Game Changer: 5 Steps to Maximize Your Social Media Impact

August 2010 Sian Wu Nicole Lampe

About Resource Media •  Communications Strategy •  Execution and Outreach •  Digital and Social Media •  Environmental and Health Policy Focus

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1. Fine tune your strategy

2. Establish social media guidelines

3. Engage with your fans

4. Energize your campaigns

5. Evaluate your social media work

Game Changer Plan:

Focus

Fine Tune Your Social Media Strategy

1

What’s your overarching goal? What are you trying to accomplish?

What are your objectives?

What do you need your community to do? 

Who do you need to influence? 

What do they care about? 

Get Specific

Facebook objectives:

•  Use Facebook to find and engage with women, age 25 to 54 in Portland, OR.

•  Over the next 6 months, build relationships with fans peaking with 250 comments sent to lobby officials.

•  Define your overarching goal •  Set specific supporting objectives •  Be realistic, quantifiable  

Figure Out the Numbers •  Look for similar organizations

•  Make observations

•  Study their numbers

•  Get ideas for your objectives

 

•  Note the number of followers over 2 years

•  Example objective: Gain 200 new followers in 3 months

Determine the Audience •  Current or new supporters?

•  Influencers or decision makers?

•  Journalists?

•  Political officials?

Takeaways: “Social media is just a buzzword until you come up with a plan.” – unknown •  Being on Twitter is not a strategy •  Wanting more fans on Facebook is not

a strategy •  Determine what you are trying to

achieve (your goal) •  Create measureable objectives •  Define your strategy •  Prioritize and focus  

2 Play Nice

Establishing Social Media Guidelines 

Develop Guidelines •  Convey consistent voice

•  Keep everyone on the same page

•  Handle the unexpected

Guide Your Work •  Personality, tone

•  Type of content

•  Keywords

•  Schedule

Find Your Personality •  Experienced or a start-up?

•  Leader or grassroots?

•  Authority or watchdog?

•  Lively and fun or serious?

Make Content Decisions

•  Opinion or factual?

•  Political?

•  Keywords? Hashtags?

•  Off limits?

Determine Keywords •  Use Google Analytics and

AdWords tools

•  Create short list of keywords

•  Spread consistently throughout your content

Create a Schedule

•  Posting days, times, frequency?

•  Travel, vacation schedule?

•  Monitoring, measuring, reporting? Format?

Play by the Rules •  How transparent should you be?

•  Does this fit your code of values?

•  How will you handle controversy?

•  Who should respond?

Takeaways: “Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t want plastered on a billboard with your face on it.” Erin Bury, Sprouter community manager

• Define who you are

• Document your decisions

• Play by the rules  

Be Social Engage with Your Fans 

3

Know Your “Personas” •  Who are they?

•  What kind of info would they value and find helpful?

•  What info would they share?

Play to Their Strengths •  Engage with each segment

•  Recognize their participation

•  Build asks over time

Get Off the Bench •  Solicit feedback and ideas

•  Host polls and surveys

•  Meet offline

•  Thank fans & share their work

Tweetup Chapter meeting

Engage through Blogs •  Ask for feedback, ideas, input

•  Invite influencers to guest blog

•  Hold a contest

•  Reach out to other bloggers

“Do you have a story to tell? Let us know in the comments!” “Do you have experience with this? We’d love to hear about it in the comments section.” “Interested in being our guest blogger for the day? Leave a comment telling us why!” “What are you doing in your neighborhood? Please share your ideas in the comments.”

Find New Friends •  Start broad, hone in

•  Use keywords in searches

•  Get creative

Look Beyond the Bleachers

•  Know your traffic referral sites

•  Use google alerts

•  Get creative

“Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.” Brian Solis Principal of FutureWorks

Takeaway:

Lean Forward Energize Your Campaigns

4

Make a Plan

•  Integrate & cross pollinate

•  Create or warmup relationships

•  Measure before & after

Be Present Everywhere •  Make variations of great content •  Turn content into social objects

•  Slice, dice & spread

Example: NRDC’s Integration & Cross Pollination Techniques

Go Wide

      

•  Use shortened, trackable links

•  Create list of keywords, tags

•  Use in titles, descriptions

•  Get great data & better SEO

www.bitly.com

www.adwords.google.com

Try a Social Media Release  

    

•   Make it easy & brief

•  Use pictures, video, keywords, tags

•  Include sample posts & tweets

•  Use trackable links

Example: Social Media Release Web Page

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Arkansas-Tourism-Launches-Green-Travel-Site-1293670.htm

Connect with Bloggers  

    

  

•  Create a targeted list •  Build relationships over time •  Provide value & ease

Rally Your Team Internally  

    

•  Provide big picture

•  Ask for ideas & input

•  Get everyone involved

“Think like a publisher, not a marketer.” David Meerman Scott, author “The New Rules of Marketing and PR”

Takeaways: •  Integrate & cross pollinate • Turn all content into social objects

• Try a social media release

• Form relationships before you need anything  

Score! Measure Your Social Media Work

5 

Measure Progress •  Track the basics, note observations

•  Be consistent

•  Don’t just count, analyze

Tracking on Facebook •  Number of fans

•  Increases/decreases over time

•  Demographics of your audience

Click on the “See All” link viewable only to Administrators

Facebook Insights viewable only to Administrators

Tracking on Twitter •  Document your numbers

•  Look for increase & decrease causes

•  Note observations

See Who Retweets •  Find your retweet rank

•  Check what gets RT’ed

•  Note your biggest RT’ers

•  Learn more about them

Measure Sentiment •  Use Twitrratr for a simple

dashboard

•  Try SocialMention for wealth of insights

Get Alerts for Tweets •  Select keywords to track

•  Track during campaigns and ongoing

Find More Twitter Tools •  App store for Twitter tools

•  Listings by category

•  Analytics, scheduling Tweets, integration, etc

Monitor Your Reputation •  IceRocket for conversations

•  Compete for comparisons

•  Klout for influence

Example: A tracking and measurement spreadsheet

“Activate your fans, don’t just collect them like baseball cards.”

Jay Baer

Overall Takeaways: • Determine what’s important

• Don’t get caught up in shiny new objects

• Focus on what will create change

• Link and connect everything

• What gets measured gets done

• Keep it real!

1. Would you recommend this webinar to a friend?

2. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 as poor and 10 as best – how would you rate this webinar?

3. Comments?

Feedback?

Sian Wu Program Director Resource Media sian@resource-media.org 206.374.7795 x102 @ThatsSoEco

Nicole Lampe Program Director Resource Media nicole@resource-media.org 503.719.5626

We Welcome Your Questions!

Explore More RM Trainings

•  Framing & Messaging – September •  Media Relations – October •  Story Pitching – November •  Blogger Relations – December

In the Beginning