Harriet Whitaker shines the spotlight on CFJ’s own social media channels.

Facebook: @cfj.contractflooringjournal
Facebook plays an important part in getting CFJ’s message out there. Group discussions, an integral part of Facebook’s approach, are a great way for flooring contractors to share information and debate topics around installations.

We post articles from our latest magazine whether it be from our Specifier’s Guide to Flooring, our flooring supplements, or our most recent edition of CFJ magazine. We believe it’s important the industry is kept updated with the current advice because you never know when you’re going to need it. Our page has 3,240 likes and 4,400 followers.

Facebook is great for the flooring industry because it gives floorlayers the opportunity to upload their installations they’ve recently carried out for their clients as well as creating brand awareness. There are also different groups that all members of the flooring industry can join to ask flooring-related questions as well as ask for advice. Facebook is home to a lot of groups where floorlayers post images of their work installations and ask for feedback however there are some groups which floorlayers need to be aware of, as members sometimes put other industry professionals down about their work. It’s great when floorlayers can get together and give constructive feedback and advice.

Instagram: @contractflooringjournal
Our Instagram account has 1,638 followers and our popularity is growing daily. Our Instagram platform is the most recent edition to our social media collection yet it’s one of the most valuable. On this platform, we produce live videos from our events which can also be found on our story. Our main posts consist of our inspiration of the day where we pick an image/article from our new portal we’ve just introduced. The portal is part of the CFJ website where companies come together to post images, case studies, videos, and brochures of their products.

We pick an image/article from the server and post it across our social media. However, it’s most valued on this platform. We also post news about upcoming events which also appear on our story, including the CFJ Awards.

Instagram is a growing platform where floorlayers, flooring contractors, and manufacturers post about their products and jobs where their products were used. Instagram seems to be the number one platform for competitions so if you have a new product launch or service, use it to your advantage and integrate it into a competition. It’s a great way to gain followers and brand awareness.

Instagram has also become a platform where companies use it to post blogs, upcoming events, and company news. Paid adverts for Instagram and Facebook seem to be becoming more popular to target their audiences.

Twitter: @CFJMagazine
Twitter has been an important tool for CFJ in order to get its message out to industry since May 2011. With 7,892 followers, we’ve tweeted out more than 7,062 times and we monthly receive more than 50,000 impressions.

We post videos from our website under our CFJ TV section as our video of the week. We upload videos onto our company site where they’re shared across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. News is sent to us and posted as well as articles from our magazine and our Specifier’s Guide. We also post about upcoming events and announcements.

Twitter is home to memes, gifs, and opinions of companies. With a limited use of characters that can be used, it’s important that your message to your followers is short and snappy but make sure you include the hashtags that are relevant to your post to ensure it reaches the right audience and more exposure. Twitter is also one of the main platforms as well as LinkedIn to see the trends in the industry. Monitoring them and creating conversations based on them will heighten impressions and exposure. Mental health and sustainability seem to be two of the main trends in the industry right now owing to the issues arising over climate change and the aftermath of Covid-19, highlighting how it’s affected people’s mental health.

LinkedIn: CFJ Contract Flooring Journal
Our LinkedIn group is a private group where members of the flooring industry can request to join. We’ve seen an increase, especially in the pandemic circumstances, of members to the group which is currently 8,071. Our private LinkedIn group is home to industry news and events which are also shared across our main CFJ Twitter and Facebook platforms. We have also created a new LinkedIn page which is the newest edition to the CFJ social media family. It currently has 669 followers. The reason why we have developed this page is to increase brand awareness so that anyone in the flooring industry can see our updated posts and articles.

LinkedIn has all the latest news going on in the industry, which is why if nothing else, as a company, you should have a profile. LinkedIn is also primarily known as the ‘jobs and careers’ social media network so promoting vacancies and work you have been involved in will get you noticed and perhaps job offers as well as new employees.