Social Media Workshop Notes

Introduction to social media
@Becky_Slack
@SlackComms
www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

Agenda
Strategy essentials I Tools I Exercises

What do I know?
Introduction to social media:
Strategy basics
Social media:
What is social media?
Answer in 140 characters please

What is social media?
Social media: interactions among people in which they create,

share and exchange information and ideas in virtual
communities and networks (138 characters)

Why use social media?

- Find donors and volunteers
- Demonstrate your expertise and authority in a particular field
- Lobby and campaign for change
- Raise awareness of your organisation and its work/cause
- Provide information, services and support to people
- Anything else?
Why is this important?

Who are you talking to?

Your audience
Why is audience important?

Picture credits: Variety club, HDIO, Marie Curie

What do you need to know about your audience?
- Demographics (age, gender, location)

- Why are these people important to you?
- Why might you be important to them?
- What do you want them to do with the information and stories you post?
- Any other considerations?
How might this effect the content

you post on social media?

What do you want people to know?

(otherwise known as your key messages)

Key messages
- The heart of all your communications
- Tell people what they really need to know
- Explain your reason for being
- Be jargon free
- Contain details of the work you are doing and why
- Be backed up by key facts or figures
- Tailored to your target audience
- A call to action is also important
- Between 3 and 5 key messages is the ideal
- MOST IMPORTANTLY, THEY NEED TO BE MEMORABLE!

Shelter’s key messages

- Every 11 minutes a family in Britain loses their home
- Sky-high fees and rents, cuts to housing benefit and poor conditions make
life a misery for England’s nine million renters
- We need to build more affordable homes to solve the housing shortage
- We’re here so no one has to fight bad housing or homelessness on their own.

How to use key messages across

different online channels
Shelter: We need more affordable homes.
Key messages: Facebook

Shelter:
We need more
affordable homes.
Key messages: Twitter

Shelter:
We need more
affordable homes.
Key messages: blog

Shelter:
We need more
affordable homes.
Exercise no 1:
What do you want to use SM for?
Who are you talking to?
What do you want them to know/do?

Which tools to use and why?
Available channels
Twitter Google + Periscope Comment boxes

Facebook Vine Merekat Four Square
LinkedIn Pinterest Blogs Vimeo
YouTube Tumblr Instagram Flikr
Feed Thumb Yammer Rebel Mouse…

How popular is social media?

• 1.2bn people worldwide interact with social networks
• 82% of the global internet population
• 500m tweets posted a day
• 2m blog posts published a day
• 3.2bn Facebook interactions a day

Sources: ComScore; Twitter; Technorati; Facebook
The biggest social networks

• Facebook (1.2 billion active users)
• Twitter (500 million users - 215 million active users)
• Google+ (300 million active users)
• LinkedIn (259 million users)
Today we are to focus on Twitter and Facebook

The newsroom
Savvy charities will be monitoring journos’ requests for case studies

The marketing campaign
Don’t give up. Keep trying. The more traction something gets on social media, the
more likely the mainstream media will pick it up.
The fundraising campaign
Social networking can give an organisation amazing reach and

introduce a cause to many new audiences around the world
Other uses…
• To demonstrate impact, expertise & accountability

• To crowdsource
• To recruit talent
• To taste test
• To observe and research
• To share other people’s content

The
Twitter
Audit:
Twitter
Twitter I Overview
“Find out what’s happening right now, with people and
organisations you care about”
•500m users
•215m + active users (every month)
•208 average number of followers per user
Twitter I The Fundamentals
•When you tweet, everybody can see what you’ve tweeted

•Twitter is not text messaging
•Thanks to Twitter search everybody can find what you’ve tweeted
•Thanks to Google cache it’s difficult to delete a tweet
•You don’t need to be a prolific tweeter to get value from Twitter
•Just because everyone can see your tweet, it doesn’t mean they have
Twitter I The Essentials
• @
• #hashtag
• RT
• MT
• DM
• Lists
• Favourite
• Increasing your followers
Twitter I Essentials
• @
• #hashtag
• RT
• MT
• DM
• Lists
• Favourite
Twitter I @
• Use it to talk to people (@BarackObama), companies

(@The AppleInc) and other organisations (@NSPCC)
• Use it to talk about people, companies or organisations
• @
• #hashtag
• RT
• MT
• DM
• Lists
• Favourite
Twitter I #hashtag
• To group tweets around a:

- Topic (e.g. #ArabSpring, #impact #fundraising)
- Event (e.g. #IFC2015, #LondonMarathon)
- Theme (e.g. #FactsAboutMe, #FailedDrWhoMonsters
• To follow a theme / topic / event

• For emphasis
• For effect/humour
Twitter I #hashtag – what not to do
•Be careful of which # you use


•Don’t hijack other #
•Don’t overdo it
• @
• #hashtag
• RT
• MT
• DM
• Lists
• Favourite
Twitter I RT
•= Retweet
•Share someone else’s message
•To endorse it (or ridicule it)
•Manual RTs better than automated retweet
• @
• #hashtag
• RT
• MT
• DM
• Lists
• Favourite
Twitter I MT
• = Modified tweet
• Why? To make space
• @
• #hashtag
• RT
• MT
• DM
• Lists
• Favourite
Twitter I DM
• = Direct message
• Private message
• They must have opted to receive DM from anyone
• If not, you can only DM if you both follow each other
• Alerted via email or via box in top left corner
• @
• #hashtag
• RT
• MT
• DM
• Lists
• Favourite
Twitter I lists
•Group favourite tweeps

•Around subject (e.g. animal charities)
•Around profession (e.g. home affairs journalists
•Subscribe to other people’s lists
•Share your own
•Can be public or private
• @
• #hashtag
• RT
• MT
• DM
• h/t
• Lists
• Favourite
Twitter I Favourite
• Lets the original poster know you liked their tweet

• Allows you to save it for later
• @
• #hashtag
• RT
• MT
• DM
• h/t
• Lists
• Favourite
Twitter I Increasing your followers

•The more you tweet, the more will follow you
•The more people you follow, the more will follow you…
•…but don’t overdo it
•Follow the right people
•Don’t just broadcast; share and engage
•Tweet at peak times
•Promote your Twitter account across other channels
•Be interesting!
Exercise no 2
What type of content would

make a good tweet?
- At least 5 ideas
- Think about how to get your tweet being RTd
- Think about how to encourage people to click on a link
to find out more
The Audit:
Facebook
Twitter
Facebook I Overview
Connect with friends and the world around you on

Facebook
• 1.2bn active users per month

• 728m active users (every day)
• 36 average number of posts per Facebook page per
month
Facebook I Essentials
• Follow
• Pages
• Follow Button
• Interest Lists
• Understanding EdgeRank
Facebook I Follow
• Share publicly
(not just with friends)
• Share photos, analysis, links
• Follow others
Facebook I Page
• Promote your organisation

• Share photos, analysis, links
• Encourage likes, sign ups etc
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/follow-button
• Readers can follow you direct from your site

• Use embed code, or
• Plugin for WordPress
Facebook I Interest Lists
•Organise sources around

subjects / topics
•Easier to follow
•Create your own or follow
others’ lists
Facebook I EdgeRank
An algorithm Facebook uses to determine which posts

appear, in what position, on an individual’s news feed.
It is based on:
•Affinity
•Weight
•Time Decay
(among other metrics)
1. Affinity
• Relationship between viewer and creator

• Closer the relationship > higher score > greater priority
• Note: the viewer needs to interact with you
Facebook I EdgeRank
2. Weight
• Different content types carry different weight

- photos / videos
- links
- Plain text updates
• Note: status update with lots of comments STILL better

than image with no engagement
• Note: new features likely to carry greater weight
Facebook I EdgeRank
3. Time decay
• Older posts will lose value to keep things fresh
• Note: if Facebook user only logs in once a week, likely
to see older posts
Facebook I EdgeRank
Why EdgeRank matters
•27% of time spent on Facebook is spent scrolling through

news feed
•Company pages have less impact: 96% of fans don’t

return to brand page a second time
Facebook I EdgeRank
How to improve your EdgeRank
•Keep it short. Posts between 100 and 250 characters get 60% more likes,
comments and shares than those over 250 characters
•Be visual
•Ask a question. Opinion-drive question will generate 90% more engagement
than average update
•Post daily
•Be relevant but not pushy. Content related to your area of expertise works better
than blatant advertising
•Be timely. Experiment
•Use advertising: it’s the only way for you to get in front of users who haven’t
already ‘liked’ you
Exercise no 4:
Come up with 3 different strategies to

get your Facebook page ‘liked’ by users
The Audit:
Managing your feeds
Twitter
When to post?
Online consumption habits are changing…

When to post
•When your audience is online

•When your audience is most receptive
•Don’t forget mornings and evenings
•Don’t forget weekends
•Don’t forget time zones
•Don’t be ashamed to share more than once
•Make the most of tools such as hootsuite.com to help you
schedule and manage multiple platforms
Digital – challenges?
No control
The public will let the world know if

they are not happy with a service
It is likely thousands of people will

know if something's wrong before
the organisation will
Possibility of getting it very wrong
Time consuming to manage

Digital – opportunities?
Global audience
Free (or very cheap)
Enables fast response
Find new ideas and supporters
Develop and strengthen relationships with supporters via conversation
Possibility of getting it very right (or others doing so on your behalf)

The Audit:
A few case studies
Twitter
Unexpected storytelling
“I started off doing some boring posts, very safe… and then I came across
thousands and thousands of remarkable photos in our digital archives, and
not just of containers but of our ships and the oceans they cross…
I realised there are so many untold stories – and wonderful untold stories – in
that old company and that those stories would have a broad appeal because
Maersk is a truly global company”
Jonathan Wichmann, social media leader, Maersk
* 2.27m followers on Facebook

Colour and comedy



The creative
• Jack Draws Anything
• Aimed to raise £100 for Sick Kids Friends Foundation
• Shared his talents on justgiving
• Completed more than 500 drawings
• Raised more than £60,000
• Own website, YouTube videos and thousands of Facebook fans

The cross-channel
• June 2012 – Nov 2012
• Aimed to raise £1m; actually raised £2.25m
• Every £1 donated by public, government donated £1
The Big Dig: Instagram played a key role

The Big Dig: Regular blogs and video

The Big Dig: Follow the story week by week

Important!
“We need to stop interrupting what

people are interested in and be what
people are interested in”
Craig Davis, chief creative officer,
J Walter Thompson

General rule of thumb
Give, give, ask

not
Ask, ask, ask

What’s your story?
• The need – people in particular circumstances, with illness etc

• The solution – people you have supported and how
• The science
• Life on the front line
• Volunteer experiences
• Fundraising experiences
• Government policy
• Sector developments
• Anything else?

To recap
• Social media needs to fit into your wider comms strategy
• Keep your audience in mind at all times
• Post daily – use tools such as Hootsuite to help you
• Share, exchange, converse – this isn’t a broadcast tool
• Be interesting (give, give, ask)

• Track what you’re doing and the stuff that works best – do more
of!
Any questions?
Slack Communications
We help organisations tell their stories
Comms audits Social media

Comms strategies Video
Website design Audio (podcasting)
Website content Photography
Magazines Photofilms
Newsletters Events
Reports Media training
Fundraising Speech writing
PR Award entries
Becky Slack I managing director

07854 221 568 I [email protected]
@SlackComms I @Becky_Slack
www.slackcommunications.co.uk

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Introduction to social media

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

Strategy essentials I Tools I Exercises

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

What is social media?

Answer in 140 characters please

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

What is social media?

Social media: interactions among people in which they create,

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

Why use social media?

Why is this important?

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

Who are you talking to?

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

Why is audience important?

Picture credits: Variety club, HDIO, Marie Curie

What do you need to know about your audience?

- Demographics (age, gender, location)

How might this effect the content

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

What do you want people to know?

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

Shelter’s key messages

- We need to build more affordable homes to solve the housing shortage

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

How to use key messages across

Key messages: Facebook

Key messages: Twitter

Key messages: blog

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

Twitter Google + Periscope Comment boxes

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

How popular is social media?

• 82% of the global internet population

• 500m tweets posted a day

• 2m blog posts published a day

• 3.2bn Facebook interactions a day

The biggest social networks

• Twitter (500 million users - 215 million active users)

• Google+ (300 million active users)

• LinkedIn (259 million users)

Today we are to focus on Twitter and Facebook

Savvy charities will be monitoring journos’ requests for case studies

The marketing campaign

The fundraising campaign

Social networking can give an organisation amazing reach and

• To demonstrate impact, expertise & accountability

www.slackcommunications.co.uk @Becky_Slack @SlackComms

Twitter I The Fundamentals

•When you tweet, everybody can see what you’ve tweeted

• Use it to talk to people (@BarackObama), companies

• To group tweets around a:

• To follow a theme / topic / event

Twitter I #hashtag – what not to do

•Be careful of which # you use

Twitter I #hashtag – what not to do

Twitter I #hashtag – what not to do