THE PROPER TOOL ISEVERYTHING

Using and Evaluating Affordable Social Media Tools

Carol A Spencer, Stormzero LLC Rebecca Williams, Your Net Working LLC December 13, 2017

So much noise. So many tools.

A lot of noise…

A lot of tools…

If you’re using something that works, keep using it.

Don’t attempt “bleeding edge”. It may not last.

Disclaimer: These are our choices, tools we’ve used and liked.

There are many other great tools not mentioned here.

• Publishing Information: Individual Social Channel Access• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogs and Widgets

• Advertising and Marketing: Inexpensively Expanding Your Reach

• Monitoring Social Media• Facebook: Pages Feed, Team Members

• Tweetdeck: Post Productively, Team Members

• Tying it all Together: Social Media Dashboards• Examples

• Hootsuite

• Evaluating Social Media Tools for Approval

• Other Tools by Function

Today’s Topics

• Scheduling posts is now available

• Facebook directly is not a good search or monitoring tool• Searching a person’s timeline is possible, but difficult.

• Entity pages can’t be searched.

• Facebook has daily post limits. • “Your daily post limit is calculated by Facebook based on the number

daily active people (DAP) who interact with your Facebook page.” (hubspot)

• A reason to be active as much as possible outside of disasters.

• SafetyCheck: good tool, no local control over its launch by Facebook• Currently based on area population and how many people are talking

about an event. (https://www.facebook.com/about/safetycheck/)

• Community Help Hub• Classified-ad style to offer or request goods or services

Individual Social Channel AccessFacebook

• Disaster Maps• Develop an aggregate picture of an area after a disaster.

• Community Help API will create a dataset for nonprofits. • Privacy concerns. For now, contact info won’t be shared.

• Community Help will at first be used for natural disasters and incidents such as building fires, not for mass shootings or bombings.

• Facebook Live: good tool for local pressers• Give a synopsis in your next post - as text - for those who have low

bandwidth.

• What’s coming? Tether-tenna, for example• Facebook helicopter for disaster instant infrastructure

(https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/19/15358908/facebook-helicopter-announced-emergency-internet-tether-tenna)

Individual Social Channel AccessFacebook

• Twitter info beats Facebook by 15 to 45 minutes. Critical in an event

• Can’t schedule posts directly with Twitter personal account• Requires a business account and a credit card to get this functionality

• Can search Twitter, but you cannot run a stream with specific search criteria to monitor for certain terms during an event

• Twitter “Moments”• Requires setup and choosing personal or private

Individual Social Channel AccessTwitter

• Because Instagram is owned by Facebook, advertising is through

Facebook advertising.

• But, Instagram advertising is more expensive than Facebook.

• Because Instagram is photo oriented, use a program like “Snag-it”

from Tech Smith to capture and save photos to post in advance

• For example, NOAA or NWS postings. Be careful of copyrights.

• Cannot auto-post Facebook -> Instagram.

Can auto-post, however, from Instagram -> FB.

• Another reason to use a social media dashboard.

• Instagram is searchable but only returns photos, no verbiage.

Individual Social Channel AccessInstagram

Individual Social Channel AccessInstagram Search

• Having a blog set up in advance is critical• Twitter: 280 character limit, 2400 per day (retweets count); ½ hour

limits

• Facebook: 65K, but sweet spot is 2100 words; Daily Active People (DAP) creates post limits.

• Instagram: 2200 character limit

• Not long enough or too long for emergency purposes

• BEST solution is short description with a link to a blog post with details

• Free blog solutions: Blogger, Wordpress.com• Examples: Road closures, shelter info, town specific updates

• Ideas: Create blog posts in advance for each town. Use date feature to put them in alpha order.

• Update those posts during an event.

Individual Social Channel AccessBlogger, WordPress.com

Blogs and WidgetsFacebook Widgets

Blogs and WidgetsTwitter Widgets

• Twitter -> Settings and privacy -> Widgets -> Create New

• Choose what you want to display in your widget.

• Customize, copy code, embed

• Post once; use many places for productivity

• Free tools to create widgets

Advertising & MarketingInexpensive Facebook Marketing & Boosting Posts

Advertising & MarketingBoost Important Info

Advertising & MarketingInexpensively Expand Your Reach

Advertising & MarketingPromote Your Page or Website Inexpensively

Advertising & MarketingMonitor Ads for Performance

Advertising & MarketingReach: Paid & Organic

Paid

Organic

Advertising & MarketingMonitoring Ads on Facebook

Know how to stop an ad on Facebook.

Advertising & MarketingGoogle is Your Friend

Know how to use Google search to get the results you need,especially for tech questions.

Advertising & MarketingAdvance Planning: Line up Re-posters

Take time to know who the active posters are on your government or local civic group pages on Facebook.

Contact them in advance.

Advertising & MarketingAdvance Planning: Join Local Buy & Sell Sites

Monitoring Social MediaIn General

Review the steps below often. Social networks change their layout and functionality all the time. Monitoring page feeds is far different today than it was just 2 years ago.

• Document “how-to” and responsibilities for team members.

• Keep documentation updated.

• Facebook: “See Pages Feed” for posts to share.

• “Like” these pages in advance. For example, a county should “like”

all its municipal pages. Makes it easy to find and share posts in

an emergency.

• Twitter: Only follow those you want to monitor in an

emergency: neighboring municipalities, state police, NOAA.

• Do not follow everyone who follows you. That makes emergency

monitoring for retweeting extremely difficult and cumbersome.

• Use a dashboard.

• It’s far easier to hone in on exactly what you want to watch.

Monitoring Social MediaFacebook: Watch Your ‘Pages Feed’ for Info to Share

Monitoring Social MediaFacebook: Add Team Members

https://www.facebook.com/help/289207354498410

All team members must have their own personal Facebook account.

Monitoring Social MediaTwitter: Use Tweetdeck. It’s Free!

Advanced Featureshttps://support.twitter.com/articles/20170322#

• Reordering columns

• Scheduling Tweets

• Collections

• Search

• List management

• Embedded Tweets

• Mute keywords

• Mute accounts

• Tweets from a specific account

• Image search via Google

• Keyboard shortcuts

Monitoring Social MediaTweetdeck

Team access is freeAccount owner controls permissions levels:

admin, contributorUp to 200 team membersTeams must use Tweetdeck, not Twitter

Monitoring Social MediaProductivity Features: Teams, Widgets, Filtered Streams

Custom timelines and search results; Column filters

Under “Accounts”, add a confirmation step to prevent errors

Stream custom timelines via widgets on your website

Social Media DashboardsBenefits

• No need to have a browser window open for each social network.

• One interface to learn. Training and support is easier.

• Team members:• Consistency in data presentation

• Administrative restrictions on team member functions

• Each team member has his/her own password

• Search features enhance monitoring.

• Posting productivity:• One message goes to multiple social streams with one click

• Auto-reposting of content. Especially important with Twitter.

• Scheduling posts:• Example: preparedness messages scheduled to post while you’re in

meetings.

Social Media DashboardsManage Multiple Social Networks in a Single Application

• Hootsuite• Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, Instagram, YouTube• Free apps include: Wordpress.org, Flickr, Blogger, Vimeo, MailChimp,

ConstantContact, Dropbox, Soundcloud, GetSatisfaction and more; plus Premium (fee) apps

• Schedule posts (all accounts); Calendar visualization of scheduled content (paid accounts).

• Filter streams; Apply location to filtering; Autopost RSS feeds.• Twitter Keyword, List, and Search term/query streams

• Teams (Business, Enterprise plans only)

• Analytics, Free account - three social networks, unlimited streams

• Sprout Social• Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram• 10, 15 or 20 social profiles – plan dependent

• Schedule posts; Twitter and Instagram search term, location and hashtag monitoring streams

• More function with higher level accounts• Analytics; No free account

Social Media DashboardsManage Multiple Social Networks in a Single Application

• AgoraPulse• Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram• Schedule posts, Teams ($39/member/month)

• Analytics, No free account

• Buffer• Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram

• Buffer has posting limits of Facebook 25 posts/day, Twitter 730 posts/day• Schedule posts (queue limited by plan), Teams ($10/member/month, paid

plans only)

• Analytics, Free account - one social network of each type except Pinterest

• Sendible• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and

more.

• Publish directly to Wordpress, Blogger and Tumblr. Autopost RSS feeds.• Schedule posts. Automated queues to auto-repeat content. Calendar

visualization of scheduled content.

• Post Planner, Edgar, Event specific apps like Everbridge

Social Media DashboardsHootsuite (Free version ~ 3 Social Networks)

Social Media DashboardsHootsuite Streams & Searches: Everything in one place

Social Media DashboardsHootsuite Streams & Searches: Everything in one place

Social Media DashboardsAgorapulse (annual plans)

Social Media DashboardsHootsuite

Evaluating Social Media ToolsBudgeting & Justification

• Have a copy of your jurisdiction’s Communications Plan

• Know the number of team members that could be using the

tool at one time.

• Identify social channels to be monitored.

• Include everything.

• Don’t forget YouTube, Blogger, WordPress, email marketing tool.

• Make a list of “must have” functionality for the tool

• Make a list of “wish we could have” functionality

• Know purchasing rules

• Bid limits; quote limits; sole source; US purchasing requirements

Evaluating Social Media ToolsBudgeting & Justification

• Functionality list down the left column

• Social dashboard names across the top column (or whatever type tool you are evaluating)

• Fill it out with x’s if a function exists

• Include a row or two for cost/user(s)

• Include a row for length of time the company has been in business(Don’t invest time and training in a company that may disappear in a year.)

• Include a row with hyperlinks to vendor’s website

• Include a row with company location

• Keep this. • Create a tab for each year.

• Update required functions based on past experience.

Evaluating Social Media ToolsBudgeting & Justification

Disclaimer:This is not filled out completely.

Lack of “X” does not mean the product doesn’t include the feature.

Chart for example only. Create your own.

More ToolsTools by Function

• Planning Tools• Basecamp (not free; $100 / month)

• Evernote (free and fee versions)

• Noteshelf.net (iOS only) Interfaces with Evernote, Google Drive, Dropbox $10

• Secure, Online Forms• Wufoo.com (owned by Survey Monkey)

• Low cost drag and drop forms creation

• Forms can be embedded in Facebook, WordPress, websites.

• Links can be sent by mail, social media post.

• Can accept payments (donations) via Paypal or other payment processors.

• Confirmations can be sent to those filling out forms, including a copy of their data

• Notifications can be sent to multiple people so they can take appropriate action.

• Google Docs; Google Forms

More ToolsTools by Function

• Neighborhood Apps (NextDoor)

• Email Lists• MailChimp or ConstantContact

http://blog.capterra.com/mailchimp-vs-constant-contact/

• Nixle

• Design Tools• Thunderpenny.com

• StaticHTML – free Facebook “tab” creator.

• Use to embed text, including styles

• Use for commenting policies,webpages, forms, coupons, etc.

• Synaptive.com: Hootsuite integration

More ToolsTraining Tools

• Application-specific training from vendors

• Camtasia. • Record over PPTs to create recorded training. $199

• FreeConferenceCall.com• Audio-conference with up to 1000 people. Record the call.

• Video-conference with up to 1000 people. Record the meeting. • Screen sharing. Drawing tools. Switch presenter and more. Perfect webinar

tool.

• Meeting wall tools include chatting, radio (stream over the internet), send meeting invites, upload documents pre-meeting and more.

• Lynda.com• Software development, Design, Business,

Web Development, Photography

• Annual subscription $240 for a single user

• YouTube.com• Largest search engine after Google.

More ToolsTraining Tools

• FEMA Online Training• Most of it is free. 194 Courses.

• Introductory courses for the public in ICS (Incident Command System), NIMS (National Incident Management System, All Hazards, NRF (National Response Framework), CERT

• TEEX (Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service)• Will come on-site.

• Excellent 2 day PIO training. (Public Information In An All-Hazards Incident)

We hope you learned…

• About publishing information via single channels

• Why blogs are important tools during a disaster or emergency

• How widgets can help by posting once and publishing in many

locations

• How inexpensive advertising can exponentially extend info-reach

• Some new ways to monitor single social media channels

• Some new ways to find salient information to repost or retweet

• The benefits of using a social media dashboard

• How to evaluate social media tools for approval

• Interesting new tools to use when creating communication plans,

online forms, training, email blasts, and reaching neighborhoods

Contact Information

Carol A. Spencer

Stormzero, LLC

Cedar Creek, TX 78612

973-637-0483

Stormzero.com

carol@stormzero.com

Rebecca J. Williams

Your Net Working, LLC

Neosho, MO 64850

417-434-0379

YourNetWorking.net

rebecca@stormzero.com