These are slides from an online webinar held for associates of the CUNY School of Professional Studies. The purpose of the online lecture was to assist individuals and organizations struggling with adding a social media campaign to their marketing strategy.

1. Leveraging
Social Media
To Develop your Personal and Professional Brand

2. • 25+ years experience working in the fields of
Technology, Digital Media, and Higher
Education.
• I earned a M.P.S. in Interactive
Telecommunications from the NYU Tisch
School of the Arts.
– Concentrations in:
• web design and development
• video and audio production
• project management
• digital publishing
• e-commerce strategies
• gaming theory and design
• online communities (social media)
• Managed the deployment of programs and
initiatives for companies such as MetLife,
Century 21, ADP, Bankers Trust, Suze Orman
Inc., and the City University of New York.
About Me
James Richardson
Academic Director
Communication and Media Program

3. • What is Social Media
• Developing a strategy
– Defining your goals
– Identifying & selecting
the platforms
– Finding your voice
– Developing content
– Setting a publishing
schedule
• Monitoring and engaging
• Measuring success
Today’s Agenda

4. What is Social Media
Social Media is a collection of online
spaces, technologies and practices that
enable people and organizations to
share opinions, insights, experiences,
and perspectives with each other.
In nearly every case, user participation
and user-generated content are at the
core of these social networking sites.
Each platform is different and caters to
different demographics.

5. Ask yourself:
• What are the goals and objectives for
being on social media?
• Are your goals specific, measureable,
and realistic?
• Who is your audience?
• What do you know about them?
• Based on your goals, what social
media platforms are best?
Developing a Social Media Strategy

6. Social Media Platforms
Facebook posting objective
Foster relationships, or build advocacy,
by posting content to engage your
network on topics that relate to the
community’s every day life, wants, and
needs.
Content should be conversational and
humanizing since Facebook networks
are generally more personal.
**Facebook Tip**
Limit who can post directly to your timeline.

7. YouTube posting objective
Develop short form video content to
inform, entertain, or promote ideas,
products, or services.
The video content should be
engaging and visual in order to keep
the attention of your audience.
According to Adweek, the average
duration of the most popular YouTube
videos are just about 3 minutes in
length.

8. Google+ posting objective
Best used for to boost Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) via cross listing
content from your other social media
channels and blogs.
In addition to cross listing content,
set the site preferences to
automatically link your YouTube
account videos for increased visibility
and promotion.

9. Twitter posting objective
Best used for posting relevant news
and information which benefits your
personal brand in a way that
provokes positive engagement from
followers and potential fans that
match your personal social media
strategy.

10. Instagram posting objective
Best used for posting visually
compelling imagery that relates to
your audience and drives a positive
affinity for your message. Photos
should be interesting and provide
authenticity for your personal brand.

11. LinkedIn posting objective
Best used for posting or linking
relevant content which pertains to
your industry and field.
Posts on LinkedIn should be of a
thoughtful and professional nature
that helps to present you as a leader
within your given field or industry.

12. Pinterest posting objective
This image sharing platform is best
used for posting or linking relevant
content which pertains to your
industry and field. The site is great
for driving traffic to other web
mediums.
Easy to pin and share content which
humanizes your brand in a way that
connects you to the interests and
passions of your audience. Works
well for specific categories.

13. Should you have a website or blog?
The short answer is yes. There are a
number of easy to update sites such as
Tumbler, Blogger, and WordPress which
can be created quickly.
• Blogs can create more visibility for your
personal brand while building a trust
relationship with your audience.
• They create a community and encourages
the audience to connect with you.
• They are a great focal point for tying
together all of your social media channels
for increased SEO.
• Tumbler is one of fastest growing
channels with 117 million unique visitors
in 2013.

14. Emerging Social Media Platforms
• Ello (https://www.ello.co) - The anti-Facebook social network. Ello’s
claim to fame is that they are an ad free alternative to the existing
social networks. They promise to never sell user data to advertisers or
third parties, never show advertisements, and to never implement a
real name policy. It uses a simple minimalist design that is very
different from its main competitor, Facebook.
• Snapchat (http://snapchat.com) - Messaging app where users can take
photos, videos, and texts to be sent to a controlled list of recipients.
These "Snaps“ are set specified time limit after which they will be
deleted from Snapchat's servers and the recipient's device.
• Vine (http://vine.co) – This short-form video sharing service, acquired
by Twitter, allows users to record six-second long video clips that are
shared to other peoples posts and their followers.

15. Emerging Social Media Platforms
• Medium (https://medium.com) – Similar to Twitter but designed to let users create
more meaningful content beyond the 140-character limit.
• Sulia (http://sulia.com) – Site content is organized into industry specific channels
which users tap into by indicating that they “trust” another user on a specific
topic.
• Learnist (http://learni.st) - Similar to Pinterest but for all types of content like
images, videos, articles and even webinars. Gain followers by creating boards
with a variety of topic-focused content, including blog posts, and articles.
• Pheed (https://www.pheed.com/) – Similar to Vine and Instagram. However
Pheed users share text updates, photos, videos and live broadcasts which users
can monetize via subscription fees.
• Thumb.it (http://thumb.it) - Crowdsourcing platform where users gather opinions
from other users on everything from what shirt to wear with those boots to
whether they’d buy a new tech gadget that’s currently in the design phase.

16. Social Media in
emerging markets
such as China and India

17. Developing your voice on Social Media
• Keep It Simple & Fresh
– Stay topical to align with current content and engagement.
• Be Conversational
– Having a conversational tone in your title and copy allows for
natural integration in news feed stories.
• Be Authentic
– Be straightforward about who you are and what you have to offer.
Transparency will gain you trust in your brand.
• Include Imagery
– Big, crisp, beautiful images or movies. Funny or moving. Share,
share, share.
• Add Incentives
– Who doesn’t love a prize? Consider incentives that will entice
users to engage with your channels.

18. When developing content ask yourself
• Is this something I would want on the cover of a magazine?
• Is this something I would want my mom, or my children to see?
• If it was in a commercial aired across the world, would I be proud?
• Does this go against my personal values or morals?
• If I was the subject of the content, would I want someone to post it about
me?

19. Get organized
Leverage tools like Hootsuite and Buffer that will allow
you to manage multiple social media channels.
Managing social media accounts can be overwhelming,
so it is important to create a publishing schedule that
helps you stay consistent. This means a detailed plan for
posting including day, time platform, text, and multimedia
assets.

20. Buffer
First, allows you to write content
at one time, choose which social
profiles to send them to, and
spreads them out throughout the
day or week so that you don't
have to schedule
Second, since they shorten your
links for you, they are able to
provide more analytics than if you
just were to post to Twitter or
Facebook directly.
For example, we can tell you
exactly how many folks clicked
on each of your links.
Additionally, allows direct photo posting to all platforms and can auto-schedule
RTs, replies, etc. on Twitter.

21. Hootsuite
Engagement- Schedule and
manage your social outreach.
Engage with people across all
your accounts on one dashboard.
Listening- Listen to your
audience and learn to create
content they love.
Analytics- Get all the data
about your social media outreach
and see it all on easy-to-read
reports.
Collaboration- Assign
messages, create workflows, and
streamline communications with
collaborators and clients.

22. Measuring tools
• Google Analytics gives you fresh insights into how visitors use your site,
how they arrived on your site, and how you can keep them coming back.
• Social Mention is like Google Alerts but for social media.
• Hoot Suite is a social media dashboard and a tool for managing social
networks.
• Go tweet is a tool to help you analyze your tweet activities.
• Facebook Insights provides Facebook Page admins with metrics on the
performance of their Page.
• Hyper Alerts is a feature for everybody who wants email reports of posts
and comments on a Facebook Page.
• Hashtag.org - This service is the defacto standard for hashtag information.
The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keyword or topic in a
Tweet.

23. Recap: The Social Media Cycle

24. Best Practices
POST ON WEEKENDS
Analytics shows that people are more active
on social channels on the weekends and
engagement peaks.
PROACTIVELY REACH OUT
Use social media to provide help when
someone needs assistance – even if it’s
simply letting them know you’re available.
Remember, everyone is watching you!
TAG APPROPRIATE PEOPLE &
PLACES
Create synergy between brands by
tagging/linking to partners, press, etc.
KEEP LEARNING
There is no such thing as a social
media expert.
USE HASHTAGS
Trending topics are a great way to increase
exposure and start conversing. Avoid
commenting on hot button topics that may
offend your followers.
INCLUDE A CALL TO ACTION
Asking your followers to take a specific action
(i.e., visit this link) or answer a question
yields more engagement– and better results.
USE PHOTOS
People engage more with compelling
images, so use them often. But make sure
the images don’t seem repetitive.
RESPOND
Engage with fans and followers

25. Thanks for listening
For more information on the Communication and Media Program
at the CUNY School of Professional Studies
Please visit:
http://sps.cuny.edu
Call:
212-652-CUNY
Write:
information@sps.cuny.edu
Feel free to contact me at:
james.richardson@cuny.edu
Visit my website:
http://www.jamesrichardson.net