Harry Respass & Erica Woods 1 Connecting Technical Volunteers with Nonprofits! Tech Tutorial: Social Media

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W HY WE ’ RE HERE Understand what Social Media is Benefits of Social Media / Statistics How to Map Out Your Social Media Strategy Major Social Media Platforms Best Practices For Using Social Media The Good! What Really Works Next Steps for Success & Activity Resources Questions 3

W HAT I S S OCIAL M EDIA ? Forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos) Friendster, a social networking website, was opened to the public in the U.S. and grew to 3 million users in three months. AOL had 34 million members. Reaching the Public Through Media (First Known Use )

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B ENEFITS OF S OCIAL M EDIA  Increasing communication  Inbound Marketing  Intentional Branding  Increasing your Community Footprint  Recruiting, Engaging, Educating and Appreciating Volunteers, Sponsors, and other members of target audience  Capturing Ideas, Success Stories, etc. (crowdsourcing)  Communicating Events, Information & News Social media enables all your stakeholders to become “brand ambassadors!”

S OCIAL M EDIA STATISTICS 7

H OW TO M AP O UT Y OUR S OCIAL M EDIA S TRATEGY Understand the different platforms Which should you use? How will they connect to your audience? Define how/why social media can boost the company What goals are you trying to obtain? Sales, signups, cost reduction, etc. Its ok to peek. See what your competitor is doing? Could be a good start or a bad one. 8

H OW TO M AP O UT Y OUR S OCIAL M EDIA S TRATEGY Dedicate a resource to do the work The more you have speaking about your product on your end, the better. (assistant, marketing company) Four eyes are better than one Image Tone of voice, update frequency, events, etc. Always post with images. Time Average reader spends less than 90 seconds on your site or post. Make it sweet and to the point. 9

P LATFORMS – C HANNELS Blogging / Forums / RSS Feeds (WordPress, Blogger, Feedreader, etc.) MicroBlogs (Twitter, Wooxie) Video and Image Sharing (YouTube, Flickr, Pinterest) Social Networking (FaceBook, Google +, LinkedIn) Music and Entertainment Sites (Spotify, etc.) Location Based Services (Foursquare) 10

P LATFORM #1: F ACEBOOK Most visited website Groups vs. Pages Posting Strategy Connect With Friends and Family by sharing status updates, photos, etc. More than 160 million users in the US alone. FaceBook Page makes it easy to connect with your target audience. “Like Button” says they are interested in your product. 11 Facebook replaced Google as the #1 most visited website on the internet (as of 2013)

P LATFORM #2: T WITTER  Search Engine + Communication Platform  170 million active users; 400 million tweets a day  Largest age group =  Handles vs. Hashtags  Character Restriction: 140  Best Practices  Follow to be Followed!  Use link shorteners  Make the most of your profile (add website, use hashtags, communicate your mission and why people should Follow)  Create lists to keep contacts organized and keep track of VIPs 12

P LATFORM #2: T WITTER – H ANDLES VS. H ASHTAGS A username is how you're identified on Twitter, and is always preceded immediately by symbol. For instance, Katy Perry A Hashtag is any word or phrase immediately preceded by the # symbol. When you click on a hashtag, you'll see other Tweets containing the same keyword or topic. 13

P LATFORM #3: I NSTAGRAM Instagram is a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends and family. Take a picture or video, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram — it's that easy. You can even share to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more. It's a new way to see the world. Has the use of hashtags for easier searching. Have an event? Upload some photos and give it a name (i.e, #RavensParty). Have others do the same. It will fill up fast. 14

P LATFORM #4: L INKED I N 175 million users #1 Networking site for Businesses and Professionals Company Page vs. Group Appropriate depending on age and professions of target audience 15

P LATFORM #5: Y OU T UBE Easy way to communicate through video and audio demonstrations. 2 nd largest search engine in the world; 800 million unique users visit each month; lots of auto-sharing (sharing amongst other social networks) Compatible with all forms of social media. Easy to embed (to your website) and upload videos. YouTube Subscriptions Have users subscribe to your page and become fans. Allow users to interact by using “like comment on videos and make suggestions YouTube Channel Channels appear on YouTube more often and in more varied placements than ever before. Optimize your channel for placement in search, related channels, browse channels and the feed so you’ll engage current and potential subscribers across YouTube. 16

Y OU T UBE C HANNEL 17 Your Own Personal Space Post Your Videos Get Subscribers Great Way to keep in touch with the public

Y OU T UBE S UBSCRIPTIONS 18 Share with Others Number Of Hits Video Subscribe

A DDITIONAL P LATFORMS Pinterest Google+: 100 million users **Recommendation: Start with 1-2 platforms, get really good and have a “content sharing” strategy that’s realistic and maintainable! Don’t take on too much.** 19

B EST PRACTICE #1 – QUALITY PROFILES Quality Pictures Communicates Purpose Who’s your target audience? Why should they follow/like you? Includes Website URL Use hashtags for Twitter profile 20

B EST P RACTICE #2 – D EVELOP A CONTENT STRATEGY Use a platform where it’s easy to interact Focus on Quality over Quantity Re-post quality content from time to time Think through how you can use content to benefit, engage and appreciate users Schedule Posts & Tweets; Utilize tools for scheduling posts, other automation tasks, etc…. 21 Use a news aggregator like Feedly to compile news feeds from a variety of online sources that you can customize and share with your audience

C ONTENT S TRATEGY ( CONT ) 22

B EST P RACTICE #3 – S HARE CONCISE, RELEVANT, INTERESTING AND / OR VALUABLE INFORMATION Events, recognitions, news, new programs, impact or progress made (how funds are being used), volunteer or company spotlights, relevant quotes Speak in terms of your organization (“We” or “Us”) Post things your viewers might actually like and share organically 23 Check out: goodreads.com/quotes

B EST PRACTICE #3 ( CONT ) Evaluate “reader friendliness” Avoid long blocks of text People will ‘Share’ short, concise and interesting posts without being requested to do so Capture attention in a couple seconds 24

B EST P RACTICE #4 – E NGAGE & R ESPOND Engage & involve audience Propose topics, ask questions, fill- in-the-blanks, etc… Reply to your audience - respond to questions and comments; Facebook replies now allow you to reply to a specific comment, creating a sub-thread for the discussion of that particular post Send short welcome Direct Messages to new followers Thank people for their comments, re-tweets, etc…. 25 “ Too many brands treat social media as a one way, broadcast channel, rather than a two-way dialogue through which emotional storytelling can be transferred.” – Simon Mainwaring

B EST PRACTICE #5: U SE I MAGES & H ASHTAGS Integrate images into your social media strategies People are attracted towards images more than wall of texts A ratio for images vs texts is a great start. Upload flyers as images 26

B EST PRACTICE #5 ( CONT ) Hashtags 101 Increase relevancy Searchable Use relevant hashtags in order to increase your visibility and enhance your online presence Twitter and Google+ support hashtags Facebook recently implemented a searchable hashtag service 27

B EST P RACTICE #6: P OST DURING PRIME TIMES Facebook – between 10 am and 4pm Monday thru Thursday Twitter – between 1pm and 3pm Monday thru Thursday LinkedIn – focus on posting before and after business hours, 7 am to 9 am and 5pm to 6pm Tuesday thru Thursday Google+ – 9am to 11am on workdays 28

B EST PRACTICE #7 & #8: ‘ THANK YOU ’ & I MPACT Demonstrate the impact Update on progress Give appreciation 29

B EST PRACTICE #9: USE A DASHBOARD 30

B EST PRACTICE #10 – A NALYZE & REVISIT STRATEGY Analyze strategies What’s working? What type of content do people seem most interested in? Evaluate reports provided by platforms and/or social media dashboard Use additional tools to measure success 31 Twitter Weekly Recap

G OOD EXAMPLES 32

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N EXT STEPS FOR SUCCESS 1. Choose 1-2 platforms and learn more 2. Develop Social Media strategy, including content and sharing strategy 3. Create social media presence 4. Get feedback & then improve presence based on channels 5. Use a dashboard that will help you track everything (HootSuite.com) 6. Get in habit of posting 2-3+ times a week 7. Share Blogs, Articles, News, etc… via Social Media channels 8. Evaluate every 3 months 34

L INK S HORTENERS & A NALYTICS Link Shorteners Analytics – measures effectiveness of social media activity (i.e. posts, tweets, etc) Google.com/analytics Twinfluence.com Klout.com Twitalyzer ***Dashboards, like Hoot Suite, provide analytics!*** 35

A DDITIONAL RESOURCES Best Times to Post: post-social-media-infographic LinkedIn Guide: Ultimate-Cheat-Sheet-for-Mastering-LinkedIn.aspx Best Twitter Posts around Giving Tuesday: 36