Social Media Strategy:

Produced by Tony Roberts for EADIbased on original presentation

Created by Vanessa and Colin Rhinesmithand shared on Slideshare

This presentation is licensed by Tony Roberts under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Table of Contents:

Introductions

Learning Objectives & Expectations

Your Existing Strategies

Social Media Strategy Overview

Social Media Best Practices

Next Steps

Resources

[Introductions]

Learning Objectives:

To share experience, knowledge & skills

To think critically about strategy, aims, analysts and tools

To be able to develop a social media strategy for a development research organisation

To understand how nonprofits can use technology to raise awareness, market services, and build community

To be able to provide informed advice on social media best practices and implementatio

To know how to access other resources

Critical Path:

To develop a social media strategy we must first know the organisation's overall vision, aims, objectives, goals

What is the goal of social media in our organisation: thought-leadership, sales, profile, branding, advocacy?

Who is the intended audience(s)?

What is the key message?

How will we know success?

Recommendations:

Develop an integrated marketing and communication strategy (that includes social media specific strategy)

Assess current client demographics, communication needs, and opinions through paper, phone, & survey

Establish cohesive and consistent messaging that is audience specific and can span across various channels

Implement social media tools as appropriate – based on resources available and survey data

Before You Begin:

It’s tempting to jump right into social media and set up a myriad of accounts, but before you begin be sure to:

Determine your organization’s goals

Develop a communications plan

Know how to reach your audience

Where Does Social Media Fit in Your Strategy?Sequence of Execution:

Review your organization’s mission

Develop a message (i.e., communications strategy) that supports your organization’s mission

Identify your target audience

Determine how social media will support your communications strategy

Create consistent – not overwhelming – messaging across all communication channels

The Four R’s:

Receive feedback from your community/members/audience

Review all feedback

Revise your marketing communications (including social media) strategies based on the needs of the community

Re-implement or adjust your strategy

[Getting Started with Social

Media]

Lurking: Listen Before You Engage

Cultural Sensitivity: Listen and learn about your intended audience's culture before you engage with them

Add Value: Contribute to the community by providing resources that the community has reason to value – use bit.ly

Go where your community isUse the tools the community uses

Establish a listening post Streamline your content productionTweetdeck – Google Reader – bookmarklets

Survey the 'market'

Surveys are a quick and easy way to learn more about your community. Especially useful if you already have a database of email contacts, they provide valuable information prior to the creation of a social media strategy.

Survey Monkey http://surveymonkey.com

Basic: Free (100 responses per survey)

Monthly Pro: $25/m. (1000/mo.)

Annual Pro: $250/year (unlimited)

Image courtesy of fredcavazza available on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

[The Audience]

Audience:

It’s easy to get caught up in what you want to communicate, but be sure to first identify your audience – it starts with them

Write out the type of audience or audiences that you want to focus on:

What are their key characteristics?

What are their communication preferences and informational needs?

Some universal tips for developing and maintaining an audience regardless of what kind of media you make on the web:

Universal Tips & Questions:

Be patient, communicating takes time.

Think about what makes your organization different from others – your USP

What do people say about you?

What advantages does your org have?

How can you emphasize these advantages and differences to your audience?

How will your target audience respond to different forms of communication?

Remember your goals; make sure they fit!

[The Message]

What Is Your Message?

Tips for Defining Your Organization’s Message:

Review your organization’s mission and objectives

What are the key characteristics of your organization, your mission and organization’s primary purposed?

Identify what you want others to think of when they think about your organization

Determine if your message differs based on the intended audience

Make a bulleted list of the top three to five most important message items and share them with everyone in your organization

Your message should be considered whenever you’re talking about your organization, whether your talking to donors or writing up a press release or drafting a grant proposal

[Slide by Vanessa Rhinesmithhttp://vanessarhinesmith.com]

What Is Your Message?

Tips for Defining Your Organization’s Message:

Review your organization’s mission and objectives

What are the key characteristics of your organization, your mission and organization’s primary purposed?

Identify what you want others to think of when they think about your organization

Determine if your message differs based on the intended audience

Make a bulleted list of the top three to five most important message items and share them with everyone in your organization

Your message should be considered whenever you’re talking about your organization, whether your talking to donors or writing up a press release or drafting a grant proposal

[Slide by Vanessa Rhinesmithhttp://vanessarhinesmith.com]

[The Means]

Are You in Control of Your Digital Identity?

You, and only you, should be in control of your organization’s online reputation. Here’s a few tips to help you maintain control of your web presence:

What does the web say about you? Be sure to do a basic Google search to see what conversation have already taken place or are taking place as we speak

How to take control? Search Google daily, better yet, set up daily Google Alerts (containing your organization’s name) and have these alert delivered to your email each day

Are you part of the conversation? If someone else is talking about you, your organization and/or your cause, then you should be open to joining the conversation (i.e., contributing to a blog or forum)

How to make the web work for you? Having a solid, updated website with a blog is a great place to start

[Best Practices]

An Overview of Social Media Best Practices and Implementation Recommendations

[Blogging]

Wordpress.com

Best Practices: Blogging

Set up a blog at Wordpress.com http://wordpress.com/ or Blogger.com https://www.blogger.com/start

Share the link to your blog on your website as well as affiliated websites

Wordpress and Blogger will give you an RSS feed that can be used by your readers

Keep stories short – and current

Not used to writing via the web? Read “Writing for the Web”, Poynter Institute: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=35378

Best Practices: Blogging

Voice. Pick a voice that is unique, interesting and reflective of your organization

Links. Be sure to link to other organizations, articles or bloggers

Tip: When setting up outbound links be sure to set the links to be opened in a new window

Create a conversation. Invite and encourage conversation by posing a question at the end of a post and/or replying to comments in the post’s comment field

Blogger Outreach:

Do comment on other blogs as much as you have the time to do so (caveat remember quality over quantity)

Do contribute to the conversation by offering a unique perspective or information

Do find a couple of blogs you respect that are specific to the issue and read as well as comment frequently

Don’t evangelize your own mission, commenting is about collaborating and welcoming a conversation

Don’t take a defensive tone, even if you don’t agree with what is being stated there are productive ways to contribute

Don’t use the comment field as a marketing opportunity, valuable comments and insightful point of views is more powerful than any marketing pitch

[Slide by Vanessa Rhinesmithhttp://vanessarhinesmith.com]

[Twitter]

Click to edit Master text styles

Second level

Third level

Fourth level

Fifth level

Best Practices: Twitter

5 Easy Things To Do Daily:

Check most recent @replies

Review latest conversation thread

Join the conversation, for example:

Share a link

Post an event

Respond to a comment

Search for keyword-based conversations

Chat with your community (not at them)

Twitter Tips for Following:

It’s easy to want to follow everyone and build up a large community, but quantity does not necessarily mean quality.

Before you follow, review the user’s:

Bio section. Is it complete?

Website link. Does their website/blog look reputable?

Following to follower ratio. Do they have roughly the same number (or more) of followers in comparison to the number of people they follow?

Tweets. Are they offer valuable information or dialogue? Would you want to be apart of their community or would you want them to be a part of yours?

Red Flag: Users who follow a high number of people (in comparison to followers) are usually spammers

YOU MUST FOLLOW 50-100 people to assess value

Tips for Creating Content:

Promote and talk about the issue, and

Listen to community concerns

Share and comment on their stories

Share expertise and information

Establish reputation and expertise

Focus on a call to action, including:

Announce events

Prose questions to the community

Options for volunteer involvement

70-20-10 Engagement Model:

70% sharing other voices, opinions and tools

20% responding, connecting, collaboration and co-creation

10% promoting and/or chit-chatting

[70-20-10 Engagement Model courtesy of David Dombrosky’s presentation Social Media And Social Networks From Experiment To Strategy http://tinyurl.com/yzz6xre]

Tips for Having a Conversation:

@ Reply: a comment or reply to a specific user. To do: start with @username - and insert comment specific to that user

Re-tweet (RT): a comment tweeted by another user, but you would like to share. To do: start with or include RT @username - and then the users comment that you'd like to share

Direct Message (DM): a private message between two users, but you must be following one another for the functionality to be enabled

@ Reply v. Direct Message: to many (public), to one (private)

Tip: Download TweetDeck

Download TweetDeck http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta/

It's easy to use

Helps you make Twitter more time efficient and manageable

Customizable columns make it easier to follow the conversation and keep track of conversations

Savable search functionality let’s you stay aware of conversations that contain keywords specific to your needs

PC and Mac compatible, also an iPhone version available for quick mobile use

TweetDeck:

[Facebook]

Best Practices: Facebook

Set-up a FacebookPage:

Provides analytics

Enables Fans to share your content with their Facebook friends

Allow fans/supporters to create Groups

Use Events to generate visibility

Use Causes for donations or visibility

Additional Tips:

Profiles are for People

Use Groups for Controlled Membership

Use Events to Generate Attendance

Multimedia Tips:

Tagging. Whether writing a blog post, posting a picture or uploading a video be sure to tag (keywords specific to the content of the piece)

Play with podcasts. Check out easy-to-use platforms like libsync.com and BlogTalkRadio

Take it up a notch. Audacity is a free and user-friendly audio editing platform

Share your photos. Post your organization’s photos at Flickr and share by setting up a quick photo gallery to share on your website or blog

Need to tweak those images? GIMP offers easy (and free) image editing software

Multimedia Tips:

Tagging. Whether writing a blog post, posting a picture or uploading a video be sure to tag (keywords specific to the content of the piece)

Play with podcasts. Check out easy-to-use platforms like libsync.com and BlogTalkRadio

Take it up a notch. Audacity is a free and user-friendly audio editing platform

Share your photos. Post your organization’s photos at Flickr and share by setting up a quick photo gallery to share on your website or blog

Need to tweak those images? GIMP offers easy (and free) image editing software

Put Twitter/Facebook buttons on your siteshttps://www.addthis.com/get/sharing#.T_NgmUilgUQ

[YouTube]

Best Practices: YouTube

Set-up a non-profit channel http://www.youtube.com/nonprofits

Buy a Flip Mino video camera

Produce member video spotlights

Upload to YouTube and share on your website or social network (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

Make time to respond to comments

Tag your videos with keywords

[Next Steps] Measuring Success & Sample Work Flow

Strategy Management

Determine who will manage your online identity and accounts:

Executive staff

Marketing department

Younger staff members

Determine time and resources available to spend on social media activities

Establish internal policies and procedures around social media use that are agreed upon by the organization

Develop user guidelines that state your expectations when others comment and what you as an organization deem appropriate as well as inappropriate

Measure Success

Set up Google Analytics for your website as well as other types of analytics for your blog and other social media service to measure traffic to your content

Examples:

FacebookPage http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages

Bit.ly (URL shortner) http://bit.ly/ that tracks link analytics

Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/

Sample Social Media Workflow:

Step 1: Publish an editorial, personal story or research piece to website or blog

Step 2: Shorten the link to the published piece using Bit.ly http://bit.ly/

Step 3: Share the shorten link on Twitter

Step 4: Share the link on Facebook

Step 5: Measure success using Bit.ly, Facebook Insights, or Google Analytics

Step 6: Note any lessons learned (i.e., was it viewed more on Twitter or on Facebook? Was the topic interesting to your online community? Was it re-tweeted or shared by others on Facebook or blogged about)

Beware of Automation:

Cross posting between your blog, Twitter and Facebook might seem easy, be sure to treat each space separately. Online users do not like automated content and are quick to call out offenders.

Step 1: Publish Your Story

l

Cambridge Community Television (617) 661-6900 - http://cctvcambridge.org

Step 2: Use Bit.ly to Shorten URL

Cambridge Community Television (617) 661-6900 - http://cctvcambridge.org

Step 3: Share Link on Twitter

Cambridge Community Television (617) 661-6900 - http://cctvcambridge.org

Step 3 1/2: Share Link on Facebook

Cambridge Community Television (617) 661-6900 - http://cctvcambridge.org

Step 4: Measure Success (Bit.ly)

Cambridge Community Television (617) 661-6900 - http://cctvcambridge.org

Step 4: Measure Success (Facebook)

Cambridge Community Television (617) 661-6900 - http://cctvcambridge.org

Step 4: Measure Success (Google)http://www.google.com/analytics/

Cambridge Community Television (617) 661-6900 - http://cctvcambridge.org

Next Steps:

Options:

Create a Social Media Strategy

Learn How to Measure Success

Develop Policy and Procedures

Attend a Class at EADI

Play! Setup a Personal Account

Connect to Friends, Family & Colleagues

Take Time to Become Familiar with Tools

Next Steps:

Options:

Create a Social Media Strategy

Learn How to Measure Success

Develop Policy and Procedures

Attend a Class at EADI

Play! Setup a Personal Account

Connect to Friends, Family & Colleagues

Take Time to Become Familiar with Tools

What Are Your Next Steps?

Please take 5-10 minutes to think about 1-3 solid next steps that you will take.

Share your next steps with your partner and be prepared to share them with the group.

Conclusion:

Remember that blogs, social networks and other social media platforms are just tools – and tools are only as good as their users:

Take your time learning how to use the tools effectively

Identify which tools work for you and the needs of your organization

Respect your capacity and the resource/time capacity of your organization

Be flexible and adapt to the tools that are the most valuable to your community members and intended audience(s)

[Resources]

Resources:

Non-Profit Social Media Workbook http://www.idealware.org/reports/nonprofit-social-media-policy-workbook

Social Media Guide for Non-Profits – http://nonprofitsorgs.wordpress.com/

Web Analyticshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_analytics

Google Analytics http://www.google.com/analytics/

Facebook Insightshttp://mashable.com/2010/09/03/facebook-insights-guide/

Bit.ly short URLs are customisablebit.ly

Add This: social media buttonshttps://www.addthis.com/get/sharing#.T_NgmUilgUQ

Resources:

Social Media Strategy 101:http://www.slideshare.net/billyfischer/developing-a-social-media-strategy

Social Content Strategy: Beth Kanterhttp://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/11/wearemedia-social-content-and-deep-engagement.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bethblog+%28Beth%27s+Blog%29

What Employers Really Think About Social Media Use http://mashable.com/2012/06/10/employer-social-media/

What you Klout Score Really Meanshttp://www.wired.com/business/2012/04/ff_klout/

Web Analytics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_analytics

Do dod

Resources:

What Does a Social Media Strategy Look Like?http://blog.coherentia.com/index.php/2010/07/what-does-a-social-media-strategy-look-like/

A Social Media Strategy Examplehttp://kathyknorr.wordpress.com/social-media-strategy-examples/

Return On Investment Calculator for Social Networking http://www.frogloop.com/social-network-calculator

The ROI of Social Media http://nten.org/blog/2008/01/11/the-roi-of-social-media

Media Trust Tipshttp://resources.mediatrust.org/

Social Media strategist blog: Beth Kanterhttp://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/11/your-organizations-social-networking-strategy-doesnt-have-to-be-like-mastercard---you-dont-have-to-be-everywhere.html

Step-by-Step: How to Set Up A Nonprofit Listening Post http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/12/stepbystep-how-to-set-up-a-nonprofit-listening-post-twitter-part-1-.html

Mashable on Social Media Strategyhttp://mashable.com/follow/topics/social-media-strategy/

Thank you!

Tony Roberts, ICT4D CentreRoyal Holloway, University of London

Contact me: tonyroberts@hotmail.com

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Based on an original presentation given by Colin Rhinesmith

License = creative commons share alike 3.0