Getting Your Message Across Presented by Duncan Craig Communications & Marketing Co-Ordinator

Getting Your Message AcrossPresented by

Duncan CraigCommunications & Marketing Co-Ordinator

Workshop Outcomes

This workshop has been created to help you better understand social media, provide you with ideas to ensure you’re using the right platform, and

Outcomes:

•Understand what is Social Media

•Recognise common social media platforms

•Be able to identify which platform is fit for your purpose

•Aid your knowledge of managing social media outputs

•Provide you with tips on planning

•Helping you avoid mistakes

•Revealing how we do it

What is Social Media

Social media is the term used to describe social interaction through the internet including audio, video, images and text.

This includes social networking and content-sharing. The services are mostly free to use and you don’t really need to have any technical skills to use them.

Social media is…

• an addition to traditional communications activities

• a tool to converse directly with customers / service users

• a cost communications tool

• cross functional-platform

• sometimes difficult to use!

Why is Social Media Important?

• A great resource to reach a new/bigger audience

• It’s often FREE to use or low cost

• Can quickly be updated.

• Easiest and quickest way of getting good news out

• It’s viral. People will pass stuff on to a new audience

• Sharing information

• Publicising information and events

Common Social Media Platforms

Yammer: Social network used for private communications with groups and networks. Often used within organisations to share documents and ideas.

Twitter: Social networking and ‘microblogging’ service that allows you to answer the question ‘What are you doing?’ by sending a short message of 140 characters.

Foursquare: Location based social network. It lets people ‘check-in’ to places they visit using their mobile phone. Can earn points, badges and rewards.

Facebook: Social networking site that allows you to create a page/group which ‘friends’ can join or ‘like’. You can post messages, add photos and create events.

YouTube: Video sharing site for uploading short videos of an event or activity. People can comment on videos and they can be embedded in a website.

Common Social Media Platforms

Tweetdeck/Hootsuite: ‘Social media dashboards’ that allow you to manage multiple social media accounts in one place. Schedule updates and post them to multiple places

Flickr: Photo hosting website that you can upload images to so that people can view them. Can display your photos in different ways, such as a slide show

Linkedin: Business related social networking site for professional networking. Create a professional profile similar to a CV to build connections

Podcasts: A series of audio files which could be news or events. Users subscribe to the series and are updated automatically when a new one is posted

RSS: Really Simple Syndication is frequently delivered updated information you subscribe to. They are fed from websites to a place you can read them

What is Right for You?

What do you use?

The Big Two!

• The best known and one of the easiest to use

• Approx 3.5 billion are registered

• Millions of businesses, charities and community groups use it to raise profile and increase sales

• Can create groups (open, closed, secret)

• Create a Page (mainly used to promote a brand/product/service).

• Not limited to characters and can upload images etc…

• Arguably has over took Facebook in terms of active use (rather than Zombie accounts)

• Followers not ‘friends’

• 140 characters

• All major corporations, celebrities and groups have an account

• Retweet interesting news

• Link to website updates

• Post images

Managing Social Networks

www.hootsuite.com – Social Media Platform Manager

Social Network Planning

Time is of the Essence

Time is of the Essence

Best Times: Weekdays 6.00am – 8.00am & 2.00pm – 5.00pm

www.facebook.com

Time is of the Essence

Best Times: Weekends 1.00pm – 3.00pm

www.twitter.com

Social Media Mistakes to Avoid in 2014

1. Obscure Profile Images2. Self-centered content sharing3. Inconsistent posts4. Avoiding dialogue5. Sticking to worn out methods

The key to a successful social media strategy is to constantly share interesting content.

Replicate ideas that work and go back to the drawing board to refine and retest ones that don’t.

Article taken from www.mediacase.org (05.01.2014)

#WhatWeDo

@cvatameside @vctameside

• Social media managed through Hootsuite

•Admin for each key section of the business

•Monthly admin meetings (30 mins)

•Overall monitor (ad-hoc checks via mobile)

•Use of hashtags (#stateofthesector / #cvatexpo2014)

Getting Your Message Across

For further sources of information:

Charity Digital News is the foremost news intelligence and analysis tool for a network of professionals involved in technology and its use within the UK’s third sector.

www.charitydigitalnews.co.uk

Technology Trust have bridged the gap between the charity sector and their technology partners, offering friendly advice, a helping hand, advising on how the right technology can further your cause by supporting your mission.

www.technology-trust.org

Getting Your Message Across

For further sources of information:

Duncan Craig

Communications and Marketing Co-Ordinator

t: 0161 339 4985

e: duncan.craig@cvat.org.uk

@cvatameside

@vctameside