The economic recovery is flat for landscape architectural firms, reports the ASLA 3rd quarter survey. Billings and inquiries for new work are down for the majority of firms.

• 80.6 percent of firms report indicated stable to higher billable hours, a slight drop from 82.8 percent from the last quarter.

• Work inquiries retreated: 78 percent reported stable to higher inquiries for work, compared to 83.5 percent last quarter.

On the plus side, 10.3 percent of firms indicate they will hire an experienced landscape architect in the fourth quarter, and 14.1 percent report they will hire an entry-level landscape architect.

The survey also asked firms about their use of social media: 52.7 percent of firms use social media to support business strategies. About half of the firms (52.3 percent) think social media have the potential to transform their firms' business, including branding, marketing, analysis and outreach, but 55.8 percent of firms do not use social media to analyze potential new business, risks to business activities and measure practice performance.

The top reasons why firms use social media include interacting with clients (45.4 percent), advertising (42 percent) and researching competitors (37 percent). The most popular social media websites used by firms are LinkedIn (84.6 percent), Facebook (64.8 percent) and Twitter (30.8 percent). Only 19.8 percent of firms, however, collect metrics or summary information from their social media accounts!

The Q3 2013 national survey was fielded October 14 to 31, 2013, with 267 primary firm contacts responding.