Social MediaPresented by Laura Lee

WHO AM I?

• Laura Lee• SWAT 771 member since 2008• Co-Captain since 2012

• Over the past 5 years…• Co-Captain, design lead, robot builder, driver, scouting

lead, human player, webmaster, tweeter, Facebook-er, bumper girl, battery girl

• Blink? No!

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA

• Places for people to connect

• Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, FourSquare, LinkedIn, Google+,

Pinterest

• Revolutionizing the world

• Why is it important to FIRST?

• Getting your name out there

• Saying no to social media is like turning down free robot parts

4 “B”

• Be Found• Be Relevant• Be Accountable• Be Engaging

BE FOUND

• Search Engine Optimization• SEO• Have a strong social media presence

• Domination of the first page• Keywords are key

N O T W O R L D D O M I N AT I O N … S E A RC H D O M I N AT I O N

BE RELEVANT

• Your audience• Parents• Potential sponsors• Other FIRSTers• Potential FIRSTers• Mentors

• Youth• Facebook• Twitter• Youtube

• Audience will not come to you. You must go to your audience

BE RELEVANT

• Keep up to date• Forgetting to update = audience forgetting you

• Social media never takes a break• For websites, use a platform that is easy to

update• If it takes more than 5 minutes to publish your content,

it’s no longer news, it’s history

BE ACCOUNTABLE

• There are a lot of ways to track your stats• Use built in analytics tools• Use outside analytics tools• These tools do the work for you

BE ACCOUNTABLE

Wordpress analytics Twitter analytics

BE ACCOUNTABLE

• Facebook

“Magic Button”

BE ACCOUNTABLE

• These numbers that you gather can be used for:• Chairman’s• Getting sponsors• Seeing your impact• Improving your content and engagement

• Remember: everything on the internet is permanent• Make sure your team has a strategy of how you are

going to use social media

BE ENGAGING

• Friendliness • Be positive• Keep up interaction• Think of everything you do as a dialogue

BE ENGAGING

• Find your team “image” and go with it• Tone and style

• Be consistent -> improves your branding and SEO• Username• Profile picture

USEFUL TOOLS

• Tweetreach.com• Tracks your twitter stats

• Hootsuite• Manages all your social media accounts in one place

• Bitly.com• Tracks your links

NOTES

• People are interested in why you do something, not what or how you do it• Everything you do on social media will have an

impact• Positive or negative

SWAT

• Twitter• @frc771

• Youtube.com/frc771• Facebook.com/frc771• www.swat771.com• Questions: Laura: llee@smls.on.ca