Social Media Strategy, Facebook & Twitter 101, Content & Management Tips

1. Welcome to
Social Media
Bootcamp #wm smug
Sponsored by the
W&M Social Media Users Group (SMUG)

2. The Plan
• Social Media Strategy
• Facebook Basics
• Twitter Basics
• Content Tips & General Advice
• ...plus lots of breaks and questions

4. "If you don't know where
you're going, any road will
get you there.”
(paraphrase of) The Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland
(via Susan Evans, mStoner)

5. Who are you trying to
connect with?
Answering this question first
will help guide everything else
General Public Current Students Alumni
Prospective Students Parents Peer Organizations

6. Where is your target audience?
• 2/3 of all internet
users use social
networking sites
• 83% of ages 18-29

7. What are your goals for
using social media?
Engage and connect with your audience
Humanize & give personality to your organization
Generate brand awareness
Publicize events and promotions
Disseminate important information quickly

8. What are users looking for
on social media?
Interesting Updates Show Brand Loyalty
People want to share 58% Like a business’
cool stuff with their Facebook Page because
friends, family & peers they are a customer
Source: adage.com
Customer Service Rewards
47% of users engage in 57% want to receive
customer service via discounts and promotions
social media Source: adage.com
Source: brandwatch.com

9. Is your audience
on social media?
Do your social media goals
line up with your audience’s?
If so...

10. Choose your tool...wisely
Not all online messaging tools are the same
≠ ≠ ≠
You must tailor your strategy and message
for each platform, its strengths and its audience

11. Questions?
(followed by a 5 minute break)
During the break maybe try and write down...
Who is your target audience
What goals do you want to achieve
with social media?
What information do you have to share
that’s unique and interesting?

12. Basics

13. The driving force of Facebook
News feed is a regularly updating list of
stories from friends, pages, and other
connections, like groups and events. People
can like or comment on what they see.
Each person’s news feed is personalized*
based on their interests and the sharing
activity of their friends.
* A ranking algorithm (known as EdgeRank) is used
to selectively show what it determines is most relevant to you,
not all posts appear in the News Feed.

14. Profile
• Used for real people*
• User controls what
information is public or
private
• Must friend the
person to see the
majority of information
and posts
* Avoid creating fake accounts - they violate Facebook’s
usage policy and can be deleted at any time

15. Group
• For small group
communication around a
common interest
• Open, closed or secret
• Members and/or
admins can share
updates, photos and
documents
• Members notified of
updates, if under 5,000
members can send email
• A Facebook account is
required to see any
content

16. Page
• Organizations,
businesses, celebrities
and brands
• Anyone can like a page,
will get updates in their
news feed
• Managed by one or more
administrators who can
post, like, comment and
share as the page
• All posts are public,
users do not have to log
in to see your page

17. Which should you use?*
Page Group
*In most cases...as always, there are some exceptions

18. Choosing a Name
for your Page
Choose wisely and type carefully...
Facebook doesn’t allow you to change
your name once you’ve set it
(without jumping through a lot of hoops)
Try to include “William & Mary” or “W&M”
in your Page Name (not “William and Mary” or “WM”)

19. Pick a username
Page URL:
Page Name:
William & Mary http://www.facebook.com/
pages/William-Mary-Creative-
Creative Services Services/123456789098765
Go To: http://www.facebook.com/username
http://www.facebook.com/wmcreative
• Provides an easier to read (and remember) URL
• Need 25 fans to set username.You can change it once.
• Try to use the same username across social media sites
• Include “wm” at the beginning or end if possible

20. Page Cover
Profile Cover Photo
851 x 315px
Photo
160 x 160px
Page Name
About Section Views & Apps

21. Timeline
Posts by Page Posts by Others
Likes by Page

22. Types of Page Posts
(Highlighted) Photo post
Post (with Link)
Milestone
(Pinned) Event

23. Tagging other Pages in a Post
• Type @ followed by
the name of the page
• Creates a link to that
page
• Post appears on the
tagged page’s activity
stream
• Provides publicity
for you and that page

24. User Interactions
with a Post
more
Share
weight in FB EdgeRank
Comment user effort
Like
Click
less

25. Threaded and Ranked
Comments

26. Admin Panel
Comments and likes on
your posts, wall posts Direct private
from others messaging

27. Admin Panel Edit About Section
Allow posting,
tagging &
messaging by
others
Check for
miscategorized
spam
Act as the page
on the rest of
Facebook

28. Of course FB will be
changing this soon...

29. Facebook Strengths
1 billion
active monthly users Post appears in
News Feed
Easy to interact
Generates likes,
Visually comments, shares
focused

30. Questions?
(followed by a 10-15 minute break)
During the break maybe peruse
your organization’s Facebook Page...
Fill in your About section
Update your cover photo
Pin or highlight a post
Add a milestone
Skim through your Activity Log

31. @username list
retweet
tweet
follow
#hashtag
140 characters
Twitter Basics

32. Twitter is...
“...like being delivered a newspaper whose
headlines you always find interesting - you
can discover news as it’s happening, learn
more about topics that are important to you,
and get the inside scoop in real time.”
-How is [Twitter] Useful? twitter.com

33. Your Username/Handle *
@ wm_creative
http://www.twitter.com/ wm_creative
• Uniquely identifies you on Twitter
• Fewer than 15 characters
• Only letters, numbers and underscore “_”
• Cannot contain “admin” or “Twitter”
* Again, for official accounts, try to include “wm”
either at the beginning or end of the handle

34. Your “Real” Name *
Username @wm_creative
Name WM Creative Services
• Displayed on your profile page & elsewhere
• Does not have to be unique
• Fewer than 20 characters
* For official accounts, try to include W&M (not WM).
If you don’t have room, mention it in your bio.

35. Twitter profile page
Profile photo
81 x 81px
160 char bio
Mention W&M
and “official”
if applicable
Header Location and
photo website
520 x 260px

36. What’s a Tweet?
Your post on Twitter in
140 characters (or less)
Text only
With a photo
or video
With a link
(some with “Twitter Cards”)

37. Following along
Your (@wmsquirrel’s)
Timeline
@common_squirrel’s
Timeline

38. Lists
A curated group of Twitter users
W&M has two public Twitter lists:
Official-ish and Unofficial

39. Lists
A curated group of Twitter users

40. Time to interact
@mention @reply
Public tweet, seen by all of your
followers in their timelines
Only seen by those who follow both
you and the user you’re replying to
Direct Message (DM)
Private message
between two users

41. Retweet (RT)
Web Retweet (via twitter.com)
Manual Retweet (using RT) Retweet with comment (and mention)

42. #hashtags
• # followed by any
word or phrase
(no spaces)
• Used to categorize
tweets, appear in
searches
• Use capital letters to
differentiate words
• Research before use
Official W&M Hashtag list:
www.wm.edu/hashtags

43. Twitter Strengths
Real-time information
Concise communication
Trackable and theme-driven
using hashtags and search

44. Questions?
(followed by a 10-15 minute break)
During the break maybe look around on Twitter...
Upload a header photo or background
Search for Twitter users and hashtags in your field
Create a Twitter list
Subscribe to W&M’s Twitter lists

45. Now that you’re familiar
with the tools...

46. Start by listening
Listening will help you...
• Understand your
audience (and what
they’re saying about you)
• Learn what your
audience likes
• Use social media as a
conversation not a
broadcast tool
Open Your Ears, Ma’ayan Plaut

47. ...and collaborating

48. What interesting, useful
and relevant information do
you have to share?

49. Content Tips
• Provide some benefit in exchange for
users’ attention
• Ask meaningful questions
• Stay on topic, relate each post back to
your organization or institution in some way
• Use a conversational tone, social media is
not a formal platform

50. Photos
• Photos do not have to be
professionally done,
just a well-taken photo
(in focus, etc.)
• Rotate banner photos
with events, seasons
• Caption all images to
provide context,
attribution
View of the Wren Yard and Sunken Garden
via @william_and_mary Instagram

51. Event Publicity
• Create a Facebook Event
(rough RSVP count, questions)
• Offer insiders’ information
(e.g. early ticket access)
• Provide behind the scenes
photos, videos and stories
• Promote a hashtag, put it
everywhere
• During and after the event,
save activity in Storify

52. Facebook Contests
• Must release Facebook from any affiliation
with the promotion
• Do not involve native Facebook actions
(like, comment, share)
• Use a third party app for the contest
For more details: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2013/02/15/guest-post-
in-2013-many-businesses-are-still-running-illegal-contests-on-facebook/

53. Create a Content Calendar
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Campus Announce a Update Throwback Follow
Event contest cover photo Friday #FF
Facebook Facebook Facebook
Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter

54. Before hitting “Send”
• Don’t say anything online you wouldn’t want
permanently recorded and associated
with your organization
• Be just as courteous and respectful online
as in person (no vulgarities, etc.)
• Always pause, reread, and check your
facts, grammar, and tone

55. Do not engage the trolls
troll (pron.: /ˈtroʊl/, /
ˈtrɒl/) Often the community will
someone who posts self-correct and self-police
inflammatory,
extraneous, or off-topic
messages in an online
community...with the
primary intent of
provoking readers into an
emotional response or of
otherwise disrupting
normal on-topic discussion.
Courtesy of wikipedia.com

56. Don’t let spam accumulate
Comments Photos Posts by Others
Recommendations Twitter Followers
What constitutes spam?
Off topic, with no attempt to mention
or reference your organization or field
Refer to the
Selling or promoting products/ventures W&M Comment Policy
(with no relation or reference to your www.wm.edu/
organization or field) social-media-comment-policy
Inflammatory, derogatory, profane,
duplicate...

57. Profile Images
• Create a square image (don’t rely on auto-cropping)
• Choose something that uniquely identifies your
organization (avoid using just a W&M mark) *
Photo of your staff, building, subject area
• Select something that will be recognizable when
shown as a tiny square image
* Can use an existing logo if you have it, but do not create
something new, new visual identity guidelines will be coming soon

58. Focus your efforts

59. When cross-posting: Customize

60. How will people find you?
Via your website
Like/Follow
Similar/relevant accounts
Share/Retweet
Updates from others
W&M Social Media
Directory Tag/Mention
@williamandmary
Hashtag
#wmgrad

61. Updating your website?
Make your content social
• Create content your audience wants to share
• Use a catchy headline that can be part of a post
• Include a photo or video on your page
• Include a Share Bar on your page
For more: Make Content More Social

62. Who is your
“social media person”?
• Designate someone who is responsible for
(and has time for) updating, monitoring and
maintaining the accounts
• Should have the permission/authority to
speak on behalf of your organization
• Make sure there’s one other person with
access to the accounts for backup

63. Managing Your
Social Media Time
At minimum...
30 minutes 5 minutes
once a week twice a day
to plan posts to monitor page and
answer questions
Can schedule posts with Facebook, HootSuite or TweetDeck
but be prepared for conversations daily

64. When will you post
(and how often)?
At minimum...
1x 3x
per week per week
When is your audience most active online?
Try different times of day and days of the
week to find what works best

65. How will you determine success?
~9,000 students, faculty & staff
90,418 active alumni
Set measurable & realistic goals
Attract X new fans or followers
Get Y comments, retweets or shares on your posts
Increase website traffic from social media by Z%
Success will not happen overnight, but if you don’t track something,
you’ll never know how you’re doing.

66. It’s not all about the numbers
100 > 10,000
dedicated & indifferent
engaged users followers
Create interesting & engaging posts
that people want to share,
and they will generate publicity for you

67. Thank You
Tiffany Broadbent Beker
tlbroa@wm.edu or @tb623
Creative Services
creative@wm.edu or @wm_creative