Tips & Tricks for Taking Social Media to the Next Level
First Things First: Identify Your Goals Reach potential new patrons/customers/users? Inform current patrons about features, events and services you provide? Build a database? Connect with partners & referral sources? Provide customer service?
Sno-Isle Library Sites are Terrific! Current Fun Engaging Varied Cross-Platform
What We’ll Cover Today “Helping Beats Selling” Ways to Engage Users Moms Blogs
Example: Dole YouTube Video Many people love cooking shows and learning new recipes. This is a perfect way for Dole to show off food products
And Cross-Platform…
Rafting in the Smokies: Facebook Great use of visuals to tell a story
More than Just Rafting
Tapping into Sharing with Photo Contest
Rafting in the Smokies: Twitter
Rafting in The Smokies: Blog Creative blog content includes trout recipes and nearby attractions
How To Engage Your Audience Ask questions requiring short feedback or even yes or no questions Ask them which topics they’d like to discuss Share valuable content, such as tips. Be helpful. Ask for examples or help from community Acknowledge your audience’s contributions
Have Some Fun Fans Like Fun!
Talk About Engaged Fans!!!
A Little Humor Goes a Long Way…
Use it to Guide Business Changed their packaging Consumers HATED it Sales dropped 20% Could’ve harnessed the power of their fans
Hallmark Cards Learns to Speak Customers’ Language More than 1,400 names for “grandma” Very few actually use the words “grandma” or “grandmother”
Moms are the New “It” Girls
Moms Love Facebook There are more women than men on Facebook Moms feel Facebook is more important than other women
Moms & Twitter Twitter Moms are thought to be the most tech- savvy of Moms Images are the most commonly shared item on Twitter News articles are second Links to videos are also popular –140 character limit lends itself to sharing links
Keep ‘em short, no more than 3 minutes per video Edit them and add music to make them enjoyable to watch Use humor when possible Make them fun, but impart useful information Tips for Videos on YouTube
Pinterest = a Sweet Spot for You 80% of users are women Moms are 61% more likely to visit Pinterest than others Pinterest is the most visited site among American Moms Users of Pinterest spend an average of 1 hour 17 minutes on the site each visit
Discover Ohio Pinterest Contest Discover Ohio held a Pinterest contest that offered family four-packs of tickets to the Ohio State Fair for pinning pictures of Messy Faces
Discover Ohio Pinterest Contest Pinterest users engaged and posted lots of great pictures
Blog Force 1 of 3 bloggers is a “Mommy Blogger” 18.3 million women with children read blogs at least once a month 60% of Mommy bloggers blog about organizations and brands they love or hate
Mom Blogs Mom Bloggers have influence Moms want to hear from other moms, not advertisers, so organizations are wooing mom bloggers Women trust wat other women say
Mom Panels Companies like Disney utilize panels of Moms to offer advice and answer questions online
Cultivating Mom Bloggers Contact them and be upfront about what you want and expect Be aware that some will be happy blogging for you, others (especially the most influential bloggers) will want to be paid
Blog Tips Post regularly-create a calendar Posts should be no more than words Write about what matters to you Include bullet point lists
Make headlines snappy—5 Ways to Beat the Summer Slump What to Read in the Rain Engage your readers with questions, contests, and assignments Blog Tips
Engage Your Audience You must be present in the conversation However: Allow time for the community to respond first to a fan or follower’s question without the large organizational voice responding initially
Paid Social Media Boosted/Promoted Posts Promoted Tweets
Why Do Paid Social Media Ads? Decreased brand organic reach means you may need to spend money to get noticed Only about 16% of Facebook fans see your posts at any given time organically (free)
Paid ads allow you to target people to receive your message by demographics, keyword or location Get your content in front of a much wider audience Analytics built in for ROI measurement Relatively economical Why Do Paid Social Media Ads?
Paid Facebook Boosted Posts –Takes a post on your newsfeed and by setting an amount of money $10, $20, $30 pushes into newsfeed for a certain amount of time (1 day, 2 days) –Limited targeting; quick, easy and cheap Promoted Posts –Use Ads Manager to push into newsfeed –Different bidding and budgeting options, good for an ongoing campaign –Can get expensive
Paid Twitter Promoted Tweets –Can target Tweets to non-followers by keyword or other demographic –You only pay when someone interacts with the Promoted Tweet
Summary Have a plan Cultivate mons Consider blogging Don’t be afraid to try new things, show humor
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