Social Media & Your Online Identity

By Serena CarpenterArizona State University

Previous Class

• Focused on designing and structuring content for social sharing including tagging, alt text, and meta tags

• Today, the other 75% of SEO, promoting your content and yourself

What is social media?

What is social media?

• Sharing of information and passions with other like-minded people, communities and collaborators– AKA “user-generated content”– “Strength of Weak Ties” by Mark S. Granovetter

(1973)– http://www.knightblog.org/knight-is-seeking-a-so

cial-media-superstar/

Types of social media (Antony Mayfield)

1. Social Networks – build personal pages to connect with friends

2. Blogs 3. Wikis – communal database that can be edited by anyone4. Podcasts – audio/video subscriptions5. Forums/Online Communities – discussions forms around a

topic6. Content Communities – sharing of content (Flickr,

YouTube)7. Microblogging – social networking merges with blogging

One-wayToday, build relationships to get permission

Trust in spokesperson, U.S. 08, Edelman Trust Barometer

Building Relationships

PR

• PR has been defined as journalist relations – a linear relationship between PR professionals and

journalists• Communication experts are relationship

managers and networkers

Blogger Relations• Prove that you monitor blogs when reaching out to bloggers• Don’t pitch, get involved with their community– Participate in comments– Twitter id– Provide content in many social media forms - tweet

• Create your own blog to connect and promote– Bloggers want linklove, so link

• Find “A-list” blogs by searching blogrolls• Bloggers are passionate experts

What is a social media release?

Social media release

• http://blog.helpfultechnology.com/2009/05/baby-steps-in-social-media-news-releases/Pressitt– http://pressitt.com/smnr/science-minister-opens-

new-medical-tech-centre-to-boost-innovation-in-nhs/82/

– http://www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/h1n1/

Social Media Press Release

• PRX Builder - allows anyone to create an online press release – The client, MobileSphere, launched a new product

Slydial• Free service that allows users to leave a voicemail

message on someone else’s cellphone — without actually ringing them• Created a social media release

– In 1 month covered in 381 blog posts

Digg (2004)• News aggregator where people digg or submit

stories– Submit story, may get popular through diggs or it may

get buried– Comment as well– Employees digg stories to promote their org’s content

(Village Voice-MN)– http://www.digg.com

• Age Range – 25-44• 65% Male• 25 million unique visitors

Fark (1999)

• A news aggregator that allows user to comment on stories

• Fark administrators sift through 2,000 or so news submissions– Greenlit links can generate upwards of 300,000 page

views in one month for a recipient• Submissions should be humorous, unique, entertaining• 5% of approved submissions will go on the main page

• http://www.fark.com/• Others include Furl, Reddit, Newsvine

Sign up & Browse

• Furl, Reddit, Newsvine, Digg, Fark

Social Networking• http://rareshare.org/

– 600 rare diseases (1000)• http://www.mychurch.org/• http://www.momjunction.com/members/exploregroups.aspx?

p=1• http://www.blackplanet.com/• http://www.dogster.com/• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

List_of_social_networking_websites

• Join social networking groups related to your expertise

Facebook• 150-million users (’08)– 10% users update their statuses at least once a day

• 850-million photos are uploaded each month• Average - 120 Facebook friends– 151-200 Friends • Less than 100 and more than 500 considered not at

popular • Fastest growing segment: Women over 55 • Average stay around 15 minutes

MySpace (2004)

• 185 million users• More than 8 million bands and artists• 18-34 largest group, 44%• Average 15 photos per user• Average stay around 20 minutes

Features Page Group

Hosting a discussion Yes Yes

Discussion form Yes Yes

Multimedia Exchange Yes Yes

Contact Members Yes (Updates) Yes (PM)

Statistics Yes No

Event invites Yes No

Social ads Yes No

Relationships Long-term Short-termPersonal

Google Indexing Yes No

ROI

• 86% of professionals have adopted to social media (09 Mzinga and Babson Executive Education)

• 84% of social media programs don’t measure return on investment– 40% did not even know they could– http://serenacarpenter.com/?p=1013

Online Identity

Online Identity• Perception you can create, so ask yourself:

• What’s special and unique about you? – What are you an expert in?

• Personal Brand Assets– Your Name– Picture– Personal brand statement “I am a social media researcher

at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.”

Personal Brand Statement• “I am a politics and public policy reporter with experience using

public records and personal relationships to break stories at all levels of government.”

• “I am a bilingual print and online journalist who believes in the power journalistic words can have in exposing injustice and catalyzing change.”

• “I’m a media communications professional with 15 years of journalism and public relations experience, specializing in the use of narrative to inspire emotion.”

• “I am a bilingual, global-minded journalist who believes in telling stories that effect change and connect people of diverse backgrounds.”

• “I am an Asian American multimedia journalist who seeks to capture humanity through visuals and sound.”

Googled yourself lately?

“Google is the new resume”

• 47% have searched for themselves (Pew, 2007)• 60% who search for their names ind information

about themselves

• Ping your content and add blog to search engines

…and social media is becoming more impt.

• 83% of recruiters used search engines to learn more about candidates in 2007 – up from 75% in 2005 (ExecuNet.com) – 43% eliminated candidates based on the results in

2007– College admissions

Controlled Transparency

• In ‘09, 45% employers used social media sites to research candidates (2009 CareerBuilder Survey)– 22% in 2008

• 35% did not offer job and 28% fired someone – Photos, badmouthing employers, and poor

communication skills• 7% follow you on Twitter

….which means regulations.• Intel

– http://www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_US/social-media.htm

• BBC Twitter & Blog Policy– If it is clear that journalists works for BBC, then a “visible disclaimer

such as these are my personal views and not those of the BBC.” – http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/advice/personalweb/blogging.shtml

• The New York Times – Allows its reporters to "friend" people they cover, noting, "In

general, being a 'friend' of someone on Facebook is almost meaningless and does not signify the kind of relationship that could pose a conflict of interest for a reporter or editor writing about that person."

What can David do?

• “David Thomas” is a pretty bad name for Googling

Unique id

• Use middle name or use your middle name as your last name– “Andrew Dice Clay” was Andrew Clay Silverstein

• Change your name– James Todd Smith - LL Cool J.– William Bruce Rose - Axl Rose

• Add middle initial or name• Play with your name– like http://smithjo.hn

Networking vs. Presence

• Search engines love LinkedIn• Do not love Facebook, but great networking

tool

You create content, you cannot fear posting information

• Post your FULL NAME (not user name), address, and phone number – Voluntarily posting self-authored content such as

text, photos, and video has become a cornerstone of engagement in the era of the participatory Web

Comments

• Leave thoughtful comments on targeted blogs in your area of expertise– When you leave a comment, you’ll be asked for

your name (What’s Your Name?) & your blog– Search engines will index and display some of

these comments when people search your name, adding to your Internet presence.

Advice • Buy your domain name

– http://www.godaddy.com/default.aspx– http://lifehacker.com/5124856/most-popular-reliable-and-

affordable-web-hosts– http://www.hostexcellence.com/index.php/v2/

pages.dspmain

• Use professional email• Be unique– http://vimeo.com/4227128

• linkedin.com/people/your_name• www.brightfuse.com/your_name• twitter.com/yourname (shorten it)• flickr.com/photos/yourname• yourname@gmail.com• mediageeks.ning.com/profile/yourname• youtube.com/user/yourname• www.google.com/profiles/yourname• www.slideshare.net/yourname• delicious.com/yourname• friendfeed.com/yourname• yourname.wordpress.com• facebook.com/people/your_name• yourname.com• http://favstar.fm/users/twitterid• open.salon.com/blog/your_name*Use your full name and use your full name email* Set up a Google Vanity alert for your full name with quotes* Post your URLs on every site you can

– http://www.google.com/alerts

Some information from Dan Schwabel

Next Class

• Twitter• Plugins for your blog• Social Media Assignment