Social media: building community engagement

#Locality12

@localitynews

• What is social media?• Why is it important?• How will it help my organisation?• Setting goals• Selecting the right social media

platforms• Creating great content• Measuring success

What I’m covering today?

What is social media?

The use of technology combined with social

interaction to create or co-create value

Essentially it’s about communicating online – a two way conversation!

Social media – how many!

Why is it important?

21 million households in UK– 80% have internet access in

2012

The number of households with internet access has increased by 7.1 million (23%) since 2006, Office for National Statistics (24 August

2012)

Accessing the Internet

• Tablet ownership has jumped from 2% to 11% in 12 months

• Two fifths of UK adults now own a smartphone

Ofcom, Internet use and attitudes, 2012 metrics (July 2012)

Social networking use

62% of adults use social networking

sites

Ofcom, Internet use and attitudes, Metrics Bulletin, July 2012

A social media world

• The London 2012 Games dubbed the first 'social Olympics‘

• 9.7m tweets about the event during the Opening Ceremony

• 125 times more than the Beijing Opening Ceremony

What the public want

To be listened to, to contribute – the internet is democratic

Listen

Build relationships

Share content

Demographics

• Highest increases in take-up of broadband = 16-24 + 65-74 year olds

• Increase most noticeable in use of mobile phones to go online eg up 8% 25-44 year olds

• Across socio economic groups mobile phone use is up and ‘Low income with children in the home’ up the most at 12%

• Use of social networking sites – majority 16-24 year olds, but 25-54 years of age not far behind

• Average age of Facebook user is 38

Ofcom – metrics 2012

How will it help my organisation?

• More contacts, a network• Get people talking• Involve customers, listen to them,

get feedback

Getting started - setting goals

What are your organisational and

communications goals – how does social media

contribute to this?

Goals templateGoal Target

audienceOutcome Landing page

Current users of services engaging more frequently

Local residents, young families

Attendance frequency x 3 in the year

Project/booking page

Attract funding/new income

Funders Increase earned income by 20%

Donations page

New users of the services

Local residents, older age group

by 5% in the year

Introduction to the organisation

Raise awareness of the brand

All including press

Eg 5 more press mentions

Press release, news

What to use?

Picking the right platforms

• What are your target audience using?– short survey

• What are they interested in? – gain insights

• Are there alternative ways to reach them?

• How will social media enable you to meet your ultimate campaign goals?

Facebook• The world’s largest social network, over 1

billion users• Over 50% visit Facebook daily• Average age of Facebook user is 38• What’s it good for: news and events,

campaigning, polls• Reaching more people - if ‘like’ page then

will show up in news feed for friends to see • Inviting comments and interaction

Holt Park Today

Locality competition

Facebook – using photos

Skittles – asking for recipes

Twitter

• Fastest growing social media network UK

• 1 billion new tweets posted every week• Fastest growing age group UK 18-24• 140 characters• Timely – announcements, link to sites• What’s it good for?– Influencing, having conversations– campaigning #saveourlibraries– Back channel

Getting going on Twitter• Start by retweeting others’ tweets• Then use # to get more clicks on a

subject of interest or event eg #Locality12

• Mention prominent figures @ who may retweet to wider audience

• Go from being a broadcaster to a conversationalist

• Send direct messages

My Community Rights

#righttobid – 371 tweets

Big Green Bookshop

#wewillgather

What else to consider –Linked In

• The world’s largest professional network

• More than 175 million members• Pros and cons – eg events added

individual profiles not organisations– Business to business– Networking businesses – partnerships,

funders– Join a group – discussion– Encourage colleagues to post on Linked In – Recruitment – post an ad

YouTube

• 4 billion video views per day• Second most popular search engine• Access to new audiences (tag widely

to get picked up in searches)• Owned by Google (affect SEO

rankings)• Average view time on YouTube is 2.5

seconds

Flickr

• For more serious photographers than Facebook – 75 million users

• Good for SEO• Photography competitions• Share photos for comments• Add to an existing Flickr pool eg

assets development

Google+

• Predicted that by end 2012 400 million members on Google+

• Google controls search results, worth registering for SEO

Others:• Pinterest• Instagram• Four Square

Research and planning

• Optimum time for posts/tweets• Ask questions, engaging • Insights into audiences and how want

to interact eg photos, videos• Think about where directing to eg

Justgiving 130% increase donations through Facebook

• Get people to ‘like’/tweet who are influential

Planning content

• Think about Search Engine Optimisation - using keywords

• Can it be easily shared (facebook, twitter, social bookmarking)?

• Use video – and send links to media for PR

• Social proof of ‘Like’s, retweets, a recommendation

Blogging

• Importance of blogging – shift in how public read news, trust public views

• Want opinion, honesty• Blogs often on websites, linked to

from social media• Brings PR, people share on

Facebook/Twitter• Word press most popular

Blogging

• Campaigns – link to petitions• Fundraising • Engaging people locally around an

issue• Commenting and discussions

More on video• Can film using phone, ipad, flip

camera• Editing on Youtube plus music• Upload short films to YouTube - will

improve your ranking on search engines

• Remember people have a short attention span online

Content and community engagement

• Could content work as a series eg regular updates

• Involve audience–diary blog posts - taking part in a

project– create video, skills they learnt – ‘how

to’ video–encouraging sharing through own

networks• Run competitions• Try things out, engage and improve

What else?

• Apps• Don’t forget social bookmarking – on

websites eg Stumble Upon• Storify – bringing together activity on

different social media platforms• Integrate platforms – if a blog on

website, also post on Facebook, Tweet, put on Linked In

Implementing

• Plan aheadDate Content Platform

Eg Project launch PhotosBlog (on web)Video (on YouTube)

FacebookTwitter

Measuring• Measure stats against campaign goals• Assess throughout the year – what’s

working what isn’t• Look at comments and make

improvements• Storify – to monitor successes for

reporting• Stats on Facebook, google analytics

traffic social media, Tweetreach, Klout, Social Mention

MeasuringPlatform Metric Stat

Twitter Number of Twitter followers

200

Influence using Klout 42

Number of mentions 30

Facebook Number of likes on Facebook

150

Number of posts/comments

15

Linked In Number of contacts 100

Troubleshooting

• Expectation to voice opinions – freedom of internet

• 3 choices– Reply– Delete– Ignore

• Delete if offensive eg swearing, racist etc

Have social media guidelines

• Encourage staff to engage on social media

• Social media code of conduct should not vary wildly from the normal standards of behaviour you would expect

• Keep guidelines simple• Encourage prefacing comments when

using own accounts to relate to the brand

• socialmediagovernance.com/policies

Summary• Start by thinking about your audiences –

which social platforms• What want to achieve – goals and how

social media can be part of that• Select platforms accordingly, focus on

ones where outcomes and have resources• Create interesting content – audiences can

do this for you• Plan ahead and measure impact• Encourage openness and involvement

from staff

What’s next• Find social media ambassadors amongst

staff• Set up accounts and follow others – learn

from the influential tweeters and bloggers• Look for creative ideas inside and outside

community sector to engage audiences• Get involved in conversations online

reaching a greater number of people and finding your key stakeholders

• Make sure links to social media on website

Useful websites

• Podnosh - getting started• Media Trust - Social media do’s and

don’ts http://resources.mediatrust.org/guides/digital/social-media-dos-and-donts/

• UK Online Centres – at convention• Presentation on Slideshare

Contact

clare.roebuck@locality.org.uk@localitynews – community news@clareroe