Handout used in Professional Learning Laboratory webinar held on August 31, 2010 entitled Social Media for the Practical Economic Development Professional.
Social Media Strategies for Economic Development Professionals
1. 1 Social Media for the Practical Economic Development Professional Sara Dunnigan, CEcD Greater Richmond Partnership, Inc. sdunnigan@grpva.com http://linkedin.com/in/sarajdunnigan http://twitter.com/saradunnigan Mark J James, CEcD ED Solutions, Inc. mark.james@solutionsED.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/edsolutions http://twitter.com/EcoDev
23. What social networks or tools, if any, do you use? 71 % use LinkedIn, and just over 50% use facebook. Source: Atlas Advertising
24. How frequently do you use each? 72 % use some form of Social Media at least weekly. Source: Atlas Advertising
25. What is the applicability of Twitter to your profession? 63.6% say Twitter has no/very little applicability to the site selection profession. Source: Atlas Advertising
26. What is the applicability of LinkedIn to your profession? 52.6% say LinkedIn has good application to the site selection profession. Source: Atlas Advertising
27. What is the applicability of LinkedIn to your profession? “I have used it along with Hoovers to check who is LinkedIn and contact people for business meetings.” “I think it has good application. I have gotten proposals through this tool.” “Pretty low rated.” “It’s okay.” “I already have the contacts I need in my email – how is this different?” “Not much” “Good for seeking independent information.” “Good for finding contacts, and to keep in touch with peers.” “More of a business site” Useful networking tool Don’t know yet. Source: Atlas Advertising
31. The Practical ED’r Starts with a Social Media Strategy 19 Consider- Objectives Identify your audience-key leaders, stakeholders, etc. What calls to action will you use? Identify some benchmarks Keyword/SEO analysis How Will You Measure Success? Visits Followers Return on conversation? (Last) Best Tools for You
32. Some Typical ED Goals Brand awareness Program/practitionercredibility Drive traffic to web Create community Connect resources Lead development
35. Websites have a crucial new role Old view: Destination New view: Content Engine Source: Mark W. Schaefer Slideshare- http://www.slideshare.net/Rialta/social-media-best-practices-for-economic-development
38. 26 SEO & SMO Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, social news buttons, blogging, and incorporating third-party community functionalities like images and videos. Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.
40. Using Facebook – WHY? 500 million active users 50% of active users log on EVERYDAY >5 Billion Pieces of Content >1.5 Local Business Have Pages It’s International – 70% of FB users are OUTSIDE the US INFORM-INFLUENCE-ENGAGE 28
42. Using Facebook – Start Smart Who’s Your Target Audience? Prospects Existing Business Investors Find Your Voice Business Community Stakeholder Post Current Relevant Content Use Applications to Pull Your SM together Push traffic to your website Engage your community Create “Super Fans” 30
45. Using FacebookAnalytics and Advertising Insights – Detailed real-time demographics Advertising – VERY targeted pay-per-click schedules Link other Fan Pages - Favorites 33
46. Facebook – The Good News Business and Community Use is Growing Exponentially You can separate your personal from your professional persona It matters in SEO 34
51. Building profiles Education and expertise Clients you have worked with Full contact information Link/address to Twitter page Link to your website Slideshare “Slidespace” Membership groups (groups joined) Upcoming and past events Upcoming sales trips (as events) 39
52. Building your contact list and your connections Inventory contacts associated with past deals Inventory industry specific contacts As a team, set territories Import lists into Outlook Import contacts from Outlook into LinkedIn Write a personalized invitation – keep it simple. Send invitations to those you know well en masse Work your 1st degree connections to gain introductions to others on your list 40
53. More LinkedIn Tips Build new GROUPS and connect with GROUPS Participate in DISCUSSIONS Build a Company Profile for your organization FOLLOW Companies – Existing and Prospects Ask for RECOMMENDATIONS and INTRODUCTIONS Remember – this in NOT your online Roladex. It’s your opportunity to inform, influence and ENGAGE your network. (and their friends) 41
59. 47 Where Does Twitter “Fit In” Link sharing, not trite sharing Offer twitter feeds to chamber members Search twitter to see if existing companies in your community are tweeting Start conversations on Twitter- e.g., does anyone know which skills their employees need and aren’t found in X. Celebrate newsworthy events
62. 50 A Word About Followers Its not how many, its who Look for people to follow who have more followers than they are following Beware of ‘someone’ with very little followers and lots of people they are following. This = spam Check this out- http://twittercounter.com
64. 52 How… http://www.ehow.com/how_4613303_twitter-background.html Step 1 Create a Twitter account. If you haven’t gotten around to signing up for Twitter yet, what are you waiting for? Go to twitter.com and sign up for an account. If you need a little more help, read How to Set Up a New Twitter Account in the resources below. Step 2 Decide what type of image you want to portray. Part of the difficulty in setting the correct background is deciding what you want your Twitter page design to say about you. Many folks take any image or graphic and upload it to their Twitter account without much thought. Take some time to come up with something that speaks of your style, taste and personality. Step 3 Consider the screen real estate. The important information to be viewed on Twitter occurs in the center of the page. No matter how many images or sayings you have on your background, the center of the screen belongs to Twitter. Therefore you have to create a background that gives Twitter center stage. Step 4 Go large. Larger images and/or graphics reduce the necessity for tiling an image. It gives the appearance of one large background specifically made for Twitter. Try starting with an image as large as 1600 x 1200.
65. 53 How… Step 5 Remember that all screen resolutions are not the same. The smaller the screen resolution, the lower the likelihood of your image will have to repeat. In other words, if you elect to use an image that has a flower located to the extreme left of the screen, on a lower resolution screen (800 x 600 for instance), the flower displays once. A screen with a resolution of say 2048 x 1536, the flower will display tiled on the screen several times. Step 6 Think about using a border. When creating an image, remember that a small portion of the top of the screen is dedicated to the Twitter logo and user navigation. It’s a little easier on the eyes if the design included a boarder over which the Twitter logo and navigation could sit without having to fight against a busy background. Step 7 Upload your image to Twitter. Once you’ve played around with the image, upload it to Twitter to see how it looks. Log onto your account. Click “Design” found under the “Settings” tab. Once on the design screen click “change background image.” Once you upload your image, check it out to see if you like it. If you don’t you can change it or use one of the Twitter default images until you come up with something you like.
74. 27% 65+Balanced by income/education Wireless connectivity is a big driver 13 hours uploaded every minute 65,000 videos uploaded per day Source: Pew Institute
82. Upload all of your videos to YouTube, and embed Produce or record videos Check format, file size, and length. Offer multiple formats (e.g., mov, mpeg, mp4) Include meta data, keywords, etc. in video titles Use one video per URL Enable comments Autoshare with various social media networks Embed them in your website Send to partners to embed in their websites 62
83. Establish a YouTube channel for your community A place for all of your community’s videos Can include multiple organizations in your community, such as economic development, tourism, workforce, and more Develop a profile Invite others to subscribe Subscribe to other channels Solicit comments 63
88. Social Media Tactics for Recruitment/Retention 68 Build each BDR’s LinkedIn network of past deals, site selectors and local brokers, and prospects Build industry-specific networks of prospects and past deals according to each BDR’s industry focus Seed those relationships with the following content regularly Slide share presentations of new data Virtual familiarization tours Other events www.slideshare.com
89. Social Media Metrics Not mature yet- things like; Return on Conversation Followers Impressions There are a few things which you can and should do Monitor what’s being said about your community Measure the numbers Regularly go back to the strategy
90. Social Media Metrics Some interesting metric tools- Compete.com Google Alerts Xinureturns.com Bit.ly search.twitter.com Twittercounter.com
94. Wrap up 74 Social media extends the reach and influence of you and your organization. It allows you to reach and connect with people/companies in much deeper ways than has been possible with traditional ‘marketing’. By cutting through the confusion on focusing on the right tactics, you can save time. It can be done for low or no cost (other than the currency of time).