Works well in a marketing sense, Paul Wilkinson client got 50k order from a tweet. Use tools like SocialMention.com to track if your company is picked up on social media. Also Google Alerts for wider web coverage. Can set up emails to check if you’ve been picked up.
- Construction ideal for videos, but subject matter important with Videos. Don’t have somebody talking direct to the camera, the best videos are those where words or photos cannot tell the story. Eg. Demolition, machinery, timelapse of projects. What could work for Cemex? Time lapse of quarry restoration? Video of blasting of quarry? Videos of machines in action – collaborate with machinery manufacturer? Publishers like CN have to host a video anyway, so why not set up your own YouTube account. That way, 1, you can simply give publishers the embed code and save them the job of uploading it, and 2, you will get more views to the video simply by it being on YouTube. See Finning. Building.co.uk/flickr has a Flickr group – add your images, best ones are published on back page of magazine. Being on YouTube or Flick also good for SEO.
- Email means you know where your alerts are going, obviously useful from a marketing perspective in that it allows you to build a customer database. Same true in PR terms. Design and content crucial though if they are to be opened. 81% of emails are spam. Big issue with filtering, junk mail folders. RSS feed. Disadantage is you don’t know who they’re going out to. But you can keep track of how many. So, Example of Low Energy Air Filters blog, 1,500 subscribers. RSS feeds also allow more granular content to be served up, so if you are a regional contractor, or if you are only interested in housing, you can just subscribe to relevant feeds. In Google News, you can set up an RSS feed based on items you search for. Also – from a personal perspective, RSS readers are a great way of organising and finding content you’re interested in.
- Do you do much SEO work on the Cemex site? Is Google going to remain all powerful. Well, searches doubled last year to 131 billion. So, probably yes. SEO undoubtedly important as a marketing tool for reaching your customers, but it’s important too for reaching journalists. So SEO important in press release on two counts: one, important anyway for reaching your own customers; two, important as a means of reaching journalists who are researching articles about certain terms. SEO research. Use Google Keyword tool, but designed for people interested in advertising on Google. Other paid for versions may be better.
- App launched by Bdonline – though primitive. Building has beta mobile site. Cemex app for ready mix service: http://www.readymix2go.co.uk/