Landscape Architecture, April 2013

Banal tweets (“Just had an awesome sandwich at the Corner Cafe!”), status updates steeped in false modesty (“So humbled to be named Attorney of the Year”), and viral cat videos: None of these would exist without social media.

Over the past few years, traffic on websites like Facebook and Twitter has exploded. According to a Pew Internet survey conducted in late 2012, two-thirds of all Internet users are now on Facebook, and 16 percent are on Twitter—an increase of 100 percent from two years before. Social media is the whole world’s public square, and sometimes, it can seem like a Babel of pointless chatter. But if you listen closely, you’ll hear smart people have serious conversations, too.

As the use of social media has grown, so has its role in professional networking and marketing. Although landscape architects have taken to social networks, they are somewhat less visible than other design professionals—owing to their smaller numbers, but also, perhaps, to their natural reticence. Most landscape architects would rather grade a site or research plant species than draw attention to themselves.

Full story available in the free digital edition of Landscape Architecture, April 2013, page 44