social media in short- january 2014

Social Media in Short- a #LearningLuncheon 10 January, 2014

By Jarobin G. Gilbert ( @JaroG4)

Today’s Discussion

§  If you’d like to participate in today’s discussion on Twitter. You can do so by logging into @PathTeamQuest on the network from your mobile device with the login:

pathinc

§  Use the hashtag #LearningLuncheon to follow along

•  Conversation channel that is independent of other networks but ties in. •  Gathers and reaches a different kind of audience especially a mobile-on-

the- go-hyper connected generation. •  A digital extension of oneself through which they can display their lives,

interests, questions or memories. •  Allows a more human side to a brand or a company. •  Platforms for sharing content.

Why Use Social Media?

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Social Networks We Use at Path

Facebook –Absolute connection page, chance to connect with brands and other consumers, customers or interested parties. A go-to for almost all kinds of updates and the most likely of the four for the average social media user to have other than email itself. A good home base for brands that are trying to have a social media presence and convey their place under the social media sun.

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Twitter—Connection, chat and constant info channel. With 140 character limit, short and to-the-point messages are best. This is not only great as a two way channel but is also good for sharing content from your own website or entities but also sharing material that is relevant to your industry and community. Always able to be alive with chatter. Build loyal following for informative purposes and updates.


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Google + -- Connection Page, mainly important for link building purposes and great for SEO efforts. Also reaches a community that perhaps is not so mainstream. However since google + also directly affects rankings, it is important to share on google plus perhaps more than any other network. Even if people aren't connecting with your page initially. ( In 2014, it will be important to begin connecting more followers, fans, users to the Google Plus pages to interact and share content here)

LinkedIn- Professional network. Follow not only your colleagues and peers but also follow your favorite companies, and professional interests. You can also join groups and have a conversation about topics in your own industry, or begin to pluck and post content about an industry relevant to yours that may draw more of a following in the long run.


Instagram-- Great for graphic displays and a way to drive people to learn more about your page/brand and community. You can leave a link to your website in the profiles themselves now. Uploading relevant photos and creating engaging content around those can help people to interact with you on a more frequent basis.

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Pinterest-- Display network, graphics which hopefully then lead to websites. A great way to linkbuild for your own site, and gain the attention of those in your communities around a number of topics. Can also share pins to Facebook and Twitter for more longevity.

Why Does Any of This Matter?

Social media, the game is all in the name. For it to be effective you need to be social creatures yourselves.

Much like any gathering or party, there are minglers and there are wallflowers. Whichever one you decide to be will directly impact development of your social street

cred and the experience your social media followers will have with you and how visible you will become to others. How can you influence this in a positive way?

Here are a few tips to keep in mind while you’re building and managing you social media communities

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Share Frequently

•  Regardless of the network, you have to be posting something across your channels. Static channels are a sign of indifference, lack of attention or worse, a dead line of communication.

•  Being an infrequent communicator never guaranteed anyone

friends, fans or followings. In this life or the next, get chatty across channels within reason and figure out who your brand’s personality is within that space.

•  If you want to get people to know you, you have to talk about yourself or your interests at least a little bit.

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Build a Community

•  Find out what is most relevant to your brand’s M.O. and seek out those with whom you have common traits.

•  Chat them up: like ; favorite; retweet; ask questions; leave

comments, vote, tag others and most importantly share others’ content too.

•  You will find that social networks take on the belief of Karma when used properly. Be nice, share and give credit and thanks where its due.

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Making the same kind of posts every time you share something can result in fewer and fewer engagements and reactions over time. More likely than not, it is to your advantage to be sure to change up the kinds of posts you use per network. This can include but should not be limited to…

•  Plain Text Updates (General Info, Questions, what's going on with the brand in question)

•  Photos •  Video (Where possible) •  Links to webpage your page content (Look what I did!) •  Links to relevant industry content (Look what they did!) •  Links to other social properties (Check out where else I am!) •  Participate in chats

And……

•  Don’t always talk about yourself.

Shake It Up- Don’t Have a One Track Mind

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•  A matter of habit, when posts go unanswered or unacknowledged for a long period of time (varies by account) it can affect how much further engagement you may get in the future.

•  Be sure to check up on posts within a few hours or the next day to see who interacted with your content and how. Doing this shows a human side of managing a profile and helps to build loyalty and bring in more fans as well. Also acknowledge their participation.

Respond Frequently

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Ask “Who Are You?” & “ What Do You Want to Be ?”

•  Chances are you know a lot about your clients and what their needs are, but I’m also willing to bet that they know their industry more than you do.

•  Ask them questions or their thoughts about what would be good to share over their channels. It not only gives you insight into the industry and more ideas, but it also helps you to better determine what to post when you run out of ideas and also lessens the element of shock in case something goes wrong or is incorrect.

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Listen to Your Audience

•  Much like you check the news on TV, or on your phone in the

morning, social listening is a crucial part of making social media networks “pop”.

•  Take the time and make a habit of using your networks to find

out what those in your community are actually talking about. You can use tools to help you gather this info.

•  This can help you to build the initial and ongoing communities that are best suited for the social media accounts you’re running.

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Home Is Where the Heart Is– So Is Your Website

•  When it comes to social media sharing, your website is your

home base for information, content and general awesomeness. It’s where you can show people who you are, what you’re about and why you’re here.

•  Your website can be your greatest resource/ weapon amongst all social media tools. When talking over social networks, you can always link to it, tell people to check it out and share from it. It has no expiration date.

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What’s a # Got to Do with Me? •  Hashtags (#) help to gather content and commentary all under a common

thread and make it visible to people following it.

•  Use relevant hashtags to make what you’re posting on Instagram, Twitter etc… searchable by other users and, to see what other users post under the same one. It’ll help you build a community and make interactions easier.

•  Don’t make hashtags longer than 20 characters and if it’s two words,

capitalize each word to make it easy to read. (e.g. #PolarVortex, #BridgeGate, #SEOChat, #SMWNYC, #KnicksTape, #Scandal or #SOAFX) .

•  Make hashtags sensible. •  Don’t use inappropriate hashtags that bear no meaning to you.

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What Are the Tools?

Share, Optimize, Measure and Repeat

o  Facebook Insights

o  Use the Post Level and Page Level data to help you to see where you’re performing your best

o  See which kinds of posts get the best desired results.

o  Optimize next month’s content based around said information.

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What are the Tools?


o  Hootsuite

o  Schedule/ program outgoing posts across twitter, Facebook, Google

o  Mine information from Facebook, Twitter, & Reddit

§  Develop hashtags and keywords that best fit the brand, Retweet, Or use according to how you see fit

§  Change your topics in Hootsuite searching every month (even if it’s the same theme, find topics that stick out or are close.

§  Use these feeds to find and monitor chats. Develop your own chat. Find other likeminded followers not suggested by twitter, but by yourself instead.

o  Link shortener!

o  Analytics (For Free!)

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What are the Tools?


o  Tailwind o  Measure the volume and

longevity of your pins.

o  Find out when the optimal time to Pin is and how often.

o  Find other similar accounts and boards to yours to maximize your following.

o  See the stats of the communities you follow. See, pin, do it again!

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What are the tools?


o  Statigr.am-

o  Check optimal times to share images

o  Check most used hashtags on your photos

o  See most used hashtags on IG to help to help optimize photos

o  See which filters are most effective

o  Check the rate at which your IG content is being liked.

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What are the tools?


o  Sprout Social Insights

o  Find out if your brand skews heavily male or female and determine age group of followers/fans

o  Track the number of clicks your shared links are receiving

o  Track number of Tweets, Retweets, Mentions, Unfollows. DMs down to the day (optimize around info see which works best)

o  Link shortener!

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What are the tools?


o  Twubs

o  Monitor ongoing Twitter chats in real time.

o  Participate in chats with automated hashtags.

o  Track hashtags.

o  REGISTER custom hashtags.

What are the tools?


o  Social Bro

o  See profile evolution and prediction based on tweeted data

o  Check language pie graph of your twitter community

o  See optimal time to tweet/ share

o  Check your overall influence

o  See who your influential followers are

o  See who your inactive followers are (those who haven’t tweeted in 3 months or more)

o  See who your newest followers are (those who have had an account less than 3 months and use it frequently—find opportunities to engage with them more—build a community)

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What are the tools?


Google Chrome Social Extensions o  Install the social management buttons directly into your

chrome browser(s) to help you share content more easily and more importantly immediately.

o  Some examples of what you can install are

•  Twitter •  Hootlet (Connects to Facebook, Google Plus &

Twitter) •  Sprout Social (“” “”)- Track Links through shortener •  Pinterest •  Google + •  Buffer (Connects to Social Bro, Twitter, Google Plus,

LinkedIn) •  + Button (Connects to any number of other

platforms)

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Conclusion?

Portrayal- The channels are a way to tell not just the world who you are and what your about, but what makes up the world you specialize in.

Persist- It doesn’t happen all overnight. Find a theme, develop and stick with that theme . Develop it along the way and keep talking, keep building communities, keep being yourself.

Patience-- remember that social media much like the businesses we manage takes time to develop, nurture and perfect. Along the way there are going to be ups, downs, questions and growing. Whether your client is boring or boisterous, it all takes time to get a rhythm and rhyme that works for you.

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