Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications

PRSA Teleseminar

June 2, 2009

Courtney Barnes

• Blogs/Microblogs

• Social Networks

• Video-Sharing Platforms

• Search Engines

• Monitoring Services

• Aggregators


Blog (n.): • Short for Web log; • A Web page that is maintained by an individual

or group for public consumption; • Defining characteristics include frequent

updates, tone and content that reflect the author’s views, and the ability for readers to post comments.

Blog (v.): • To author a blog.


Uses:

• Media Relations

• Marketing

• Internal Communications

• Stakeholder Engagement

• Monitoring Organizations’ Reputation

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Blogs

• Internal vs. External

• Ownership vs. Participation

Regardless, blogs are a way to “get found” and “be heard” by your key stakeholders:

• Clients

• Your/your clients’ customers

• Employees

• Communities

• Investors

• Partners


Source: Forrester Research


Getting started: Read• Search for relevant blogs

Technorati.com BlogSearch.Google.com

• Read and subscribe via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Aggregates everything into one location (Web browser

or desktop) Lets you consumer content according to your

preferences


Getting started: Comment

• Contribute to the conversation by commenting

• Increase the value of post by adding useful info/links/etc.

• Benefits: Engages community Increases your visibility Increases links back to your blog/Web site


Getting Started: Write

• Find the right blogging software for you WordPress, Typepad Get your own domain (blog.yourcompany.com versus

blog.wordpress.com) Should allow for RSS/social media integration

• Get analytics: Software should allow you to track: Traffic RSS/email subscriptions Visitors, leads generated SEO keyword rank

• Create content that draws in target readers


Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: BlogsGetting Started: Write (continued)• Establish a frequency (at least twice a week)• Topic ideas:

Ideas/trends Lists News Commentary

• Promote on social media sites: Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Facebook

Microblog:

• A form of blogging in which posts are usually limited to 140 characters

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Microblogs

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Social Networks

Facebook LinkedIn NingCrowd-

Sourcing

Free

Private/Internal

Marketing

Personal Networking

Recruitment

Social

Professional


Ning:

• Password-protected

• Internal audiences

Facebook:

• Recruitment

• Current/potential students

• Marketing

LinkedIn:• Professional• Manage personal

contacts/groups• Targeted marketing

opportunitiesCrowd-Sourcing• Social• Solicits

ideas/participation


LinkedIn + Stakeholders

• Create professional groups for different audiences

• Share presentations using the SlideShare application

• Promote clients/employees’ books using the Reading List application

• Track what’s being Twittered about your brand via the Company Buzz app

• Use LinkedIn Polls to deliver a co-branded poll to specific segments of LinkedIn audience

• Disseminate proprietary research via the site’s whitepaper distribution program


Crowdsourcing: Enabling your customers to play an active role in creating a new product or service, or in some cases, solving a business challenge for your company.

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing + stakeholders:

• Employees/Clients Ideas for research/development Inter-department collaboration Event planning Problem-Solving

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Crowdsourcing

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Video

Opportunities for using Web video:

• Product demonstrations

• Speeches/presentations

• Virtual tours

• Customer testimonials

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Video

• Search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) use algorithms to “crawl” the Web for information based on a user’s keyword searches

• Social media content can (and should) be optimized for search: Tag keywords that are likely to be searched Embed hyperlinks Use keywords in URLs Use multimedia content

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Search Engines

Free Keyword Recommendation Services

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

• Wordtracker Keywords: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

• Microsoft adCenter Labs Keyword Forecast: http://adlab.msn.com/Keyword-Forecast/

• Trellian Search Term Suggestion Tool: http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html

• Google Suggest: http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=106230&hl=en

• Google Trends: www.google.com/trends

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Search Engines

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Monitoring

• Like search engines, but for specific digital platforms

• Helps identify the most influential individuals and audiences

Blogs:

• Technorati

• Google Blog Search

• BlogPulse

Twitter:

• TweetScan

• TwitDir

• TwitterSearch

• TwitterVision

• TweeterBoard

• So many platforms, so little time

• Organize your online activities via various aggregation tools that present info from all sites in one location

• Lots of options: RSS feeds: Google Alerts iGoogle FriendFeed

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Aggregators

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Aggregators

• Blogs: Corporate, personal• Microblogs: Twitter, Jaiku, Plurk• Wikis: Wikipedia, Plurk• Social Networks: Facebook, MySpace, Bebo,

Eons, LinkedIn, Flickr• Podcasts: iTunes, PodcastAlley, Podcast.com,

PodcastDirectory, Podseek• Social Bookmarking: StumbleUpon, del.icio.us• Social News: Digg, Mixx, Reddit• Ratings: Yelp, epinions

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Summary

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Questions?

Courtney [email protected]

www.thinkcomllc.com

Business

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications