Using Social Media toBrand the Outdoors

Agenda

• What’s a brand

• What’s a tribe

• Using Social Media to connect people

• Overview of Blogs, Twitter, and Facebook

• If time permits we can actually create an account step-by-step

What is a Brand?Brand is the emotional an psychological relationship you have with your customers. Strong brands elicit thoughts, emotions, and sometimes physiological responses from customers. Examine the following logos:

"A brand isn’t a brand to you until it develops an emotional connection with you."

What is a Brand?

Logos are not brands, they are merely representations of brands.

"...brands speak to the mind and heart"

Benefits of a BrandBranding your organization yields both internal and external benefits. Externally, you create an identity that resonates with the community.

Within the business, your brand serves as an internal compass of focus. If you clearly brand yourself, you have an understanding of what you are about.

• The most visited National Park in the U.S. • The longest footpath in the U.S. • The 2nd largest municipal park in the U.S.• Mountain Bike trails ranked in Top 5 according to Resort Sports

Network TV• Over 100 miles of trails exist within the city limits alone• Four State Parks • Four large lakes ideal for boating, fishing, and water sports • Two major rivers, the James and the New • World-class fishing can be found on the region’s numerous stocked

streams and lakes

Whether it is mountain or road biking, hiking or camping, bass or fly fishing, wakeboarding or water skiing, greenways or blueways, climbing or caving, or whitewater or flat water, Roanoke has your outdoor desires covered - Pick your passion and GET OUTSIDE!

Who’s Telling Your Story?

Social Media is new form of Public Relations

Engage your community…using Social Media

• Quicker and easier adoption of new services, policies, etc.

• Community support (advocacy) for new initiatives• Immediate feedback on issues• Direction on what issues are most important to

general population• Direction on how to promote community, and

attract future residents and businesses

Who’s Telling Your Story?

Engage your community…using Social Media

Leverage word-of-mouth-marketing by

using social media

Who Are You Talking To?

What is a “Tribe”?

What is a “Tribe”?

A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea that inspires their passion. Human beings have a need to belong, "to be part of a tribe, to contribute to (and take from) a group of like-minded people. People are drawn to leaders and to their ideas, and we can't resist the rush of belonging and the thrill of the new.

The marketplace is rewarding organizations and individuals who change things and create remarkable products and services

For the first time ever, everyone in an organization – not just the boss – is

expected to lead!

Create a culture around your goal and involve others in that culture

It only takes two things to turn a group of people into a tribe:

1. A shared interest and

2. A way to communicate

Connecting Your Outdoor Tribe

Leverage Your Outdoor Tribe

What is Social Media?

“The online tools and platforms that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, and perspectives with each other. Social media can take many different forms, including text, images, audio, and video.” Source: Wikipedia

Reasons to Use Social Media

• Evolution of traditional PR

• Multiple lines of communication

• Inexpensive

• Reach various demographics

• Increase search engine rankings

• Real time interaction

• Drive citizens to website

• Communicate your message

• Establish representative voice for community

– If you don’t establish a voice, someone else will!

• Crisis Management tool

Facebook 200+ Million Active Users (fastest growing Demo 30+)

Twitter 32.1 million people

The Social Media OpportunityThe following groups spend 10+ hours weekly on social networking sites:

30-39 years = 45% 20-29 years = 40% 50-59 years = 39%

The potential benefit according to surveys of U.S. businesses:

– 81% of users reported that social media generated greater exposure

– 78% reported increased search engine rankings

– 62% reported that they had gained new partnerships

– 50% reported that they had generated qualified leads

A successful social media campaign must start by creating a plan of attack:

– Engage in regular participation & consistent use. Encourage staff to participate

– Commit to open networking by sharing information and contacts

– Direct, honest communication is name of game

– Turn conversations into relationships

The Basic Plan• Create a Blog• Create a Twitter Account• Create a Facebook Page or Group• Use all 3 to engage your Outdoor Tribe• Create open lines of communication• Leverage efforts by allowing Outdoor Tribe

to disseminate your message• Cost: Just your time and effort

The Tools• Website - It all starts here!

– Don’t have a good website? Don’t worry – use a blog!– The basis for all PR, branding, social media– Dynamic, functional, user friendly– The face…and often first impression…of your community– Content rich—to drive search engine results

• Social Media Policy– Establishes best practices and procedures– Ensures that entire staff is on message– Empowers staff to be proactive– Positions social media as “means to engage” rather than “distraction”– Encourages community participation

• Blog– Enable direct communication with and feedback from community– Can be monitored and managed by community staff– More personal and dynamic than typical website– Can be separate from or part of community website– Typically ties into overall marketing/PR strategy– Can allow comments from visitors; can monitor comments– Best used for sharing information of interest to or that specifically benefits targeted users

• Twitter– Real time updates and communication– Reports news faster than traditional news outlets

• Facebook– With over 200 million users it is the fastest and easiest way to communicate with the outdoor community

Blogs

• Wordpress.com offers free, easy to use blog templates

• Tumblr.com is another popular free blogging service

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWYi4_COZMU is a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up, add posts (content), add features, edit, and promote your blog

A blog is a type of website, usually maintained with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries, or posts, are commonly displayed in newest to oldest order.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

Application: If you have an event and don’t have a dynamic website or the ability to add/edit content, you can post the details to your blog. This will give you a webpage specific to this event that you can then share via social media outlets. It also allows users to leave comments.

What is Twitter?

Think blogging, but on a micro level• Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that

enables its users to send and read other user’s updates.• You have 140 characters to say whatever it is you want to say• Happens in real-time• Send/Receive messages (tweets) from anywhere – via cell

phone or computer• You can include links, pictures, and videos • Messages are leveraged

Power of Twitter

• ESPN Affiliate

• Provides content to 125 Resort TV channels

• 56 million viewers

• Airs summer 2010

• Rights to Video

• Area Trails in Top 5

Key Twitter Terms

FollowingTo receive messages on Twitter, you follow other people and companies you’re interested in—which means you get their messages as they post (put another way, their messages show up in your incoming timeline on your Twitter home page). Conversely, people get your messages by following you.

TweetUsers refer to an individual message as a tweet, as in, “Check out this tweet about our CEO dancing on the sidelines of the Phoenix Suns game.” People sometimes use it as a verb, too, as in, “I tweeted about the stimulus package this morning.” If “tweet” is hard for you to use with a straight face in a business context, try “twittering” as a verb instead. Alternatives include “post,” “message” and “update.”

Key Twitter Terms@usernameFor companies, one of the most useful things about Twitter is that it lets you exchange public messages with individual users. Simply start a message with @username of the person you want to reach, like this:

“@Bemerson good time mountain biking with you, let’s do Carvins next”

If Bemerson is following your account, your message will appear directly on his Twitter home page. (If he’s not following your account, your message will appear in his folder of @username mentions.) People who are following both you and Bemerson will also see the message on their Twitter home page. Finally, the message will appear in search results, and people who come to your Twitter home page will see it among the messages in your outgoing timeline.

Tip: On Twitter, @username automatically becomes a link to that person’s account—helping people discover each other on the system. Put another way: when you see an @username, you can always click through to that person’s Twitter page and learn whether you want to follow them.

To find the public messages that are directed to you (i.e., those that start with your @YourName) or that mention you (i.e., those that include your @YourName elsewhere in the tweet), head to your Twitter home page, and then on the right side of the screen, click the tab labeled your @YourName. For businesses, it’s a good idea to keep a close eye on incoming @mentions, because they’re often sent by customers or potential customers expecting a reply.

Tip: To reply easily from the Twitter website, mouse over a message, and then look on the right end for the “Reply arrow”. Click the arrow to start a new message addressed to the original user.

Key Twitter TermsDM, or direct messageDirect messages—or DMs—are Twitter’s private messaging channel. These tweets appear on your home page under the Direct Messages tab, and if you’ve got email notifications turned on, you’ll also get an email message when somebody DMs you. DMs don’t appear in either person’s public timeline or in search results. No one but you can see your DMs.

The one tricky concept with DMs is that you can send them only to people who are following you. Conversely, you can receive them only from people you’re following.

You can easily send DMs from the Direct Messages tab by using the pull-down menu to choose a recipient and then typing in your note. To send a DM from your home page, start your message with “d username,” like this:

“d Bemerson How about next Monday?

Tip: If you’re communicating with a customer about something potentially sensitive—including personal information, account numbers, email addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, etc.—be sure to encourage them to DM or email you. As we mentioned earlier, @mentions are public, so anyone can see them.

Key Twitter TermsRT, or retweet To help share cool ideas via Twitter and to give a shout-out to people you respect, you can repost their messages and give them credit. People call that retweeting (or RT), and it usually looks something like this: “RT @Username: Original message, often with a link.” Retweeting is common, and it’s a form of conversation on Twitter. It’s also a powerful way to spread messages and ideas across Twitter quickly. So when you do it, you’re engaging in a way people recognize and usually like—making it a good way to connect.

Hashtag (#)Twitter messages don’t have a field where you can categorize them. So people have created the hashtag—which is just the # symbol followed by a term describing or naming the topic—that you add to a post as a way of saying, “This message is about the same thing as other messages from other people who include the same hashtag.” Then, when somebody searches for that hashtag, they’ll get all of the related messages. For instance, let’s say you post, “Voted sixty times in tonight’s showdown. #AmericanIdol.” Your message would then be part of Twitter search results for “#AmericanIdol,” and if enough people use the same hashtag at once, the term will appear in Twitter’s Trending Topics.

Companies often use hashtags as part of a product launch (like #FordFiesta), and conferences and events frequently have hashtags associated with them (like #VRPS).

Shortened URLsWith just 140 characters at your disposal, Twitter doesn’t give you much room to include URL links—some of which are longer than 140 characters themselves. If you post a link on Twitter via the website, sometimes we automatically shorten the URL for you. There are also a number of services—URL shorteners—that take regular links and shrink them down to a manageable length for tweets, and some even let you track clicks.

Create A Twitter Account1. Go to Twitter.com and “Sign up now”2. In Full Name – enter official name3. In Username – enter short “screen name”. This will be

what you are know as: ex. @Roanoke_Outside4. Email - If you have a Yahoo, Gmail, or AOL email

address use that for registration purpose – you can change it later. The registration process will give you an option to access your address book to see which of your friends are already using Twitter

5. The next window had boxes checked for you to automatically follow – uncheck if you don’t want to follow these people

6. You are now set up with a Twitter Account

Customize Your Twitter

1. Click on “settings”• You can always change your username here• Add a website• Make sure you put your city, state, zip in the

location• Do not check the box “protect my tweets”

2. Click on “devices” if you plan to use your mobile phone

3. Click on “pictures” and upload an image.

Find People to Follow1. Go to www.search.twitter.com

• In the search field enter: near:24011 within:25mi

• Replace with your zip code and extend radius if desired• The search results will include all Tweeters that are based within your area• Click on each user name and their Twitter page will open• Click “Follow”• Repeat steps many times over

2. If you find a local Twitter who has lots of followers go to their page and repeat the above process by clicking on the pictures on their page of their followers

3. Go to www.tweetva.com and find a list of Tweeters in your area4. Go to www.mrtweet.com, register and you will receive recommendations on

people to follow5. Go to www.wefollow.com and at the top you will see “Enter a Tag”. Enter

relevant key words and follow the results6. Keep adding people to follow otherwise it will be boring7. For the most part – always follow back8. Visit pages of people who follow you and check out their followers to see if you

want to follow them – remember you are trying to leverage your messages

Send Your First Tweet1. For the most part, try to include a link in your tweet (hence the

usefulness of a blog)2. Copy the URL from the desired website3. Visit www.bit.ly (bookmark this page)

Send Your First Tweet4. Copy the shortened bit.ly URL

5. Return to Twitter Home Page and paste shortened URL into message box and add your message

Send Your First Tweet6. Before you send (update) your Tweet make sure you have some key

words in your message. This is how other people will find your message.• If your message doesn’t allow you to incorporate all the key words you’d like to

include you can still add them by including a Hashtag• Hashtags are denoted with a # before the key word (ex. #roanoke). Learn

more at www.hashtags.org• My tweets always include the city and if I want to reach people outside of my

area I include other popular hashtags (ex. #marathon)• People can set up RSS feeds for and/or search for key words and by including

key words and hashtags you are more likely to be found

FacebookThere are many schools of thought on how to best utilize Facebook all of which center around openly sharing information, whether it is yours or not.

– Empower staff to share information on personal Facebook pages, but do ensure they understand that everything on Facebook is public and they should always represent themselves in a professional manner

– Create a Facebook profile for your organization to create brand identity

– Group page vs. Fan Page: • If you have the resources and manpower to dedicate a lot of time to social

media then a Fan Page offers more tools such as RSS feeds, customization, and more

• However, people are more likely to join Group pages

Group Page vs. Fan Page

Posting to FacebookPost events to Facebook in two simple ways (there are plenty more):

1. In your Group or Fan page create an event• Invite Fans or Facebook friends to attend the event - this engages your

community• Share the event specific URL via Twitter too (use bit.ly)

2. Take your Twitter/Blog bit.ly URL and share it on Facebook via the “what’s on your mind” status update. Paste the link in and it will look something like this:

Like, Comment, & ShareThe “Like”, “Comment” and “Share” features on Facebook are three good ways to monitor your posts, but more importantly to help spread the word of your events as well as other events that your Tribe would find interesting and relevant.

1. If you don’t want to leave a comment just click on the “like” button

2. If you feel inclined leave a comment. By doing one of these options you are essentially subscribing to any future comments other people may make about this particular posting

3. If you really like the posting and what all of your friends/fans to know about it click on the “share” button.

Golden Rules• Don’t be self-centered• Reciprocate• When in doubt don’t RT on Twitter – don’t contribute to

overload. Don’t tweet to much and don’t tweet too little• If someone follows you, and they aren’t a spammer,

follow them back• If someone mentions you, thank them• Promote all things relevant to your tribe – not just your

stuff

Action Steps• Step 1: Create blog post of event• Step 2: Copy blog post url into bit.ly and name• Step 3: Use bit.ly url to tweet - use hashtags• Step 4: Use bit.ly url to “share” in FB• Step 5: Ask staff to post too• Step 6: Engage your tribe – ask questions, ask

for feedback, provide contests, ask them to help spread the word, etc.

• Step 7: Repeat often* Consider including a weekly or bi-weekly email newsletter

The Outcome is a 2-way Street

• Transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal and desire for improvement;

• Providing tools to allow tribe members to effectively communicate; and

• Leveraging the tribe to allow it to grow and gain new members

Tools for When you’re Ready!• www.tweetdeck.com makes Twitter userfriendly• www.cotweet.com offers many great tools but also allows multiple people to share one Twiiter

account – allows you to leverage your efforts and efficiency. Does not allow you to create groups. But does allow you to integrate bit.ly for tracking purposes

• www.hootsuite.com is very similar o Cotweet but it does allow you to form groups, however it does not integrate bit.ly.

• Tweetdeck.com or Twitterberry for your cell phone• www.twitpic.com allows you to add pictures to your tweets. Tweetdeck has this built in. You

can also take pictures on your cell phone and upload directly into Twitter• www.twilerts.com and www.tweetbeep.com allow you set up notifications for when anyone

mentions your key words – you’ll receive an email• http://beta.twiddeo.com/ allows you to add videos to your tweets• http://twitter.polldaddy.com/ allows you to make a poll and send to your followers• http://mashable.com/ is a great resource for all social media• http://www.facebook.com/share_options.php is a neat feature you add to your web browser –

surf to the page you want to share on Facebook and simply click this button• Learn all about RSS Feeds - http://www.whatisrss.com/• Customize your Twitter background image - http://twittergallery.com/. Or learn how to make

your own truly customized background image - http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/04/29/how-to-create-your-own-twitter-background/