Building an Effective Online Communications Strategy

Building an Effective OnlineCommunity StrategyAndré Natta, Principal, Urban Conversations

Checking in

Objectives● Know how to determine which social media tools are right for the organization● Identify four tips for effective online community engagement● Identify examples of sustainable online community engagement● Have a better understanding of what tools are useful for accomplishing goals

Determine your purpose Why?

Why NOT to be using it• Its free and easy• Everybody else is doing it• Its the best way to reach the “young” people

Why SHOULD you be using it• Complimenting work plan objectives – if its not considered part of it, it should be• Tools (& people) are in place to manage a strategy effectively• You are willing to be where they are online

Determine your purpose

Determining outlets ?

Determining outlets Photo courtesy @douglaswray

Building audience• Ask for the information – Twitter name – Personal and business profiles – Worst case, they wont provide it to you• Promote social media channels in print• Think about how you post (cross-posting)

Building audience• Listen... a lot. – Create lists in Twitter – Subscribe to people on Facebook (if possible) – Place people in circles in Google+ – Set up a Google Alert• Search for them – Built in function on sites – Tools like Contax.io

Four tips• Be a resource• Engage• Moderate• Measure/Track

Be a resource• Provide information about upcoming events – Your own events, merchant sales, events from relevant organizations• Answer questions – Encourage adoption of district “hashtag”• Determine where you want them to go – Preferably your website or newsletter sign-up page

Engage your community• Ask questions – Surveys – Open ended posts/Photo captions• Check in on them every once in a while• Find a few conversations – district merchants and fans/followers

Engage your community

Moderation• Establish terms of use – What will and will not be allowed – Its their conversation, but its your organizations space – Helps them feel more comfortable sharing how they feel constructively• Social media policy – Allows everyone managing the accounts to be on the same page RE: approach

Measuring/Tracking

Measuring/tracking• Account management tools – Tweetdeck – Hootsuite – Seesmic• Additional tracking options – Google Alerts / Bing searches – Bit.ly

The new stuff• Pinterest – Flash ≠ Pinterest-friendly – Make sure youre allowed the share the images that you choose to on the site• Google+ – Its getting used a lot more than people realize – Nice tool for digital “town halls” and educational opportunities

Other things• Twitter backgrounds – Helpful branding tool – Background measurements - http://bit.ly/HcW4S4• Facebook Fan Page changes – Initial reports suggest more engagement thanks to introduction of Timeline (still too soon though) – Use images to help promote events

Other things

Thanks! Twitter - @acnatta *Warning – I am a baseball fan & Im active on Wednesday nights

Building an Effective Online Communications Strategy

by Andre Natta on Apr 13, 2012

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