10. What happens on facebook? facebook: You can brand your channels Group Cause Fan page Page Application
11. headspace’s Facebook facebook: You can brand your channel headspace currently has 4529 members of our cause. This is currently growing by one new member each hour.
12. facebook: People comment on walls and discussion boards Organic conversation Peer to peer interaction headspace to audience interaction
13. facebook: You can create an application People can then display this on their pages and forward/interact organically with their peer networks
14. facebook: headspace created an application to launch our major advertising campaign ‘ gifts’ featured elements of our campaign and proved to be popular
17. headspace’s MySpace MySpace: You can brand your page You can optimise links between your social media strategy You can feature videos, pictures and static content
19. headspace’s Twitter You can brand your page Very much a conversationalist channel which needs to be two-way, not ‘push’ headspace is growing this channel organically, and does not seek out people, they come to us.
Today I’m going to quickly walk you through how headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, went social. I am also keen to show you some of the tools and functions which social media can offer you, right here, right now. The ‘theme’ for this afternoon is the future. Well folks, the future is already here and it’s time to get onboard.
Brief background on headspace
Social media is a quickly evolving world with many opinions on how to exactly define it. In it’s most basic sense, social media allows traditional consumers to become producers, and consumption of information, content and collaboration has led to the formation of a virtual community within web 2.0. Or in other, more academic words “social media are online communications in which individuals shift fluidly and flexibly between the role of audience and author. To do this, they use social software that enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content and to form communities around shared interests.”
Popular opinion states that “What is interesting is comparing how Generation Y and Generation X (aged 29 to 42) view and use technology differently. Generation X users use technology as much as Gen Y but for X’ers they use technology when it when it supports a “lifestyle need” whereas tech is “embedded into everything Gen Yers do” making them the first “native online population”. headspace aims to empower these young people and provide a clear path to sources of help via our social media strategy. Cost effective Real time Two way conversations Interact with large diverse audience Gain opinions and thoughts of young people quickly Gives street cred with target audience Its where young people are
We have provided you with some working documents which headspace used to help inform our planning and development before we went social. Whilst we can’t give you our IP (joke), we can show you the level of thinking required before you put your brand into cyberspace. And if you have already put your brand into social media, we encourage you to review these planning documents to assess your strategy, and ensure your efforts will be rewarded and not ridiculed. Because, as headspace has found, it can be very hit and miss, or it can be a huge success.
It is vital that before planning or undertaking social media activities, that you, your organisation and the senior management fully understand the risks and opportunities of moving online. The best way to start is to conduct a SWOT and look at what policies are out there to guide you.
Founded in February 2005, YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email. Everyone can watch videos on YouTube. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow. YouTube came into its own during the 2008 American election where the now President Obama leveraged its large audience to create videos to inspire, engage and educate younger voters on his platforms, while breaking barriers to connect with a whole new generation. Here is Australia we saw 2007’s Federal election go online with Kevin Rudd and later John Howard utilising the channel to connect with younger voters. The Rudd effort was superior to Howard as Rudd demonstrated his (or his staffs) understanding of the conversationalist style of the medium, presenting light and relevant content, where as Howard presented as he did on mainstream media, formal and rehearsed. This undermined the use of the medium and led to backlash within the users of YouTube. This is an important lesson for anyone wanting to use YouTube or infact, any social media application to engage with the younger generations. You need to understand the ‘tone’ of the medium, and play by their rules. Show and tell Purpose for this channel Stats on useage Evaluation tools
According to Facebook “Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.” The users tend to be slightly older (20 and above) and socially network for gain, rather than purely for pleasure. The demographics of the users are wide-spread, with users re-connecting with old ‘communities’ such as school mates, work colleagues and past friends. The emphasis on re-connecting people is an important one, with users feeling a need to display networks and badges of honour in what they support, pictures they upload, applications they use etc. Quick facebook 101: A user can have a ‘page’ which is the home for their information and their networking. They can also start a ‘group’ where like-minded users join and discuss on ‘discussion boards’. They can also start a ‘cause’, again where like-minded users (world wide) can join, participate in growing the network by ‘inviting their friends to support’, and display their cause or group on their unique page (thus the badge). There are also applications (or apps) which users utilise to either have fun, educate, empower or entertain (anything from send a ‘bogan gift - my current faviourite) to sending a well to a poor nation. The other element of Facebook is it’s capacity to raise funds through its causes. There is a secure online donation tool which allows causes to raise funds through its supporters. However, this application is only currently available in the USA and a few other countries, not Australia.
Show and tell Purpose for this channel Stats on useage Evaluation tools
According to the developers of MySpace, “MySpace is an online community that lets you meet your friends' friends. Create a community on MySpace and you can share photos, journals and interests with your growing network of mutual friends! See who knows who, or how you are connected. Find out if you really are six people away from Kevin Bacon.” MySpace demographics are younger than facebook, with a stream of school friends extending their ‘day to day’ communities to the virtual world through MySpace. Essentially, they are friends with their ‘real’ friends and connect with friends of friends. Recently MySpace launched applications (similar to facebook) and causes (the same as facebook through a client). These tools extend the functionality of MySpace to now include video, picture and movie file sharing, instant chatting, public discussions and wall to wall communication.
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees. Micro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web. In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009. Twitter had a growth of 1382%, Zimbio had a growth of 240%, followed by Facebook with a growth of 228%.[5]
Profile other policies Key hs considerations (nature of risk)
With 30 headspace centre’s spread across the country, each unique to it’s own community, the headspace centres have also been utilising social media to engage and connect with their audience. At first headspace national was concerned about the ‘brand spread’ – however it became apparent that the local headspace’s needs and usage of these applications was going to be very different to headspace Nationals, and could in fact also promote the national brand. As such, a number of the headspace centres now have MySpace and/or facebook pages. MySpace has been used well in Central West Gippsland area, with promotions specific to the local area – such as bushfire relief centres and support. SO in any words, its about community connectedness for our centre’s existing communities and network, essentially moving from paper-based news and ‘push’ communications, to virtual, real time interaction and engagement.
To reduce the dilution of brand, headspace has worked collaboratively with the headspace centre's in their usage of these sites – particularly facebook. headspace National Office recommends that the centres do not form ‘groups’ rather form ‘profiles’. That they link or become friends with headspace Australia, join and promote both the cause and the group. The other critical element for our headspace centres is the development of localised and needs-specific policies and risk management frameworks, using the established templates from headspace National. The headspace centres use facebook as a local community. They provide information relevant to that local community and engage the members of that community, again, in an extension of their existing ‘on the ground’ community development and awareness activities.
How does this all fit with headspace’s overall e-health strategy? All these tools / applications / social media essentially act as a funnel to the headspace website. The headspace website is where young people can find out information and contact details of their closest headspace centre, how to make an appointment. There are stories written by other young people about personal experiences of MH and D&A issues, and how they got through tough times, there is news, events, info for parents and carers, specific fact sheets and a section for academics and professionals which includes links to relevant research. Using facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube act to engage, educate and empower young people– these social media applications do not specifically push mental health and alcohol and other drug information. Rather they engage young people, make other young people aware through their networks that headspace is out there and a source of support if required. We do not deliver one on one counselling or support through the social media applications, however we do encourage help seeking via the website – specifically access to headspace centres.
How do we know that social networking is having an impact on headspace? Most popular sections of the website are, homepage, headspace sites, Information, Stories, knowledge centre, Getting help.
We have seen a steady increase in website traffic since officially launching the website in April 2008, and can also track the success of the campaigns to date and when we went social.
To do this, we have developed a ‘closed’ facebook group. This group allows only reference group members and staff access to the discussions and consultation. The group is quite literally used daily to update members on activities and projects, receive input from members in relation to policies, and resources. This has essentially replaced email communication. The only time email communication is utilised is when needing to gain feedback on documents – as documents cannot be uploaded and attached on facebook groups. However the discussions and feedback on these documents still occurs via the facebook group so that it is easily collated, members can have discussion and debate and see others opinions and thoughts and argue their side as necessary.
The other element of facebook which has proved invaluable for me is also to keep track of MH and wellbeing of members – either by tracking ‘status’ or IM and catching members when they are online!
The opportunities for this application are endless! What do you think you could use this for?