Building ContentMarketing | Building Content

Fun With Words

collier1960 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:00:21 +0000

Any repeat visitors to Building Content know that your’s truely, the “Content Architect“, loves words. (I refer you to the Foundation Content page for further understanding of this claim.) If the words have to do with architecture, that’s all the better.

If you’re still reading, you may share this penchant for such words (or perhaps your mouse is broken and you’re stuck on this screen).

Let me recommend the Secret Word Game offered by David Stutzman and the people at Conspectus, Inc.

Being “the largest specifications consulting firm in the U.S.” Conspectus has crafted their word puzzle game around spec terms. It’s challenging, it’s knowledge-based, and it offers prizes any architect would love and use daily. I tried, I won and here’s what Conspectus sent me.

Go ahead and give the current challenge a try. While you’re on the Conspectus web site, please check out their range of services:

Thank you David for the great mug – and for providing the basis for another blog post!

BlogTour 2012

collier1960 — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:46:29 +0000

Fellow Architectural Bloggers, below is my entry to be selected for BlogTour 2012. Have you applied yet?

Read all about it at www.Modenus.com – and may the best entries win!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Modenus and the BlogTour advisory board,

I would like to be considered as a guest blogger for the New York City destination of BlogTour 2012 based on the following online influence factors:

My blog, Building Content, focuses on providing high-value content for my fellow architects.
I leverage my blog, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms to promote the work of others. (Featured Blog Series and Guest Book Reviewer, BIM and Integrated Design)
I have previous blogging recognition. (Guest blogger for Coverings 2010, Exceptional Contributor Award, for UPworld, 2011-Q1)
I am a creative and prolific deadline-driven writer. (Winner of NaNoWriMo 2011; a 52K word novel written in the month of November)
I nurture my online influence as reflected in my steadily growing scores with Klout (44), PeerIndex (47) and Kred (736).

I sincerely appreciate being considered along with the other exceptional bloggers for this exciting opportunity.

Collier Ward

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

I never played an instrument in school, but I bet I could be First Chair in blowing my own horn.

CC: Best Construction Blog Competition

collier1960 — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 06:26:00 +0000

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

(An ongoing feature of Building Content is regularly posted items of curated content;

information and stories from the best sources on the Internet. These examples of content

curation will be easily recognized by the “CC:” prefix in their titles. Please read these for

your own enjoyment or to incorporate, with proper citation, into your own blog.)

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————- Construction Marketing Ideas is again hosting its annual Best Construction Blog Competition. Please visit the site and nominate your favorite construction industry blog per these instructions:

Simply enter the name of your favorite blog serving the AEC community… and describe why you think it is special. You can nominate anyone other than the Construction Marketing Ideas blog.

Since any blog serving the AEC community qualifies, perhaps your blog should be nominated – let’s make sure the architectural blogging community is well represented in this event. Whatever the case, please visit Mark Buckshon‘s site and make good use of all the industry insight and resources he provides. Construction Marketing Ideas also has a LinkedIn group. If you nominate a blog for the Best Construction Blog Competition, please mention it in the comment box below. Building Content may be able to help promote it. .

MetaMarketing – A Landscape Example

collier1960 — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:45:53 +0000

Lately (as introduced in “A Milestone Concept“) I’ve been thinking and writing in terms of “meta-marketing” where architecture is promoted beyond the individual designer-client relationship, where architecture is portrayed to the culture at large. (Please see my “Learning from Hollywood” series for more on these ideas; Part I, Part II, Part III)

Recently members of the ASLA (America Society of Landscape Architects) took to the street in dozens of cities and engaged in their own brand of meta-marketing. Please check out the great video of their informal interactions with citizens.

LINK TO VIDEO

The one-day event captured on this video is part of an ongoing web-based promotion by the ASLA. The centerpiece of the effort is a public site called Landscape Architecture. Your Environment. Designed. The public event was a traffic-boon. The result; “Traffic to the website skyrocketed during the more than 175 events taking place across the country on August 17.”

Traffic to the website skyrocketed during the more than 175 events taking place across the country

What is the “meta-marketing” aspect of this event? I’ll explain.

The people in this film aren’t likely to hire a landscape architect because of these encounters. (Such a response would be the goal of traditional marketing.) However, these folks are probably now more informed, more interested and more inquisitive about the profession.

Most of them will remember these designers and will recognize their value when they discover a new public park or plaza. Some of them may find themselves on a neighborhood homeowners’ association, or a church building committee, or a business planning board. One of them might then initiate a call to a local ASLA member to get input on their pending project. An informed, interested, inquisitive public is a the goal of meta-marketing.

On this video, a seed of value-awareness has been planted – that’s the nature of meta-marketing.

A special “thank you” Jim Lapides, Manager of Public Relations at ASLA for assistance on this post.

Learning from Hollywood – Part III

collier1960 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:59:45 +0000

In my last post, “Learning from Hollywood – Part II”, I discussed the prominence of the “procedural” as a genre of television fiction and elaborated on the idea that “Production is the New Promotion.” I said I would present several scenarios of the architectural procedural that could be adapted as a Television or Internet program. Here are four:

“DOCU-DRAMA” (unscripted)

: Image via Wikipedia

This would be presented like the many personality-based programs on HGTV and DIY but with these three exceptions. Rather than a single designer-host, an architectural firm would be the centerpiece. Rather than introducing and completing a project within a single episode, projects would carry over as needed (much like the grandfather of this genre, “This Old House” follows an entire project). Unlike TOH however, three or four projects (at different stages) would be followed.

“EDU-DRAMA” (scripted)

: The Field Museum Library via Flickr

This would have the same elements as its unscripted version, except that the personalities, projects and procedures would be fictional. The purpose would be to expose viewers to realistic architectural story-lines and situations. Prospective students and the public at large could have a glimpse into the profession, with out the liabilities or real-world constraints of an unscripted show. This would have a documentary look with handheld cameras, scene captions, interviews and so forth.

STANDARD DRAMA (scripted)

: Image by nasa hq photo via Flic

An hour-long episodic procedural in the vein of other profession-based programs such as The Good Wife (Legal) Grey’s Anatomy (Medical) or Mad Men (Advertising). Where the “edu-drama” is scripted to educate, this would be written to entertain.

“DOCU-GAME” (unscripted, interactive)

This may be the most innovative an engaging way to present architectural practice to a viewing audience. It would be structured like the “docu-drama” described above, but would have an audience participation aspect. Each show would include an opportunity for viewers to text in their input. For example, if the design firm was actually preparing three schemes to show a client – say three versions of a public playground – the episode would show the designers discussing the schemes and then, viewers could text-message their choice. This wouldn’t be binding in any way, but it may give the firm some coveted user-insight. The audience would tune in the following week to see how the actual client presentation unfolds. This scenario takes the procedural genre to the realm of an interactive charette.

For brevity’s sake I’ll stop here. Each of these has production constraints as well as possible product endorsement opportunities to generate revenue. I’m investigating these issues, but in the meanwhile, please post a comment and share your thoughts.