Do you Twitter? Do you have a page on Facebook? Are you on LinkedIn? These are the social media sites of today’s world and increasingly a part of our business as well as our social lives.

According to a study which the firm Function: recently conducted, looking at the habits of more thab 600 architects, 35 percent of those surveyed are on LinkedIn, 28 percent use Amazon’s social features, 10 percent of those architects are active on Facebook, and 5 percent use Twitter. Less popular social networking sites like Myspace, Flickr and StumbleUpon account for another 9 percent of those surveyed.

For me, different social media sites are useful for different situations.

For example, I interact with my business colleagues on LinkedIn. That is where most of them are and there are great groups which pertain to subjects we are most interested in, such as energy efficiency and architectural glass. For my family and personal friends, we socialize on Facebook. It’s nice to stay in touch with people who are so far away, and I know my business colleagues are not interested in what is happening in my family.

We’re increasingly participating in an electronic social world. And the results of the Function: survey show that architects are active participants.

According to Jody Porowski, content manager at the firm, Function: the firm has recently done a great deal of research on social media in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry.

“We believe the results of this study indicate that architects continue to focus social media usage on sites that are targeted on generating professional connections, with LinkedIn holding the most participation; but the upward trends of architects with accounts on Twitter and Facebook shows an active interest in larger community engagement and the increasing appeal of sites with multiple social professional and business-related functions.”

Another piece of research available at the firm’s website is a recent webinar it conducted on social media several weeks ago.

“Our panel consisted of an architect, members of the media in the AEC industry, a marketing professional from AIA, and myself,” explains Porowski. “Our discussion included who is using social media in this industry, what has been the most effective approach to social media in this industry, etc.”

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