Managing Social Media - Erin Erickson

Managing Social Media Taking advantage of social networks while making the best use of your time Erin Hallstrom Erickson Putman Media

About me...
10+ years in B2B journalism (magazines, books, websites)
Worked for B2Bs and associations both large and small.
2005-2008: Served as (print) Group Managing Editor for Reed Business Information's Residential Construction Group for 3 years.
Incredibly eager to learn digital media (posting articles, conducting webinars, developing interactive stories)
Invitation to join ASBPE
Became ASBPE Chicago web "geek"
Taught myself HTML, social media best practices, analytics
2008: Moved to Putman Media as a Sr. Digital Editor
2008-2009: Created UBrandMedia.com as a result of numerous queries from collegues to teach them social media

Editor's Typical Daily To-Do List
Up until a few years ago...
Assign Article(s)
Contact Freelancer(s)
Research Article(s)
Write article(s)
Find Sources
Stay relevant on industry topics
Generate article ideas
With the additional responsibilities of (now)...
Post Tweets
Write blog posts
Comment on other blogs
Check on LinkedIn Group
Monitor Facebook Fan Page
Generate Leads and Page Views
= 8 hour work day

Social Media: Whose responsibility is it?
Marketing experts will tell you the marketing department
Circulation or Lead Generation will tell you circulation
Editors who don't understand it will tell you the junior staffer or editorial intern
The digital editor might tell you they're already on it and can explain it to you.
The IT or Web Team might tell you to submit a request and they'll try to get to it.
Depending on company resources, social media may be YOUR responsibility .

It comes down to strategy: what is you're trying to do on social media that's going to help your website?

What is your site's Social Media strategy? (or why are you using social media?)
To generate more traffic to your website?
To generate more interest in your content?
To grow your readership (or viewership)?
To find more leads or sources?
To find more advertisers?
To put down roots for building an online community?
To serve as a forum for industry (or association) members?
To be cool or hip (a.k.a: everyone else is doin' it)
To experiment with new online tools
To give your staff a leg up over print-only competition?

If you don't know, then you need to decide why and what your strategy is.

Social Media Responsibility: Editorial or Marketing?
Editorial
To generate more interest in your content
To find more leads or sources
To put down roots for building an online community
To serve as a forum for industry (or association) members
To be cool or hip
To give your staff a leg up over print-only competition
Marketing
To generate more traffic to your website
To find more advertisers
To grow your readership (or viewership)
To put down roots for building an online community
To be cool or hip
To give your staff a leg up over print-only competition
Most of the goals are the same. Let each department take the lead for their SM strategy approach

Once you've figured out who is doing what...
Pitfalls to avoid with your
B2B Social Media Campaign

Tips and Tricks for
using social media
to be more productive

Pitfalls: Things to Avoid with your B2B Social Media Campaign
Lack of monitoring -- Do not set up and walk away
Lack of authenticity or personality -- Do not discourage your staff from being themselves.
Don't wait for formalized training. Most social media tools are free. Let your staff experiment.
Don't forget to laugh at little faux pas -- Make sure to learn from your mistakes, but don't let fear keep you from trying something.
Don't discourage your social media savvy staffers from taking the lead.
Don't go into social media without some idea of what you want to do with it.
Don't forget the rest of your site or magazine.

Be a more productive editor with Social Media
Task
Assign Article(s) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Contact Freelancer(s) >>>>>>>>>>>
Research Article(s) >>>>>>>>>>>>>
Write article(s) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Find Sources >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Stay relevant on industry topics >>>>
Find images or video >>>>>>>>>>>
Generate article ideas >>>>>>>>>>
Social Media Tool(s) you can use:
LinkedIn, Google Docs, e-mail
LinkedIn, e-mail, Skype, IM
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
Google Docs, Google Groups
Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, RSS
Flickr, YouTube
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, RSS, YouTube

Social Media Productivity Examples Assign Articles: LinkedIn, Google Docs, e-mail http://docs.google.com http://www.linkedin.com

Social Media Productivity Examples
Research Article(s) and Find Sources >>>>>>>>>>>>> Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook

Stay relevant on industry topics >>>> Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, RSS

Find images or video and Stay relevant on industry topics >>>>>>>>>>> Flickr, YouTube

Editorial Social Media FAQ's
Should everyone on the editorial staff be required to participate in these networks?
Again, review your reasons for being on social media.
Using social media gives you a bigger voice and more opportunities to connect with potential sources or readers/visitors.
Those who want the voice and opportunity should use social media channels at their disposal.
A few notes about editors on social media:
Be authentic and transparent about who you are. If you're one person Twittering for a site, be sure your profile notes that. Otherwise, go with your name.
Decide who (or what) you want to be on what social networking platform. Are you the same self on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook?

Who should be in charge of monitoring social networks?
Best advice: Find the person or people who are eager to do it and put them in charge of it even if it's the intern.
Those who are the most interested will do the best job.
Don't rule out age. Not all 20 somethings know how to Twitter; Not all baby boomers are anti-technology.
Teach yourself or staff using how-to websites. Conduct social media training during a lunch hour.
Provide monthly reports to non-Social Media users to keep them updated on the progress.

Have a plan in place for what and how you'll respond to criticism.
What comments will you leave alone?
What discussion questions should you keep or delete?
At what point do you interfere?

How do you not canibalize your site content?
Twitter:
140 characters doesn't allow a lot of canibalization. Tease and entice people (even non-traditional site visitors) with what is in the works on your site.
Post a link the results of a survey
Ask people to participate in an interactive feature
Conduct an informal Twitter poll

Facebook Fan Page:
Have an RSS feed streaming into your Fan page to keep people updated on what you're publishing. Update page with images, presentations, videos, etc. once they've been done.

LinkedIn Group:
Have an RSS feed streaming into your news page. Post discussion questions in your discussion forum which will link back to your site.

How do you aggregate content to your site?
Post "recent discussion" widgets on your site to show what your staff is talking about on Twitter.
Build LinkedIn and/or Facebook widgets on your site to entice people to link to your Groups or Fan Pages.
Again: focus on the why. Why are you using social media? It's good to bring traffic back to your site, but get into the conversation as well. Don't make everything about sending traffic back to your site.

Questions?
Erin Hallstrom-Erickson

[email_address]

on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/erinhallstromerickson
on Twitter (@Ehal76) or (@FoodProcessing)

www.UBrandMedia.com

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