Social Media Roundup

Social Media PlanningResearch, plan and measure

Social Media Roundup

AgendaThis week’s Social Media Roundup examines how to effectively create a social media plan for an event. This includes researching, drafting a plan and measuring.

Introduction Identify the event Set goals and objectives Research Draft a plan Measure Planning checklist

Social Media Roundup

Introduction When planning an event, social media shouldn’t be a secondary consideration.

Throwing together social media coverage at the last minute can look forced, clumsy and unprofessional. If your organization wants to maximize the reach and impact of an event, social media is an invaluable tool.

To develop an effective social media plan, it’s important to research, draft a plan, coordinate, synchronize, execute and then measure the success of your efforts.

Social Media Roundup

Identify the event There are no shortage of events in

the Army. There are annual events, commemorations, ceremonies and training exercises. Once the decision is made to provide public affairs support to an event, social media must be an immediate consideration.

After an event is identified, take time to look at your organization’s social media assets and determine which platforms will work best for the event. For a ceremony, posting photos on Flickr and “live-Tweeting” the event are important. For annual events, Facebook and blogs can be used to provide history leading up to the event.

Social Media Roundup

Set goals and objectives After you’ve identified an event, you

need to determine what you plan to achieve by using social media.

Know and understand the themes and messages of your organization. Make sure that “nesting” and placing these messages is one of your social media goals during an event.

Setting goals in advance also makes it easier to measure your social media success at the conclusion of an event.

Once goals are set and you’ve built a list of social media objectives, you’re ready to start researching the social media space.

Social Media Roundup

Research Research before you draft a plan. If you’re planning to use Facebook for an

event, make sure you identify other links to use in posts. It’s also important to find supporting photos, videos and other Facebook Pages to tag. This helps provide depth and visual appeal to your coverage.

If you plan on “live-Tweeting,” look at the media advisory, the schedule of events and other applicable resources to find background information to Tweet. This helps “build up” the “live-Tweet.” It’s also important to find individuals on Twitter participating in the event so you can tag them in Tweets. You should also work to find or create hashtags relative to the event.

Social Media Roundup

Research Tagging and using hashtags increases the reach

of your Tweets, so it’s important to do research. Pre-planning makes it easier to focus on posting or Tweeting actual quotes while “live-Tweeting” rather than spending time at the event on your mobile web browser searching for official Facebook and Twitter pages, links, etc.

Identify and coordinate with subject matter experts on the ground. These people can provide content on the day of the event.

When researching and pre-planning, you have the option of using services like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite to pre-schedule your Tweets. While pre-scheduling Tweets can be convenient, keep in mind things can change and events can be cancelled, so be prepared to adjust pre-scheduled Tweets.

Services like Hootsuite allow your organization to pre-schedule Tweets for an event.

Social Media Roundup

Draft a plan Drafting a social media plan prior to

an event is crucial. You should have two social media plans, one that covers the entire week of the event and one that covers the actual day.

The week plan shows the days leading up to the event, while the event plan breaks down each individual post, Tweet, blog post, livestream and photo in greater detail.

Drafting this plan in advance allows time for your command to approve the plan. It also allows you to synchronize and coordinate with others who can fill in and execute the plan if you’re unavailable.

Templates for both weekly and single event social media strategies are available on the Army’s Slideshare site: http://www.slideshare.net/usarmysocialmedia

Social Media Roundup

Measure Once the event is over, look back at your

goals and objectives and evaluate the results of your social media efforts. Measurement is key to evaluating social media success.

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube allow for administrators to track views, impressions and comments. Many sites provide analytical tools for you to use when evaluating the success of social media efforts.

Facebook does not serve the same purpose as Flickr, so the platforms measure information in different ways.

Once you get an overall impression of how successful you were using social media for an event, make corrections and apply these lessons learned to your next event.

Social Media Roundup

Planning checklistIdentify the event, determine which social media sites will work best to promote, cover or highlight the event.

Research and identify supporting links to post to Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms during and after the event. Be sure to follow up after the event with thank you Tweets and posts.

If “live-Tweeting” an event, look up the official Twitter pages of participating organizations and public figures in addition to possible links to include in Tweets. Find or create hashtags, then advertise hastags ahead of the event.

Identify subject matter experts on ground at the event.

Draft both a social media plan for the event, and a social media plan for the week leading up to the event.

Following the event, use organic and external social media measuring tools to determine how successful your social media efforts were.

Determine your goals and objectives. Do you want to connect with the audience, inform the audience or engage the audience?

Social Media Roundup

Contact information

Have questions? Please feel free to reach out to us at the Online and Social Media Division

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF PUBLIC AFFAIRSPENTAGON

6/15/2011

Email:Ocpa.osmd@us.army.mil

To review and download past editions of the Social Media Roundup, visit our Slideshare site at: http://www.slideshare.net/usarmysocialmedia. All Social Media Roundups are authorized to be distributed to a broader audience.