Social Media And Social Networks From Experiment To Strategy Aug09

Social Media and Social Networks:From Experiment to Strategy
August 29, 2009Boston, Massachusetts
David Dombrosky
Center for Arts Management and Technology

Who Is This Guy?
Short-sighted Futurist
Executive Director
Q U E E R
Listener
Accidental Techie
Blogger
Tweeter
Advocate
Communicator
Strategic Marketer
NOT AN EXPERT

EXPERT

Opening Questions

Social Media and Social Networks Are Tools
Tools are only as good as their users
Learn how to use them effectively
Watch how others use them
Practice before going pro
Envision success so you can achieve it
Maximize your use of each tool
Why use 5 tools if 1 will suffice?
Will combining tools = progress or split-focus?
Respect your capacity!

Social Media Landscape

Levels of User Engagement
Curators
Moderate a forum
Edit a wiki

Social Media Strategy Framework

The Question of Who?
Who should maintain your organization’s digital identity?
Executive staff?
Marketing department?
Younger staff members?
Interns?
Artists?

Tips for Monitoring
Set up comprehensive Google Alerts
Set up a feed reader with relevant blogs and new feeds
Use Twitter Search to follow hashtags and keywords in Twitterstreams

Tips for Measuring
Use URL shorteners like http://bit.ly
These services track the number of clicks.
If you post a link on multiple social media sites, associate a unique short URL with each site. This can help you to determine variances in your community members across sites.

Tips for Measuring
Get addicted to Google Analytics
Tracks top referral sites – including social media
Number of unique visits
Average amount of time per visit
Bounce Rate
Can help you develop metric benchmarks for envisioning success

Best Practices: Sharing
Add “Share This” widgets to your website

Consider creating your own widgets that your constituents or visitors can share on their own sites and pages

Share the content of others
Share your own content across platforms

Best Practices: RSS
Make sure your content has an RSS feed
Share your RSS feed with your site visitors, social network friends, etc.
Use RSS feeds to help streamline your social media workflow.

Best Practices: Blogging
Pick an interesting voice
Use the  code when you go over 250 – 300 words
Maximize outbound links
Set outbound links to be opened in a new window
Invite and encourage conversation

Best Practices: YouTube
Get a nonprofit channel
Tag your videos with keywords
Embed videos in your blog and website
Engage commenters
Think about Kick-ing it

Best Practices: Facebook
The World of Facebook
Profiles are for People
Get a Page, Get Some Fans
Use Groups for Controlled Membership
Use Events to Generate Attendance
Causes: Donations or Visibility?
The Growing Power of Ads

Best Practices: Twitter
70 – 20 – 10 Engagement Model
70% - Sharing others voices, opinions, and tools
20% - Responding, connecting, collaboration, and co-creating with like-minded Twitter colleagues
10% - Promoting and/or chit-chatting

Best Practices: Twitter
Help yourself with tools
Tools for managing the voicesTweetdeck, Tweetie, etc.
Tools for productivitySocialOoomph
Tools for recommending you and othersMrTweet
Look for tools. Don’t assume their non-existence.

Should You Build Your Own Social Network?
2009 Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report – 30.6% of responding nonprofits had their own social network
Why would you want to create your own?
Ning, GroupSite, SocialGo
White Label Social Network Platforms Chart from TechCrunch

RESOURCES
Nonprofit Technology Network
Idealware.org
Mashable
Center for Arts Management and Technology:
camt.artsnet.org - products, services
www.TechnologyInTheArts.org – blog, podcast, webinars, professional development, consulting, resource list