Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications

PRSA Teleseminar

June 2, 2009

Courtney Barnes

• Blogs/Microblogs

• Social Networks

• Video-Sharing Platforms

• Search Engines

• Monitoring Services

• Aggregators

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications

Blog (n.): • Short for Web log; • A Web page that is maintained by an individual

or group for public consumption; • Defining characteristics include frequent

updates, tone and content that reflect the author’s views, and the ability for readers to post comments.

Blog (v.): • To author a blog.

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications

Uses:

• Media Relations

• Marketing

• Internal Communications

• Stakeholder Engagement

• Monitoring Organizations’ Reputation

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Blogs

• Internal vs. External

• Ownership vs. Participation

Regardless, blogs are a way to “get found” and “be heard” by your key stakeholders:

• Clients

• Your/your clients’ customers

• Employees

• Communities

• Investors

• Partners

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Blogs

Source: Forrester Research

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Blogs

Getting started: Read• Search for relevant blogs

Technorati.com BlogSearch.Google.com

• Read and subscribe via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Aggregates everything into one location (Web browser

or desktop) Lets you consumer content according to your

preferences

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Blogs

Getting started: Comment

• Contribute to the conversation by commenting

• Increase the value of post by adding useful info/links/etc.

• Benefits: Engages community Increases your visibility Increases links back to your blog/Web site

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications

Getting Started: Write

• Find the right blogging software for you WordPress, Typepad Get your own domain (blog.yourcompany.com versus

blog.wordpress.com) Should allow for RSS/social media integration

• Get analytics: Software should allow you to track: Traffic RSS/email subscriptions Visitors, leads generated SEO keyword rank

• Create content that draws in target readers

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Blogs

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: BlogsGetting Started: Write (continued)• Establish a frequency (at least twice a week)• Topic ideas:

Ideas/trends Lists News Commentary

• Promote on social media sites: Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Facebook

Microblog:

• A form of blogging in which posts are usually limited to 140 characters

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Microblogs

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Social Networks

Facebook LinkedIn NingCrowd-

Sourcing

Free

Private/Internal

Marketing

Personal Networking

Recruitment

Social

Professional

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Social Networks

Ning:

• Password-protected

• Internal audiences

Facebook:

• Recruitment

• Current/potential students

• Marketing

LinkedIn:• Professional• Manage personal

contacts/groups• Targeted marketing

opportunitiesCrowd-Sourcing• Social• Solicits

ideas/participation

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Social Networks

LinkedIn + Stakeholders

• Create professional groups for different audiences

• Share presentations using the SlideShare application

• Promote clients/employees’ books using the Reading List application

• Track what’s being Twittered about your brand via the Company Buzz app

• Use LinkedIn Polls to deliver a co-branded poll to specific segments of LinkedIn audience

• Disseminate proprietary research via the site’s whitepaper distribution program

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Social Networks

Crowdsourcing: Enabling your customers to play an active role in creating a new product or service, or in some cases, solving a business challenge for your company.

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing + stakeholders:

• Employees/Clients Ideas for research/development Inter-department collaboration Event planning Problem-Solving

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Crowdsourcing

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Video

Opportunities for using Web video:

• Product demonstrations

• Speeches/presentations

• Virtual tours

• Customer testimonials

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Video

• Search engines (Google, Yahoo, etc.) use algorithms to “crawl” the Web for information based on a user’s keyword searches

• Social media content can (and should) be optimized for search: Tag keywords that are likely to be searched Embed hyperlinks Use keywords in URLs Use multimedia content

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Search Engines

Free Keyword Recommendation Services

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

• Wordtracker Keywords: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/

• Microsoft adCenter Labs Keyword Forecast: http://adlab.msn.com/Keyword-Forecast/

• Trellian Search Term Suggestion Tool: http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html

• Google Suggest: http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=106230&hl=en

• Google Trends: www.google.com/trends

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Search Engines

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Monitoring

• Like search engines, but for specific digital platforms

• Helps identify the most influential individuals and audiences

Blogs:

• Technorati

• Google Blog Search

• BlogPulse

Twitter:

• TweetScan

• TwitDir

• TwitterSearch

• TwitterVision

• TweeterBoard

• So many platforms, so little time

• Organize your online activities via various aggregation tools that present info from all sites in one location

• Lots of options: RSS feeds: Google Alerts iGoogle FriendFeed

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Aggregators

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Aggregators

• Blogs: Corporate, personal• Microblogs: Twitter, Jaiku, Plurk• Wikis: Wikipedia, Plurk• Social Networks: Facebook, MySpace, Bebo,

Eons, LinkedIn, Flickr• Podcasts: iTunes, PodcastAlley, Podcast.com,

PodcastDirectory, Podseek• Social Bookmarking: StumbleUpon, del.icio.us• Social News: Digg, Mixx, Reddit• Ratings: Yelp, epinions

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Summary

Social Media Strategies for Powerful Communications: Questions?

Courtney Barnescourtney@thinkcomllc.com

www.thinkcomllc.com