justpractisingltd_capability_statement_jan2016

JUST PRACTISING LIMITED Company No. 09413192 a company registered in England and Wales VAT Registration No. 205 6286 19 31 Wittonwood Road, Frinton on Sea Essex CO13 9JZ Registered Office: C/O Whittle & Co Accountants, Century House South, North Station Road, Colchester Essex CO1 1RE

Just Practising : Capability Statement Just Practising is the trading name of Su Butcher’s consultancy which specialises in working with construction companies to enable them to integrate social tools and other Internet activity for business benefits. Since establishing her consultancy in 2011, Su has become a trusted commentator on the adoption of social technologies in construction and advises a range of contractors, product companies and consultants in the UK, Europe and the US. Just Practising incorporated to become Just Practising Limited in April 2015.

What is Social Media?

Social Media is people having conversations on the Internet.

It is the Conversation that makes social media different from other traditional forms of media, which are broadcast in nature, one to many. Social media is many-to-many.It is the process of discussing and sharing that amplifies your message. Without conversation, social media doesn’t work, and you end up shouting into a bucket.

Social media is also a type of Digital Media – a type of Publishing. You need to publish as well as talk. Publishing is what makes good social media work. Without publishing your own things, you won’t have anything for people to talk about, and you’ll end up talking about everyone else.

So to be successful in social media, you need

the SOCIAL – Be prepared to have the conversation; and the MEDIA – Make something worth sharing.

Social Media must be a key part of any effective strategy for marketing, growing and maintaining the reputation of any business. Whilst a good website has been an indispensible tool for some time, social media now helps you turn that website into a machine to generate targeted leads, engage with your stakeholders, recruit and look after your customers and advocates.

© Just Practising Limited 2015 07815 935736 2 of 8

Why use Social Media in Construction?

The Construction Industry is notoriously conservative, and take up of social media has been slow and patchy. But this new technology has a quality that makes it an ideal medium for construction professionals to use and for companies to use to generate business. It is about people.

I worked in architects’ practices for most of my career, and have been involved in generating business helping practices become successful. I’ve also seen how construction professionals across the industry choose whom to work with, which products to specify and which projects to be involved in. It all comes down to human relationships; construction is a human business.

Social media enables us to build, strengthen and develop new relationships with construction professionals that would be impossible to sustain with just a telephone and face-to-face meetings. As human interactions are the key to successful construction business, social media is an indispensable tool.

Why Just Practising?

A new approach to social media Just Practising is a different kind of Social Media Constultancy. We don’t take social media ‘off your hands’ like many agencies do. Whilst this might work with corporate accounts, it is the people who make social media work in construction.

Working with your people Just Practising focuses on the client-facing people in your organisation and helps them use social media as a tool for their own, personal business purposes. This enables them to accept it as a useful tool to help them do their job, rather than something imposed from outside.


Working within your existing systems At Just Practising we come into your organisation, learn how it works and propose strategies to add social media in ways that work with your existing systems to help them work better and improve communication, internally and externally.

What you need how you need it Integrating social media into a business strategy is a marathon, not a sprint. Large or small organisations need to make changes gradually and build up an online footprint of their expertise. We work with our clients to determine the right pace, and the right series of interventions to get the results you need.

Delivering Results Results are the objective of all our activites. We work with you to identify measurable goals and deliver outcomes. We actively use ‘on-social’ and ‘on-website’ measurement using Google Analytics and other tools, tied into quarterly reviews of strategy and implementation.

Innovation and Added Value We’ve always looked for innovative ways to use social tools, be it the promotion of events or learning about specifiers. Tools are developing continually, and we aim to keep abreast of the changes whilst keeping a focus on results.

Su has a large network of construction contacts and a huge reach online resulting from five years of building trust relationships on Linkedin and Twitter. This network is available to her clients as an additional resource. It has been successfully used to reach new audiences, increase engagement and deliver measurable outcomes.

Su’s Twitter Accounts @SuButcher 21,300 followers, Klout score 61 (top 10% of all social media users)

@UKconstruction 45,400 followers, Klout score 52

@ArchitectLeague 48,750 followers, Klout score 50

@UK_Housing 3,400 followers, Klout score 43

“Su Butcher is one of those rare individuals who carry their learning, expertise and experience lightly and, who generously shares them all.The generosity makes her a great networker and she uses social media to extend her network and influence in canny and thoughtful ways.

The 140 characters in Twitter never seem to limit her ability to communicate and her well-regarded live blogging skills helped spread the word about the Government Construction Summit and many other events.

Su is at the crest of the social-media-wave as the leading social strategist in construction. The construction industry is lucky to have her and I cannot recommend her highly enough.”

Bridget Bouch – Jablite and Styropack


Clients Armstrong World Ceilings Ltd

Ash Sakula Architects

Association of Interior Specialists (AIS)

Aurora Group

Baker Stuart

Barefoot & Gilles Ltd

British Land

Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)

Chartered Institute of Building Services

Engineers (CIBSE)

COINS Global

Competitive Advantage

Construction Marketing Ltd

Council for Aluminium in Building

Daniel Connal Partnership

ESI Building

Flowcrete

Flume Training

Franklin Project Management Limited

GBG Building Services Ltd

Gill Associates

GSS Architecture

Gunnebo Entrance Control

Hargreaves Foundry

Haydens Arboricultural Consultants

Honest Buildings

Hush Acoustics

Institute Architectural Ironmongers (IAI)

IES

ihandover

Jablite

Jacksons Fencing

Jaga Heating Products (UK) Ltd

Kalzip

Landmark Information Group

Locality

Marley Eternit

Mineral Products Association

Peter Wells Architects

Playle & Partners

Promat UK Ltd

PRP Architects

The Royal Institute of the Architects of

Ireland (RIAI)

RIBA Enterprises and The NBS

RICS

Royal Society of Architects in Wales

(RSAW)

Saint Gobain Ecophon

SIG Design & Technology

Sustainable Homes

The Building Centre

tp bennett

UBM Govt Construction Summit

UK Green Building Council UKGBC


Example Experience

SIG Design & Technology The FTSE 250 logistics company SIG plc are one of the largest materials suppliers in Europe. SIG Design & Technology is a subcompany of the SIG Exteriors division. SIGD&T is a ‘from the deck up’ full service roof design, supply, install and guarantee service to contractors and specifiers. They offer waterproofing, single ply membranes, green roof systems and hard metal (Zinc and Copper) and have an accredited contractor scheme (DATAC).

The challenge Whilst SIG is well known in the contracting world, the company was little known with architects and other specifiers who tend to rely on familiar brand names for single products. Many of these products are less cost effective and reliable, and as roofing systems become more complicated contractors are requiring whole system guarantees and expertise architects rarely have and don’t want to acquire.

SIG Design and Technology appointed Just Practising to act as strategic advisor on both social media and raising the profile of the company with architects, and to deliver a programme of training, deliverables and measurement to increase the company’s income from specification sales.

What we did Following an audit of key audiences, we devised a strategic plan incorporating a technical blog and use of Linkedin and Twitter by key technical and sales staff. The project has involved working with the entire staff, two external marketers and Group IT.

The results Training in Linkedin was provided to 24 staff members in January 2013. The technical blog was launched in February and a refreshed, humanised website in June 2013. The project involved repurposing existing documentation, producing new social documents and working to integrate online and offline activities.

Over the initial 2-year programme, our strategy attracted 831 blog subscribers, a 285% increase in content downloads from the site and an eightfold increase in contact form enquiries. Specifications increased 89% in number and 73% by value. This has contributed to an increased return on investment of net specifications managed to order from 277% to 330%, all without any significant increase in marketing spend.

The project was Highly Commended in the Construction Marketing Awards 2015. http://www.singleply.co.uk/blog/


PRP are a leading multi-disciplinary consultancy in housing. Just Practising presented to the board, assisted their communications staff to prepare a social media strategy and then led an introductory blogging workshop for 10 key staff. The PRP blog was launched at the end of 2013 and positions the firm as thought leaders in housing policy, sustainability, planning and development. We have also supported the practice with Twitter training and social media safety CPD for all staff. http://www.prparchitects.co.uk/blog/

Marley Eternit asked Just Practising to deliver a social media strategy workshop to its marketing team in the summer of 2013. The one-day workshop involved the 8-strong team and the director of sales and marketing. Following the workshop, ME are developing their social media strategy on several fronts. We have also advised on the development of an effective company-wide social media policy.

JPL has worked with Baker Stuart since its foundation to develop the hugely successful consultancy’s online presence. This has included a website and blog (with cartoons), and various initiatives to raise the profile of the consultancy with its target audiences. The project has involved persona profiling, training and working with workplace PR on copy and product launches. http://bakerstuart.com

Claire Thirlwall is a ‘one-woman-band’ landscape architect specialising in heritage and river restoration. As an individual Claire is a good example of a workshop attendee who has benefited from Just Practising’s workshops. Claire attended the Linkedin workshop in 2013 and the Strategy workshop in 2014.

“I naively thought I knew what LinkedIn could do and came away from the workshop realising that up to now I have only scratched the surface. Su is also great at explaining the mechanics of social media and why it is so useful to small businesses.”

Just Practising was invited to join RIBA Enterprises at their #RIBAVillage Ecobuild in March 2012. The objective of the exercise was ‘bums on seats’ – ensuring sufficient visitors to the village. Use of the #RIBAVillage hashtag on twitter drew in 98 contributors over the week, sharing 505 tweets with over 89,000 others. During our attendance there was often standing room only in the auditorium, and the huge numbers of visitors led to a shortage of free coffee.

Following the success of the event RIBA Enterprises introduced a comprehensive social media strategy and went on to employ Just Practising to live blog and lead a team of tweeters at #NBSLive in 2013, producing 1483 views of the live blog of the event and reaching far beyond the audience of 200 participants in London. http://bit.ly/NBSlive


Our Services

Consultancy The core of the work we do is to act as a trusted advisor to a range of construction companies on the adoption of social media in their businesses. Our approach is to identify where you need external assistance to produce results, and where you have the skills and potential to deliver in house. We then help you get systems in place that will bring the best long-term results.

Audit Where are you now? How effective is your website? Who in your company is online and who is talking about you? What about your competitors? An audit of your online presence will open your eyes to the activity affecting your business interests and help you decide what steps to take to forward your business objectives. Not sure who your audience is? We also carry out persona profiling to tease out exactly whom you are aiming at.

Speak to the Board We are increasingly asked to convinced senior board members of the value of social media by attending and speaking to board meetings. This is particularly effective after an audit.

Strategic Planning The most effective way to deliver a good strategy is to bring the key people into a room and flesh out your existing strategies, identifying where the best opportunities are. At the beginning of the process it is wise to identify ‘low hanging fruit’: pilot projects that can bring a return on investment within a few months.

Building We work with partners to build websites using a variety of content management systems that enable good social media integration. We also set up accounts, Company pages, Google Places pages and other tools as required. We can also work alongside your in-house technical teams.

Training We train your staff in house how to use Twitter, LinkedIn, and how to Blog if required. We also run a successful series of public workshops on a ‘per-ticket’ basis. Workshops include personalised workbooks, plans and online support groups to motivate and drive forward your strategy. We also offer online training, e-learning and webinars, and ‘How to be Safe and Sensible Online’ CPD seminars.


Mentoring For on-going support for your team of bloggers, tweeters or LinkedIn users, book a programme of mentoring sessions to reinforce the training with regular online small group sessions tied into daily monitoring and engagement with all participants online.

Measure We routinely identify and set up measuring techniques as part of my service – for example analytics on websites and record the effectiveness of twitter campaigns. Training can be given in how to monitor links from your various outposts to show the effectiveness of your online activities.

Maintenance, Mentoring and Taster Sessions We offer one-hour online mentoring sessions (usually via Skype) for an hourly rate. Use one to decide whether to run a planning workshop or to ‘pick my brains’. Individual SME clients also use them every month or six weeks to motivate their activities.

Copy writing and document production With expertise in writing for an architectural audience and on sustainability, we write website copy, Press and News releases, Case Studies, Reports, Awards applications and various other materials for selected clients. We also use desktop publishing software to build these materials and work with graphic designers to produce infographics etc.

Events Blogging and Tweeting Su live blogs and live tweets events – an extremely good way to widen the reach of your events. We can also devise and implement a PR strategy for events as part of our service. Ask for the introductory document on Live Blogging.

Keynote Speaker Su has been speaking to construction audiences about social media since 2009. Her approach to events is to give a tailored, relevant presentation that entertains the audience, teaches them something they don’t know and has them wanting to do something about it right away after the event is over.

Recent audiences include product manufacturers, marketing managers, specialist subcontractors and architects and engineers, as well as mixed audiences.

How to use our Services Most of my clients choose to use me on an on-going retainer basis (when we agree a monthly fee in advance for a period of 3 months or more). This enables them to draw on me for a set period in a range of ways, as seems appropriate.

Other clients prefer to draw on me occasionally for specific events, such as to speak to the board, deliver a strategy workshop for their marketing team or train their sales staff in LinkedIn. You can employ me for an hour of mentoring a month or anything up from there.

For Further Information Find out more at www.justpractising.com, email [email protected] or call Su on 07815 935736. You can also contact my PA Suzie Warren on 01462 816978 [email protected] to arrange a meeting or a time to call.

justpractisingltd_capability_statement_jan2016

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