When engineering firm leaders hear the term “social media,” they often think of teens and college students tweeting and updating their Facebook statuses about what they’ve just eaten for lunch. Logically, many cannot fathom why these activities would be important to structural engineering firms. For this single reason, I’d like to change the name, or invent a new term to more accurately connote the power and benefits of social media for business purposes.

I like “Thought Leadership 2.0.” While I would like to take credit for this savvy new term, I can’t. I learned of this notion from Christopher Parsons, founder of Knowledge Architecture (www.knowledge-architecture.com), who led a recent roundtable titled, “Social media won’t transform your business - You will,” sponsored by the Association of AE Business Leaders (www.abel.org) — an organization that supports the consulting professions by promoting, among other things, the free exchange of ideas.

This was the third opportunity I have had to learn from Parsons, and it took that long for his message to sink in. There is a strategy behind leveraging social media tools for AE professionals that is often missed in most explanations of the topic. While understanding, or describing, the “nuts and bolts” of LinkedIn or Twitter is relatively easy to do (this is likely why most education begins here), to really appreciate the strategic opportunity presented by these models is more difficult.

Paraphrasing from Parsons’ many exemplary ideas, if the traditional and critically necessary avenues for conveying thought leadership in any profession can be collectively identified as 1.0 — such as giving presentations; speaking at conferences; writing articles, columns, or books; teaching seminars, classes, or courses; and mentoring — then the next adaptation of this, version 2.0 if you will, involves blogging, podcasts, and tweeting. The use of social media tools gives you a greater reach for the traditional approaches while further establishing your expertise. For example, if your firm has published a book, creating a blog around that topic will generate a dialogue within the community and continue to build your brand as a leader in that field.

In a similar vein of thought surrounding the debate and eventual adoption of building information modeling (BIM), it is not the tool (such as the BIM software) that will enable you to reap the benefits of this new concept, but the process. To leverage social media requires a strategy on the part of firm leaders, as well as a commitment of resources to achieve the goal. And just like BIM, you don’t have to do it … but your competition will.

Embracing this next iteration of media, our staff has been organizing and educating ourselves internally about various platforms and benefits of each (learning the “nuts and bolts”). To that end, we are now up and running on three social media sites for the following reasons (the strategy):

LinkedIn — Dispelling notions that this resource is only useful when looking for a job, LinkedIn is a powerful platform for building your professional network and engaging in online discussions. The Groups functionality is an easy way to begin, join, or learn from a dialogue around a specific topic. Structural Engineering & Design has created a Group within LinkedIn to share ideas, debate, and discuss issues. You are invited to join in at www.gostructural.com/linkedin

Twitter — In 140 characters or fewer, mini shots of information are organized for you based on your interests, or more specifically who you “follow.” Many firms, clients, associations, universities, governments, and other organizations — as well as individuals — routinely pop out nuggets of interesting information that often lead a reader back to a website or a blog. We use Twitter as another mechanism of keeping readers informed; follow us at www.twitter.com/gostructural or follow me.

Facebook — The last of the three, our Structural Engineering & Design Like page, debuted this month as a more causal place to create dialogue and extend our reach. Surprising to us, we receive more traffic to our website from Facebook than any other social media site. Could that be the same for you? Check us out at www.gostructural.com/facebook

Gearing up for what we hope will be a strong 2011, practitioners will need every tool in the box to establish leadership — both to win jobs and attract talent. Social media can be a powerful platform for business, if it is part of a larger strategy.

Jennifer Goupil, P.E., jgoupil@stagnitomedia.com, www.twitter.com/JGoupilPE