cospra 2014

TWEETINGBACK-TO-SCHOOL NIGHT

Engagement in the little thingsto bring success in the bigger things

Do you feel like this?

Or do you feel like this?

An account is just start

• Broadband use is increasing in American households, time spent online is increasing

• Millennials are becoming parents. They have different communication expectations.

• As social ecosystem explodes, it’s less predictable – teens are fleeing Facebook

• Communication is a moving target. It’s mobile.

Why bother?

“In many ways, teens represent the leading edge of mobile connectivity, and the patterns of their technology use often signal future changes in the adult population.”

— Mary Madden, Pew Center Internet Project

Build for teens, not adults

• Youth age 12-17, data from Pew Internet & American Life project– Mobile Devices

• 78% have a cellphone.

• 37% have a smartphone (was 23% in 2011). When you include iPod Touch, which has app ability, rate jumps past 60%

• 23% has some sort of tablet, about same as adults

– 95% of teens have some form of access to the Internet, including 93% who have a computer at home

Teens and the internet

• The functions of social media• Tools, engagement, and metrics• The payoff

3 Things

The Functions of Social Media

3. Amplify

3 Functions of Social Media

1. Create

2. Converse

Create

We’ll call this Level One. It’s what most of you already are doing with social.

•Written word•Photo•Short video•Content shared on other platforms (e.g. Instagram photos posted to Facebook page)•“Verticals” – pages for important events

Create

Converse

Conversation is more than just talking to your audience. It’s a signal you’re listening. It builds goodwill with all of your followers, not just the ones you’re addressing. It is crucial to engagement.

•Replying to questions your followers ask•Addressing issues brought out by feedback•Mining feedback in forms of Likes, Hearts, +1s, Favorites, etc. This is what resonates.

Converse

Amplify

It’s the hardest level to do well, and it can only happen if you have an engaged audience. Amplification solidifies your role as a curator, not controller of conversation. It also leads to more followers. People follow connectors, not preachers.

•Retweets•Reshares•Passing on others’ content, making users’ voice part of yours.

Amplify

Tools, engagement, and metrics

• Engagement’s three dimensions consist of people’s:– Cognitive response – thinking about the information– Personal or emotional connection – feeling the

information being shared matters– Action – doing something with the information

- Joy Mayer, University of Missouri

What is engagement?

• The general rule of thumb is to engage people by:– Educating them– Informing them– Entertaining them

- Joy Mayer, University of Missouri

How do we do engagement?

• Create hashtags for big events or moments, encourage use in your promotion (Twitter, Vine, Instagram)– Big football game (#BeatLafayette)

– Acceptance to college (#BASDcollege)

– General tags for conversation around issues in your school district (#BASD)

• Converse and amplify!– Reply to good content

– Answer questions

– Curate!

Practical ways to engage

• Facebook pages• Mine hashtags for content to promote• Storify

– “Human curation” tool. Collect content and create narratives.

– Can share those stories via a link, or embed them on your website.

• Rebel Mouse– “Robot curation” tool that automatically creates a type of

publication based on content you’re sharing directly or via retweets. Fully embeddable as well.

– Can create special pages for hashtags too

Assembling conversation

• Understanding what engagement is and how it’s done means we need to be able to measure success if we want to do it properly.

Data and metrics

Every view, share, response, and action is data you can use to figure how what content resonates and the best way to share it.

•Cognition– Traffic data – analyze by hour of the day

•Emotional Connection– What content is getting Likes, etc.?

•Action– Reshares, recommendations

Metrics

• Content is housed on your web site, but some of it is housed on social platforms as well

• You want data for views on social to the degree that exists only there

• Data needed for referrals if social is pointing the way to web content.

Measuring

• Google analytics for your content pages• Metrics not possible for your site?

– StumbleUpon links that offer free click analytics– Use bit.ly for services like Twitter; adding a “+” to a

bit.ly address offers basic analytics.

Free tools!

• Google analytics for your content pages• Metrics not possible for your site?

– StumbleUpon links that offer free click analytics– Use bit.ly for services like Twitter; adding a “+” to a

bit.ly address offers basic analytics.

• Facebook pages offer analytics around engagement on posts and clicks.

Free tools!

• Google analytics for your content pages• Metrics not possible for your site?

– StumbleUpon links that offer free click analytics– Use bit.ly for services like Twitter; adding a “+” to a

bit.ly address offers basic analytics.

• Facebook pages offer analytics around engagement on posts and clicks

• Free analytics for Twitter users – ads.twitter.com

Free tools!

• Consume/converse ratio– Pageviews divided by comments (measured at the

story level, not site level).

• Share/reply ratio– Goal should be to reply/retweet about as often as you

post something of your own.

Deeper metrics

• Teens flee Facebook – 5 places they’re landing:1. Snapchat – text messages that “disappear”

2. Instagram – Social network for sharing photos

3. Tumblr – Blog site, highly visual made for resharing

4. GroupMe – Group messaging service

5. Vine – Social network for 6-second videos

Be where they are

• Some of this seems like common sense– Be where your audience is– Give the people what they like

• But data can help you better understand things that aren’t clear from a simple Like.– If metrics aren’t built in, use them in a way that gets

you metrics (e.g. Facebook posts that link to Vines).– Don’t overdo it if your time is tight. Focus on solid

metrics for a few key services

Engaging with data

The Payoff

• No “field of dreams” here.• Options for smaller shops

– Dedicate 30 minutes a day to check-in on conversation

– Automate when you can– Is there practical experience available to students in

your district, or to local college students?• Coding and social media skills are valuable

What this requires? TIME

“It's too late to try to start a network when you already need one.”

- Jason Schiffer, former Bethlehem PD police chief

• Southwest has pioneered social media use for corporate communication

• Messaging reflects fun, regular person brand• Active across many platforms:

– Create: Messages about sales, important announcements, etc.

– Converse: Answer questions, trivia contests, do customer service

– Amplify: Share peoples’ photos from airports, plane, etc.

Case Study: Southwest Air

• Social has its uses in the here and now, but where it counts is when you have something you need people to know.

• Every share, Like, click, reshare is another chance for someone to opt-in to your message.– An opted-in audience is a ready audience when you

have urgent messages– They also become amplifiers for you, an army of

users ready to spread your message.

Curate that football game?

• Important messages around deadlines• School cancellations• Services offered• Events and activities you want to promote• Emergencies

Examples

THANK YOU!

Follow me on Twitter

@jeremylittau