Social media for boards

Understanding Social Media for Board

MembersLauren Bacon + Emira Mears

Twitter: #raisedeyebrow

Q & A


Q & A

Type question here


Your Hosts:

Emira MearsPartner

Raised Eyebrow Web Studio

Twitter: @emiramears

Lauren BaconPartner

Raised Eyebrow Web Studio

Twitter: @laurenbacon


Social Media for Boards:

1. What is Social Media? Overview & Tools

2. How to Create a Strategy for Social Media Success

3. Measuring Impact and Return on Investment

4. Drafting a Policy and Mitigating Risk


Quick Poll

Are you currently a member of a board?

• Yes

• No

• Not currently, but I have been/am about to be


Quick Poll #2

How do you currently engage in Social Media?

• Not at all

• Some personal use

• Some personal and some professional use

• Quite active


Social Media 101:Overview and Tools

Image credit: James Brauer on Flickr.


Social Media 101:What Do We Mean by Social?

• Old way = One-way

• Traditional media & communications were all about broadcasting, top-down, “experts.”

Space defined by Media Owner

Brand in control

One way / Delivering a message

Repeating the message

Focused on the brand

Entertaining

Company created content

Space defined by Consumer

Consumer in control

Two way / Being a part of a conversation

Adapting the message/ beta

Focused on the consumer / Adding value

Influencing, involving

User created content / Co-creation

COMMUNICATIONS

MEDIA SOCIAL MEDIA

Source: Neil Perkin, “What’s Next in Media: How Social Media Changes the Rules for Good” http://neilperkin.typepad.com

Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0


Social Media 101:How does the Social Web work?

Technology Open/InteractivePlatforms

People


Social Media 101:It is also about the outcome...

• Vast networks of people & data

• Communities

• User- and provider-generated content mashed up together

• A dynamic, rapidly changing, fluid online world that both maps to and ignores real-world boundaries


Tool Overview:What’s Out There?

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Google +

• YouTube/Vimeo/etc.

• LinkedIn

• Delicious

• MySpace

• Email Newsletters

• Blogs

• Foursquare


Tool Overview:Facebook

• Mimics people’s real life networks

• More than 800 million active users

• 50% of users login daily

• Strong networks - average 130 friends

• Targeted/low cost ads

• More women than men

• Broad age ranges

• Can share different types of content easily: photos, text, video, etc.


Tool Overview:Twitter

• Networks are much more broad

• Lower barrier to connection

• Smaller user base (225 million)

• Average user tends to be younger

• Very expensive ads

• Short text format for sharing - often about linking off to content

• Easy to retweet/share messages


Tool Overview:Google+

• Still early days

• Similar to Facebook, but with different structure

• 50 million users in record time (compared to other social networks)

• Uses circles and combines some of the features of Twitter/Facebook in terms of mapping to real world relationships


Tool Overview:YouTube/Vimeo

• Video only

• Integrates with other social networks like Facebook

• Great option for hosting video as they absorb bandwidth needs and includes sharing tools


Tool Overview:LinkedIn

• Professional social networking

• More authoritative/less casual

• Group discussions

• Less opportunity for viral campaigns/sharing

• Maps (mostly) to real-world connections

• Establishing authority/specialization


Tool Overview:Delicious

• Social bookmarking

• Smaller section of users (3% of web users)

• Great for link/resource sharing

• Others are Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.


Tool Overview:MySpace

• 14% of users (but waning)

• Users tend to be younger

• Used by a lot of bands/entertainment industry

• Casual & anonymous


Tool Overview:Email newsletters

• More Web1.0 (broadcasting)

• Tools can make it more Social (ShareThis, etc)

• Good for list building

• Great support when integrated with other social media - with your website, Facebook, etc.


Tool Overview:Blogs

• Powerful storytelling

• May or may not include comments

• Great for SEO

• Way to create/build content archive

• Integrate with other social media - link to blog post, ShareThis widgets, etc.

• Can set up RSS feed


Tool Overview:FourSquare

• Bridging gap between offline and online

• Still small user base (less than 1 million)

• Encourages competition/game-like

• Great for brick and mortar orgs/businesses to target customers


Creating a Strategy:A Roadmap for Success

Image credit: Owl Say on Flickr.


Creating A Strategy:Remember Strategy Before Tools?

• What outcomes to you want?

• Who do you want to reach?

• What is your key message?

• Where can you have the most impact?


Creating A Strategy:The Ladder of Engagement

Source: Monte Lutz, “The Social Pulpit: Barack Obama’s Social Media Toolkit” http://edelman.com


Creating A Strategy:80/20 Rule

• You can generally get to 80% of a good Social Media presence with relatively little effort (20%)

• Setting up a Facebook page

• Create a Twitter account, etc.

• The rest of the work is what will get you to the top and comes in having a strategy/generating content/managing a community


Creating A Strategy:The 90-9-1 Rule

• 1% of people will create content

• 9% of people will share content

• 90% will simply observe


Creating A Strategy:Listen & Participate• It’s not just about broadcasting

anymore

• Find the insiders who care, listen and engage

• Don’t just build it and expect that “they” will come


Creating A Strategy:Engage & Coordinate Internally• There’s a danger that Social Media can

be left for the communications team to manage alone. Be sure to engage:

• Development/Fundraising

• Organizing/Member outreach

• Volunteers


Creating A Strategy:Create a Content Calendar• Helps take the “chore” out of Social

Media

• Creates a strong framework - ad hoc events will fill in the gaps

• Helps coordinate between different environments


Creating A Strategy:Resource Your Team

• The set-up cost to most of these tools is $0

• However, demands on staff time can be quite heavy. Make sure you aren’t setting staff up for failure. Account for time for:

• Creating content

• Listening & Participating

• Measuring success


Creating A Strategy:Resource Your Team

• Measure impact of different tools

• Don’t be afraid to limit your involvement to tools that work for your organization

• Set expectations that match the time you’re willing to give them and listen to what they are asking for


Creating A Strategy:Be Adaptable

• Iterative growth works well in the Social World

• Test, measure, refine, rework

• Don’t be afraid to make a mistake - own up to it


Measuring Success:What is Your Return on Investment?

Image credit: Purple Car on Flickr.


Measuring Success:Return on Investment

• What matters to you:

• What outcomes do you want to achieve?

• Who do you want to reach?

• What do you want them to do?

• Measure often

• Don’t get overwhelmed in stats


Measuring Success:Numbers vs. Stories• Metrics should be a combination of the

two

• # of followers

• # of petition signatories

• Increase in donations

• Stories of engagement & impact


Measuring Success:Numbers vs. Stories


Measuring Success:Measuring Tools

• Twitter clients: Hootsuite, Tweetdeck etc. let you measure # of followers, retweets, open rates etc.

• Saved Twitter searches

• Ask your community - on donation forms, member forms, etc.

• Newsletter stats

• Google Analytics

• Use goals to track where traffic from different tools goes on the web


Measuring Success:Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics

• Find the balance between measuring success/impact and switching gears while also allowing adequate time to test the waters

• Don’t forget to track the stories/qualitative impacts

• Measure other internal #s:

• # of hours of staff time

• Reduction in mail out costs

• Ability to leverage external events quickly & have impact


Drafting a Policy:Mitigating Risk

Image credit: Rionda on Flickr.


Drafting A Policy:Mitigating Risk

• Fear: Total loss of control

• Reality: It’s happening anyway


Drafting A Policy:Staff Resource Drain

• Fear 1: Staff will waste time online

• Fear 2: Staff will misrepresent us

• Reality: It’s happening anyway


Drafting A Policy:What Can You Do?• Be pro-active: draft a policy and set

out guidelines

• How you want the organization represented

• What will be shared when

• Same policies of harassment, etc. apply online

• Respect privacy


Drafting A Policy:Personal vs. Professional• Discuss privacy & personal boundaries

• You can’t control what staff do personally online

• You can help them set boundaries between personal and professional through dialogue and education about tools


Drafting A Policy:Being Human is OK


Drafting A Policy:Transparent & Collaborative

• Be open and engaged with staff when drafting a policy

• Ask for feedback and discuss intentions

• Overall, don’t be too prescriptive as it will stifle authenticity - think of it as a guideline


• Understand the Tools

• Have a plan

• Measure success

• Mitigate risk

Conclusion:Strategy + Tools = Success


Need more help?Raised Eyebrow offers:

• Usability Consulting

• Email Newsletter design, development and management

• Accessibility and Search Engine Optimization Consulting

• Custom workshops for your organization

www.raisedeyebrow.com

• Online Communications Strategy Consulting

• Information Architecture and Interaction Design

• Website Design & Development

• Web 2.0 and Social Media Consulting

http://www.laurenandemira.com



Questions?Please use the “raise hand” feature, or type a question into the Q&A box.


Questions?Please use the “raise hand” feature, or type a question into the Q&A box.

Type question here


Thank you.

raisedeyebrow.com

Lauren Bacon@laurenbacon

Emira Mears@emiramears




