I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

SOCIAL M

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

IMPORTANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Think of social media like a shopping mall

When we have a product to sell, we take it to where our customers already are

People are looking for information on social media

Army – 1.5 million likes, >101 thousand people talking about this

Last Army post – 6,160 likes, 577 comments

Two-step flow of communication

Each user who follows and interacts with us helps market our content

Social offers a marketplace of our information without requiring great skill in programming or design

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

INTEGRATING SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media isn’t a replacement for tools we already use; it’s a way to augment it

There’s no start or end to an integrated presence

Integrates seamlessly between website, print and social

QR codes bridge the gap between print and digital

Alerts and sends users to digital presence

Supplements print pieces with multimedia and gives creates opportunity for conversation

Army Reserve page includes links to and content from several sources

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

SOCIAL MEDIA REQUIREMENTS

Planning

Content strategies, management policies

Training for both administrators and Soldiers

Marketing – gotta get the Soldiers there

Fresh content

Research shows that users interact less with brands that don’t regularly update content

How will content differ from content offered inother 84th TC products?

Irregular content updates affect visibility of new content

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

EDGERANK

Edgerank is the algorithm Facebook uses to decide what will show up on a user’s newsfeed and where it will go

An edge is anything that happens on Facebook – status updates, shares, comments, likes

Based on three metrics:affinity (u) – based on how often and how deeply a user interacts with a brand’s edgesweight (w) – each type of content carries weight – video>photo>status update>linktime decay (d) – content loses points based on how long it’s been up

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

How do we get people to social channels?

QR codes draw audience from print products

Featuring Soldiers in photos/videos attracts traffic from them and can bring shares (highest edgerank benefit)

Showing a benefit to following social presence will increase participation

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Ummmm… why?

I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

CONVERSATION

Social media allow for users to interact with and comment on content

All Army social sites are required to be open, so anyone can comment and see other comments

Creates opportunity for us to receive and respond to feedback

Creates opportunities for “haters”

Blogs allow us to us to give Soldiers, sections, partners a forum to communicate

Allow for more content updates than the Railsplitter

No need to meet space requirements

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

MEASUREMENT

“I know half of my advertising isn’t working, I just don’t know which half.”

All aspects of a digital presence provide opportunity to measure effectiveness

QR codes are trackable to monitor transition from print to digital

Web analytics provide search terms, traffic logs, demographics, trends

Facebook and Wordpress provide simple analytics to measure several metrics

Measurement allows us to learn and adjust to needs of users

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

MEASUREMENT - FACEBOOK

Facebook Insights has powerful tools to measure the reach of our posts and the demographics of our followers

We can track the impact each post has on our likes and reach, then cater to what our audience interacts with most

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

MEASUREMENT - WORDPRESS

Wordpress offers several free plugins that allow users to measure site visits, referrers and search terms

Jetpack gives users ability to adjust fire to focus on the tools and topics that drive the most traffic

Provides insight as to how many people are being exposed to messages and where they’re coming from

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

SUMMARY

Integrating social media allows us to bring our content to the user instead of making the user come to us

It allows us to incorporate our Soldiers into the voice of the command

Bridges the gap between print and digital

It can help us maintain fresh content

It gives us the ability to measure what works and what doesn’t

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

PATH FORWARD

Integrate social media into strategic plan

Decide on new tools

Discuss how we will manage content – post development, assigning blog posts, frequency of posts, types of posts

Manage administration – who has access to the page, what level of administrator privileges are handed out

Privacy concerns – tagging Soldiers in photos? Geotagging?

Plan for how to respond to comments – both negative and positive

Social media training – work inside-out to make sure PAO understands tools, then provide guidance to Soldiers

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I N T E G RAT I N G S O C I A L M E D I A

BOOYAH.

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