An overview of how social media can help trade associations achieve thier membership and communications goals. Drafted by corporate communications consultancy, Aspect Consulting. www.aspectconsulting.eu
2. Hello
Richard Houghton
London MD, former Chairman of the
PRCA and President of ICCO
Frans Green
Brussels MD
Sarah Wilkinson
Senior Consultant, ex-Facebook PR
3. Next 60 minutes
1. What is social media? How is it evolving?
2. Why social media counts
3. Social media at its best
4. Building a social media programme
5. Social media and crisis communications
6. Getting started
4. Before we start
Why might social media be important
for your association?
What concerns you about using social
media?
5. Why we think you might
be interested
1. Member expectations and social media activities
2. Opportunity to start debates and highlighting sector benefits
3. „Owned channels‟ to respond to issues and negatives
4. Reach wide audience
1. Members
2. Policy makers
3. Policy influencers
4. Stakeholders
5. Help with crisis communications
7. Forms of electronic communication (as Web
sites for social networking and microblogging)
through which users create online
communities to share information, ideas,
personal messages, and other content (as
videos)
11. Evolution of information
consumption
Fed information
Newspapers/Nightly news TV & Print
Seek information
Search engines & online
Digital search newspapers
Create information
Social media Mobile
12. EU Stakeholders
70% of MEPs and 22% of Weekly LinkedIn usage:
Commission officials use •Business – 46%
Facebook at least once a •Trade associations - 57%
week •NGOs – 61%
88% of MEPs use •MEPs – 20%
Wikipedia at least once
a month Twitter is used by 48% of MEPs
15. Aspect examples
Cable Europe
•Launched Twitter handle to support announcements at Cable Congress
• Retweeted by Neelie Kroes following her address at the Congress
• Created #cablecongress2012 and used by attendees,including media.
More than 300 tweets during the event. 600 followers.
Department of Ageing, Disability and Healthcare
• Launched Facebook page to raise awareness of activities and celebrate
the diversity and abilities of people around Day of People with a
Disability
• Increased attendance at events, wider circulation of „Made You Look‟
magazine, steady increase of engagements year on year
Breakfast is Best
• Twitter handle to support launch of European Breakfast Day and drive
decision makers to sign online pledge to promote breakfast eating
• Achieved 300 signatures for online pledge
• Retweets by MEPs, major nutritional organisations and NGOs
16. Commercial examples
Dell
• One of the most active B2B and B2B brands on Twitter
• Within two years Dell‟s revenue through Twitter was $6.5m
• Dell has a worldwide community of more than 3.5m through its
channels – Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
Cisco
• Held launch of new router product purely through social media
• Launch was attended by 9,000 people – 90 times more attendees
• Saved 42,000 gallons of gas, generated 3 times as much press and
40m online impressions
• One-sixth the cost of traditional launch saving $100,000
American Express
• Facebook page developed to support long standing OPEN Forum
• Campaigns ran as required, content included videos and tutorials
• Small Business Saturday campaign liked by 2.8 million people
• Posts generate on average 900 comments
18. Programmes
Different for every
organisation
One size doesn‟t fit
all
19. Building a programme
8. Refinement
6. Start 7. Monitor and
conversations evaluate
4. Resourcing 5. Content
and policies development
1. Setting 2. Strategy 3. Channel
objectives development selection
20. Building a programme
8. Refinement
6. Start 7. Monitor and
conversations evaluate
4. Resourcing 5. Content
and policies development
1. Setting 2. Strategy 3. Channel
objectives development selection
21. Setting clear objectives
Social media needs objectives like any other programme
Agree how success will be measured
Consider timescales
Write them down!
22. Building a programme
8. Refinement
6. Start 7. Monitor and
conversations evaluate
4. Resourcing 5. Content
and policies development
1. Setting 2. Strategy 3. Channel
objectives selection
development
23. Developing a strategy
• Take a step back and consider
• Objectives
• Positioning of your organisation
• Audiences want to reach
• Context for conversation
• What you have communicated before
• Your „traditional‟ communications activities
• Member activities and opportunities for collaboration
• Timescales
24. Building a programme
8. Refinement
6. Start 7. Monitor and
conversations evaluate
4. Resourcing 5. Content
and policies development
1. Setting 2. Strategy 3. Channel
objectives development selection
25. Channel selection
1. Go back to objectives – who is your audience?
2. Identify the channels they are engaged on
3. Test out channels – see where most engagement takes place
4. Focus effort on most successful channels
26. Channel selection
Networking
Showcase videos Thought leadership Micro blogging
Driving traffic Driving traffic Sharing content
Networking
Showcase pictures
Driving traffic Association
Website Information source
Networking
Community building
Driving traffic
Thought leadership B2B Marketing
Driving traffic Thought leadership
Search Engine Networking
Analytics Community building
27. Building a programme
8. Refinement
6. Start 7. Monitor and
conversations evaluate
4. Resourcing 5. Content
and policies development
1. Setting 2. Strategy 3. Channel
objectives development selection
28. Resourcing and social
media policy
Resourcing
• Objectives
• Strategy
• Frequency of interaction
• Expertise and interest
• In-house or external
• Judgement and refine
Social media policy
• Written, agreed and communicated before start
• Keep it simple
“Don‟t be stupid”
29. Building a programme
8. Refinement
6. Start 7. Monitor and
conversations evaluate
4. Resourcing 5. Content
and policies
development
1. Setting 2. Strategy 3. Channel
objectives development selection
30. 10 tips to develop content
1. What conversation do you want to create?
2. Think channel format
3. Text, audio or video
4. Develop a personality and write in the first person
5. Tell a story
6. Keep it concise, consistent and compelling
7. Aim to develop reputation for being subject expert
8. Link to third parties
9. Include search words
10. Know your subject and bring something new
Remember ultimate objective
31. Building a programme
8. Refinement
6. Start 7. Monitor and
conversations evaluate
4. Resourcing 5. Content
and policies development
1. Setting 2. Strategy 3. Channel
objectives development selection
32. Starting conversations
• Listen to relevant conversations
• Identify influencers in your sector
Listen • Analyse topics being discussed
• Develop your view on relevant topics and consider
what you can add
Develop
• Engage with influencers
• Slow and steady
Engage • 20% your messages 80% sharing and responding
34. Building a programme
8. Refinement
6. Start 7. Monitor
conversations and evaluate
4. Resourcing 5. Content
and policies development
1. Setting 2. Strategy 3. Channel
objectives development selection
35. Evaluation
Review objectives and select appropriate metrics
Goals Metrics
Increase awareness Reach
Followers
„Branded‟ mentions
Comments
Links
Drive visitors to website Visits
Generate enquiries Number of enquiries and
downloads
Develop partnerships Visits, returns and downloads
Links
Member relations Visits, interactions and
comments
36. Evaluation
• Sentiment analysis
• Measure perceptions and feelings towards an organisation
• Based on positive and negative social signals
• Can identify issues and opportunities
37. Building a programme
8. Refinement
6. Start 7. Monitor and
conversations evaluate
4. Resourcing 5. Content
and policies development
1. Setting 2. Strategy 3. Channel
objectives development selection
38. Programme refinement
Objectives
Implement Evaluation
Strategy &
Reality Check
Tactic Review
Good mixture of art and science
40. Crisis reality
• You can‟t change the reputation you had before the crisis hit. Make
sure it‟s a good one
• Understand what your crisis could look like
• Plan for a crisis: have people and processes ready at the
push of a button
• Have a social media policy in place for employees
• Real world crises play out over social media
41. Crisis preparation
• Preparation:
– Know your weak spots: be objective about the sector and
organisation
– Have a crisis plan ready
– Rehearse and train
• Action plan
– Monitor
– Act quickly but calmly
– Involve senior management
– Take it seriously
• Review and refine once it‟s all over
43. Aspect services
Social media strategy development
1 Full strategy and plan including resource requirements
and evaluation techniques
Social media team training
2 Understand how to develop a programme, work
relevant tools and manage conversations
Social media crisis training
3 Social media scenario training on „closed‟ network
around bespoke scenario
15% discount for today‟s attendees
44. Final thought
"Twitter is not a technology. It's a
conversation. And it's happening with
or without you."
Charlene Li
Founder, Altimeter Group
Co-author, Groundswell
Questions – pleas ask as we go.Big subject and lots to cover but need to be clear as we goList on flipchart
Flip chart and pens
How it is found?How it is shared?InstantInternational
Mobile makes social instant and easy472 million smart phones sold in 2011(Gartner)297 million in 201058% increase year on yearDriving growth of social media1. – Journalists, 24 hour/weekly news cycle, One way communication2. - Journalists + readers, Rolling news cycle, Limited interaction3. - Journalists + consumers + activists + government + business, 24 -7- 365, Instant and mobile, Little or no editorial control, CONVERSATIONS
According to research released by ComRes and ZN at the European Commission on May 10, 70% of MEPs use Facebook at least once a week for professional purposes, while only 22% of European Commission officials do likewise.Methodology: ComRes surveyed 102 MEPs in February 2012 by self-completion postal questionnaire and online. Data were weighted to be geographically and politically representative of the European Parliament. ComRes also surveyed 258 Brussels Influencers in November 2011 online. ComRes’s research complies with ESOMAR guidelines.
Amex – in 2010, American Express and FB team up for Small bus sat – encourage shoppers to shop small and support small biz. Amex and FB offered free advertising to 10,000 business owners who signed up to participate. Now have more than 1,000 people talking about the benefits of OPEN through FB
Amex – in 2010, American Express and FB team up for Small bus sat – encourage shoppers to shop small and support small biz. Amex and FB offered free advertising to 10,000 business owners who signed up to participate. Now have more than 1,000 people talking about the benefits of OPEN through FB
Pull up DADHC Facebook pageTalk thruNeed to cover the following areas:Opinion - personal opinion and not that of the companyCommon sense - don’t publish any opinions on the association or its members that you aren’t happy to say to your colleagues and peersIdentity - open and honest about who you work forRespect copyrightsDon’t misuse association resources
Could we do two examples here – one really bad post and one really good and then talk around these points instead of listing them?
Can you prepare for a crisis? Yes. During a crisis, you’ll draw on good or bad will that you have – not just with customers, but with any interested party in your business. Make sure it’s goodwill you have banked. Example: Nestle. Who would believe Nestle over Greenpeace during the KitKat / Palm Oil issue? Greenpeace always had the upper hand.Some of the most serious crises are ‘offline’ issues that’s provoked the crisis – viral videos, Twitter storms, visible discussions over Facebook all mean word spreads in minutes. Don’t silo social media, or expect that you can control it. You can’t – but you can contain a crisis. Work out what your crises might be. (and where possible, avoid them). Nestle ended up agreeing to re-assess its sourcing of Palm Oil – how much heartache could have been prevented if it had done this ahead of the issue breaking?