Social Media

Lee Ann Kendrick, Regional Advocacy SpecialistOctober 2013

Social Media

• Today’s Social Media Outlets• Using Social Media in the PTA setting• Best Practices

Social Media

Who here uses some form of social media?

Social MediaFacebook

Should be your primary social media outlet•Social Networking site•1.1 Billion active users•350 Million (and growing) access through mobile devices•Users: Average 130 friends, connected to 80 pages•700 billion minutes are spent per month on Facebook

Social MediaTwitter

•“Microblogging” outlet•Tweets = 140 Characters•300 Million users•Average 300 million tweets per day•1 billion tweets a week•1.6 billion search queries per dayFun fact: It took 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to go from

the first tweet to the billionth tweet.

Social Media

Google+•500 million users•Broad range of features

– Circles– News Streams– Hangouts– Messenger– Games

Social Media

YouTube•Video sharing•2nd largest search engine in the world•Every minute users upload 24 hours worth of video

Social MediaLinkedIn

http://www.linkedin.com/•Social Network for professionals•225 Million members in 200 countries and territories•New Professionals joining at a rate of 2 users per second•Of all the companies that use social media for recruitment, 95% use LinkedIn

Social Media

Instagram•Social media outlet

– Upload, edit and share pictures– Upload, edit and share videos

•Over 100 Million active users

Social Media

Flickrhttp://www.flickr.com/

•Online image and video hosting operated by Yahoo•50 million registered users•Over 6 billion images•Offers users 1 terabyte of free cloud space

Social MediaPinterest

http://about.pinterest.com/

•Digital bulletin Board•Users “Pin”

– Articles– Pictures– Recipes– Quotes – Classroom teaching ideas

•48 Million members

Where Social Media & PTA Collide!

PTA Awareness through Social Media•Conversation catalyst for education reform and child advocacy

– Membership growth– Member participation– Volunteer development– Strategic enhancement of issue campaigns

Where Social Media & PTA Collide!

PTA Exposure through Social Media•Makes Exposure of PTA and Issue Campaigns possible•90% of people Trust peer recommendations•Only 33% Trust messages from brands/organizations

The implications are huge: If we can get people talking about PTA and our issue campaigns, their

friends are more likely to respond favorably

Social Media

“Ideavirus”A good idea that is worth spreading

Ideavirus’s need sneezers!

Social Media

• Invisible Children – Works to free child soldiers in Africa – 3,458,047

• Focus on the Family – 928,595• Feeding America – 464,808• Salvation Army – 167, 304• National PTA – 31,435 • Stop Common Core – 3000+

Can anyone give us an example of a Facebook post that received a

large number of likes?An example of one the flopped?

Social Media Process

Rolling the Dice!D - Designated ResponsibilityI - Integrated ApproachC- Content Creation MethodsE - Editorial Calendar

Designated Responsibility

• Who will be posting content– One person– A team

• Identify the workflow or process that works for your PTA

• Consider creating a policy specific to social media• Negative posts – what to do?

Integrated Approach• Which outlets will you use?• What information goes where?• Frequency?• Manage multiple social networks

– hootsuite – tweetdeck – http://www.socialoomph.com/– http://webtrends.about.com/od/pr6/tp/The-Top-10-Social-Media-Management-Applications.htm

Content Creation Methods• What are you using to capture noteworthy

stories• Google alerts• Yahoo alerts• Talkwalker • Social Mention • Yotify

http://digitalwalt.com/google-alerts-10-best-alternatives-to-google-alerts/

Editorial Calendar

• Helps you strategically post• Develops a schedule for your members• Maintains consistency• Makes sure you don’t forget!

Social Media Best Practices

• Variety• Tone• Timing

– Peak hours early morning, mid day, quitting time and late night

Social Media Best PracticesTwitter

•Respond quickly•Space out tweets•Too much self-promotion can be a bad thing

– 30% PTA Promotion – 70% Related topics

•Choose who to follow– WeFollow– Tweepz

•Develop relationships•Join the conversation

Social Media Best PracticesFacebook

•Respond quickly•Join the conversation•Develop Relationships•Avoid “I” statements use “we”, “us”, “our”•Find a “voice” that works for your PTA•Make your page “sticky” •Check it once, twice, three times: Grammar/spelling

Social Media Best Practices

• Negative Posts– Many experts encourage allowing a real dialogue

which means allowing comments you do not like or agree with

– You can restate your view/opinion/position but allow your “followers” to have your back

– Delete rude/vulgar language and inappropriate posts

Social Media Best Practices

• Trolls: These are people who frequent sites/pages they do not agree with and post messages

• Serial Trolls: These trolls will respond negatively to every post on your news feed

Social Media Best Practices

Dealing with Negative People•Ignore them: This is hard! But be mindful, trolls are looking for a fight; if you do not give them one, they generally go away and sadly, pick on someone else.•It is best to demonstrate that you will only engage folks who are receptive to meaningful discourse not those looking for a fight. The negative posting is really a bullying tactic and we cannot allow bullying behavior on our social media

Social Media Best Practices

If you feel it is necessary to respond:•Direct your statement to all of your followers•Restate your position/belief•Provide a resource

Example:There is lot of misinformation going around about the Common Core State Standards. Check out CCSSI FAQs to learn more.

Exercise

Questions

For more information contact:Lee Ann Kendrick, Regional Advocacy Specialist

(571)329-9365lkendrick@pta.org

PTA.org