Using Social Media to Reach Your Tribe - RoanokeOutside.com

Using Social Media to Brand the Outdoors

Agenda
What’s a brand
What’s a tribe
Using Social Media to connect people
Overview of Blogs, Twitter, and Facebook
If time permits we can actually create an account step-by-step

What is a Brand? Brand is the emotional an psychological relationship you have with your customers. Strong brands elicit thoughts, emotions, and sometimes physiological responses from customers. Examine the following logos: "A brand isn’t a brand to you until it develops an emotional connection with you."

What is a Brand? Logos are not brands, they are merely representations of brands. "...brands speak to the mind and heart" Benefits of a Brand Branding your organization yields both internal and external benefits. Externally, you create an identity that resonates with the community. Within the business, your brand serves as an internal compass of focus. If you clearly brand yourself, you have an understanding of what you are about.

The most visited National Park in the U.S.
The longest footpath in the U.S.
The 2nd largest municipal park in the U.S.
Mountain Bike trails ranked in Top 5 according to Resort Sports Network TV
Over 100 miles of trails exist within the city limits alone
Four State Parks
Four large lakes ideal for boating, fishing, and water sports
Two major rivers, the James and the New
World-class fishing can be found on the region’s numerous stocked streams and lakes
Whether it is mountain or road biking, hiking or camping, bass or fly fishing, wakeboarding or water skiing, greenways or blueways, climbing or caving, or whitewater or flat water, Roanoke has your outdoor desires covered - Pick your passion and GET OUTSIDE!

Who’s Telling Your Story?
Social Media is new form of Public Relations
Engage your community…using Social Media
Quicker and easier adoption of new services, policies, etc.
Community support (advocacy) for new initiatives
Immediate feedback on issues
Direction on what issues are most important to general population
Direction on how to promote community, and attract future residents and businesses

Who’s Telling Your Story? Engage your community…using Social Media Leverage word-of-mouth-marketing by using social media

Who Are You Talking To?

What is a “Tribe”?

What is a “Tribe”?
A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea that inspires their passion. Human beings have a need to belong, "to be part of a tribe, to contribute to (and take from) a group of like-minded people. People are drawn to leaders and to their ideas, and we can't resist the rush of belonging and the thrill of the new.

The marketplace is rewarding organizations and individuals who change things and create remarkable products and services
For the first time ever, everyone in an organization – not just the boss – is expected to lead! Create a culture around your goal and involve others in that culture

It only takes two things to turn a group of people into a tribe:
1. A shared interest and 2. A way to communicate

Connecting Your Outdoor Tribe

Leverage Your Outdoor Tribe

What is Social Media? “ The online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video.” Source: Wikipedia

Reasons to Use Social Media
Evolution of traditional PR
Multiple lines of communication
Inexpensive
Reach various demographics
Increase search engine rankings
Real time interaction
Drive citizens to website
Communicate your message
Establish representative voice for community
If you don’t establish a voice, someone else will!
Crisis Management tool
Facebook 200+ Million Active Users (fastest growing Demo 30+) Twitter 32.1 million people

The Social Media Opportunity
The following groups spend 10+ hours weekly on social networking sites:
30-39 years = 45% 20-29 years = 40% 50-59 years = 39%
The potential benefit according to surveys of U.S. businesses:
81% of users reported that social media generated greater exposure
78% reported increased search engine rankings
62% reported that they had gained new partnerships
50% reported that they had generated qualified leads
A successful social media campaign must start by creating a plan of attack:
Engage in regular participation & consistent use. Encourage staff to participate
Commit to open networking by sharing information and contacts
Direct, honest communication is name of game
Turn conversations into relationships

The Basic Plan
Create a Blog
Create a Twitter Account
Create a Facebook Page or Group
Use all 3 to engage your Outdoor Tribe
Create open lines of communication
Leverage efforts by allowing Outdoor Tribe to disseminate your message
Cost: Just your time and effort

The Tools
Website - It all starts here!
Don’t have a good website? Don’t worry – use a blog!
The basis for all PR, branding, social media
Dynamic, functional, user friendly
The face…and often first impression…of your community
Content rich—to drive search engine results
Social Media Policy
Establishes best practices and procedures
Ensures that entire staff is on message
Empowers staff to be proactive
Positions social media as “means to engage” rather than “distraction”
Encourages community participation
Blog
Enable direct communication with and feedback from community
Can be monitored and managed by community staff
More personal and dynamic than typical website
Can be separate from or part of community website
Typically ties into overall marketing/PR strategy
Can allow comments from visitors; can monitor comments
Best used for sharing information of interest to or that specifically benefits targeted users
Twitter
Real time updates and communication
Reports news faster than traditional news outlets
Facebook
With over 200 million users it is the fastest and easiest way to communicate with the outdoor community

Blogs
Wordpress.com offers free, easy to use blog templates
Tumblr.com is another popular free blogging service
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWYi4_COZMU is a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up, add posts (content), add features, edit, and promote your blog
A blog is a type of website, usually maintained with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries, or posts, are commonly displayed in newest to oldest order. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Application: If you have an event and don’t have a dynamic website or the ability to add/edit content, you can post the details to your blog. This will give you a webpage specific to this event that you can then share via social media outlets. It also allows users to leave comments.

What is Twitter?
Think blogging, but on a micro level
Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other user’s updates.
You have 140 characters to say whatever it is you want to say
Happens in real-time
Send/Receive messages (tweets) from anywhere – via cell phone or computer
You can include links, pictures, and videos
Messages are leveraged

Power of Twitter
ESPN Affiliate
Provides content to 125 Resort TV channels
56 million viewers
Airs summer 2010
Rights to Video
Area Trails in Top 5

Key Twitter Terms
Following
To receive messages on Twitter, you follow other people and companies you’re interested in—which means you get their messages as they post (put another way, their messages show up in your incoming timeline on your Twitter home page). Conversely, people get your messages by following you.
Tweet
Users refer to an individual message as a tweet, as in, “Check out this tweet about our CEO dancing on the sidelines of the Phoenix Suns game.” People sometimes use it as a verb, too, as in, “I tweeted about the stimulus package this morning.” If “tweet” is hard for you to use with a straight face in a business context, try “twittering” as a verb instead. Alternatives include “post,” “message” and “update.”

Key Twitter Terms
@username
For companies, one of the most useful things about Twitter is that it lets you exchange public messages with individual users. Simply start a message with @username of the person you want to reach, like this:
“ @Bemerson good time mountain biking with you, let’s do Carvins next”
If Bemerson is following your account, your message will appear directly on his Twitter home page. (If he’s not following your account, your message will appear in his folder of @username mentions.) People who are following both you and Bemerson will also see the message on their Twitter home page. Finally, the message will appear in search results, and people who come to your Twitter home page will see it among the messages in your outgoing timeline.
Tip: On Twitter, @username automatically becomes a link to that person’s account—helping people discover each other on the system. Put another way: when you see an @username, you can always click through to that person’s Twitter page and learn whether you want to follow them.
To find the public messages that are directed to you (i.e., those that start with your @YourName) or that mention you (i.e., those that include your @YourName elsewhere in the tweet), head to your Twitter home page, and then on the right side of the screen, click the tab labeled your @YourName. For businesses, it’s a good idea to keep a close eye on incoming @mentions, because they’re often sent by customers or potential customers expecting a reply.
Tip: To reply easily from the Twitter website, mouse over a message, and then look on the right end for the “Reply arrow”. Click the arrow to start a new message addressed to the original user .

Key Twitter Terms
DM, or direct message
Direct messages—or DMs—are Twitter’s private messaging channel. These tweets appear on your home page under the Direct Messages tab, and if you’ve got email notifications turned on, you’ll also get an email message when somebody DMs you. DMs don’t appear in either person’s public timeline or in search results. No one but you can see your DMs.
The one tricky concept with DMs is that you can send them only to people who are following you. Conversely, you can receive them only from people you’re following.
You can easily send DMs from the Direct Messages tab by using the pull-down menu to choose a recipient and then typing in your note. To send a DM from your home page, start your message with “d username,” like this:
“ d Bemerson How about next Monday?
Tip: If you’re communicating with a customer about something potentially sensitive—including personal information, account numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, etc.—be sure to encourage them to DM or email you. As we mentioned earlier, @mentions are public, so anyone can see them.

Key Twitter Terms
RT, or retweet
To help share cool ideas via Twitter and to give a shout-out to people you respect, you can repost their messages and give them credit. People call that retweeting (or RT), and it usually looks something like this: “RT @Username: Original message, often with a link.” Retweeting is common, and it’s a form of conversation on Twitter. It’s also a powerful way to spread messages and ideas across Twitter quickly. So when you do it, you’re engaging in a way people recognize and usually like—making it a good way to connect.
Hashtag (#)
Twitter messages don’t have a field where you can categorize them. So people have created the hashtag—which is just the # symbol followed by a term describing or naming the topic—that you add to a post as a way of saying, “This message is about the same thing as other messages from other people who include the same hashtag.” Then, when somebody searches for that hashtag, they’ll get all of the related messages.
For instance, let’s say you post, “Voted sixty times in tonight’s showdown. #AmericanIdol.” Your message would then be part of Twitter search results for “#AmericanIdol,” and if enough people use the same hashtag at once, the term will appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.
Companies often use hashtags as part of a product launch (like #FordFiesta), and conferences and events frequently have hashtags associated with them (like #VRPS).
Shortened URLs
With just 140 characters at your disposal, Twitter doesn’t give you much room to include URL links—some of which are longer than 140 characters themselves. If you post a link on Twitter via the website, sometimes we automatically shorten the URL for you. There are also a number of services—URL shorteners—that take regular links and shrink them down to a manageable length for tweets, and some even let you track clicks.

Create A Twitter Account
Go to Twitter.com and “Sign up now”
In Full Name – enter official name
In Username – enter short “screen name”. This will be what you are know as: ex. @Roanoke_Outside
Email - If you have a Yahoo, Gmail, or AOL email address use that for registration purpose – you can change it later. The registration process will give you an option to access your address book to see which of your friends are already using Twitter
The next window had boxes checked for you to automatically follow – uncheck if you don’t want to follow these people
You are now set up with a Twitter Account

Customize Your Twitter
Click on “settings”
You can always change your username here
Add a website
Make sure you put your city, state, zip in the location
Do not check the box “protect my tweets”
Click on “devices” if you plan to use your mobile phone
Click on “pictures” and upload an image.

Find People to Follow
Go to www.search.twitter.com
In the search field enter: near:24011 within:25mi
Replace with your zip code and extend radius if desired
The search results will include all Tweeters that are based within your area
Click on each user name and their Twitter page will open
Click “Follow”
Repeat steps many times over
If you find a local Twitter who has lots of followers go to their page and repeat the above process by clicking on the pictures on their page of their followers
Go to www.tweetva.com and find a list of Tweeters in your area
Go to www.mrtweet.com , register and you will receive recommendations on people to follow
Go to www.wefollow.com and at the top you will see “Enter a Tag”. Enter relevant key words and follow the results
Keep adding people to follow otherwise it will be boring
For the most part – always follow back
Visit pages of people who follow you and check out their followers to see if you want to follow them – remember you are trying to leverage your messages

Send Your First Tweet
For the most part, try to include a link in your tweet (hence the usefulness of a blog)
Copy the URL from the desired website
Visit www.bit.ly (bookmark this page)

Copy the shortened bit.ly URL
Return to Twitter Home Page and paste shortened URL into message box and add your message

Before you send (update) your Tweet make sure you have some key words in your message. This is how other people will find your message.
If your message doesn’t allow you to incorporate all the key words you’d like to include you can still add them by including a Hashtag
Hashtags are denoted with a # before the key word (ex. #roanoke). Learn more at www.hashtags.org
My tweets always include the city and if I want to reach people outside of my area I include other popular hashtags (ex. #marathon)
People can set up RSS feeds for and/or search for key words and by including key words and hashtags you are more likely to be found

Facebook
There are many schools of thought on how to best utilize Facebook all of which center around openly sharing information, whether it is yours or not.
Empower staff to share information on personal Facebook pages, but do ensure they understand that everything on Facebook is public and they should always represent themselves in a professional manner
Create a Facebook profile for your organization to create brand identity
Group page vs. Fan Page:
If you have the resources and manpower to dedicate a lot of time to social media then a Fan Page offers more tools such as RSS feeds, customization, and more
However, people are more likely to join Group pages

Group Page vs. Fan Page

Posting to Facebook
Post events to Facebook in two simple ways (there are plenty more):
In your Group or Fan page create an event
Invite Fans or Facebook friends to attend the event - this engages your community
Share the event specific URL via Twitter too (use bit.ly)
Take your Twitter/Blog bit.ly URL and share it on Facebook via the “what’s on your mind” status update. Paste the link in and it will look something like this:

Like, Comment, & Share
The “Like”, “Comment” and “Share” features on Facebook are three good ways to monitor your posts, but more importantly to help spread the word of your events as well as other events that your Tribe would find interesting and relevant.
If you don’t want to leave a comment just click on the “like” button
If you feel inclined leave a comment. By doing one of these options you are essentially subscribing to any future comments other people may make about this particular posting
If you really like the posting and what all of your friends/fans to know about it click on the “share” button.

Golden Rules
Don’t be self-centered
Reciprocate
When in doubt don’t RT on Twitter – don’t contribute to overload. Don’t tweet to much and don’t tweet too little
If someone follows you, and they aren’t a spammer, follow them back
If someone mentions you, thank them
Promote all things relevant to your tribe – not just your stuff

Action Steps
Step 1: Create blog post of event
Step 2: Copy blog post url into bit.ly and name
Step 3: Use bit.ly url to tweet - use hashtags
Step 4: Use bit.ly url to “share” in FB
Step 5: Ask staff to post too
Step 6: Engage your tribe – ask questions, ask for feedback, provide contests, ask them to help spread the word, etc.
Step 7: Repeat often
* Consider including a weekly or bi-weekly email newsletter

The Outcome is a 2-way Street
Transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal and desire for improvement;
Providing tools to allow tribe members to effectively communicate; and
Leveraging the tribe to allow it to grow and gain new members

Tools for When you’re Ready!
www.tweetdeck.com makes Twitter userfriendly
www.cotweet.com offers many great tools but also allows multiple people to share one Twiiter account – allows you to leverage your efforts and efficiency. Does not allow you to create groups. But does allow you to integrate bit.ly for tracking purposes
www.hootsuite.com is very similar o Cotweet but it does allow you to form groups, however it does not integrate bit.ly.
Tweetdeck.com or Twitterberry for your cell phone
www.twitpic.com allows you to add pictures to your tweets. Tweetdeck has this built in. You can also take pictures on your cell phone and upload directly into Twitter
www.twilerts.com and www.tweetbeep.com allow you set up notifications for when anyone mentions your key words – you’ll receive an email
http://beta.twiddeo.com/ allows you to add videos to your tweets
http://twitter.polldaddy.com/ allows you to make a poll and send to your followers
http://mashable.com/ is a great resource for all social media
http://www.facebook.com/share_options.php is a neat feature you add to your web browser – surf to the page you want to share on Facebook and simply click this button
Learn all about RSS Feeds - http://www.whatisrss.com/
Customize your Twitter background image - http://twittergallery.com/. Or learn how to make your own truly customized background image - http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/04/29/how-to-create-your-own-twitter-background/

Using Social Media to Reach Your Tribe - RoanokeOutside.com

by RoanokeOutside.com on Sep 14, 2009

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Using Social Media to Reach Your Tribe - RoanokeOutside.com — Presentation Transcript