how to create a social media strategy to effect social change
TRANSCRIPT
How to Create a Social Media Strategy to Effect Social Change
It all started with the ice bucket challenge in the summer of 2014
Millions of people around the world dumped buckets of ice-cold water on themselves to raise money for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease
The social media campaign spread like wildfire as people challenged their friends on social media to either do the challenge or donate money to the ALS Association
The Ice Bucket Challenge helped raise over $220 million dollars globally for ALS
Why was the ALS Ice Bucket Campaign so effective?
• It played on the power of video, which is a lot more effective and experiential than text or photos.
• The campaign coincided with the new Facebook update that allowed videos to autoplay in peoples news feeds.
• It wasn't ALS who asked people to dump ice on their heads, it was their friends.
The bigger lesson learned from this campaign is that social media is about people & building relationships
It also showed the world the power that social media had to drive social change
Momentus breaks out into FIVE unique sectors in the fields of:
Faith
Health
Higher Education
Business
Communities
We use social media (LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter) in all of these sectors to:
● drive website traffic● build thought leadership for our brands● drive brand awareness● increase leads (have new leaders sign
up to join the Momentus Initiative)
So, how does one create an effective social media strategy to drive social change?
It breaks down into Five Basic Steps
step one
Define Social Media Objectives & Goals
Understanding these goals
seems like a no brainer
Butit’snot
Do you want to generate leads?
or increase your membership base?
Do you want to increase donations
or drive website traffic?
Are you looking for more name recognition and thought leadership?
Clearly define your objectives and write them down. Everything else is driven from these goals
step two
Target Your Audience
The truth about marketing is if you target everyone, you will hit no one
Create fictional representations of your ideal member/volunteer
by actually talking to donors...
volunteers and other
company employees
These are called Member Personas
Learn everything you can about your audience
(their age, personality, education level etc.)
Give him/her a name and even a picture
These personas will be used to help you create targeted content
step three
Develop a Defined Social Media Marketing Plan
“Content is Fire. Social Media is Gasoline.” -Jay Baer
Being successful on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram involves more than just posting
cool pictures or quotes
It’s critical to have a clear social media strategy in
place
Where does your audience hang out? (Pew has some good research on this)
Choose your Social Network – you don’t have to be on them all
Define your social media channels. Each channel has a specific demographic
For example: • “We will use Facebook to tell stories about our organization’s
mission to drive website traffic”
• "We will use Instagram to showcase our organization’s culture to recruit volunteers”
Create a mission statement for each social media platform
Find your voice and tone
If your brand was a person, what kind of personality would it have?
Decide your posting schedule
Decide your posting strategy • What kind of content will you post?• How often will you post?• Who will create the content?• How will you promote the content?
pixshark.com
step four
Develop a Content Creation Plan &
Editorial Calendar
It takes a lot of content to build a following and a social media community
links imagesquotes
updatesreshares
Start with 5 basic types of social updates
As you create your content plan, identify which content is going to drive where...
For example: 50% of your content will drive back to the blog 25% of your content will be curated from other source20% of your content will drive company content5% of your content will be HR and culture related
Curating content from another source to buid thought leadership & brand awareness
Driving to the Blessed Tomorrow website to generate leads
Here is a Climate for Health post driving back to our Blog
Remember, social media is a 2 way street. Make sure you “listen” as much as you“talk”
Keep this in mind as you put together your content plan Keep this in mind as you put together your content plan
How do you keep track of all of this?
Your editorial calendar lists dates & times to posts blogs, Facebook posts, Twitter messages & other content for campaigns.
Your next question might be, where are you going to find all of this content?
Define yourinfluencerlist:
Astrid Riecken/The Washington Post
Definition: blogger, competitor, or media organization creating content of interest to your target audience
Find influencers by tracking keywords in Google Alerts, authors in industry trade publications & those talking about the topic on twitter
Now get the attention of your influencers by sharing their content on your social media platforms
It’s a win-win for everybody. You get more content to feed the “social media beast” and your influencer’s content gets spread far and wide
step five
measuretestevaluate
Write down three social media goals. Try to use the SMART Approach
Don’t make the mistake of just measuring re-tweets or “likes” - Strive for more advanced metrics like leads generated & website traffic referred
Track your links using url shorteners (bit.ly, goog.gl, ow.ly) to track success & reach of campaigns
Track page visits driven by social media using Google Analytics
then adjust your social media plan accordingly
Record your successes & failures...
Remember as you create your social media strategy, always remain fluid, as your strategy will constantly evolve
Social Media has changed the world, not only in inspiring leaders around climate solutions and raising awareness & money for a horrible disease like ALS, but:
• in how we respond to natural disasters (like Haiti earthquake)
• to help organize protests (“Arab Spring” uprising)
• and even electing presidents (President Obama)
More about me (Cindy Frei):
I am a marketing professional with more than 15 years experience building customer relationships through integrated marketing strategies, which help businesses or organizations acquire new clients or deepen relationships with existing ones.
A storyteller at heart, I combine the art of creation with business acumen and new technology fluency to drive business goals.
To learn more about.me/cindyfrei