Setting the Stage By Bradd L. Anderson State 4-H Youth Development Specialist 4-H Center for Youth Development

“Technology used to connect people with others” Source: In the last six years, social media has exploded, impacting how we communicate 87% of teens ages use the Internet 75% of on-line teens prefer IM to regular . 84% of teens report owning at least one personal media device: a desktop or laptop computer, a cell phone or PDA. (Lenhart, Madden, & Hitlin, 2005).

Factoid: Worldwide, people spend 11,416 years/day on Facebook. Source:

 Web 1.0 (1980’s-90’s)  Organization web sites  Investment in content Internet used by organizations to broadcast a message.  official content  carefully controlled messages  “the company line” Source:

 Web 2.0 (Early Present)  Investments directed to include ongoing interactive processes  Web sites  blogs  Official content  “a Conversation”  Online computer applications  Viral marketing campaigns  marketing Total Control  Little Control “From One to Many”  “A Conversation” Official Communications  Community Management Total Control  Little Control “From One to Many”  “A Conversation” Official Communications  Community Management Source:

As organizations raced to integrate new media with old practices, new entities emerged:  MySpace  Facebook  Flickr  YouTube  Twitter  iTunes Note: Twitter was the “social media darling” of 2009, but don’t discount entities like LinkedIn, MySpace, and Flickr. NOTE: Most of these still have a lot of “growing up” to do. Expect further development! Source:

 Marketing is now more complex, with technology as the main accelerant  University admissions people are sales persons now!  Customers don’t find an organization, it finds them!  Example: Zinch, where schools compete for you!Zinch  Increasing ties by companies/products to social media  Eye-fi memory cards, which automatically upload pictures from your camera to Flickr, SmugMug, etc. Cost is about $60 for a 4 gig card. Eye-fi  QR Codes – A type of barcode. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone's browser to launch and redirect to the programmed web site address, providing product information and more. QR Codes

 WIIFM – “What’s In It For Me?” – Why would a youth want to be a fan of your Facebook page?  How will you get your customers/fans interacting?  Example: A Univ. Facebook Page asked for advice from alumni to new students on move-in day  Many businesses are appointing a “Community Manager” – dedicated to social media marketing. NOTE: is still a very effective tool and the official web page is still “home base.”

“Must Have” Characteristics of a Community Manager  Big Eyes – Watch trends and behaviors.  Big Ears – Listen to what stakeholders are saying to each other.  Small Mouth – Keep quiet, resist the urge to be reactive or defensive. The community will police these things themselves. Community Management  Always plugged in: there is no set time for “doing” social media.  Work is Facebook, Twitter, etc. & should be taken seriously.  Must be “digital natives.” Target audience can spot a phony!  Must represent the organization’s voice, if a bit less formal.

 You can control the conversation  You can participate, listen, and try to direct the conversation, but it will happen anyway.  It is inexpensive and fast  Costs include staff time, resources, and opportunity costs  It takes time to build “street cred”  Will other duties go undone with the time dedicated to social media?  It may be worth it  Social media is hard  It’s not hard, just complicated.  You must keep up and stick to what’s relevant.

 Results are difficult to measure  There are tools to help you measure the results of your social media efforts (Hootsuite, Google Analytics, Feedburner, Alexa, etc.)  Qualitative Considerations  Are you reaching audiences you’ve never reached before?  Are you being talked about in a positive light?  Quantitative Considerations  Traffic  Number of re-tweets  Number of conversations/threads  Number of followers/fans  Number of subscribers

Know that it’s about the services, not the tools. Facebook may die, but people will be doing this stuff somewhere. Be aware of “convergence” trend – increasingly, people don’t “go to the Internet.” Once you log in, you’re just “on.” Remember “portability” – mobile devices are strengthening links to social media and the entire online community.

“Today, social media are in all conversations. Tomorrow, social media will be everywhere, like air. It’s referring to everything from Facebook, to Flickr, to Twitter and on-line business networking such as LinkedIn and Xing. In fact, social media is a very generic term that includes different concepts all related to technology, social interaction and building/providing content such text, photos or videos.” From “Social Media Revolution: Don’t Miss the Bus

Setting the Stage By Bradd L. Anderson State 4-H Youth Development Specialist 4-H Center for Youth Development