Social Media Strategy - ifex.org · HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT This step-by-step guide will help you create a clear digital ... strategy objective. Social media helps you engage with

Social Media Strategy Engage your audience

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THE BIG PICTURE

> The value of a clear digital communications strategy

> Determine where you will focus your efforts

10 STEPS TO DEVELOPING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

> Identify your goals and objectives

> Evaluate what resources you have

> Look for examples to inspire and inform your plans

> Develop a plan for creating shareable content

> Decide what social media platforms you will focus on

> As you create content, ask yourself how important it is to your organisation

to reach an international audience

> Articulate the tone of your social media activities

> Remember that social media is a conversation, not a broadcast

> Use the right tools to help manage your social media efforts

> Review your results and refine your efforts

APPENDICES

> Online resources

> Social media platforms

Social Media Strategy Engage your audience


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PLEASE CONTACT [email protected].

> IFEX IS A GLOBAL NETWORK DEFENDING AND PROMOTING FREE EXPRESSION.

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1. The Big Picture


HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT This step-by-step guide will help you create a clear digital

communications strategy for rethinking your social media strategy.

If you do not have an organisational communications strategy, you should

refer to the IFEX Communications Strategy Step by Step guide first,

which provides an overview for creating a full communications strategy. A

digital communications strategy is an important component of that full

communications strategy.

THE VALUE OF A CLEAR DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY Creating a well-planned digital communications strategy will ensure that

the time and energy devoted to your online efforts is well spent. Your

goal, as with your overall communications strategy, is to create a digital

communications strategy that is:

1. Clear

2. Targeted

3. Achievable

Why is a digital communications strategy essential?

A digital communications strategy is important as it helps ensure that:

• Your digital communications strategy and overall communications strategy are

aligned.

• Your organisation’s vision and mission align with your digital communications

strategy.

• Your digital communications are consistent and clear.

The Big Picture

PAGE 2 of 4 IFEX.ORG TOOLS TO HELP YOU DEFEND AND PROMOTE FREE EXPRESSION

• The time your team spends on digital communications activities is well

planned and directed.

• You have included ways to measure the effectiveness of your digital

communications

• You have the information you need to adjust your activities if they are less

effective than you would like them to be.

This will ensure that your organisation’s messages are heard by the

audience(s) you are targeting.

ALIGN YOUR DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY WITH YOUR COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY AND ORGANISATIONAL MISSION AND VISION

HOW THE PIECES FIT TOGETHER

MISSION VISION COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

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As you develop your draft digital communications strategy, double-check

to ensure that it is aligned with your organisation’s mission and vision. If

it isn’t, it may indicate that your overall communications strategy is not

properly aligned with your mission and vision either.

The Big Picture


DETERMINE WHERE YOU WILL FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS

WHERE SHOULD YOU FOCUS YOUR EFFORTS?

Your Website Is Your Foundation: In most cases, the foundation of

your digital communications strategy will be your organisation’s website.

(See next section Rethinking your website for specifics on analysing

and updating your website.)

Your website should:

• Reflect your mission and vision

• Be aligned with your overall communication strategy.

Ask yourself: Is my organisation’s website up to date and aligned with

current organisational mission and vision and current overall

communications objectives and goals? If the answer is “No,” then you

should make rethinking your website your first digital communications

strategy objective.

Social media helps you engage with your audience(s): Your social

media efforts are essential in allowing you to engage with your

audience(s).

Through social media, you can:

• Engage in conversation with your audience(s)

• Direct them to valuable content and resources housed on your website

• Create connections with other content creators and curators

• Listen to what members of your audience(s) are saying on key issues

• Ensure that your organisation is seen as contributing to the online

conversation around your key issues.

Should your website be your top priority? In most cases, it will be.

But not always.

The Big Picture


When should your social media efforts be a higher priority than updating

or maintaining your website?

• When a fast-breaking issue or crisis requires that you rethink your communication priorities and plans: It may be that your

communications strategy, digital communications strategy and

website plan all made perfect sense when they were approved for your

current year’s workplan. But what if a major crisis—an unexpected

new piece of legislation that threatens press freedom in your country,

or a military crackdown on free expression—occurs? Ideally your

website’s structure will be flexible enough to allow you to cover and

respond to this issue on the site. But it may make more sense to focus

your efforts on social media, which allows for a more nimble, quick

response. In this circumstance, you may decide to shelve your website

priorities, and focus instead on social media activities.

• When your organisation and its website are being targeted or hacked by opponents: As an individual organisation, you may

lack the security sophistication to ensure that your website stays up in

the face of persistent attacks or targeting. Social media sites may

allow you to more effectively keep getting your message out when

your website is down or under attack.

2. 10 Steps To Developing A Social Media Strategy


In this section, we will cover the 10 steps to developing a social media

strategy.

STEP 1: Identify your goals and objectives

STEP 2: Evaluate what resources you have

STEP 3: Look for examples to inspire and inform your plans

STEP 4: Develop a plan for creating shareable content

STEP 5: Decide what social media platforms you will focus on

STEP 6: As you create content, ask yourself how important it is to your

organisation to reach an international audience

STEP 7: Articulate the tone of your social media activities

STEP 8: Remember that social media is a conversation, not a broadcast

STEP 9: Use the right tools to help manage your social media efforts

STEP 10: Review your results and refine your efforts

10 Steps To Developing A Social Media Strategy


STEP 1: IDENTIFY YOUR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES A GOAL is the long-term purpose towards which your efforts are directed.

AN OBJECTIVE is a mid- to short-term specific, measurable action that

moves you forward on the path towards your longer-term goals.

Your organisation’s vision and mission set out overarching long-term goals for your efforts. For instance, in IFEX’s case, the

organisation’s goal is to defend and promote freedom of expression as a

fundamental human right.

Your communications plan should set out communication objectives.

Your digital communications plan should set out specific digital objectives.

EXAMPLE: If you are developing a social media strategy, your objective in

your communications plan may be: Increase organisation’s Twitter

profile.

Your digital communications plan would then break this objective down

into a series of specific digital objectives. These could include:

• Analyse best-performing Tweets by February

• Articulate organisational Twitter voice by March

• Develop Twitter content plan and set follower and website referral traffic goals

by April

• Work with content team to produce three website infographics to promote via

Twitter, one each in April, June and August



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Some segments of your audience will be more active on social media

platforms than others. Be clear in your plans:

• Which audience are you targeting?

• On which platform?

Target your content accordingly. For instance, members of the media are

often active on Twitter, so you may decide that your Twitter activity will

focus on reaching out to and building your media audience.

Your audience is made up of people you want to:

• INFORM: provide information to.

• TRANSFORM: change their attitudes through compelling storytelling,

data and arguments.

• MOTIVATE TO ACT: prompt them take a specific action, such as

signing a petition or writing a letter to a legislator, by providing the

information and tools they need to do so.

As you plan the content you will highlight in your social media efforts,

consider:

• what audiences you are trying to reach,

• how you want the information you share with them to inform,

transform or motivate them to act.

For more information on understanding audience and defining key

messages for your audience, refer to IFEX’s Communications Strategy

Step by Step document.



CASE STUDY: CAMBODIAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (CCHR)

IFEX member CCHR is a leading, non-aligned, independent, NGO that

works to promote and protect democracy and respect for human rights in

the Kingdom of Cambodia. In 2012, it developed a 3-year digital strategic

plan to be implemented from January 2013-December 2015. The

challenges it faced included:

• CCHR’s online presence was not well coordinated. Content was

produced by various employees working on different projects.

• Content was published irregularly, inconsistently and with inefficient

formatting.

• CCHR often failed to react to and interact with its audience on social

media channels and its blogs.

• Digital tools generally were not maintained, so accounts were

launched and then not regularly updated.

In preparing its strategy, CCHR defined its key audiences as:

• Cambodian policymakers

• International policymakers

• Victims of human rights violations

• NGOs and human rights defenders

• Donors

• Media

• Youth

• Others

It defined its overall goal for the digital strategic plan as:

• to raise awareness about human rights issues in Cambodia and to

increase the number of activists promoting and protecting those

rights

• to build and maintain relationships with its audiences by listening,

engaging, activating and supporting



It defined it objectives as:

• Increased visibility for human rights issues in Cambodia

• Increased human rights activism by CCHR’s audience(s)

• Increased and more efficient fundraising

Based on this clear articulation of audience, goals and objectives, CCHR

was able to craft a set of specific, measurable activities, including changes

to its website and significant updating of its social media activities.

STEP 2: EVALUATE WHAT RESOURCES YOU HAVE Be realistic about what you can take on. Money, staff time, volunteer time

and the technical ability needed to achieve your social media goals and

objectives can all be in limited supply. Be certain to consider the on-going

effort required to keep your social media accounts up to date.

Ask yourself: Are your plans realistic? Can you maintain this level of

activity on an ongoing basis? It is better to limit your social media activity

to one or two platforms and engage fully on those platforms, than to

launch on many platforms and struggle to maintain your presence.

Focused, full engagement on one platform is better than

scattered, infrequent engagement on half a dozen.

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Even if you are not going to engage fully on a particular platform, you

may decide to set up an organisational account simply to ensure that no-

one else is able to adopt your organisational name on that platform. Be

consistent in your account name across platforms, so that someone who is

familiar with you from one platform can easily recognise you on another.



For instance, when Venezuela IFEX member Instituto Prensa y Sociedad

redesigned their website, they used the opportunity to rename their web

address so that it was consistent with their social media identity. The site

became ipysvenezuela.org. The Twitter name is @ipysvenezuela, and the

Facebook name is ipysvenezuela.

STEP 3: LOOK FOR EXAMPLES TO INSPIRE AND INFORM YOUR PLANS Where can you turn for resources and inspiration? As you begin to

develop your social media plan, it is useful to have a sense of what is

possible.

• Observe before you launch: Spend time as an observer on the social

media platforms you are considering taking part in. Get a sense of the

culture on the platform:

§ What do users expect from one another in terms of sharing and

interaction?

§ What types of content do users expect to see?

§ Is the tone of interaction casual or formal, informational or

opinion driven?

§ What kind of humour is acceptable?

§ What kind of behaviours do users not want to see, or criticise

when they do see it?

• Look for successful users on each platform. Follow and where

possible, connect with them: These may be thought leaders in your

own field, or they may be high-profile or successful users in fields

unrelated to yours. Analyse their efforts:

§ What do they do well?

§ Why do other users follow or interact with them?

§ What kind of content are they creating, curating or sharing?

§ What is their tone or personality on this platform?



• Find users within your own circle that are already on the platforms

you are considering, and ask for their insights and help: For instance,

you may have a high-profile user on your organisation’s board or

among its volunteers. Ask for their insights. Once you launch your

organisation on that platform, ask that they share your content with

their followers or suggest you as an account to follow.

There are also a wide range of online resources that can provide

background information, insights and examples to aid you in your efforts

as you develop your social media plan.

For the latest on social media news: Social media sites are constantly

adding new functionality. They also often change the terms and

conditions on their sites. This can include changes in privacy policies,

copyright policies and user agreements. It is important for you to stay up

to date on what is happening on the platforms you are participating in.

Some sites that can help include:

• http://mashable.com/social-media/

• http://techcrunch.com/social/

• http://readwrite.com/social

Platform-specific and advocacy/nonprofit-specific advice: Some social

media platforms have their own resources for users. There are also guides

and resources available specifically for nonprofits and advocacy groups.

Basic resources:

• Twitter Help Center: https://support.twitter.com/

Includes basic Twitter FAQs.

• Instagram Help Center: http://help.instagram.com/

Includes basic Instagram FAQs

• Pinterest Basics: http://about.pinterest.com/basics/

• Tumblr Help: http://www.tumblr.com/help

• Facebook Help Center: https://www.facebook.com/help/



NGO-specific resources:

• Best Practices for Using Social Media for Human Rights:

http://hub.sithi.org/doc_upload/Social%20Media%20Best%20Practi

ces%20Booklet%20for%20Activists%20(2013).pdf A downloadable

booklet produced by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights,

outlining general best practices as well as platform-specific

information for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr,

SlideShare and Google+.

• Facebook:

www.facebook.com/nonprofits Includes examples and resources.

Click the Resources tab to find their “Guide for Nonprofits” offered in

English, Spanish, German, French and Hindi, as well as other case

studies and tips. Twitter Nonprofits: https://twitter.com/Nonprofits

Highlights examples of great uses of Twitter in the nonprofit

community.

• Nonprofits on Pinterest:

http://www.pinterest.com/nolandhoshino/nonprofits-on-pinterest/

A round-up of nonprofits on Pinterest; a good starting point to see

what other NGOs are doing.

• Google for Nonprofits community:

https://support.google.com/nonprofits/?hl=en#topic=3247288

Information for all Google products, including Google+ and YouTube,

including case studies and the Google for Nonprofits Blog.

• Nonprofits on Google+: http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/nonprofits/ Advice and guides

for nonprofits,including how to use Google Hangouts and how to

promote your organisation using the +1 button.

• YouTube Charities Programme: http://www.youtube.com/nonprofits Information on how to join the

YouTube Nonprofit Program (available in a limited number of

countries), as well as the YouTube resource guide “Playbook for

Good.”

• Nonprofit Tech for Good: http://www.nptechforgood.com/ A social and mobile media blog for

nonprofits, including information on social media generally, as well as



Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn and YouTube specifically.

Also features webinars and other training opportunities and

resources.

• Tactical Technology Collective: https://www.tacticaltech.org/ An organisation dedicated to the use of

information in activism. Includes toolkits and guides such as Security

in-a-Box: Tools and tactics for your digital security, Visualising

Information for Advocacy, The Info-Activism How-to Guide and

more.

STEP 4: DEVELOP A PLAN FOR CREATING SHAREABLE CONTENT Social media platforms are specifically designed for sharing content:

articles, photos, videos, opinions, news, infographics and more. But some

content is more “shareable” than others—more likely to get prompt

recipients to share it with their followers, fans or circle.

Why do people share content? The New York Times Customer Insights

Group published a study looking at why people share content online1.

They found that people share content online:

• To bring valuable and entertaining content to others

• To define ourselves to others: What we choose to share transmits our values

and interests

• To grow and nourish our relationships: Sharing helps us connect with others

who share our interests and concerns

• To feel more involved in the world: We share because sharing makes us feel

connected, involved and self-fulfilled

• To get the word out about causes or brands: We share because it is a way to

support causes and issues we care about

1 http://nytmarketing.whsites.net/mediakit/pos/



Based on these insights, they developed a list of factors that influence

sharing:

1. Appeal to your audience’s desire to connect with each other

2. People won’t share your content if they don’t trust you as a source

3. Simple content with a straightforward message is more likely to get

shared

4. If appropriate, humour can help improve shareability

5. More urgent content is more likely to get shared, so if a deadline or

time element makes sense, include it in your post

In formulating its Twitter strategy, IFEX member Cambodia Center for

Human Rights decided to focus on five kinds of tweets that research told

them were most likely to be retweeted:

• Powerful stats that spoke to their mission and programs

• Quotes that inspired social good

• Well-formatted, easy to read factual tweets

• Position statements spoken with clarity and conviction

• Tweets that tap into breaking news cycle.2

Ad agency Ogilvy & Mather has also explored the question of what factors

help make content shareable. According to John Bell of agency, the seven

principles of “social design”3 are:

1. Value: What will your audience find valuable? To know what users

will find valuable, you need to understand your audience(s).

2. “Disruption”: People notice content that challenges our

understanding of the way the world works.

2 http://www.nptechforgood.com/2012/09/16/five-types-of-nonprofit-tweets-guaranteed-to-get-retweeted/, quoted in CCHR Digital Strategic Plan 3 http://www.fastcocreate.com/1682946/the-principles-of-social-design-how-to-make-content-shareable#1



3. Story: People make decisions based on emotions as well as rational

reasoning. Connecting your issue to a human story helps to add

emotional impact.

4. Fresh: What is new or interesting?

5. “Social proof”: Content that has already been shared by many picks up

its own momentum: This is known as “social proof”—when we see

others doing something, we are more likely to join in. This is why

have a counter or tally for number of shares, or number of signatures

on a campaign, can help to foster sharing.

6. Participation: Especially creative participation: asking a user to sign a

petition can be powerful. But asking them to share a personal

message of support in a photo may help them to engage more deeply

and personally with your cause.

7. Ease: Users are more likely to share content if they can do it in one or

two clicks than if it takes three or four.

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As online social media platforms become more and more driven by visual

content, adding photos, data visualisations or infographics can help

increase shareability. IFEX member the Center for Media Freedom and

Responsibility in the Philippines has had particular success in creating

infographics to support their campaigns and information-sharing

objectives. With funding from IFEX’s Digital Transformation grants,

Lebanese IFEX member MAHARAT Foundation developed a set of

guidelines to help them produce better infographics. As they put it

“visualizing data is a way to tell a story, not just copying and pasting

information.”

See examples of CMFR infographics at http://cmfr-

phil.org/endimpunityinph/2013/11/infographic-killing-of-journalists-and-



media-workers-in-the-philippines/ and http://cmfr-

phil.org/endimpunityinph/2013/11/infographic-ampatuan-massacre-victims/

STEP 5: DECIDE WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS YOU WILL FOCUS ON Globally, there are a number of major social media platforms you may

choose to be active on, in addition to region-specific platforms. Few

organisations have the resources to participate on every platform. Be

strategic in your choice of platforms.

Factors to consider in choosing your platforms:

1. Is your audience already participating heavily on a particular

platform? In launching its Tumblr account, IFEX member Derechos

Digitales recognised that Tumblr appeals to a younger demographic,

and that in Chile, younger people were more likely to care about

digital rights and free expression. Bonus: Once content is posted to

Tumblr, it is simple to syndicate it to Facebook and Twitter, making it

more time-effective to create and post to three sites relatively easily.

2. Are people with your audience’s demographics more likely to be found

on a particular platform? For instance, more women than men

participate in Pinterest, while more men than women participate in

Google+. Younger users typically congregate on new platforms and

are often the first to leave established ones.

3. Is the kind of content you have to share particularly well-suited to the

a particular platform? Breaking news content is highly suited to

Twitter. Sharing of video is well-suited to YouTube. Sharing of images

is well-suited to Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram. When IFEX

member IPYS Venezuela embarked on their digital transformation

project, they decided to focus their Twitter efforts on posting links,

videos and images that are newsworthy. On their Facebook page, they

focus on material that is more detailed as well as providing

audiovisual content.

When Lebanese IFEX member MAHARAT Foundation developed

their social media plan with help from an IFEX Digital



Transformation grant, they trained staff about the strengths of

various social media platforms and the content that works best to

achieve different types of goals. They also created a “conversation

calendar” to schedule and track planned social media content.

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People who follow you on one platform are likely to follow you on other

platforms as well, if they know you are there. For instance, share the link

to your Facebook page in your Twitter feed, and vice versa.

Should you join a just-launched platform, or one that seems to be the next

“hot” platform? You may at least want to sign up to reserve your preferred

social media account name. In deciding how active to be, ask yourself the

same questions about a new platform that you would of an established

one:

• Do you have the resources to maintain an active account?

• Is this a platform where your desired audience(s) is likely to congregate?

• Does the content you have to share suit the platform and its culture?

• Two additional questions to ask about new platforms:

• Does this platform allow you to do something new, innovative or creative that

you can’t do on another platform? If so, it may have the added benefit of

helping you to create buzz around your activities by doing something few

others are doing.

• By being an early adopter on this platform, can you create more visibility for

yourself?



STEP 6: AS YOU CREATE CONTENT, ASK YOURSELF HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO YOUR ORGANISATION TO REACH AN INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE When focusing on a local or regional audience, you may be able to assume

that your audience knows certain key facts, recognises certain key names

and understands the context behind your content. However, if you aim to

reach an international audience as well, you should consider what

additional context or clarification you need to add to your content—both

to your social media posts and any content on your website that it links

back to—to provide international audiences with the material they need to

fully understand your issue. This could include adding “issue

backgrounders” to stories on your website, for instance.

STEP 7: ARTICULATE THE TONE OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITIES Website content tends to be slightly less formal than printed content, and

social media content tends to be even more casual in tone. However, for

most organisations, it is still important to be seen as credible and

authoritative, so the tone you use in posting to social media platforms

should be carefully considered so that it does not erode trust in your

content.

What is acceptable on the platform? First, spend time on the platform

before you begin posting. This will help you develop an understanding of

what the acceptable tone of posts is on that particular platform.

What adjectives describe your organisation’s desired tone? Develop a

list of adjectives that describe the tone you will use for your organisation’s

posts. These should be aligned with the list you have developed to

describe your website’s tone, though they may be slightly different to

reflect the tone of the conversation on the particular platform.



Your list might include words such as:

• credible

• intelligent

• energetic

• enthusiastic

• friendly

There may also be words that would definitely not apply to your social

media posts. For instance, many organisations avoid being witty or

humorous because of the possibility that users will misunderstand the

humour.

Capture your tone in three or four adjectives, along with a couple that

definitely should not apply. This can be helpful in establishing guidelines

for the tone of content for your social media activites. The same adjectives

may apply to most or all of the platforms you participate in, though you

may decide that some platforms are suited to slightly different tones.

IFEX member Derechos Digitales does a very good job of understanding

the appropriate tone for social media activity. While the organisation

produces academic papers and reports on key digital rights issues, when

posting to social media, they focus on simple messaging and the most

intriguing facts from that content. So, for instance, if your organisation

authors a report on a particular piece of legislation, rather than Tweeting

“Report on Bill C127 and implications for free speech” with a link to the

full report, you might Tweet “3 ways Canada’s Bill C127 will limit your

free speech” with a link to a blog post that lists how the bill will limit

speech for citizens.

ASK YOURSELF: Do you need to post content in multiple languages? As

part of its social media plan, IFEX member Cambodia Center for Human

Rights posts its Facebook updates in both Khmer and English.



STEP 8: REMEMBER THAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS A CONVERSATION, NOT A BROADCAST

Social media platforms are about engaging with your audience—not

simply publishing at your audience.

Your audience expects that you will:

• respond to questions

• engage in conversations

• repost or share content they post

In planning your social media activities, ensure that you build in time for

that engagement, and that you develop a plan for how you will respond.

IFEX member Derechos Digitales does an excellent job of engaging with

their followers on Twitter. One way they do this is to ask followers

questions, and then to take part in the conversation that follows.

In its digital strategic plan, IFEX member Cambodia Center for Human

Rights committed to interacting with its audiences on Facebook and

Twitter. This includes:

• answering comments and questions from users

• encouraging debate and discussion

• thanking users for their efforts and interest

• forwarding specific inquiries or suggestions to appropriate staff members

• following and retweeting other individuals and organisations

Do you have a social media crisis plan? Ask yourself:

How will you respond to online users who try to provoke you into

responding angrily?

Will you seek a correction if people post misinformation about your

organisation, cause or campaign?



• What will you do if someone (accidentally or deliberately) posts inappropriate

content using your social media accounts?

• Who in your organisation has control of your accounts, and knows the

passwords?

• Who needs to be alerted if a social media crisis flares up on one or more of

your accounts?

Think about and plan for these issues in advance: it will be much easier

to come up with a clear crisis plan in advance than in the midst of a

brewing social media storm. (For more information on creating a social

media crisis plan, see

http://socialmediatoday.com/chrissyme/497516/10-must-have-

elements-social-media-crisis-plan and the U.S. Air Force Web Posting

Response Assessment at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_Web_Posting_

Response )

STEP 9: USE THE RIGHT TOOLS TO HELP MANAGE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORTS

There are a wide range of tools that can help you manage and track your

social media efforts. Most will allow you to post to multiple social media

accounts from one dashboard, preschedule posts, generate analytics on

your posts and help you manage followers. Below are details on some of

the common tools, but there may also be additional tools available to you

in your own language and country.



FINDING THE RIGHT TOOLS

Hootsuite Tweetdeck Buffer SocialOomph SproutSocial

Price Free, Pro and Enterprise packages

Free Free and Paid options

Free and Paid options

Paid options, with free trial

Languages Ongoing Translation Project to localize the Hootsuite dashboard in a wide range of languages. Online help provided in English, French, Portuguese and Japanese

Available in multiple languages, including Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, French and more.

English English English

Features Allows you to manage social media activities from one dashboard, and post to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, Wordpress, Mixi, Tumblr, YouTube, Flickr and more.

Manage multiple Twitter accounts, schedule Tweets for future posting, build custom timelines, filter searches and more

Allows you to manage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and App.net activity from one dashboard, and preschedule posts.

Allows you to manage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, RSS feeds, blogs, Plurk and App.net from one dashboard.

Allows you to manage multiple social media platforms through one social inbox

Analytics Yes No Yes Depends on package

Yes

Multiple posters

Depends on package Yes Depends on package

Depends on package

Yes

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While it may be tempting to post the same message to multiple social

media platforms research shows that you shouldn’t. Why? Because each

platform is unique. The tone that is appropriate on one platform may not

work as well on another. The type of content that works well on one may

not work as well on another. Boost the effectiveness of your social media

activities by creating unique posts for each platform, posts that take into



account the type of content and tone that works on each platform. This

section will help guide you through the steps you need to take to create a

solid campaign cycle that will help your campaign achieve its goals.

STEP 10: REVIEW YOUR RESULTS AND REFINE YOUR EFFORTS The social media environment is constantly evolving. Use the analytic

tools at your disposal to track what is effective: what are you doing right?

What isn’t working? Improve your future results by monitoring and

adjusting your activities based on your past results.

Social media platforms are constantly evolving, and your efforts will need

to evolve along with them. The principles presented here should apply

even as the specifics of the platforms change. The keys?

• Align your digital communications strategy with your overall

communication strategy and organisation’s mission and vision

• Understand who your audience(s) is and what they want and need

from you

• Remember that social media is about engagement with your audience:

it is a two-way conversation, not a one-way broadcast

3. Appendices


APPENDIX A ONLINE RESOURCES TO KEEP YOU UP TO DATE ON WEB DESIGN TRENDS AND BEST PRACTICES There are a wide range of online resources that provide background

information and examples to aid you in your efforts as you rethink your

own website. Most are aimed specifically at web designers and will often

include technical articles, but many also include articles that showcase

inspiring and well-designed websites. These include:

• www.smashingmagazine.com: This website is aimed at web designers

and developers, and includes many articles on best principles in

website design.

• www.webdesignledger.com: Also aimed at web designers and

developers, and includes inspiration, resources and tools for web

design.

• www.onextrapixel.com : Aimed at designers and developers, includes

inspiration and resources.

• www.webdesign.tutsplus.com: A site filled with tutorials on website

design.

Appendices


Users Content type Advantages

Facebook 1.19 billion (active, as of September 2013)

Status updates with ability to attach links to articles, photos, videos

Users who “Like” your page typically are more likely than users on other platforms to share your content with their friends, resulting in strong referral traffic

Twitter 200 million (active as of Feb 2013)

140 character “Tweets” which can contain links to articles, photos, video

Many users view Twitter as a key news source, making it excellent for sharing breaking news

Google+ 540 million (active as of October 2013)

An “authorship tool” that associates web content directly with its author/owner. Allows users to share content. Also features Google “Hangout” where users can interact via video chat in small groups, with ability to record session and upload to YouTube.

Because of its relationship with Google search, content creators with a Google+ presence often report improvement in their search ranking (may be a feature of content posted being associated back to the content author).

Pinterest 70 million (as of July 2013)

Pinboard-style photo-sharing website

High concentration of female users (83% female globally in 2012)

Instagram 100 million (active as of February 2013)

Photo-sharing, video-sharing service that allows users to easily share visual content to other social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr

Easy interconnection to other social media sites

Tumblr 152.2 million blogs hosted as of November 2013

Microblogging platform and social networking site, allowing users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog

Easy blog set-up

YouTube 4 billion videos streamed per day (as of Jan 2012)

Video-sharing site on which users can upload, view and share videos

World’s largest video-sharing site; 54 language versions available through user interface

LinkedIn 259 million users (as of June 2013)

Social networking website for people in professional occupations

Site is available in 20 languages.

Documents

Social Media Strategy - ifex.org · HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT This step-by-step guide will help you create a clear digital ... strategy objective. Social media helps you engage with