Social Media Town Hall

Social Media Town HallMay 9, 2012

Objectives for Town Hall•Social Media is all about Engagement.

•Facebook and Twitter have important differences.

•Facebook’s Algorithm dictates rules of the game: understand it and you’ll understand how to play the game.

•Provide best practices and tips.

Last year…

This Year…

We’re All in This Together•One meeting = one

message

•It is not about “Recruits vs. Fans”

•Quality content caters to everyone- recruits, fans, student-athletes.

Why do we care about Social Media?• Social Media → Social • Social → Engagement

• Engagement → Buzz

• Buzz → Attendance, Revenue, Recruiting Advantages

• Cost = $0

Updates on Growth• Recent filing: 845 million monthly users on Facebook: 1/8 of the world’s population!

▫ Estimated that 45% of users are between ages 13-25

Football: 43% of users under 25, 71% under 35

• Twitter: Over 465 million accounts, 110 million in the US▫ While only 10% of US population is on Twitter, 89% are familiar with Twitter. “Twitter

is bigger than you think.”

Stanford Athletics’ Facebook Growth

•At least 30 out of 35 sports have team Facebook Pages.

• Over 62,000 LIKES between all our teams.

Stanford Athletics’ Twitter Growth•At least 30 out of 35 sports have team Twitter feeds.

• Over 50,000 FOLLOWERS between all our teams.

FACEBOOK VS. TWITTER

Facebook and Twitter: Similarities

• Key to success in each is being Social: Have a conversation with Fans/ Followers and engage with them.

Facebook and Twitter: Similarities

Organic Reach= ~10,000

Viral Reach= ~65,000

•With engagement comes potential for tremendous reach.

Total Reach= 75,000

Facebook

Twitter

Facebook vs. Twitter: Filter

• Twitter has no filter; user sees everything

• Facebook has a filter (algorithm) that chooses what a user sees amongst their Friend/Fan Page posts

Filter Implications•Facebook: “Feed the algorithm”

•Twitter: As feeds get saturated → risk of unfollows

Facebook vs. Twitter: Medium

•Twitter=140 characters of text.

• Facebook=Media rich, long form text.

Medium Implications•Do not link your accounts- separate

channels with separate uses.

•Facebook: Visual medium with no character constraints. PAINT A PORTRAIT.

•Twitter: Non-visual medium with 140 character limit. CRAFT A QUICK MESSAGE.

Facebook vs. Twitter: Time Decay

•Twitter: Content has strict chronological display.

• Facebook: Quality content may remain high on news feed for a period of time.

Time Decay Implications•Facebook: Post it once and make it count.

Time of day is not as important.

•Twitter: OK to repeat tweets at different times of day (with slightly different wording). Experiment with different times, days, etc.

FacebookThe facts about Facebook:

1) Most Fans rely on the (algorithm-driven) news feed rather than visiting your Page directly

2) News feed: Facebook algorithm is a function of “affinity, weight, and time decay”. ▫ Affinity: Frequency of interactions

with your Page▫ Weight: Comments /Shares > Likes

> Visits▫ Time Decay: Recency of interactions

with your Page

Facebook’s Reach

Organic Reach= ~10,000

Viral Reach= ~65,000

•With engagement comes potential for tremendous reach.

Facebook•Takeaways:

▫Simply being on Facebook is not going to “move the needle”

▫Utilize smart Facebook behavior + provide engaging content

Facebook: Cover Photo

Facebook: Cover Photo

Facebook: Cover Photo

Facebook: Cover Photo

Facebook: Cover Photo

Make Posts Count•Comments and Shares carry more weight

in the algorithm than do Likes▫Deliberately engage your Fans.

Engagement by Content Type

Edgerank Study- Takeaway•Got something

to say? Say it with a photo!

Football’s Five Most Viral Facebook Posts1.

4.

2.

5.

3.

Top 5 Viral Posts- Takeaway•These photos

aren’t “star power” driven- they are EMOTIONALLY driven.

Top 5 Viral Posts- Takeaway•You ARE the story-

you are not reporting the story.▫Be timely and

authoritative.

•No time? Use your SID!

Be The Story!

Take Advantage of Great Content

More Facebook Tips•Post length: studies show that longer posts are OK (i.e., longer than Twitter’s 140 characters).

•When posting a link, try and select the most engaging photo from story to post.

More Facebook Tips•Make Head/Other Coaches Administrators for your Page. Only administrators may directly invite their personal friends (e.g., recruits) to “Like” the Page, an easy way to increase your Fans.

More Facebook TipsDownload the Facebook App…

…And the Facebook Messenger App

Use Insights to Monitor Engagment

Facebook Insights

Virality: 332/6283 = 5.28%

Learn More About Insights

•Attend a weekly workshop- Wednesdays at 11 in the Hall of Fame Room

•Contact Dave Sertich (dsertich@stanford.edu) for more information.

Twitter Best Practices: #GoStanford

Twitter Best Practices: Other HashtagsJOIN A COMMUNITY

CREATE A COMMUNITY

Twitter Best Practices: Use of “@”

Use of “.” before “@”:

Acknowledge fellow Twitter users:

Twitter Best Practices: Leverage Your Student-Athletes’ Tweets•Know your Student-Athletes’ handles (past and present) and follow them.

•Proper etiquette: reference student-athletes’ handles when Tweeting about them.

•Re-tweeting student-athletes can be great publicity for your program.

Twitter: Be Engaging

Twitter: Own Your Team’s Story

Tools: Crowdbooster• Easily track

your Reach

• Track your Followers

• Schedule Tweets

Tools: Mobile Tweets and Tweetdeck•Mobile- Texting Tweets

•Tweetdeck

Questions?

Thank You!