Social Media Platform Feature: Archh - A Global Social Network of Professional Architects And Interior Designers

About the Platform

Archh is a one of a kind social networking portal that aims at connecting the global community of Architects, Interior Designers and and other professionals from the AEC (Architecture Engineering Construction) with one another.

Archh is a property of Ramp Weblogic Pvt. Ltd., which was started by Rajesh Natarajan and me, Manish Dikshit. I have been an architect for over 12 years. Rajesh is an Engineer/MBA with over 15 years experience in real estate, executive search consulting and international business. So the combination fit perfectly

Whom do we cater to?

Archh caters to the professional community of architects, interior designers and other professionals from the AEC (Architecture Engineering Construction) industry. The portal aims to create this connection through sharing work, ideas and knowledge that can benefit the profession at large.

We studied the traditional offline networking that these professionals engage in locally, and are taking it to the web, where it opens up global possibilities for them to grow in the business.

What do we offer to our consumers?

What makes Archh a portal to lookout for is it’s versatility – It enables you to create your e-profile, a means to put out general projects, share profession related opinions and engage with fellow architects and interior designers through your work. We function as a community, so we also help our members promote their work through our own social media presence.

In an attempt to become the go to website on the Internet for anything from the field, Archh also provides news about latest events, trends and competitions for architects and interior designers. It’s a place to discover trends, understand the global market for architecture and everyone associated with the field.

What motivated us to start up?

There was a severe need to equip people involved in this field on the digital media front. We wanted to create a platform where they could promote their work, exchange ideas and passively gain clients and grow their business. Whether you have your own business or whether you work for someone, having your work ‘out there’ is key to making it big.

The main motivation was to use the Internet to create a global community within which people can connect with others from the field, grow their business, exhibit your work and learn from design stories around the world

What's in a name?

We wanted a name which is short and easy to associate with architecture. We were lucky that the domain archh.com was available and hence went with that name.

How do we see Social Media?

When your service itself is a social network, the dynamics of promotion on social media is quite different. That said, we are very inclusive of all other networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus etc. The goal has always been to have our members benefit from our social media reach.

To quote Matt Goulart, Social media is not about your business, it’s about the people. Take care of the people and these people will take care of you. This is what we believe in.

Currently we are....

We launched the Beta version of Archh.com in April 2013. It will be a year this April and we have 5,000+ active members from around 190 countries across the world. A major chunk of our members are from India, Pakistan, USA and the middle-east. The last few months we have been able to garner a steady growth in membership from European countries.

Our biggest challenge was..

Encapsulating the vision and converting it into a skeletal framework and then converting it into a fully functioning portal. In other words, product design, was our biggest challenge, and will continue to be so for further enhancements and add ons..

We want to dominate the world by..

Creating a specialized community of interested like-minded professionals. What will set Archh apart from any other social network is how it will blend commerce and social interaction. We want to create a world of our own and dominate that world.

We’re making moolah by...

Niche networking is the way of the future. We have a dedicated members, all of them are engaged in the field of architecture and interior design directly or indirectly. This is a what makes our platform attractive to advertisers as we give them an opportunity to reach a very specialized demographic. We are also looking into the possibility of growing on the architectural events and award front.

Our What The **** Moment

The pace at which member registrations have grown was a pleasant ‘What the ****’ experience. We had not recognised the power of exponential growth in social media and had predicted a much lesser pace of growth when we started. And the exhilirating ‘What the ****’ moments happen every time a member from a distant country joins and uploads their work.

Industry as we foresee

Again, as we mentioned, we really see social media going niche. People want to break away from the clutter of generic information. Cat photos and memes were cute while they lasted, but good content that people can directly benefit from and platforms that can help them in ways besides entertainment alone is what the future looks like.

Lastly, Are you hiring?

Yes. Looking for suitable talent at leadership levels in sales and product development. If you’re up for working with an exciting new social network, hit us up on  info@archh.com