Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications PRSA Teleseminar June 2, 2009 Courtney Barnes

Blogs/Microblogs

Social Networks

Video-Sharing Platforms

Search Engines

Monitoring Services

Aggregators

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications

Blog (n.):

Short for Web log;

A Web page that is maintained by an individual or group for public consumption;

Defining characteristics include frequent updates, tone and content that reflect the author’s views, and the ability for readers to post comments.

Blog (v.):

To author a blog.

Uses:

Media Relations

Marketing

Internal Communications

Stakeholder Engagement

Monitoring Organizations’ Reputation

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Blogs

Internal vs. External

Ownership vs. Participation

Regardless, blogs are a way to “get found” and “be heard” by your key stakeholders:

Clients

Your/your clients’ customers

Employees

Communities

Investors

Partners

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Blogs Source: Forrester Research

Getting started: Read

Search for relevant blogs

Technorati.com

BlogSearch.Google.com

Read and subscribe via RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

Aggregates everything into one location (Web browser or desktop)

Lets you consumer content according to your preferences

Getting started: Comment

Contribute to the conversation by commenting

Increase the value of post by adding useful info/links/etc.

Benefits:

Engages community

Increases your visibility

Increases links back to your blog/Web site

Getting Started: Write

Find the right blogging software for you

WordPress, Typepad

Get your own domain (blog.yourcompany.com versus blog.wordpress.com)

Should allow for RSS/social media integration

Get analytics: Software should allow you to track:

Traffic

RSS/email subscriptions

Visitors, leads generated

SEO keyword rank

Create content that draws in target readers

Getting Started: Write (continued)

Establish a frequency (at least twice a week)

Topic ideas:

Ideas/trends

Lists

News

Commentary

Promote on social media sites:

Digg

StumbleUpon

Reddit

Facebook

Microblog:

A form of blogging in which posts are usually limited to 140 characters

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Microblogs

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Social Networks

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Social Networks    Crowd-Sourcing   Professional    Social   Recruitment   Personal Networking   Marketing  Private/Internal    Free Ning LinkedIn Facebook

Ning:

Password-protected

Internal audiences

Facebook:

Recruitment

Current/potential students

Marketing

LinkedIn:

Professional

Manage personal contacts/groups

Targeted marketing opportunities

Crowd-Sourcing

Social

Solicits ideas/participation

LinkedIn + Stakeholders

Create professional groups for different audiences

Share presentations using the SlideShare application

Promote clients/employees’ books using the Reading List application

Track what’s being Twittered about your brand via the Company Buzz app

Use LinkedIn Polls to deliver a co-branded poll to specific segments of LinkedIn audience

Disseminate proprietary research via the site’s whitepaper distribution program

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing: Enabling your customers to play an active role in creating a new product or service, or in some cases, solving a business challenge for your company.

Crowdsourcing + stakeholders:

Employees/Clients

Ideas for research/development

Inter-department collaboration

Event planning

Problem-Solving

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Crowdsourcing

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Video

Opportunities for using Web video:

Product demonstrations

Speeches/presentations

Virtual tours

Customer testimonials

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Video

Search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) use algorithms to “crawl” the Web for information based on a user’s keyword searches

Social media content can (and should) be optimized for search:

Tag keywords that are likely to be searched

Embed hyperlinks

Use keywords in URLs

Use multimedia content

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Search Engines

Free Keyword Recommendation Services

Google AdWords Keyword Tool: https: //adwords . google . com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Wordtracker Keywords: http: //freekeywords . wordtracker .com/

Microsoft adCenter Labs Keyword Forecast: http: //adlab .msn.com/Keyword-Forecast/

Trellian Search Term Suggestion Tool: http://www. keyworddiscovery .com/search.html

Google Suggest: http://www. google .com/support/bin/answer. py ?answer=106230&hl=en

Google Trends: www.google.com/trends

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Search Engines

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Monitoring

Like search engines, but for specific digital platforms

Helps identify the most influential individuals and audiences

Blogs:

Technorati

Google Blog Search

BlogPulse

Twitter:

TweetScan

TwitDir

TwitterSearch

TwitterVision

TweeterBoard

So many platforms, so little time

Organize your online activities via various aggregation tools that present info from all sites in one location

Lots of options:

RSS feeds: Google Alerts

iGoogle

FriendFeed

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Aggregators

Blogs: Corporate, personal

Microblogs: Twitter, Jaiku, Plurk

Wikis: Wikipedia, Plurk

Social Networks: Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Eons, LinkedIn, Flickr

Podcasts: iTunes, PodcastAlley, Podcast.com, PodcastDirectory, Podseek

Social Bookmarking: StumbleUpon, del.icio.us

Social News: Digg, Mixx, Reddit

Ratings: Yelp, epinions

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Summary

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Questions? Courtney Barnes [email_address] www.thinkcomllc.com

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications

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