Taming the Social Media Beast
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Social Media may seem to small/medium businesses and organizations like a big, hairy beast that we don’t really want to mess with. But with the right tools and practices, you can tame the social media beast in about 15 minutes each week. In my presentation I’ll talk about why our small library system has jumped on the social media bandwagon (and why it is just as important for other local organizations to do the same), how we have designed our social media goals, and how our staff manages to do all this in very little time with a big return on investment. I will talk about specific tools that we have used for social media organization and monitoring and give tips on such topics as ‘When do I jump into using a social media tool?’ and ‘What tools are best for my customers/users?’
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Taming the Social Media Beast
- 1. Taming the Social Media Beast Stephanie Small Public Relations Coordinator Defiance Public Library System
- 2. What is Social Media
- 3. Social =interaction Media
- 4. Web 1.0
- 5. Web 2.0
- 8. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Who is on? Who is on? Who is on? The personality The personality The personality Challenges Challenges Challenges Awesomeness Awesomeness Awesomeness Nature of the Beast
- 9. 1: Facebook
- 10. Facebook Average User Figures SocialMediaToday.com; March 7, 2011 by Ken Burbary • 130 friends on the site • sends 8 friend requests per month • spends an average 15 hours and 33 minutes on Facebook per month • visits the site 40 times per month • spends an 23 minutes (23:20 to be precise) on each visit • connected to 80 community pages, groups and events • creates 90 pieces of content each month • 200 million people access FB via a mobile device each day • More than 30 billion pieces of content are shared each day • Users that access Facebook on mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook compared to non- mobile users • Facebook generates a staggering 770 billion page views per month All infographics courtesy of Hubspot.com (Great stats! Go there!)
- 11. Facebook Average User Figures SocialMediaToday.com; March 7, 2011 by Ken Burbary • 130 friends on the site • sends 8 friend requests per month • spends an average 15 hours and 33 minutes on Facebook per month • visits the site 40 times per month • spends an 23 minutes (23:20 to be precise) on each visit • connected to 80 community pages, groups and events • creates 90 pieces of content each month • 200 million people access FB via a mobile device each day • More than 30 billion pieces of content are shared each day • Users that access Facebook on mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook compared to non- mobile users • Facebook generates a staggering 770 billion page views per month All infographics courtesy of Hubspot.com (Great stats! Go there!)
- 13. Facebook’s Challenges • Gettingpeople to like you • Getting people to engage
- 14. Facebook’s Challenges • Getting people to like you • Getting people to engage • Youneed quick response time
- 15. Facebook’s Awesomeness • People will promote for you
- 16. Facebook’s Awesomeness • People will promote for you • Media Storage
- 17. Facebook’s Awesomeness • People will promote for you • Media Storage • Direct contact
- 18. Facebook’s Awesomeness • People will promote for you • Media Storage • Direct contact • Cross promotion
- 19. 2: Twitter
- 20. Twitter Average User Figures Website-Monitoring.com •There are 106 million accounts on Twitter •The number of Twitter users increases by 300,000 every day •75% of twitter traffic comes from outside of Twitter.com •Twitter has over 180 million unique visitors each day •24% of Twitter users have 0 followers •97% of Twitter users have less than 100 followers •81% of Twitter users are following less than 100 people •Users send 55 million tweets per day
- 21. Twitter Average User Figures Website-Monitoring.com •There are 106 million accounts on Twitter •The number of Twitter users increases by 300,000 every day •75% of twitter traffic comes from outside of Twitter.com •Twitter has over 180 million unique visitors each day •24% of Twitter users have 0 followers •97% of Twitter users have less than 100 followers •81% of Twitter users are following less than 100 people •Users send 55 million tweets per day
- 22. Twitter’s Challenges • Short format
- 23. Twitter’s Challenges • Short format • Not as profile driven
- 24. Twitter’s Challenges • Short format • Not as profile driven • Needs a bit more investment
- 25. Twitter’s Challenges • Short format • Not as profile driven • Needs a bit more investment • Can be overwhelming
- 26. Twitter’s Awesomeness • Short format!
- 27. Twitter’s Awesomeness • Short format! • Fewer barriers
- 28. Twitter’s Awesomeness • Short format! • Fewer barriers • Learning tool
- 29. Twitter’s Awesomeness • Short format! • Fewer barriers • Learning tool • More likely to promote
- 30. 3: LinkedIn
- 31. LinkedIn Average User Figures SocialMediaToday.com; March 7, 2011 by Ken Burbary • LinkedIn had a revenue growth increase of 115% from 2010 to 2011 • Over 150 Million registered members •Over 60 million US users • “Company Pages…was created to help both job seekers and professionals conduct research on companies that are represented on LinkedIn.” –Neal Schaffer, Socialmediatoday.com
- 32. LinkedIn Average User Figures SocialMediaToday.com; March 7, 2011 by Ken Burbary • LinkedIn had a revenue growth increase of 115% from 2010 to 2011 • Over 150 Million registered members •Over 60 million US users • “Company Pages…was created to help both job seekers and professionals conduct research on companies that are represented on LinkedIn.” –Neal Schaffer, Socialmediatoday.com
- 34. LinkedIn’s Challenges • Different Culture • Different Strategy
- 35. LinkedIn’s Challenges • Different Culture • Different Strategy • Couldhave negative feedback
- 36. LinkedIn’s Challenges • Different Culture • Different Strategy • Couldhave negative feedback • Industry Specific
- 37. LinkedIn’s Awesomeness • Trusted Source
- 38. LinkedIn’s Awesomeness • Trusted Source • Client Recommendations
- 39. LinkedIn’s Awesomeness • Trusted Source • Client Recommendations • Find new hires
- 40. LinkedIn’s Awesomeness • Trusted Source • Client Recommendations • Find new hires • Resume builder
- 41. When to jump in?
- 42. Question 1: Are my users on it? Talk to staff Ask customers Ask your friends Search for other local businesses When to jump in
- 43. Question 2: Do I have time for it? Be realistic Ask for help ROI ◦ Reach new people? ◦ Gain new attention? http://some.ly/jwdckQ ◦ Take place of other marketing? When to jump in
- 44. Why should I care?
- 45. The Marketing/Advertising Argument: It’s where your customers are Why should I care?
- 47. The Marketing/Advertising Argument: It’s where your customers are The F word Why should I care?
- 48. The Marketing/Advertising Argument: It’s where your customers are The F word New audiences Why should I care?
- 49. The Marketing/Advertising Argument: It’s where your customers are The F word New audiences New connections Why should I care?
- 50. The Marketing/Advertising Argument: It’s where your customers are The F word New audiences New connections You can be seen as tech leader Why should I care?
- 51. The Marketing/Advertising Argument: It’s where your customers are The F word New audiences New connections You can be seen as tech leader Adaptable Why should I care?
- 52. What do I post?
- 53. You have expertise What do I post?
- 54. You have expertise What’s in it for them? What do I post?
- 55. You have expertise What’s in it for them? Interact with culture What do I post?
- 56. You have expertise What’s in it for them? Interact with culture Silliness (that relates to your business) What do I post!?
- 57. You have expertise What’s in it for them? Interact with culture Silliness (that relates to your business) Ask questions What do I post!?
- 58. You have expertise What’s in it for them? Interact with culture Silliness (that relates to your business) Ask questions Post photos What do I post!?
- 60. • Monitor multiple accounts • Allow multi-user access • Schedule updates • See feedback • Organize groups of information http://bit.ly/oukYFL Taming the Beast: Management Tools
- 61. • Hootsuite •Tweetdeck •SocialOomph •Ping.fm •Postling •Sprout Social •Nutshell Mail Taming the Beast: Management Tools
- 62. • Hootsuite •Tweetdeck •SocialOomph •Ping.fm •Postling •Sprout Social •Nutshell Mail Taming the Beast: Management Tools
- 63. • Hootsuite •Tweetdeck •SocialOomph •Ping.fm •Postling •Sprout Social •Nutshell Mail Taming the Beast: Management Tools
- 64. Good Practices
- 65. Follow trends (lazily) Good Practices
- 66. Follow trends (lazily) Research other pages Good Practices
- 67. Follow trends (lazily) Research other pages Market it! Good Practices
- 68. Follow trends (lazily) Research other pages Market it! Engage! Good Practices
- 69. Follow trends (lazily) Research other pages Market it! Engage! Don’t get discouraged Good Practices
- 70. What no one else will tell you… Good Practices
- 71. What no one else will tell you… You can always drop it if it doesn’t work ◦ Be an observer for awhile ◦ Open a personal account ◦ Close it out, if it doesn’t fit ◦ You can pick it back up Good Practices
- 72. On the Horizon
- 73. Google+ On the Horizon
- 74. Google+ On the Horizon Spotify
- 75. Google+ On the Horizon Spotify Pinterest
- 76. Google+ On the Horizon Spotify Pinterest SchoolFeed
- 77. Google+ On the Horizon Spotify Pinterest SchoolFeed Foursquare/FB Places
- 78. Not so scary after all Stephanie Small Defiance Public Library System ssmall@defiancelibrary.org @smallphanie @defiancelibrary Facebook.com/steph.small Facebook.com/dplslibraries It’s tamed!
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Hi I’m Stephanie Small, the Public Relations Coordinator at the Defiance Public Library System. We take care of library services across the county in Defiance Hicksville and Sherwood. I was so excited when Sarah called and asked if I would be willing to come and speak about Social Media and Business, but, honestly I had no idea what kind of response we would get….but obviously, it was great! I LOVE that all of your are interested in using Social Media as a tool and are taking the time to learn about it. So kudos to you for being on the cutting edge of marketing and technology.And, just a note…I actually had this presentation made before the Mountain Lion sightings in town. I actually gave a form of this presentation to librarians at the Ohio Library Conference and Convention last year. So, this is all coincidental. The reason I chose this title was because, like many, if not all, of you, I am a jack of many trades. My title may be PR Coordinator, but it’s anyone’s guess what I’m going to be doing in a day. Do some of you feel the same way? Your time and energies are limited so adding a new marketing tool may be great in theory, but finding the time to squeeze it in seems impossible. Well, today, hopefully, I’ll give you an introduction to the social media world so you’ll know how to navigate it, and then give you tools that you will be able to use to conquer your social media marketing in about 20 minutes a week. I promise – you can do this…Oh, and just a note…I LOVE being interrupted during presentations! If you have a question or need clarification on something (or need me to slow down!) please, don’t hesitate to raise your hand.
- So let’s start at the beginning…just so we’re all on the same page…well, here you go. Now I don’t know why some of you are scared of social media! Doesn’t this look so easy?! Just kidding, I’m saracastic, you’ll get that. No, I get that this is what it feels like when you want to break into the world of social media. It’s overwhelming, it’s not necessarily clearly defined, and there is so much of it, and, sadly enough, this is out of date. I’m hopefully going to take away some of the fear and mysticism of it. I am by no means an expert, but I do try to stay on top of technology and Internet trends, and I can tell you that I don’t recognize about 75% of these sites listed – and that is totally fine, and totally normal. So take a deep breath and relax. This presentation should help you weed out the white noise of the Internet buzz and choose to use your online time wisely.
- So, what is social media? Well, not to be flippant, but it’s ‘social’ ‘media’ Don’t worry, it’s not rocket science…It’s some type of MEDIA that is produced on the Internet – whether it be a video, a blog post, a comment, a news story that is SOCIAL, meaning it can be interacted with by other users. That interaction is the key.Because of social media, the Internet has become a conversation.
- When the Internet first started, this is what it looked like: It was a page of information posted by one person, in this first case Shaun. Shaun evidently cares about The Gaming World. Or Feross who likes to create videos and pictures. It was one-sided, which was fine if you were interested in what they were interested in or for news sites where you could find stories online to read. But we’re social beings (who can be a bit self-centered) so…
- We created Web 2.0. Web 2.0 got rid of the one-sided flow of information and replaced it with a discussion. You can comment, like, share, record a video response, retweet, post, link, whatever you want to do to INTERACT with that piece of information.Web 1.0 was about giving and finding information. Web 2.0 is about connecting with information.
- So an example. Someone posted this video of that Muppets song. MahnaMahna (come on, sing it with me…) Alright so they post this on YouTube. It gets viewed almost 4 million times which could have happened on Web 1.0, but on Web 2.0 you have over 9,000 people ‘Like it’ 141 people ‘Dislike it’ 82 people ‘Share it’ with their Google+ followers, and countless others shared it or emailed it on any number of other social networks you are on, and I honestly could not count all of the comments. After three years this video still averages 100 comments a month. Comments like (“I remember this when I was kid, now I am 34, time flies”) or a ‘Video Response’ to it. Now this may seem silly to you, this is just a stupid video of a song that will get stuck in your head for the rest of the day. But the point is that practically everything on the web whether it’s a silly kids video or a late-breaking news story should have a way to interact with it for the rest of the people on the web. We all want to be a part of SOME conversation. And that may be different for different people.
- My mom keeps saying to me ‘Why would I want to post that I’m doing laundry?! Who cares if I’m doing laundry?! And I don’t care if you’re doing laundry!’ and I keep telling her ‘this generation cares’ because we see that as common experience that we can share. If I posted that I was doing laundry on my wall, I guarantee I would have about 6 responses from other people either commiserating with me or sharing the experience with me. That’s how we work nowadays, and that is very different than how we were not many years ago. So if you’re jumping on the Social Media Bandwagon, you just need to be prepared for that culture of openness and sharing. I’m not saying you have to let us in on every little secret, but just beware that you might have to push yourself a bit to share, alright?Any questions about how Social Media differs from older websites or about the culture of it?
- Alright, now that we know a bit about the background of Social Media, let’s talk about some of the major players.I’m going to focus on the 3 major players today since we only have an hour, but feel free to ask questions about other social media afterwards. So Facebook, Twitter, & LinkedIn: Who’s on it? What is the personality? What are the challenges? What is the awesomeness?
- First, the big purple elephant in the room: facebook. By far, the biggest social network on the planet and it’s still growing. How many are on Facebook?
- So, who is on it?Anyone want to do the math real quick in your head? Percentage wise? 38%. 38% of the US population is on FB. And new people are joining every single day – I bet we’re even closer now to the 50% mark.This isn’t just people who created a page and then forgot about it, these users are on there every single day interacting. They have an average of 130 friends, spend 15 hours/mo on it, spend 23 minutes on each visit. And get this – connected to 80 community pages! That’s you! Sharing 30 billion pieces of content shared each day!! That’s info you’ve generated that they are sharing!!
- A bit of the personality?Here’s the breakdown in age: 35% of users are 18-25, those are connected/busy people and the talkers…they’ll tell other people about your business if they like it (or don’t!). 20% are 26-34 you’ve got young professionals, parents of school-age kids, consumers who are beginning to generate disposable income… You are hitting some prime audiences here. These people are busy and it’s hard to get their attention, they don’t sit down and read the entire news paper, they are on the go…but they are also on social media.
- Aww, it’s just like back in middle school, the number one challenge in your life is going to be getting people to like you. But really, it’s not a stressful as you think, because people love to friend and fan on FB, it’s just getting your name out there that’s important.
- The next step is actually getting people to engage. Did you ever notice that you won’t hear from like 80% of your friends on FB? Lots of them are just quietly watching what happens, and that’s okay, but if you want your posts to get attention you’re going to want some interaction, people commenting, liking, etc.
- Quick response time is essential. If someone leaves a comment or a question, you should be responding no later than 24 hours. Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to make you monitor your feeds relentlessly, we’ll show you ways of very lazily monitoring so you can get on with your day.
- Did you ever have someone take a clipping of your ad out of a newspaper and take it to each of their friends houses, knock on their door and say, ‘hey, check this out!’ Hopefully not, but that’s what they do on FB, it’s amazing. People love to promote for you! Take advantage of that!
- Photo and Video storage that not only keeps and organizes copies of your files, but makes them available to all of your fans/friends. People love to see photos of themselves, their kids, their friends on FB, you will usually get a lot of comments and likes out of these. And when you tag your customers, then those photos show up in their profiles and are viewable to all of their friends (free promotion). Just a note, make sure you’ve got your media release forms in order before you do this to make sure you are only posting photos that you are allowed to post. If you want to see a copy of a media release form, feel free to email or tweet me, I’ll be happy to send it along.
- Social Media offers you two-way contact with your customers.
- Drive people to your website, post up new blogs and newsletters, post new reviews, FB is a great place to use cross promotion of your other online offerings because clicking a link is so easy. FB isn’t just an entity of its own, it will drive traffic to your other sites.
- The next big one, and slightly more daunting because it may be hard to understand is Twitter. How many are on Twitter?
- Okay Twitter: Who is on and what is their personality?The average user profiles of Twitter and Facebook have really become very alike in the last year or so. There may be a slight skewing of the age of Twitter users which goes deeper into the 30s, although just this last August I was amazed to overhear 16 and 17 year old boys at our county fair saying how they had to jump on their twitter accounts, so who knows, it’s changing all the time. While some people brush off Twitter as the whiney little brother of FB, I don’t think you can discount it. Look at these numbers: the number of Twitter users increases by 300,000 everyday; 180 million unique visitors each day; 55 million tweets sent per day. That’s a population that shouldn’t be ignored.
- And how about businesses on Twitter? 42% of users learn about products/services on twitter, 41% provide opinions about products/services; 31% ask for opinions about products/services. Don’t discount this want of the public for social feedback on products and services. This is where they want to get their information, not from your advertisements which are a one-sided conversation.
- Short format: you wordy people with your run on sentences? STAY AWAY. You need to be able to get a message out in 140 characters and that includes your links and such. Make sure you stay true to that format.
- Twitter doesn’t have the same amount of profile information as FB does. There are no photos, friend connections, stuff that FB uses to link you to new people. This means people need to seek out their friends a bit more. This means that if you’re not engaged in Twitter, it’s much easier to get lost in the feeds. Which leads to….
- Twitter needs a bit more investment. You’re going to need to make sure you’re following feeds, retweeting people, replying to people, put in a little more legwork than FB.
- If you create a twitter account, start following like 80 people, and then just sit there and watch the tweets pour in, you will get overwhelmed. Twitter is an art. Once you know how to hold the paintbrush, you’ll be fine, but lots of people don’t take the time to do that. But, don’t worry we’ll give you some great tips for doing that.
- Short format! Honestly, I think you’ll learn to love it. This isn’t the time investment of a blog or newsletter. You’ve got an idea, a quick diversion, a fun thought? Bam, write and send and you’re done. It’s also great for skimming news and topics. A little later when I talk about good practices, I’ll tell you how great it is to scroll through your feeds and get a very quick picture of what’s going on in the world.
- This is one of those advantages that you don’t really know about until you are on Twitter. Let me try and explain it through an example: Not too long after we had created a Twitter account, I noticed one of our state representatives had tweeted that he was going to be visiting our area the next week. So, on a whim, I tweeted him and said, ‘hey stop by the library while you’re here!’ Within minutes I had a reply ‘Sure, we’ll be there at 10:00!’ WHAT?!?! Have you ever had that quick of a response from your representatives?!?! If I would have sent a letter, an email, made a phone call, I would not have gotten that quick or favorable of a reply. But I think it has something to do with how Twitter has eliminated some barriers between users and it has something to do with this cartoon here. Because Twitter doesn’t have all this intimate information about you on it, people feel freer with who they talk to and respond to. Think about if I want to talk to a famous person: if I talk to them at level 10 – meet them face to face, that’s a pretty intimate connection, I mean if I want to do something crazy, there’s really nothing stopping me. If I’m calling, texting, emailing, I at least know some of your personal information like where you live or your personal email address. Facebook friends have access to your pictures, your likes, your dislikes. Twitter doesn’t have any of that. It’s just you, your brief description, and your tweets, so I think people are much freer with who they let follow them and who they will respond to. There is a lot of potential in this format for making huge connections with a wider world.
- Twitter is awesome for keeping up with news and happenings. I am horrible with my Google Reader. It has like 400 unread blog posts right now because who has time to sit down and read 400 blogposts. But my twitter…I just scan. That 140 character thing is awesome for busy people. I spend about 5 minutes scanning through my feeds and there is all of my national and international news, my library happenings, my tech and trend updates. Done, I’m moving on. We’ll show you some tools later on for setting up those feeds to make it just that easy.
- Like we saw in that previous infographic, Tweeters are more likely to promote products and services on twitter. People love to post things like “went to awesome talk on #self-publishing tonight @defiancelibrary. Got some great tips!” There’s that great word of mouth advertising we all want.
- How many are on LinkedIn? What do you need to know about LinkedIn? Well think of it as Facebook with a tie.
- First of all, I want to point out the growth of LinkedIn. It took a little while for LinkedIn to catch on because it was developed not long after
- The other thing that is tough is knowing when to jump in to a new social media craze. Anyone jumped on board with Foursquare yet? Google+? Spotify? New tools are coming out daily, so when do you know when to use them? Well, first, ask around: ask staff, ask customers, ask friends. Are they using it? Most of us have grandmothers on facebook…if it’s reached grandma, you should probably jump on board. I had an eye opener with QR codes last year. I thought smartphone usage was really low in our library, but when I asked our Youth Services director, she said, oh no, we have so many young parents that have them and use them regularly. So, we said, why don’t we release children’s booklists with qr codes at the top that they can scan to see the list on their phone. I’m so glad I asked, because my impressions were wrong.You can also search for other local businesses that are on a social media platform. See if they are using it and getting good response.
- The second big question is: Do I have time for it? Now don’t scare yourself into never trying anything new because you can’t add just one more thing, but honestly if you hate technology and know that it is going to take you ages to figure this out, then maybe it’s time to ask for help. There is someone on your staff who would give you a hug if you asked them to go on facebook while they’re on the clock. Just make sure you’ve got the time to manage them a bit. And weigh the Return on Investment: will this help you reach new people? will it gain you new attention from media? Could it possibly take the place of other marketing? I think you’ll have some positive answers to these questions.
- If there was a convention in your town that guaranteed that 1 entire third of your population would attend and you were offered free booth space for a display, would you do it? I think we would all agree, YES. One of the major rules of advertising….go where the people are! If you’re going to advertise, do it on the major highway, not in the boonies. 1 out of every 3 of not only your customers are here, are active. You need to be present.
- This also offers great opportunity for customer interaction. Here is a screenshot of a recent conversation our library had with a patron on Facebook. We posted photos of our Baby Sign Language Class. Someone responded that they were sad that they had missed it. We responded back that we had a whole host of books and dvds that could teach her what she had missed in the class. She liked our comment which meant she probably found those resources useful and maybe checked something out from us. This also put these resources out there for anyone else who may be interested in this class and featured our online catalog of resources for everyone.
- FREE! What did you think I was going to say. Now I know the argument that no marketing is free that it all requires time and management, and believe me, I know that from personal experience. But if you’re going to put your efforts into marketing (and, of course you should) why not try it out on a platform that is free while still hitting a huge segment of a population. Creating news advertisements takes time, writing and recording radio ads takes time, all marketing takes time, but facebook has no cost for creating a page, for posting, for photo storage. Why not start there?
- The advantage to having EVERYONE on Facebook is that you have the chance to reach new audiences. This is not people seeking out advertisements (like trusting that your customers will read your newspaper ad or hoping that they are awake when your radio ads run), this is advertisement seeking out people. These are personal recommendations from their friends, photos that they are tagged in, or facebook advertisements that are targeted directly at their audience.
- Not only are your customers on social media, your partner organizations are as well. The Crescent-News is on Twitter, The State Bank has a Facebook page, the Chamber is on Facebook . Ever had a door that was tough to open in your community? Connect on Facebook first with photos of successful events. Retweet community news to get on your paper’s good side. Utilize these new ways of communication.
- Many businesses have a stereotype to overcome especially for younger customer bases: You can be viewed as corporate, self-involved, stagnant. What better way to show your community that you are adaptable, willing to embrace new things, and willing to have a truthful conversation with them than using social media effectively?
- I’ll be showing you next how adaptable this technology is to small businesses with limited staff or you could hire a person who could make this their entire job. It’s flexible to meet your needs.
- I wanted to take a few minutes of this presentation to address some business’s greatest fears about social media: what do I post?! It can be really scary when you first begin, but I want to show you this comic first to get across some of the advantages of social media: Your Voice.
- Each of you has expertise in something, that’s why you’re here, you are all business leaders and you have some type of knowledge to offer the public. Use what you know. Here is the page from the Friends of the Feline Rescue Center. And, yes, okay, they have adorable kitten photos and that helps, but they are awesome at leveraging social media. They constantly put up photos of their own cats, they put up funny cat comics, photos of new cat toys and stands they are putting together for their shelter, they even tell personal kitty stories and wish each of their kitties well when it gets adopted. This is a very personal, very expert page.
- Think of your posts in terms of not what you want to tell people but what they want to hear. 2 things that people love are saving money and free trusted advice. Those are two really good things to post about. Here is an example of Sweetwater Chophouse’s page. Even though they have the same weekly deals, they post each Wednesday – ‘It’s Wine-Down Wednesday!’ and on Tuesday – ‘It’s Tini-Tuesday!’ Because who knows who is going to log on, see that and think ‘Hey, I need a Martini tonight and there’s a great deal going on there!’
- Interact with what is going on in people’s lives. Whether it’s a trend, an event, or a news story, find something that can be connected back to your business. Here is a post that referred to musician Adele’s wins at the Grammy’s this year. We posted about using our biography database to find out more information about her.
- Let’s face it, people get on facebook to take a break or goof off…tap into that culture by posting some silliness every once in a while, but find a way to relate it back to your business. We are a library. Our followers like books. I ran across this photo slideshow of Christmas Trees out of books.
- Ask questions: This is an excerpt from the front page of our library system’s annual report for 2011. I had asked a few months ago on our Facebook page ‘Why are libraries important?’ and got this amazing response from a patron. It’s going on the cover of our annual report, it’s a great description of our services directly from a user, AND it markets our facebook personality to everyone who reads our annual report (win-win!)
- One of our posts that received the most interaction for the library was an album of photos that I put up on our renovation during the summer. I found it hilarious because the photos were pretty ugly compared to the adorable children that I get to post for storytime, but our followers loved it, commented on it, and shared it. People love photos and you can say so much more with them. Use that to your advantage and get people to interact with you.
- One of the best things about the Internet and tech tools is that if you are frustrated by something, there are usually thousands of other people who feel the same way, and one of those people is a tech genius and they’ll build something to solve all of your problems. Like: Social Media Management Tools.
- SMM tools let you Monitor multiple accounts: whether you have 2 facebook pages– or – even across different services like your facebook, your twitter, and your linkedincreate multi-user access: you don’t have to carry the load alone, let other staff members interact with the social mediaschedule updates: take 10-15 minutes each Monday morning, write out 3 posts for each day, and schedule them to go out whenever you want them to – it’s that easysee feedback: all that monitoring I said you had to do? These will do that for you. All you do is scan the feed to see if any comments have been made and you’re doneorganize groups of information: that overwhelming long list of updates that twitter gives you is no more. That’s why only 25% of people actually use twitter.com to get to their twitter feeds! Everyone else is using a type of feed reader to see the information how they wish to see it.
- I personally use Hootsuite. I used to use tweetdeck but then switched over. And, really, it just honestly depends on who you talk to as to which one is better. It’s like a PC and a Mac thing, everyone’s got an opinion. I really think they’re both great, I just like Hootsuite (and it has this adorable little owl as it’s mascot, which is just fun) So this is what my hootsuite looks like: I’ve got tabs up at the top that separate out my different social networks and accounts: twitter, facebook, linkedin, foursquare, etc. Then under each of those tabs I’ve created lists of the people I follow. So this is my library twitter tab and I’ve got a list of 1. News 2. Tech updates 3. authors 4. library news. Off screen I also have lists for mentions that people have made of our library and any messages sent to our library. So just by browsing these lists, I get a full picture of what is happening in a very brief amount of time. Up at the top there is this handy little text box. When I’m ready to post something, I type it in (and, yes, it does tell me how many characters I am able to include), I can include picture attachments, there is a urlshortener built right in to help me keep to that 140-character limit, and there is that incredibly awesome scheduler button which lets me choose whether I want to post it now or have it automatically post later. When I’m done with my post I select all of the accounts I want it to go to (I usually send a blast out to our facebook and our twitter) and click send. Done.
- Tweetdeck does pretty much the same thing. They also organize using feeds and lists, they also allow you to follow your mentions, and they also work across multiple formats. Tweetdeck was originally created just for twitter, so many people say that it works the best for Twitter, but I think they’ve really tried to expand it, so it works well across all platforms now. The main difference between the two are that Hootsuite is web-based (so you open it in your browser window) and Tweetdeck is software based (you download it to your computer). For me, I love things that are web based because I’m always using multiple computers at work when I’m on desk/off desk/on the road, and Hootsuite seems to be slightly ahead in the creating cool new features department. But that’s just my opinion.
- There are also other platforms out there that you can explore like SocialOomph, ping.fm, postling, sproutsocial, and nutshellmail. They all have different features, none of them that I really found had as much capability as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, but again, I just like kind of monitoring these things, cause who knows when one of them will come out with something big or a cuter mascot.
- There are people out there getting paid really good money to research and stay on top of social media trends…so let them do all the work. One of the best uses I’ve found for my Twitter account is to follow companies like Mashable online. Every morning Mashable puts out the top 3 social media stories in their twitter feed. It’ll literally take you 2 seconds to scan the headlines. Trendhunter.com also has a great social media tab with stories. Also I want to point out 2 things about this screenshot: ONE is that I keep these tabs open on my computer screen all day long. So here’s my facebook tab, my hootsuite tab (which I’ll explain what hootsuite is later) and my Pinterest tab. Those automatically come up on my browser every morning and that’s a great reminder for me each morning to take a quick sweep of social media. Also, sign up for email notifications. I know none of us need more email, but you don’t even have to read the emails, it will just keep it on your radar and let you know when there is more activity on a site or let you know when the site is growing which can be your clue to jump in.
- Take some time to look around at other FB pages or other Twitter accounts, and don’t just stick with businesses like yours, take pointers from other organizations and brands. Who do you like to follow and why?
- Market your social media! To local press: what other services can you offer online? To customers: put the social media logos on everything (even business cards), post your feeds on your webpages. To staff/bosses/boards: keep them updated on progress, share your success stories with them, even better, get them involved.
- The number one way to make sure your social media is successful, is to make it a priority to engage. Respond when someone comments on your messages (as soon as possible). And that goes for the negative ones as well! Each negative comment is a chance to change someone’s mind. For example, over the summer with our renovation and no air conditioning. And, if you remember last summer, it was awful. Due to the heat index in the building there were some days when we had to close early for the sake of our staff and we tried to keep people updated on facebook. That was a little iffy for me – no one likes to hear that the place they are planning to run errands to is closed – and so when I saw this message I got a little worried:But, you have to respond back, so we apologized, explained our decision and answered her question as to when we would re-open. And look at this: We got a “Thank You Very Much” with a smiley face! We made a positive impact on someone who might have had a negative experience. This is the type of open conversational marketing you can do on Facebook.
- Now everything I’m telling you today, are what I believe to be best practices. Do I always achieve them? OF COURSE NOT! Don’t get discouraged because you don’t reach these goals all the time. Just try again tomorrow!
- Now here’s where I’m going to tell you some things that are very taboo. I will be going to techie hell for this with very bad bandwidth but….you can always drop it if it doesn’t work. *gasp*
- *gasp* Yes, I believe in having a plan before you jump in, yes I do believe in commitment to a project, but I also know that real life happens. Don’t let that fear of “failure” stop you from trying, don’t build it up so much that you’re never going to get on board with it. Now, here are some tips for doing that the right way.First, with a new social media or tech tool, it’s okay to just be an observer for awhile. I’m currently doing this with Google+, Google’s answer to FB. I’m on it, I play around with it, I just want to see what it is, why it’s different, and who is on it. If you don’t want to take this on yourself, find someone on your staff who just likes to mess with techie things, ask them to tell you why they joined and what it is. Open a personal account. Jumping intoFacebook or Twitter doesn’t mean you have to do it with the library’s name the first time. It’s actually probably better if you don’t. Open an account, it can even be anonymous, and, here’s the key, make an effort to interact. I’ve found with Twitter that I am much more informed of news and tech happenings using my personal account and get some great marketing ideas. How will it work for you?Then, after 6 months or a year, if it doesn’t work, close it out. That’s it. Just remember to actually delete your account if you are going to do this, because then it won’t be hacked like my old Yahoo account which liked to try and sell Viagra to all my relatives. This is acceptable practice, techies are fickle people, they use and lose, and move on. We should too.Now this is the one that I’m really going to the seventh circle of Techie Hell for….you can pick it back up. I went about our Library Facebook page the wrong way the first time. I jumped in without a plan, I tried to take it on all by myself, I didn’t have the tools to do it efficiently in time. And when I took on a new position and got distracted with new duties, it waned. It was stagnant. Then I discovered HootSuite which is one of the tools I’ll be telling you about and I revamped the page. And, guess what, the people came back. Obviously, I’m not saying jump in, jump out all the time. But just because it didn’t work the first time around, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a second try.
- Oh Google+. Now, I love the Google. In the last year, I’ve switched our entire library system staff to Google Apps and tools, all of our email, schedules and calendars, and most of our documents are now run through Google. But, the one thing poor Google couldn’t do was compete with Facebook. Google+ came out last year amidst HUGE buzz. Everyone was sure this was going to be the social network to beat FB. So, it released, and people scrambled for invites (because it was by invitation only), and people got all excited and logged on…..and then realized it was exactly like FB but without all their friends…. Google is still really trying…there have been so many Google+ commercials lately, but I think it’s slowly dying. I still have a profile on Google+, just in case!, but I hardly ever check it…
- Spotify is not something you would think of as a Social Network, but that’s why I’ve included it, because it’s a great example of incorporating a social network where you wouldn’t expect one.Spotify is a music player that looks much like iTunes, but instead of you buying music and putting it into your iTunes player to listen to, Spotify gives you immediate access to pretty much any song, any album, any artist, anytime. You can also create custom playlists using any of these songs. Now Spotify, being Web 2.0 savvy people, were really smart and added that ‘social’ aspect to what they do. #1 They made all songs and playlists shareable. So when I find a song that I like and that I think my sister would like, I can share it with her and when she opens her Spotify, she can listen to that song. We can also create collaborative playlists together, both adding songs. #2 Spotify was smart enough to not compete, but to partner with FB. About a month after Spotify came out, they pretty much forced you to connect your Spotify with your Facebook account. And suddenly, every song you listened to was listed on your FB page. This is that whole ‘Everyone cares about everything I do, and I care about what everyone else does’ culture. It seemed a bit scary at first…I didn’t know if I wanted my 13 year old cousin to know I listened to ‘pour some sugar on me’ but it had it’s cool part too: I found out another cousin of mine has the exact same taste in music and now we can share artists together. A new connection. That’s what Web 2.0 is all about.
- Pinterest! Is anyone here on Pinterest? OK, tell me if this is what it sounded like when someone first told you about Pinterest: ‘Pinterest is the greatest thing ever!!!! It will ruin your life!!!!’ Pinterest is touted your personal collection of visual pin boards. So, you’re out and about on the Internet and you see a photo of a garden that you really like that might inspire your own garden. Well, if you’re on Pinterest, then you already have a pin board for ‘gardening ideas’ and you click a button and ta-da: that photo is saved and posted to your gardening pin board. You can have boards for everything: event planning, home décor, craft ideas, even silly comics, whatever you want. Now in terms of business, people are just beginning to figure out how to use Pinterest, so for now I’m just watching
- SchoolFeed – alright I have to tell you a story about SchoolFeed. One of the cardinal rules I’ll tell you about in a bit is to sign up for email notifications for some of the new social media, just to keep track of it, and I did that with SchoolFeed…and didn’t hear anything for months. Then, just about 1 month ago I begin seeing this increase in activity up to the point where now I’m getting a notification that someone added me on SchoolFeed pretty much daily. Now, again, I’m like you, I’ve got a lot on my plate and the thought of taking on another social network is daunting, but I literally was writing out this presentation and thinking ‘aw man! I’m not following one of my other cardinal rules!’ which is to jump into a social network when the chatter starts. The increase in notifications is a sign that this social network is growing faster than others and is being adopted by people who have something in common with me – that is a sign that I need to start paying attention. Now, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time on schoolfeed, and honestly, I don’t really get yet how it is a whole lot different from FB, but! The point is that I know what it is, I’m aware of it, and I can monitor it. I also looked up an article on it to help explain it to me and found out that it’s a huge growing network for ages 35-55, which skews a bit older than FB, to connect people who didn’t have Internet in HS to their classmates. So, now I know.