1026 what's next strategic social media
TRANSCRIPT
What's Next – Strategic Social Media for Non-Profits & Small Business
Gordon Dymowski
October 26, 2011
Why We’re Here TodayGoals for Today’s Presentation
The goals of today’s session are •Provide strategies and guidance on how to best engage audiences via Twitter and Facebook
•Recommend tools that can ease and facilitate conversation on Twitter & Facebook
•More successfully leverage both Twitter & Facebook towards meeting business goals
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Like many other businesses, we’ve either considered or are considering entering the social media sphere…but we have two questions we need to answer:
• How do we find the time to engage?
• Who should we be engaging (who is our audience?)
Two primary channels for driving conversation & engagement
Current audience/customers
Potential audience/customers
Twitter & Facebook Stats
• 140 million tweets in the last month • 460,000 new Twitter users in the last month• 7% of Americans (17 million persons)
actively use Twitter, while 41% maintain a profile page on Facebook.
• More than 800 million active FB users• More than 50% of our active users log on to
Facebook in any given day• Average FB user has 130 friends
http://blog.twitter.com/2011/03/numbers.html
https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
Guiding Principles
Social media is not a strategy, but is a channel that is part of an overall marketing plan
Dedicate time and effort – tools that make it easier to engage
Consumer/client driven activity – if your potential client base is not talking, may not be to your advantage
Tempting to see as one way broadcast channel – potential for other interaction online, including customer service, feedback, etc
Allows you to humanize a cause or mission – engage customers/clients directly without any filters
Results will not happen overnight – takes practice
Twitter – How do we find who’s talking?
Google field “on Twitter”
Use Twitter directories to find people (Twellow and Wefollow)
Hashtags – look into bios
Who’s Retweeted most frequently
Twitter – How Do We Find Conversations
• Twitter search on key terms
• Use platform like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck• Keyword search• Hashtags
• Locate key drivers of conversation
• Blog posts/articles/etc
How Brands Use Twitter• Insider POV : Company voice, personifies the brand,
provides mix of news as well as perspective
• Influencer conversations: capitalizes on influencer network by engaging them in the promotion of brand/campaign, sustaining ongoing informal dialogue
• Mass Promotion: capitalizes on existing fan base by rewarding followers with “free stuff”, cross-pollinating with other social media
• Customer Service: provides accessible voice for the brand by addressing customer/other issues & complaints and demonstrates that brand is “listening”
Tweeting – Best strategies
• Brands that do well take a conversational tone, not a business tone
• People talk on Twitter, but want to be sure you’re listening, not broadcasting
• Bring something of value to Twitter – provide information about company, related matters, etc.
• Hashtags – allow you to find conversations of interest
• Use an online tool to find and engage in conversations of interest
• Engaging with consumers vs. talking to media
Follow…
• Bloggers often use Twitter to communicate with their audiences
• Retweeting (or forwarding Tweets) is good strategy for building relationships(Leave 20 spaces for Retweets)
• Find people tweeting about issues that impact our brand/field (Twellow.com, Wefollow.com)
• Messaging should mix conversational tone, but focus primarily on corporate/agency mission
… and be followed • Followers are a result of active and credible
engagement in the Twittersphere
• Initially, to gain followers/interest, monitor for relevant conversations for participation (hashtags, Twitter chats, #followfriday, etc)
• Engage with relevant consumers so they know we’re out there
• Once they choose to follow us, we will follow back
• - As part of Twitter “best practices,” profiles should aim for a 1:1 ratio of followers : following for maximum credibility
Some Other Twitter Tips
• Best times to tweet for greatest response – 9 am to 10:30 am; 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm (Crowdbooster)
• Best place for link for optimal clicking – ¼ of way into Tweet
• Example: Great post http://bit.ly/drwhodiydvd great classic Who episodes on DVD
• Budget & resources – this is part of overall marketing strategy
• Be sure to RT others in field – ideal mix is 70% conversation/25 % RTs and forwards/5 % promotional
Web-Based Twitter Apps
• Monitter (http://www.monitter.com) – allows for monitoring of search terms in real time (similar to Tweetdeck functionality)
• Hootsuite (http://www.hootsuite.com) – Allows for management of multiple Twitter accounts
• Crowdbooster (http://www.crowdbooster.com) – allows for stats/metrics (and integrates Facebook pages as well)
Sample Tweets
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Facebook – Strategies and Examples
Why Use Facebook?Benefits to Using This Channel
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Fan page has features that inspire pass along (forwarding /posting of materials in news feed
Multi-media-based interactions ideal for sharing content
Integration of - and redirection to - all assets
Facebook ads allow you to market page internally to specific targets
Suggested Strategy for FacebookWhat We Hope to Accomplish
Define overall purpose of page•People who use your products/services can become a fan
By posting info on profile, customers can drive recommendations and build community
Define how users want to experience you online •What do they want? (Video? Contests? Events?)
Post content/status updates that would appeal to current /potential customers/advocates
Videos & Photos – allows fans to demonstrate love/appreciation for product/service
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What makes a great Facebook strategy?
Two considerations:Length of time to attract new fans
This is contingent upon use of Facebook ads, other online promotion, etc
Papa John’s gave away free pizza and was able to secure 100,000+ fans in less than one day
Length of time to develop an engaged, returning audience
Attracting fans is one thing, keeping them is another matter
Therefore, moderation and interaction should be established early on and maintained regularly throughout the fan experience
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How you engage customers/audience on Facebook – and how they experience that engagement - is absolutely critical to the short- and long-term growth of the fan base
Facebook – Best Strategies
A Facebook page is not a microsite – it’s a closed hub
Use current features (like Events) to engage customers and drive conversation
Find out what customers want, and create opportunities for fans to engage with brand on FB
Do not focus solely on number of fans – want to measure how they engage vs. how many there are
Facebook – Creating a Page
Click on “Pages” app – left side of screen
Input appropriate information for business/agency
As part of “info” – community guidelines
Facebook status updates longer (420 characters vs. 140 on Twitter) – more in-depth messaging
Similar principles – be conversational; share media
Can promote via Twitter & ads
Facebook – Sample Guidelines
Facebook – Promoting/Building Fan Base Facebook ads – allow for targeting specific audiencesSmall cost involved, but adjustable
Create SEO-friendly links
Look up “Memorable Web Pages” app on Facebook
After 25 fans, create vanity URL at http://www.facebook.com/username
Use “Add to Page Favorites”
Similar principles to Twitter
Social Media – Ideal Time Spent
Twitter – real time, but might want to locate “key” times for engaging
Ideally – 3 x/day, five days a week
Facebook – much more in-depth
1 – ½ hours a day to start
FB – Hidden Posts, insights
