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Networking for an architecture firm is more than attending events: it can include helping employees represent the firm, speaking to new audiences, publishing work online and collaborating with complementary practices. Steven Burns’s four strategies, published in Building Design + Construction on January 3, 2018, offer a useful framework for turning professional relationships into opportunities for the work a firm wants. They are advice from that article, not a current survey or a guarantee of business growth.
The practical takeaway is to use all four approaches for different purposes: build trust inside the firm, make expertise visible, stay in touch with existing contacts and find peers whose capabilities complement yours. The source does not rank the strategies, so the right starting point depends on the relationships and audiences a firm needs to develop.
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What does networking mean for an architecture firm?
Networking is the work of creating and maintaining professional relationships that can lead to shared knowledge, introductions or project opportunities. In Burns’s framework, it is broader than meeting people at events: the firm’s culture, public speaking, online publishing and collaboration with other firms all play a part.
That broader view matters because the strategies reach people in different ways. A talk can introduce expertise to a room of people at once. A blog or social post can make work visible beyond the people a principal already knows. Collaboration can deepen a relationship with another practice by putting complementary expertise to work. Employee advocacy, meanwhile, depends on whether people inside the firm understand and can explain its vision.
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These methods are not interchangeable, and the source does not provide measured results for any of them. Think of them as a set of relationship-building channels, not as a formula that promises a certain number of leads or projects.
Which of the four strategies should a firm use first?
There is no universal first choice in the source. Choose according to the relationship you want to build, the audience you need to reach and the time the firm can commit; the comparison below is an editorial interpretation of the article’s descriptions, not a ranking or performance study.
| Approach | Primary relationship purpose | Reach and follow-up | Best fit when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build a rich company culture | Help employees understand and represent the firm’s vision | Ongoing, person-to-person conversations | The firm wants its people to speak confidently about what it does and why |
| Seek speaking opportunities | Introduce expertise to an audience | One-to-many in the moment; invite later connection through social media or an e-newsletter | There is a relevant audience and a clear subject the firm can contribute |
| Expand the firm’s online presence | Share work and stay connected with professional and existing contacts | Ongoing publishing and remote connection through channels such as Instagram, LinkedIn, a blog or an e-newsletter | The firm can share useful project imagery, ideas or updates consistently |
| Collaborate with colleagues | Combine complementary expertise and learn together | Deeper, project-based relationships with peer firms | A project or proposal could benefit from capabilities the firm does not provide alone |
How can a firm build a culture employees can represent?
Employees are more likely to act as credible ambassadors when they understand the firm’s vision and feel comfortable talking about it. Burns links that readiness to a healthy culture and employee enthusiasm; it is not simply a matter of asking staff to promote the company.
Start by making the firm’s purpose understandable in ordinary language. Leaders should be able to explain what kinds of work the practice wants, what it values in its approach and how the team contributes. The goal is not to impose a memorized sales pitch. It is to give employees enough shared context to have genuine conversations with clients, consultants, peers and people they meet professionally.
Then make room for those conversations. Internal discussions about the firm’s direction and projects can help employees connect their own work to the larger vision. If people are unsure how to describe the practice, treat that as a cue to clarify the message and invite questions rather than simply distributing a script.
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A practical way to apply the strategy is to identify a few points staff should be able to explain consistently: the work the firm is seeking, the capabilities it brings and the kind of collaboration it values. These are implementation suggestions, not a checklist supplied by Burns. Keep them accurate and flexible enough that people can describe the firm in their own words.
Culture-building is less visible than a public talk or social post, but it supports both. Employees who can speak naturally about the firm can carry its story into existing relationships and new conversations. If internal enthusiasm is weak or the firm’s direction is unclear, prioritize that foundation before expecting employees to serve as advocates.
How do speaking opportunities help a firm meet new people?
Speaking can put a firm’s expertise in front of a group, and Burns describes it as a way to reach many people with relatively little firm time. The article does not quantify that time advantage or promise a particular audience response; the value depends on finding a relevant venue and making the talk useful to its audience.
Choose a subject the firm can address with substance, not merely a presentation about itself. A talk that shares a perspective or useful project insight gives listeners a reason to engage with the speaker. The source does not prescribe a specific topic or event type, so firms should look for opportunities whose audience and subject align with the relationships they hope to build.
Plan the follow-up before the event. Burns recommends inviting audience participation at the end and making the speaker approachable. Leave room for questions or conversation, and make it easy for interested people to continue the connection later through the firm’s social platforms or an e-newsletter. A call to action should be simple: tell people where to find the firm or how to stay in touch.
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After the event, follow through on conversations rather than treating attendance as the outcome. A relevant note or promised link can turn a brief exchange into a continuing professional relationship. This is a practical application of the article’s advice to pair speaking with later contact, not a reported result from the source.
Speaking works best as one part of the broader approach. A firm’s online channels can give interested listeners somewhere to learn more, while its employees’ shared understanding of the firm can help make subsequent conversations coherent and credible.
What should an architecture firm publish online?
Burns suggests using Instagram for project imagery and architecture the firm admires, the firm’s website for blogging, LinkedIn for remote connections with peers, and periodic e-newsletters to maintain contact with people already in the firm’s network. Each channel has a different role; the source’s description of online publishing as a fast way to grow a digital audience is the author’s characterization, not a measured result.
- Instagram: Share project imagery and architecture the team admires. Give the audience enough context to understand why the image matters rather than relying on visuals alone.
- The firm’s website: Use blog posts to explain ideas, work or points of view in a format the firm controls. Burns recommends blogging but does not set a publication schedule or promise particular traffic.
- LinkedIn: Use it to connect remotely with professional peers. The source positions it as a networking channel, not as a replacement for direct professional relationships.
- E-newsletters: Send periodic updates to existing contacts. This is a way to stay in touch with people the firm has already met, rather than only chasing a new audience.
A manageable online presence should reinforce the firm’s real expertise. Select subjects and images that reflect the work the practice wants to be known for, and make sure posts and updates are accurate. A channel that is opened but rarely maintained may be less useful as a relationship touchpoint than a small number of channels the firm can sustain.
Use a follow-up path that fits the interaction. Someone who hears a talk may want to follow a social account or subscribe to an e-newsletter; a peer reached through LinkedIn may be better served by a direct professional conversation. The point is not to push every contact into every channel, but to give people a relevant way to continue the connection.
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How can collaboration with another firm lead to better opportunities?
Collaboration can turn a peer relationship into a stronger project team when firms bring complementary expertise. Burns argues that firms can exchange information and project opportunities, strengthen a proposal by joining forces and create learning opportunities through the work.
This means collaboration need not be framed only as a response to competition. A practice may have capabilities or knowledge that another firm lacks, and the reverse may also be true. When a project or proposal calls for a combination of strengths, a trusted colleague can be a source of advice or a potential partner.
Before pursuing a joint proposal, make the fit concrete: identify what each firm would contribute and why the combined team is more suitable for the opportunity. This is a practical decision test based on the source’s emphasis on complementary expertise, not a formal selection process from the article. A partnership is not automatically beneficial just because the firms know each other; the capabilities should actually complement the project’s needs.
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Be clear with the prospective partner about the opportunity and the intended collaboration. Discuss how each firm would contribute, what knowledge can be shared and whether the arrangement gives both practices a meaningful role. The source does not detail contract, fee or project-management arrangements, so those matters should be handled separately and explicitly rather than assumed from a networking relationship.
Burns summarizes the potential benefit this way: “Joining forces with another firm for a project can help strengthen a project proposal and create learning opportunities.” That is a rationale for exploring a fit, not evidence that every joint bid wins or that collaboration guarantees new work.
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How can a firm make the four strategies work together?
Use the four approaches as connected parts of a relationship system rather than isolated marketing tasks. A firm can clarify its vision internally, give employees language to describe it, share relevant work online, speak to an audience that cares about the subject and continue the conversation with interested people. When a suitable opportunity calls for capabilities beyond the firm’s own, a relationship with a complementary practice may become a collaboration.
- Clarify the goal. Decide what kind of work or professional relationship the firm wants to pursue. The source does not provide a target-setting method, but a clear goal helps a firm choose relevant audiences and partners.
- Choose a relationship channel. Use speaking for an audience, online publishing for visibility and ongoing contact, and collaboration for a project-specific combination of expertise. Strengthen the employee culture that supports conversations across all of them.
- Offer something useful. Make the interaction about a relevant idea, project insight or complementary capability rather than a generic request for work. Burns’s suggestions point toward sharing expertise and inviting participation.
- Make follow-up possible. For event audiences, identify a social channel or e-newsletter; for peer relationships, continue the conversation directly. Keep the next step appropriate to the contact.
- Revisit the fit. Consider whether the relationships being developed connect to the work the firm wants and whether the chosen approach is sustainable. This is a planning practice, not a performance metric reported by the source.
Burns’s biographical note in the 2018 article reports that earnings at Burns + Beyerl Architects grew at an average of 24% per year during his 14 years managing the firm. That is an attributed biography figure; it does not show that networking caused the growth and should not be treated as a benchmark or forecast for another practice.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does networking mean collecting as many contacts as possible?
Not necessarily. The four approaches focus on useful relationships—people who understand the firm, audiences interested in its expertise and peers whose capabilities may complement its own—rather than contact volume.
How can an architecture firm tell whether networking is leading to useful work?
Keep a simple record of the relationship, how it began and whether it led to a relevant conversation, introduction or opportunity. Treat that as an internal learning aid, not proof that a specific channel caused a project or will produce the same result again.
Should every employee be expected to represent the firm publicly?
The source emphasizes employees as potential ambassadors when they understand the firm’s vision and feel comfortable discussing it; it does not say that every person must take on a public-facing role. Let people contribute in ways that suit their role and confidence, while ensuring they have an accurate understanding of the practice.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsCan online networking replace meeting people in person?
The source presents online publishing and remote professional connections alongside speaking and collaboration, not as substitutes for them. A firm can use digital channels to maintain or extend a relationship while choosing in-person interaction when it suits the situation.
