Here's the presentation that JD Lasica, founder of Socialbrite.org, gave at the annual convention of the California State PTA in Anaheim on May 11, 2012. Topics covered include Facebook, Twitter, storytelling, Pinterest, Scoop.it, community strategies and more.

1. Communicating in
a networked world
Facebook, Twitter & more: Hoo boy!
JD Lasica
Founder, Socialbrite.org
jd@socialbrite.org
California State PTA 5/11/12

2. What we’ll cover today
Lay the foundation
Facebook tactics
Twitter tactics
Other platforms
Storytelling
Use your community
Q&A
Hugs, tearful goodbyes

3. Relax!
http://socialbrite.org/pta
Creative Commons
BY photo on Flickr
by Tom@HK

4. Today’s Twitter hashtag
Tweet this preso! Hashtag: #CAPTA12
(Thank you Brad Waller.) I’m @jdlasica
Creative Commons
photo on Flickr
by Prakhar

5. 10 color handouts—be happy!
http://socialbrite.org/pta

6. Socialbrite Sharing Center
http://socialbrite.org/sharing-center

7. Glossary for new terms
http://socialbrite.org/glossary
“ Social media:
Any online technology or practice that lets us share
(content, opinions, insights, experiences, media)
and have a conversation about the ideas we care about.
”

8. THE ECOSYSTEM
Types of social media
Blogs
Social networks
Microblogs (Twitter)
Online video
Curation (Pinterest)
Widgets
Photo sharing
Podcasts
Virtual worlds
Wikis
Social bookmarking
Forums
Presentation sharing

9. Staggering growth
77% of online US adults use social media on regular basis.
150 million active blogs; 1 million blog posts created per day
Social sites embedded atop traffic rankings: YouTube,
Facebook, Wikipedia, VEVO, Craigslist, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yelp
Twitter: 100+ million active users, 250 million tweets per day
Flickr: 35 million people, 4 billion+ photos
YouTube: 3 billion videos watched per day
8 trillion text messages sent in 2011

10. N AT I O N A L P TA
Put social media to work
Communications among members
of the PTA family have undergone a
major revolution. PTA leaders,
members, and others interested in
education and child welfare can
connect and mobilize through online
social media.

11. Why use social media?
1. Enhance educational experience at your school
2. Promote your PTA, school or school district
3. Involve the community in decision-making
4. Feedback loop with community
5. Enlist volunteers
6. Build online community of supporters
7. Raise funds for a cause or campaign
8. Get people to attend your events
9. Enhance existing communications programs
10. Connect with peers at other PTAs

12. L AY T H E G R O U N D W O R K
Before you plunge in ...
Understand that social media is a series of stages
Do you have buy-in from top management?
Do you have a social media policy that addresses privacy?
Do you have a Social Media Action Plan in place?
Are you listening to your community?
Have you built a program before you turn to a campaign?
Have you identified and trained your team members? Do
they have the capacity to keep it up?
Have you done outreach to head teachers/influencers?

13. Start with an Action Plan
Spell out goals: What do you
want to achieve?
Who are you trying to reach?
What are the best tools for
the job?
Who’s going to do it?
Metrics: How do you know
if it’s working?
What are those other guys
doing?

14. L AY T H E G R O U N D W O R K
Possible channels for your plan
Newsletter (print, online), email updates
Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube, live streaming
Calendar of events
Campaigns (legislative, fundraising)
Curation: Storify, Scoop.it, CoverItLive

15. Create a listening post
Set up a listening post
(monitoring dashboard)
to track what’s being
said about your
organization. Listen
before engaging.
Engage before an Ask.
Supplement with a social
media dashboard.
Monitoring resources:
socialbrite.org/pta

16. SOCIAL MEDIA DASHBOARDS
Pace yourself, don’t stress!
HootSuite ThinkUp
Tweetdeck Netvibes
Crowdbooster Salsa
roundup:
Spredfast http://bit.ly/smdash

17. FACEBOOK
Facebook: The social network
900 million members worldwide —
76% of US Internet users are on Facebook
900
600
300
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009 0
2010
2011
Today
Facebook’s global growth rate, 2004-2012, in millions

18. Why do Facebook?
Remind parents of upcoming events.
Answer questions from parents & public.
Solicit feedback on events & programs.
Build community among parents.
Enlist volunteers.
Mobilize parents on legislative issues.
Educate parents on how the PTA benefits the school.
Discuss news & important issues. Tons of public education
officials are on Facebook & Twitter.

19. Setting up a Facebook page
Assign responsibilities, share tasks, appoint admins
Find some good photos of your school or students for the cover
image
Use school logo as your profile pic
Fill in profile info, including links to
school website
Create a friendly url:
facebook.com/LincolnElementaryPTA
Get traction before you publicize
Cross-promote in other channels
Monitor updates, comments on your page
Use Facebook Insights to recalibrate, set up auto-email

20. Get into those news feeds!
Facebook rewards conversation, punishes ‘bullhorn updates’
http://bit.ly/edgerank-checker

21. KEYS TO SUCCESS ON FACEBOOK
Use a cover image
Don’t do this:

22. Rotate your Timeline

23. Try to foster engagement

24. Add photos to your posts

25. How to succeed on Facebook
Update 1 to 2 times a day, more during events.
Be interesting. Use photos & video.
Share posts you spot elsewhere.
Answer or Like all comments.
Ask questions, stoke conversations.
Create Events pages, invite people.
Rotate your Timeline.
Post polls.
Be civil. Almost never delete negative posts.
Cross-promote your Facebook Page in other channels/sites.
Link to your blog, videos, Flickr pages.

26. Aligned, integrated, strategic
Include social media logos on your PTA website

27. Public figure pages

28. Give your content a social life
Conversation, not marketing

29. HIKI NO
Highlight student news

30. TWITTER
Getting set up on Twitter
Identify your Twitter team
Name the account the school name
+ PTA but keep it short
Make your Twitter profile keyword rich,
include a link to your Facebook page
Use the school logo as the profile image
For gosh sake, use a unique background image
For gosh sake, don’t make it private
Find parents or staffers who use Twitter & follow them.
Brand your newsletters, emails, flyers with your Twitter url

31. TWITTER
Make Twitter work for you
Staff should be trained on how to use Twitter.
Not a broadcasting medium.
Start by listening & observing.
Be conversational, not officious.
Tweet several times a day.
Use it to solicit ideas, show support
for students, announce events, mobilize action, educate public &
students about current events, point to articles, identify experts.
#1 traffic driver: retweets. Use ‘Please RT’ strategically.
Tweets with a URL are 3x more likely to be retweeted.
Twitter drives 4%+ of traffic to NY Times, 12% to AOL, Yahoo.

32. See how other PTAs use Twitter

33. JD’s 60-30-10 Twitter rule
60% retweets, pointing
to value, sharing other
voices
30% responding,
connecting
10% promoting,
announcing

34. Prospecting on Twitter
http://search.twitter.com

35. Search by location
Twitter Advanced Search

36. Tweeting about PTA in LA

37. C U R AT I O N T O O L S
Pinterest

38. C U R AT I O N T O O L S
Scoop.it

39. LINKEDIN
LinkedIn for nonprofits
http://learn.linkedin.com/nonprofits/
Get found in Google search. Integrate keywords into your
organization profile.
Recruit staff or board members.
Host fundraising events.
Create community vibrancy.
Generate viral awareness.
Find connections & expert advice through Groups.

40. C O N T E N T & C O N V E R S AT I O N
The power of storytelling
Awareness > Influence > Action > Impact
Cave drawing, Lascaux, France, 17,000 years ago

41. STORYTELLING
Create lightweight media
Don’t look now but you’re a content creator! Using Animoto

42. Find your internal storytellers
List staffers’ skills
Who’s good at photos?
Video?
Writing?
Facebook or Twitter?
Create a Blog Squad
Who’s good at campaigns?
Open your blog to guest posts

43. USE YOUR COMMUNITY
Don’t do all the heavy lifting!
Creative Commons
photo on Flickr by
Jason Means
Don’t be like this guy!

44. Build community, not eyeballs
here’s an amazing
difference between building
an audience and building a
community. An audience
will watch you fall on a
sword. A community will fall
on a sword for you.
— Chris Brogan
Author, “Trust Agents”

45. Find your champions!
Find the big kahunas in your sector by using your listening
post. Then, influence the influencers.
Establish a rapport and only then reach out to try to convert
them into evangelists & ambassadors for your cause.
Scope out Twitter Lists that intersect with your organization
or social cause.
Connect with other social media influencers through their
blogs and other networks.

46. Use social love handles!
Generate an Attention Wave to socialize your campaign

47. The awesome power of free
Free content! Free resources!
Free photos Socialbrite.org/sharing-center
Free videos (eg, TED talks) Creativecommons.org
Free music & audio Techsoup
Free services! Free expertise!
Google Grants BarCamp
YouTube for Nonprofits PodCamp
Google Earth for Nonprofits WordCamp
Social Media
Free software & platforms! Club
WordPress & its plug-ins
Open Office, Google docs
Drupal, Joomla

48. flickr.com/creativecommons
Creativecommons.org
Rich source of free
commercial &
noncommercial images
Flickr: 220+ million
licenses
Use them for your blog,
website, email or print
newsletter, presentations,
etc.
Don’t just take. Share!

49. LIVE STREAMING
Community video
Video + chat =
engagement
Streaming video tools:
Livestream.com,
Ustream.tv and
Qik.com.
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, student journalism channel.

50. MOBILE
Create a mobile calling card
Text 'jdlasica' to 50500
Create your own at http://contxts.com

51. Is your site mobile-ready?
WPtouch Pro for mobile phones, Onswipe for iPad

52. Integrate social into the culture
Create teams of participants.
Knock down the silos.
Get people using the tools.
Use ‘reverse mentoring.’
Share monthly metrics reports.
Photo on Flickr by lanuiop
Provide evidence of how social
media moved the needle.
Shine a light on examples of
employees doing social media
well — reward best practices. Convert the skeptics

53. Key takeaways
Begin with an aligned strategy,
not with the tools.
Listen & measure! Evaluate,
iterate, relaunch.
Tell stories!
Use your community — your
biggest resource: your supporters!

54. Don’t settle for the status quo
If you do not change
direction, you may
end up where you
are heading.
— Lao Tse

55. Thank you!
JD Lasica, founder
Socialbrite: Social tools for social change
email: jd@socialbrite.org
Twitter: @jdlasica
@socialbrite
Tons of resources at
http://socialbrite.org/pta