Getting Your Story Read: Maximizing your use of social media for personal branding and audience engagement

@carlazanoni

By the end of this session,

you will be able to:

• Identify and find your audience

• Authentically connect with them

• Manage the noise

• Measure success

What is “social?” Credit: Breakfast at Tiffany’s / Wikimedia Commons

Getting Social

Conversational

Authentic

Authoritative

Informational

Fun

Inclusive

You Being You

So, how’s it going so far?

How do you incorporate social into your work? What question do you most want answered?

Why Be Social?

• Helps with your reporting

• Connects you to new people and readers

• Expands your reach

• Gets your stories read

> Note on SEO

Rules of Engagement

Credit: http://www.mrugesharaul.com

Slide credit: Mandy Jenkins/NewsTrain

✓Users here follow topics and interests first ✓ Fast-paced, frenetic updates expected ✓Great for quick hits and updates ✓ Personality is rewarded

✓Users here to follow pre-existing connections

✓ Slower-paced, fewer posts ✓Great for longer posts and conversation ✓ Large expectation of privacy

Images are loved equally

Slide credit: Mandy Jenkins/NewsTrain

Facebook Posts

Tweets

Tweets should give the story and promise more.

Leave People Wanting More, Not Annoyed You Left Them

Hanging

NO YES

• Don’t leave the link in the status update

• Format headline/text to be

self-contained • Mix up the status, not always

questions or links • Moderate your comments

Facebook Tips

What Makes a Post Better than Average?

Pose questions +64% Call to read or take a closer look +37% Contain personal reflections +25% Have a clever, catchy tone +18%

OK, Let’s Practice

Write a tweet

Write a Facebook post

Take this article and …

Be ready to share what you wrote and why you wrote it.

Facebook: To Be, or Not to Be

Facebook: Profiles vs Pages

PROFILES

• Simplicity • Privacy • Authenticity • Reach

PAGES

• Separate personal and professional • Public • Analytics • Challenge reaching fans

Facebook Follow

Targeting Setting

https://www.twellow.com/splash/

Who Can See Your Posts

Let’s Practice

Take one of these steps: •Turn on Follow •Create a list •Fine-tune your security settings

Managing It All

Tweetdeck

Hootsuite

23 percent of population

71 percent of population

In 2015, 63% of both

Twitter and Facebook users get

news there

Only 3 percent of

adults in U.S. are on Reddit

Finding Your Audience • Twellow.com • Wefollow.com • Twitter Lists • Google • Groups • Muckrack.com (other journalists) •WhoSharedMyLink.com (by MuckRack)

Let’s Practice

• Find three new people to follow.

• Add them to a list.

• Homework: Tweet one thing to them that adds value and is authentic.

Keep Track of Lists

Creating Twitter Lists

https://twitter.com/lists

Keep Track of All Activity

Schedule Posts* *(But first, a word of warning)

Data not Drama

https://twitter.com/Calvinn_Hobbes/status/652311659546021888

Measuring Success

Twitter Analytics

Metrics: Twitter Dashboard

Go to analytics.twitter.com while logged into twitter

Impressions: How many times your tweet was viewed

Engagement: Any and all interactions with a tweet

Click on a tweet for more detailed statistics, like clicks

Click on followers for demographic information

Tweet Analytics

Metrics: Facebook Page Insights

bit.ly/facebook-page-insights

For pages only, not profiles

Reach is # of unique people who have seen your post

Impressions are total # of times a post is seen (not uniques)

People engaged is # of uniques who clicked, liked or commented

Metrics: Bit.ly

Metrics That Actually Matter

• Fans/followers

• Retweets/shares

• Replies/comments

• User-generated content submissions

• Reach

• Klout Score

Usual Suspects Real Indicators • Intended audience acquired

• Reader -> Customer

• Conversations generated

• Reader -> Participant

• New sources acquired

• Gains made

Let’s Practice

• Find one tweet or Facebook post and report back on how your post performed.

• If you have never tweeted or posted before, take this time to set up a management tool we discussed and create at least one list of people to follow.

Thank You!

Carla Zanoni carlazanoni@gmail.com

@carlazanoni (except for Snapchat!

zanonicarla)

And thanks to @MJenkins, @ByDanielVictor and @KarenWorkman for contributing slides. Follow them!