Social media happens with or without an agency having a solid communications plan. Jumping in during an emergency is not advised. This presentation reviews steps to be taken before getting started or expanding social media use. The focus is on free/low-cost tools. This session includes a discussion of strategies for monitoring social media; how to review, compare, and contrast these tools. Using examples from one of the more popular tools available, it describes how to focus social media monitoring; search, keyword and hashtag monitoring. The presentation includes steps involved in evaluating these various tools, assisting in acquisition and use justification.

1. THE PROPER TOOL IS
EVERYTHING
Using and Evaluating Affordable Social Media Tools
Carol A Spencer, Stormzero LLC  Rebecca Williams, Your Net Working LLC  December 13, 2017

2. So much noise. So many tools.
A lot of noise…
A lot of tools…
If you’re using something that works, keep using it.
Don’t attempt “bleeding edge”. It may not last.
Disclaimer:
These are our choices, tools we’ve used and liked.
There are many other great tools not mentioned here.

3. • Publishing Information: Individual Social Channel Access
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogs and Widgets
• Advertising and Marketing: Inexpensively Expanding Your Reach
• Monitoring Social Media
• Facebook: Pages Feed, Team Members
• Tweetdeck: Post Productively, Team Members
• Tying it all Together: Social Media Dashboards
• Examples
• Hootsuite
• Evaluating Social Media Tools for Approval
• Other Tools by Function
Today’s Topics

4. • Scheduling posts is now available
• Facebook directly is not a good search or monitoring tool
• Searching a person’s timeline is possible, but difficult.
• Entity pages can’t be searched.
• Facebook has daily post limits.
• “Your daily post limit is calculated by Facebook based on the number
daily active people (DAP) who interact with your Facebook page.”
(hubspot)
• A reason to be active as much as possible outside of disasters.
• SafetyCheck: good tool, no local control over its launch by
Facebook
• Currently based on area population and how many people are talking
about an event. (https://www.facebook.com/about/safetycheck/)
• Community Help Hub
• Classified-ad style to offer or request goods or services
Individual Social Channel Access
Facebook

5. • Disaster Maps
• Develop an aggregate picture of an area after a disaster.
• Community Help API will create a dataset for nonprofits.
• Privacy concerns. For now, contact info won’t be shared.
• Community Help will at first be used for natural disasters and incidents
such as building fires, not for mass shootings or bombings.
• Facebook Live: good tool for local pressers
• Give a synopsis in your next post - as text - for those who have low
bandwidth.
• What’s coming? Tether-tenna, for example
• Facebook helicopter for disaster instant infrastructure
(https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/19/15358908/
facebook-helicopter-announced-emergency-internet-tether-tenna)
Individual Social Channel Access
Facebook

6. • Twitter info beats Facebook by 15 to 45 minutes. Critical in an
event
• Can’t schedule posts directly with Twitter personal account
• Requires a business account and a credit card to get this functionality
• Can search Twitter, but you cannot run a stream with specific
search criteria to monitor for certain terms during an event
• Twitter “Moments”
• Requires setup and choosing personal or private
Individual Social Channel Access
Twitter

7. • Because Instagram is owned by Facebook, advertising is through
Facebook advertising.
• But, Instagram advertising is more expensive than Facebook.
• Because Instagram is photo oriented, use a program like “Snag-it”
from Tech Smith to capture and save photos to post in advance
• For example, NOAA or NWS postings. Be careful of copyrights.
• Cannot auto-post Facebook -> Instagram.
Can auto-post, however, from Instagram -> FB.
• Another reason to use a social media dashboard.
• Instagram is searchable but only returns photos, no verbiage.
Individual Social Channel Access
Instagram

8. Individual Social Channel Access
Instagram Search

9. • Having a blog set up in advance is critical
• Twitter: 280 character limit, 2400 per day (retweets count); ½ hour
limits
• Facebook: 65K, but sweet spot is 2100 words; Daily Active People
(DAP) creates post limits.
• Instagram: 2200 character limit
• Not long enough or too long for emergency purposes
• BEST solution is short description with a link to a blog post
with details
• Free blog solutions: Blogger, Wordpress.com
• Examples: Road closures, shelter info, town specific updates
• Ideas: Create blog posts in advance for each town. Use date feature
to put them in alpha order.
• Update those posts during an event.
Individual Social Channel Access
Blogger, WordPress.com

10. Blogs and Widgets
Facebook Widgets

11. Blogs and Widgets
Twitter Widgets
• Twitter -> Settings and privacy ->
Widgets -> Create New
• Choose what you want to display
in your widget.
• Customize, copy code, embed
• Post once; use many places for
productivity
• Free tools to create widgets

12. Advertising & Marketing
Inexpensive Facebook Marketing & Boosting Posts

13. Advertising & Marketing
Boost Important Info

14. Advertising & Marketing
Inexpensively Expand Your Reach

15. Advertising & Marketing
Promote Your Page or Website Inexpensively

16. Advertising & Marketing
Monitor Ads for Performance

17. Advertising & Marketing
Reach: Paid & Organic
Paid
Organic

18. Advertising & Marketing
Monitoring Ads on Facebook
Know how to stop
an ad on Facebook.

19. Advertising & Marketing
Google is Your Friend
Know how to use
Google search to get
the results you need,
especially for tech
questions.

20. Advertising & Marketing
Advance Planning: Line up Re-posters
Take time to know who the active
posters are on your government
or local civic group pages on
Facebook.
Contact them in advance.

21. Advertising & Marketing
Advance Planning: Join Local Buy & Sell Sites

22. Monitoring Social Media
In General
Review the steps below often. Social networks change their layout and functionality
all the time. Monitoring page feeds is far different today than it was just 2 years ago.
• Document “how-to” and responsibilities for team members.
• Keep documentation updated.
• Facebook: “See Pages Feed” for posts to share.
• “Like” these pages in advance. For example, a county should “like”
all its municipal pages. Makes it easy to find and share posts in
an emergency.
• Twitter: Only follow those you want to monitor in an
emergency: neighboring municipalities, state police, NOAA.
• Do not follow everyone who follows you. That makes emergency
monitoring for retweeting extremely difficult and cumbersome.
• Use a dashboard.
• It’s far easier to hone in on exactly what you want to watch.

23. Monitoring Social Media
Facebook: Watch Your ‘Pages Feed’ for Info to Share

24. Monitoring Social Media
Facebook: Add Team Members
https://www.facebook.com/help/289207354498410
All team members must have their own personal Facebook account.

25. Monitoring Social Media
Twitter: Use Tweetdeck. It’s Free!
Advanced Features
https://support.twitter.com/articles/20170322#
• Reordering columns
• Scheduling Tweets
• Collections
• Search
• List management
• Embedded Tweets
• Mute keywords
• Mute accounts
• Tweets from a specific account
• Image search via Google
• Keyboard shortcuts

26. Monitoring Social Media
Tweetdeck

27. Team access is free
Account owner controls permissions levels:
admin, contributor
Up to 200 team members
Teams must use Tweetdeck, not Twitter
Monitoring Social Media
Productivity Features: Teams, Widgets, Filtered Streams
Custom timelines and search results;
Column filters
Under “Accounts”, add a confirmation
step to prevent errors
Stream custom timelines via widgets
on your website

28. Social Media Dashboards
Benefits
• No need to have a browser window open for each social network.
• One interface to learn. Training and support is easier.
• Team members:
• Consistency in data presentation
• Administrative restrictions on team member functions
• Each team member has his/her own password
• Search features enhance monitoring.
• Posting productivity:
• One message goes to multiple social streams with one click
• Auto-reposting of content. Especially important with Twitter.
• Scheduling posts:
• Example: preparedness messages scheduled to post while you’re in
meetings.

29. Social Media Dashboards
Manage Multiple Social Networks in a Single Application
• Hootsuite
• Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, Instagram, YouTube
• Free apps include: Wordpress.org, Flickr, Blogger, Vimeo, MailChimp,
ConstantContact,
Dropbox, Soundcloud, GetSatisfaction and more; plus Premium (fee) apps
• Schedule posts (all accounts); Calendar visualization of scheduled content
(paid accounts).
• Filter streams; Apply location to filtering; Autopost RSS feeds.
• Twitter Keyword, List, and Search term/query streams
• Teams (Business, Enterprise plans only)
• Analytics, Free account - three social networks, unlimited streams
• Sprout Social
• Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram
• 10, 15 or 20 social profiles – plan dependent
• Schedule posts; Twitter and Instagram search term, location and hashtag
monitoring streams
• More function with higher level accounts
• Analytics; No free account

30. Social Media Dashboards
Manage Multiple Social Networks in a Single Application
• AgoraPulse
• Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram
• Schedule posts, Teams ($39/member/month)
• Analytics, No free account
• Buffer
• Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram
• Buffer has posting limits of Facebook 25 posts/day, Twitter 730 posts/day
• Schedule posts (queue limited by plan), Teams ($10/member/month, paid
plans only)
• Analytics, Free account - one social network of each type except Pinterest
• Sendible
• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and
more.
• Publish directly to Wordpress, Blogger and Tumblr. Autopost RSS feeds.
• Schedule posts. Automated queues to auto-repeat content. Calendar
visualization of scheduled content.
• Post Planner, Edgar, Event specific apps like Everbridge

31. Social Media Dashboards
Hootsuite (Free version ~ 3 Social Networks)

32. Social Media Dashboards
Hootsuite Streams & Searches: Everything in one place

33. Social Media Dashboards
Hootsuite Streams & Searches: Everything in one place

34. Social Media Dashboards
Agorapulse (annual plans)

35. Social Media Dashboards
Hootsuite

36. Evaluating Social Media Tools
Budgeting & Justification
• Have a copy of your jurisdiction’s Communications Plan
• Know the number of team members that could be using the
tool at one time.
• Identify social channels to be monitored.
• Include everything.
• Don’t forget YouTube, Blogger, WordPress, email marketing tool.
• Make a list of “must have” functionality for the tool
• Make a list of “wish we could have” functionality
• Know purchasing rules
• Bid limits; quote limits; sole source; US purchasing requirements

37. Evaluating Social Media Tools
Budgeting & Justification
• Functionality list down the left column
• Social dashboard names across the top column
(or whatever type tool you are evaluating)
• Fill it out with x’s if a function exists
• Include a row or two for cost/user(s)
• Include a row for length of time the company has been in business
(Don’t invest time and training in a company that may disappear in a year.)
• Include a row with hyperlinks to vendor’s website
• Include a row with company location
• Keep this.
• Create a tab for each year.
• Update required functions based on past experience.

38. Evaluating Social Media Tools
Budgeting & Justification
Disclaimer:
This is not filled out
completely.
Lack of “X” does not mean
the product doesn’t
include the feature.
Chart for example only.
Create your own.

39. More Tools
Tools by Function
• Planning Tools
• Basecamp (not free; $100 / month)
• Evernote (free and fee versions)
• Noteshelf.net (iOS only) Interfaces with Evernote, Google Drive,
Dropbox $10
• Secure, Online Forms
• Wufoo.com (owned by Survey Monkey)
• Low cost drag and drop forms creation
• Forms can be embedded in Facebook, WordPress, websites.
• Links can be sent by mail, social media post.
• Can accept payments (donations) via Paypal or other payment processors.
• Confirmations can be sent to those filling out forms, including a copy of their data
• Notifications can be sent to multiple people so they can take appropriate action.
• Google Docs; Google Forms

40. More Tools
Tools by Function
• Neighborhood Apps (NextDoor)
• Email Lists
• MailChimp or ConstantContact
http://blog.capterra.com/mailchimp-vs-constant-contact/
• Nixle
• Design Tools
• Thunderpenny.com
• StaticHTML – free Facebook “tab”
creator.
• Use to embed text, including styles
• Use for commenting policies,
webpages, forms, coupons, etc.
• Synaptive.com: Hootsuite integration

41. More Tools
Training Tools
• Application-specific training from vendors
• Camtasia.
• Record over PPTs to create recorded training. $199
• FreeConferenceCall.com
• Audio-conference with up to 1000 people. Record the call.
• Video-conference with up to 1000 people. Record the meeting.
• Screen sharing. Drawing tools. Switch presenter and more. Perfect webinar
tool.
• Meeting wall tools include chatting, radio (stream over the internet), send
meeting invites, upload documents pre-meeting and more.
• Lynda.com
• Software development, Design, Business,
Web Development, Photography
• Annual subscription $240 for a single user
• YouTube.com
• Largest search engine after Google.

42. More Tools
Training Tools
• FEMA Online Training
• Most of it is free. 194 Courses.
• Introductory courses for the public in ICS (Incident Command System),
NIMS (National Incident Management System, All Hazards, NRF
(National Response Framework), CERT
• TEEX (Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service)
• Will come on-site.
• Excellent 2 day PIO training. (Public Information In An All-Hazards
Incident)

43. We hope you learned…
• About publishing information via single channels
• Why blogs are important tools during a disaster or emergency
• How widgets can help by posting once and publishing in many
locations
• How inexpensive advertising can exponentially extend info-reach
• Some new ways to monitor single social media channels
• Some new ways to find salient information to repost or retweet
• The benefits of using a social media dashboard
• How to evaluate social media tools for approval
• Interesting new tools to use when creating communication plans,
online forms, training, email blasts, and reaching neighborhoods

44. Contact Information
Carol A. Spencer
Stormzero, LLC
Cedar Creek, TX 78612
973-637-0483
Stormzero.com
carol@stormzero.com
Rebecca J. Williams
Your Net Working, LLC
Neosho, MO 64850
417-434-0379
YourNetWorking.net
rebecca@stormzero.com