THE INTERNET & SOCIAL MEDIA

Hadley Dreibelbis, Widmeyer Communications

“Social networks are all about a

shift from vertical to horizontal

communications on the web.”

- David Bowen, Financial Times

Before we begin…

What sources do you use to get news and learn

about trends?

Do you use social media as a news-gathering

tool?

What types of social media do you use?

What is your favorite corporate social media

account and why?

Today’s roadmap

Social media

Content creation

Platforms

Content best practices

Digital media

Platforms

Influencer outreach

Sentiment and share of voice

Activity and discussion

SOCIAL MEDIA IS ABOUT

LISTENING, NOT TALKING

Strategic content creation

Listening

Engagement Optimization

Measurement

& Analysis

Content

Curation &

Development

Measurement

All measurement needs to be tied to clear goals

Numbers mean nothing without a context

Data gathered should inform other activities beyond

that platform

Twitter

Microblogging site with posts of 140 character

length

Used by reporters as a way to gather stories, look

for sources and pay attention to trends

Used in public relations to promote an

organization’s news, initiatives, refute rumors,

promote positive content and engage users

Has a reach far beyond the platform

Conversational and engaging

Promotion on Twitter

Targeting on Twitter

Audiences can be segmented in the following ways

for the most optimized promotion:

Followers

Location

Look-alikes

Device

Interests

Gender

Keywords

Hashtags

Expand the reach of your post

Can be used to brand/tag content

Can also prompt user engagement

Useful in Twitter chats, where you can engage users

through conversation about salient topics in your

industry

Tweetdeck

Facebook in the United States

Every day…

128 million users

101 million people on mobile

72% of monthly active users return daily

Every month…

179 million people, which is 74% of internet users in

the US

142 million people on mobile, which is 58% of mobile

phone users in the US

Facebook for your client

Opportunity to gain consumer insights, build brand

awareness and create audience loyalty

Creating two-way engagement through asking for

audience participation: contests, photo submissions,

questions in updates that encourage responses

Using Facebook advertisements as a way to target

specific audiences and build a loyal base

How Facebook hashtags work

Facebook hashtags appear as clickable links

Clicking on a hashtag opens up a feed where you’ll

see stories from the Pages and people who have

posted with the same hashtag

People can also find posts related to specific topics

or interests by searching on Facebook for relevant

hashtags

These hashtags can be created through writing a

status update

Instagram

Get followers by including a “follow me” button on other properties and linking users to the Instagram web profile

Use @ mentions to reference a specific user – this will link to the user’s Instagram profile and give him or her a notification

Extend conversation into the Facebook and Twitter communities by sharing the content posted on Instagram to Facebook pages and Twitter feeds

Use photos that tell a story and remain authentic to the client’s organization

LinkedIn

Can be used for both personal and client purposes

Personal

Update profile with job experience, awards, skills

Follow companies that interest you for updates and job opportunities

Look for mutual connections with employees of desired companies and make sure to follow up with contacts

Client

Use LinkedIn to research journalists, establish a company page with frequent thought leader posts, and make sure all employees are connected to the page through their personal profiles

Video platforms

YouTube

One in four Americans watches a video online every

day

500 million visitors/month with 90 billion page views

Clients can use this medium to tell brand stories

Vine

Six-second videos produced for humor and viral sharing

When used carefully by brands, can complement

Twitter engagement

CONTENT BEST PRACTICES

Post succinct content

Your friends’ and fans’ newsfeeds contain a lot of

information – and they have a limited amount of

time to read it

Keep posts short whenever possible

Posts between 200-250 characters (less than 3 lines

of text) see about 60% more likes, comments and

shares

Post photos and videos

Rich media tends to draw attention more than

simple text

Posts including a photo album, a picture or a video

generate about 180%, 120% and 100% more

engagement than the average post, respectively

Give access to exclusive information

and behind-the-scenes views

Reward your friends and fans for liking your client’s

Page

Give special access to behind-the-scenes

information and exclusive content

Consider making announcements on social media

before anywhere else or posting exclusive photos

from events on your client’s Page

Be timely

Your audience is more likely to engage with your

posts if you talk about topics that are already top

of mind for them, such as current events, holidays or

news

For example, posts mentioning Independence Day

on July 4th generated about 90% more

engagement than all posts published on that day

Post “fill in the blank” posts and use

hashtags to join conversations

Asking your fans to finish your sentence is a simple

way to encourage engagement

This type of post is particularly useful if you want to

get people to talk about specific attributed of your

message, such as why they support it

Fill in the blank posts generate about 90% more

engagement than the average post

Post regularly

Your fans are more likely to engage with your

content if you remain top of mind

Only you can know what the right cadence is for

your audience and for your message, but make sure

to post regularly

General guidance is 1-3 times per day

Be selective

Decide which social media platforms are best for

your client – have a strong presence on select

mediums, rather than a broad but shallow presence

Create a strategy for your client – how frequently

you will post, the tone and nature of posts and a

crisis plan in case of company controversy

Be authentic and stay true to the client’s voice

THE POWER OF DIGITAL

MEDIA

Webinars and podcasts

Clients can use these to launch new products,

position themselves as thought leaders in a field of

expertise, and engage with an audience online

These can also be used to live-stream events to

supporters

Advantages of a podcast:

Cost-effectiveness

Ability to access 24/7

Portability

Blogs

Cost-effective way to reach large numbers of people

Have gained increased credibility

Corporate or organizational blogs

Official voice, often written by executives

Employee blogs

“Insider” perspective from company workers

Third-party blogs

Postings on external blog sites – establishing relationships with influencers

Conversation influencers

An influencer is an individual who consistently posts

or tweets about your client’s topic or issue, has a

high number of followers, and whose content is

shared widely

These can be bloggers, social media mavens, or

even reporters with a digital presence

REACH

A measure of an

individual’s digital/social

connections including

number of friends,

followers, and backlinks

RESONANCE

A measure of how much

activity an individual’s

content provokes in terms

likes, retweets, comments,

and shares

RELEVANCE

The most heavily weighted

metric, relevance is a

measure of how “on topic”

an individual is in terms of

keyword and phrase usage

Ally conversion process

Unknown Unengaged

- Key issue monitoring

- Event & conversation tracking

- Listening

Known Unengaged

- Opportunity identification

- Key influencer identification

- Analysis of conversations

- Message development

Known Engaged

- Social engagement metrics

- Communications initiated

- Event participation

Actively Engaged

- Responses to tweets

- Engagement on Facebook

- Site revisits

Measuring conversation

Not only can you measure the hard numbers of

postings and engagement, you can analyze the

sentiment and share of voice of these posts

Sentiment: whether the post expresses positive,

neutral, or negative feelings about the client

Share of voice: In the salient conversation topics,

how much of a presence does the client have?

Sentiment

Share of voice

NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN

Assignment

Get in groups

Pick a client – made up or real

Create three tweets (don’t forget a unique

hashtag!), one Facebook post and a concept for

another social media platform (blog post, YouTube

video, etc) based around an event promotion

Get creative!

Discuss

QUESTIONS?