It's not just idle chit chat or a waste of time. Millions of people access social networks every day to get real information.

Some construction companies are making full use of social media's marketing benefits. If you're one of them, this blog post isn't for you. For the rest of you (and you know who you are), here are seven reasons your company-whether a large, national general contractor or a small, local specialty contractor-should use social media to market yourself.

1. Make Your Voice Heard. Engage in communities, blogs and forums where people are already discussing the industry's hottest topics such as green building and BIM.
2. Showcase Your Quality Work. We all know a picture is worth a thousand words, and photo galleries and video channels like Flickr and YouTube make it easier than ever to show your company portfolio to a larger audience.
3. Maintain Sales Leads. Using LinkedIn to manage connections you meet and to profile your brand makes it easier for someone to remember you and then find you when they need your services.
4. Become the Expert. Maybe you do something not many others do. In the old days, you wouldn't write an encyclopedia entry on it, but today that's exactly what you should do-explain it on Wikipedia and become the go-to expert.
5. Take Your Expertise to the Next Level. Give more in-depth information in the form of audio podcasts and distribute them through iTunes. People can download them and listen to them while commuting or exercising.  
6. Communicate With Your Employees. Employees of construction firms are often spread out on different job sites. Posting company news in a central location such as your website or Facebook and then Tweeting it can make it easier to spread a uniform message throughout your staff.
7. Draw All that Effort Back to Your Website. The most important purpose of any social media effort is to bring the traffic back to your company's hub-its website. Now there are more places to put that message than ever before.

Social media possibilities can seem overwhelming and at times risky, but thinking strategically about where to start and beginning slowly can help you grow your business. But please, also consider putting a social media policy in place before unleashing the entire company on it. See you on Twitter @frostmiller or Facebook www.facebook.com/frostmillergroup!

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