During the week of June 5, we celebrated National Roofing Week with the goal of calling more attention to the important role our industry plays and the good work done by our members.
This was the third year we've done it, and, well, it keeps getting better.
Once again, we hosted a children's art contest, with the winners being chosen through online voting. Some 3,200 votes were cast (a few, like good Chicagoans, more than once), so we know we reached a large audience with the effort.
Our consumer website, www.everybodyneedsaroof.com, is now regularly visited by nearly 20,000 users per month, most of whom are looking for roofing contractors in their areas. All our National Roofing Week efforts were designed, among other things, to drive traffic to that website.
Our friends at CNA joined 18 NRCA staff members to work on a facility in Chicago's West Side that provides after-school art, music and computer instruction for children in the area. It was a transformative day in more than one way. And staff members also volunteered to work at a local food pantry—all helping demonstrate what's positive about the roofing industry.
NRCA's social media platforms were full of consistent reminders during the week about the good work our members do, every day, in their communities. We spotlighted significant projects, charitable efforts, and the men and women who make it all possible. And we reached thousands of people through our social media campaign. As just one example, we know our Facebook reach was more than 13,000.
Although the concept of National Roofing Week was framed around a public relations campaign, its real value was much broader, and more important, than just publicity. We came to understand, again, how much good work this industry does—and how much of it goes unnoticed. Few roofing contractors have public relations departments or even think about issuing press releases every time they do a good deed. Yet collectively, those good deeds add up into the thousands and tell a powerful story about an industry that truly cares. (For more information about good deeds being performed by roofing professionals every day, see "We can be heroes.")
So whether you got your children to enter their drawings in the art contest, gave a new roof to a community center or just did your everyday work in a professional way—you helped tell our story.
Let's do it again next year.
Bill Good is NRCA's CEO.
