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Reaching New Audiences
Using social media to connect online

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Today’s Discussion
What is Social Media?
Why Should I Care?
How Can I Use It?
What Next?

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What is Social Media
social interaction, conversation,
civic engagement, and multiple
media online
Many forms:
blogs, micro blogs, rss,
widgets, discussion boards,
wikis, podcasts, mashups,
social networks, so much more!

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What Social Media Isn’t
Something you create | A one-
way street | Broadcasting |
Heavily edited | As scary as it seems |
Threatening | Publishing | You
controlling all of the message (only
some of it) | You loosing control

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Why Should I Care?

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Your Audience is Waiting
The tools for communicating online are now easy
enough for anyone to use.

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Over
80%
of Americans
watch video
online

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There are
140 Million
Facebook Users
How many are in your community?

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60% of Americans
expect to interact with companies
via social media tools

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70%
of adults
use email
(But 75% of all email is spam)

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Why Bother?
•Social media enhances traditional media delivery
with diversity in opinion and reach.
•Social media fosters public dialogue and civic
engagement.
•Social media builds powerful links between people,
brands, and content.

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How can it work for me?
Content now drives the tools we choose

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for good
Twitter isn’t just a quirky site for techy types
@JohnMcCain vs @BarackObama
@Fox5NewsEdge vs @Statesman
@Starbucks vs @ComcastCares

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What Twitter users want you to know

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Facebook Fans
How can I use Facebook to connect and draw
from the community?
Outreach, promotion, research
Fan Pages
Finding the pulse of your community

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Tapping the Wisdom of Crowds
Other Outlets
HARO - Help a Reporter Out
37,000 sources
LinkedIn Answers
Live Example 1
Live Example 2

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What’s Next?

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Getting Started
The Strategy
Set goals for your social media outreach
What’s your audience like?
What resources are available to you (time, buy-in, commitment)?
How do I determine an ROI?
You can do a lot in a short amount of time

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Ready, Set, Go!
Getting Started
Stake your claim
It’s a land-grab! (remember, your audience is waiting)
Build confidence and workflows, introduce seed content
It takes time to build up followers, fans, and connections

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Top 5 Takeaways
Know your audience and know yourself.
Find online spaces -- like YouTube, Facebook or Twitter -- where people passionate
about similar content are already congregating. Create and populate social media
platforms with your message and your questions
Make time to connect with your users, both new and existing. It's important to
know you can do a lot with just a few minutes a day.
Don’t start a social media project just because you feel like you have to. Think of a
strategy that makes sense for you and your content.
Set realistic expectations for yourself. It takes time to do this well.

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Contact Info
Jonathan Coffman, Assoc. Product Manager, PBS Engage
Email: jonathan@jonathancoffman.com
Blog: http://www.jonathancoffman.com/blog
Twitter: @jdcoffman PBS Engage: http://www.pbs.org/engage