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SITES SUCH AS BuilderLink provide tools to help businesses thrive. while also providing space for interaction and networking.

[rnceaoox FouNDER Mark Zuckerberg once remarked I-' about his own sprawling creation: "It's not done, and we don't know what we're doing yet." Faced with the task of figuring out how to make social media work for our businesses, we in the construction industry might be thinking: If he doesn't know, how are we supposed to?

Sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are fueling a social-media revolution. Ninety million tweets and two billion YouTube videos watched per day... more than half a billion Facebook users around the globe... the numbers are staggering. The conversation is big and loud. But is there any value for the building community?

Second-hand promotion is one tactic. Many companies use social media as an inexpensive marketing iool toreach large audiences with minimal investment. This can be as simple as setting up a profile and attracting a following of friends, clients and colleagues. Yet, passive promotional strategies rarely offer the clearly measured deliverables craved by the hammer-in-hand, old-school audience.

"There is a generation gap," explains Leah Thayer, publisher and editor of daily5Remodel, an online publication for remodeling professionals. "social media is a fast, interactive communication channel that many business owners in our industry aren't inclined to keep pace with."

Undaunted, Thayer, formerly an editor at Remodeling, created daily5 as a one-stop digital resource for her core professional audience. It's an online destination for news and updates that matter to the remodeling crowd, from young, tech-savvy newcomers to veteran tradespeople.

So, it saves time. Now we're talkins about tansible ben-

@Builderlink is an online community of builders, lumberyards and manufacturers who aren't necessarily posting pictures of their pets, but they are taking care of business. On the site, more than lO00 builders are gathering technical data and getting real-time estimates on lumber and building materials, lumberyards are creating new channels of access to their customers, and manufacturers are reaching a whole new focused, web-based audience. And they're all gathering in one place. So is that social media?

"With a twist," explains Builderlink president Steve Killgore. "There's a social media function, but Builderlink is really based on tools that offer time- and money-saving value. Within the context of an online community, we're supporting lumberyards with the estimating tool, offering a technical library with product specifications and tech guides, and giving a platform for webinars on relevant industry topics."

About this hybrid form of social and business mediums, Killgore lauds "the possibility of increased efficiency," which, tech wiz or not, is something for which everyone in the building industry is still striving.

The social-media universe will no doubt continue its rapid evolution, as the early adopters break away from the Facebook and Twitter masses to offer industry-focused content and tools. If these new hybrid players can offer the promised efficiencies of information and transactions, the benefits of the union between social media and the buildins sector just got a whole lot easier to measure.

Network with Builders

A sampling of construction+elated web destinations with social-m edia fu n ction ality:

Builderlink (www.builderlink.com) Online tools connecring lumberyards, builders, engineers and manufacturers.

Cadreas (cadreas.com) Web-based platform to unite consumers and home design professionals.

Daily5Remodel (daily5remodel.com) Online info hub for remodeling industry professionals.

Hard Hat City (hardhatcity.com) Professional networking site for construction industry members.

My Online Toolbox (myonlinetoolbox.com) platform to help contractors manage their jobs and businesses

Remodel Crazy (remodelcrazy.com) Ongoing dialogue of blogs, news and chatter from the remodeling world.