Reaching New Audiences - Connecting to Your Audience Online

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This is a presentation given to CapitolBeat attendees, members of the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors in Raleigh, NC in November 2008. It covers parts of my social media 101 teachings with a small amount of strategy tips for more advanced users.

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Reaching New AudiencesUsing social media to connect online

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Today’s Discussion

What is Social Media?

Why Should I Care?

How Can I Use It?

What Next?

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What is Social Media3

social interaction, conversation, civic engagement, and multiple media online

Many forms:

blogs, micro blogs, rss, widgets, discussion boards, wikis, podcasts, mashups, social networks, so much more!

What Social Media Isn’t

Something you create | A one-way street | Broadcasting | Heavily edited | As scary as it seems |

Threatening | Publishing | You controlling all of the message (only some of it) | You loosing control

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Why Should I Care?

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Your Audience is Waiting

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The tools for communicating online are now easy enough for anyone to use.

Over

80%

of Americans watch video online

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There are

140 Million Facebook Users

How many are in your community?

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60% of Americans

expect to interact with companies via social media tools

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70%of adults use email

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(But 75% of all email is spam)

Why Bother?•Social media enhances traditional media delivery with diversity in opinion and reach.

•Social media fosters public dialogue and civic engagement.

•Social media builds powerful links between people, brands, and content.

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How can it work for me?

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Content now drives the tools we choose

What Twitter users want you to know

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Facebook Fans

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How can I use Facebook to connect and draw from the community?

Outreach, promotion, research

Fan Pages

Finding the pulse of your community

What’s Next?

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Getting Started

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The Strategy

Set goals for your social media outreach

What’s your audience like?

What resources are available to you (time, buy-in, commitment)?

How do I determine an ROI?

You can do a lot in a short amount of time

Ready, Set, Go!Getting Started

Stake your claim

It’s a land-grab! (remember, your audience is waiting)

Build confidence and workflows, introduce seed content

It takes time to build up followers, fans, and connections

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Top 5 Takeaways

Know your audience and know yourself.

Find online spaces -- like YouTube, Facebook or Twitter -- where people passionate about similar content are already congregating. Create and populate social media platforms with your message and your questions

Make time to connect with your users, both new and existing. It's important to know you can do a lot with just a few minutes a day.

Don’t start a social media project just because you feel like you have to. Think of a strategy that makes sense for you and your content.

Set realistic expectations for yourself. It takes time to do this well.

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Contact InfoJonathan Coffman, Assoc. Product Manager, PBS Engage

Email: jonathan@jonathancoffman.com

Blog: http://www.jonathancoffman.com/blog

Twitter: @jdcoffman

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PBS Engage: http://www.pbs.org/engage

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