Strategic use of social media can help your organization tap into enthusiast communities and open up access to your collections and expertise. In this session, learn how to select and use the right social platforms for your target audience, topic, and available resources. We’ll discuss how to leverage free tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, and Google Hangouts to connect with today’s audiences and engage them in meaningful conversations about your work.
This presentation was given as a webinar, part of the Connecting to Collections series on Outreach activities for small museums and libraries. You can watch the webinar and access other materials here:
http://www.connectingtocollections.org/courses/outreach-activities-for-collections-care/
Engaging Audiences with Social Media: Outreach Activities for Collections Care
1. Connecting to Collections: Outreach Activities for Collections Care
Engaging Audiences with Social Media
Presented by Dana Allen-Greil
November 14, 2013
2. By the end of this webinar you will be able to:
3. By the end of this webinar you will be able to:
Set Goals
Articulate goals
for social media
efforts
Select Platforms
Select a social
channel that
matches your
audience and
goals
Create Content
Begin planning
for social
content
development
Evaluate
Assess the
performance of
your social
media efforts
4. By the end of this webinar you will be able to:
Set Goals
Articulate goals
for social media
efforts
Select Platforms
Select a social
channel that
matches your
audience and
goals
Create Content
Begin planning
for social
content
development
Evaluate
Assess the
performance of
your social
media efforts
5. By the end of this webinar you will be able to:
Set Goals
Articulate goals
for social media
efforts
Select Platforms
Select a social
channel that
matches your
audience and
goals
Create Content
Begin planning
for social
content
development
Evaluate
Assess the
performance of
your social
media efforts
6. By the end of this webinar you will be able to:
Set Goals
Articulate goals
for social media
efforts
Select Platforms
Select a social
channel that
matches your
audience and
goals
Create Content
Begin planning
for social
content
development
Evaluate
Success
Assess the
performance of
your social
media efforts
7. Benefits
Things to Consider
Takes time
Free/inexpensive
Requires skill in
Easy to use, does not require communications and
writing
technical knowledge
Large potential audience
Easily shared
Gets picked up by search
engines
Not housed on your
website (unless you put it
there)
Your audience may not be
there
8. 1. SET GOALS
What outcomes are you hoping to achieve with social media?
9. Social media is active
Show
Share
Connect
Discuss
Interact
Build
community
Publish
Crowdsource
Collaborate
Co-create
Empower
Mentor
10. What do you
want to do
with social
media?
Open access to
collections and
expertise
Brand your staff as
experts
Keep fans updated on
progress
Build excitement about
an event or exhibition
Tap into enthusiast
communities
Bring people behind
the scenes
Engage audiences in
meaningful
conversations
Ask for feedback
Encourage audiences
to take action
11.
12. Who do you want to reach?
Volunteers
Local
community
Researchers
Teachers
History buffs
Youth
Potential
donors
20. Phases of engagement
Reach is about making a first connection with new audiences
or connecting with existing audiences on new channels
• Where will you go to find your audience?
• How will you use your assets to connect with the audience on this platform?
Source: Digital engagement in culture, heritage, and the arts (2013)
21. Phases of engagement
Engagement is about strengthening existing relationships.
• What can you offer to keep your audiences interested?
Source: Digital engagement in culture, heritage, and the arts (2013)
22. Phases of engagement
Engagement is also about entering into a value exchange with your audience.
• How will you invite audiences to participate?
• What will you ask them to do?
Source: Digital engagement in culture, heritage, and the arts (2013)
23. Phases of engagement
Engagement is also about turning fans into advocates for your organization.
• How will you activate your fans and encourage them to share their enthusiasm for
your organization with others?
Source: Digital engagement in culture, heritage, and the arts (2013)
33. Facebook
Images, video, links, conversations
Twitter
Short form info, live discussions (use hashtags), links
Pinterest
Images (with links back to your site), videos
Instagram
Photos, videos
Tumblr
Shareable images and quotes
Vine
Short (6 seconds) video
Google+
Live video Hangouts, improving search rankings
Reddit
Ask Me Anything
34. Percent of Internet Users Who Use:
0
20
40
60
80
Any social networking site
67
Facebook
100
67
Twitter
16
Pinterest
15
Instagram
Tumblr
13
6
Source: ―The Demographics of Social Media Users,‖ Pew Internet (2013)
35. Platform
This platform is especially appealing to:
Any Social Networking Site
Adults ages 18-29, women
Facebook
Adults ages 18-29, women
Twitter
Adults ages 18-29, African Americans, urban
residents
Pinterest
Women, adults under 50, whites, those with
some college education
Instagram
Adults ages 18-20, African
Americans, Latinos, women, urban residents
*and teens!
Tumblr
Adults ages 18-29
*and teens!
Source: ―The Demographics of Social Media Users,‖ Pew Internet (2013)
37. What kind of content do you have to share?
Mostly
images
Are they
already
on your
website?
Yes
Mixed
Mostly
video
Do they
already
exist?
No, I am taking
new photos
Yes
No, I am creating
new short videos
(images,
links,
discussion)
Do you
want to
reach…
The widest
possible
audience
A niche or
enthusiast
audience
40. Identifying content opportunities
What existing assets can be repurposed? What new content needs to be created?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Images
Video
Blog posts
News articles
Access to experts
Links to your website
Quotes
Questions and prompts
41. Photos perform best on Facebook
Photo posts typically receive
120% more engagement on
Facebook
61. Types of Content We All Love
• Makes us laugh (or happy)
– The internet loves clever
• Teaches us how to do something very specific
– Tutorials, actionable advice
• Reveals ―secrets‖
– Behind the scenes!
• Challenges our assumptions
– Mythbusters
• Visualizes information
– Slideshows, infographics
Source: Gregory Ciotti
62. Thinking about New Content
• What do people want to know? What
motivates them?
• How can you enrich and serve their
questioning?
• How can you develop understanding through
dialogue with people?
63.
64. Match content type to desired action
What do you want fans to do?
Respond
‣ Questions
‣ Fill in the blank
‣ Calls for submissions
(photos/video/text)
‣ Caption contest
Share
‣ Call to action with the
word ―share‖ or ―retweet‖
‣ Request to identify people
/ tag people in photos
‣ Images designed for
sharing
Like
‣ Timely news
‣ Inspirational, moving, or
humorous content
‣ Deadline reminders
65. Facebook best practices
• Short
– 100-250 characters (less than 3 lines) get 60%
more likes comments and shares
• Regular
– 5 x a week
• Encourage interaction
– Questions, fill-in-the-blank (90% more
engagement)
• Call to action
– Include ―share, ―like,‖ etc. in the first 90
characters
Source: Facebook Page Publishing Best Practices
66. Twitter best practices
• Short
– Tweets less than 100 characters get higher
engagement (easier to retweet)
• Frequent
– A few tweets per day, scheduled throughout the day
• Replies and mentions
– Include usernames to reply or mention
• Hashtags
– Include relevant hashtags
• Photos
– Tweets with photos get twice the response
Source: Twitter Best Practices
67. Evenings & Weekends are Key
Content posted later in the day gets
more likes and shares (8pm ET peak)
Content posted on Saturday and
Sunday gets more likes
68.
69. Tip: Schedule your posts
Facebook
Twitter
Note: Must use ads.twitter.com interface
Or use a free 3rd party service such as
HootSuite, Tweetdeck, or Buffer
71. Voice and Tone
• You might want to use the same corporate
voice outlined by your communications
guidelines…or you might not
• What do you want your personality to be?
• How will you maintain consistency across
multiple authors?
72.
73. Use Content Calendars for Efficiency
Pre-planned content frees up time to monitor news & replies
Date
Time
(EST)
Message
Link
11/14
8:40am
Today in 1851: Herman
Melville’s classis, Moby
Dick, is published. Did you
read it in school?
bit.ly/HVgnJM
11/14
6pm
"...a concentrated Beef
Juice...given in either cold
water or milk." The
manufacturer listed
diabetes among more than
16 illnesses Bovinine Beef
was thought to treat. More
on our Diabetes Month
Pinterest board:
bit.ly/18X4sk5
The Gunboat Philadelphia
was built in 1776, sunk
during a naval battle with
the British, and spent over
100 years at the bottom of
Lake Champlain. Today, you
can explore it in 3D.
bit.ly/1aEMbZr
11/14
9pm
Image
Monthly
‣
Include entries for each day
of the month AND for each
platform
‣
Write posts, check character
count, and indicate links
and images to use
Yearly
‣
List relevant holidays and
observations, events and
exhibitions
‣
Identify assets
(e.g., images, video) that
need to be created
74. Roles and procedures
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Who writes/creates?
Who edits?
Who reviews?
Who publishes?
Who monitors comments?
Who responds?
Who evaluates and reports?
75. Consider the content ecosystem
Content can be created
once and deployed
across multiple
platforms.
Tailor the posts for each
channel but keep the
core message the same.
Website
Blog
Google+
Content
Ecosystem
Tumblr
Twitter
Exhibits
Events
Facebook
76. ―In the National Museum of American History, there is a cabinet full
of keys—keys that fit the 73 cars in the automobile collection. Most
are sitting under car covers...but now the covers are coming off!‖
77. A dozen Facebook posts piqued interest prior to the vote, announced
the voting period, and then announced the winners.
78. We used HootSuite to monitor the use of our hashtag
#Race2Museum and other mentions of the initiative on Twitter
81. In addition to traditional television news, we used the museum’s
blog and YouTube account to tell the story of ―moving day.‖
82.
83. Results
3 Weeks the voting period was open
24,000 Public votes received
6.5% Increase in visitation in January and February
53,000+ Pageviews to related blog posts
20,300 Pageviews to vote opening post; most popular
blog post of all time
84. IFTTT (If This Then That, ifttt.com)
Use this tool to syndicate content across platforms
88. Content Analysis
Review performance of posts on a monthly or quarterly basis
Twitter
• Which tweets were the
most:
Facebook
• Which posts were the
most:
Retweeted
Clicked
@Replied
Favorited
• Liked
• Commented
• Shared
•
•
•
•
91. Today’s Document: Key Outcomes
todaysdocument.tumblr.com
• Primary Goals (per strategic
plan):
– Build Awareness and
Appreciation of National
Archives Mission & Holdings
– Public Engagement
• Secondary goals:
– Education
– Improve Access
• Platform Advantages:
– Highly visual – less is more;
easy to curate
– Viral Nature of Reblogs
– Followers bring more
followers, more than any
other SM platform
Source: Darren Cole, Web & Social Media Branch, National Archives and Records Administration, http://www.slideshare.net/danagreil/03-darren-cole
92. Measuring success
Today’s Document Follower Metrics
Tumblr Followers
Avg increase per day
80000
800
70000
700
60000
600
50000
500
40000
400
30000
300
20000
200
10000
100
0
0
Source: Darren Cole, Web & Social Media Branch, National Archives and Records Administration, http://www.slideshare.net/danagreil/03-darren-cole
93. If you have a little ca$h…
Increase reach with inexpensive advertising
Facebook ads
Promoted tweets
Promoted Twitter accounts
94. More tips for social media success
•
•
•
•
•
•
Follow other users
Like and comment on other users’ content
Respond to comments
@mention others in your posts
Use hashtags
Spread out posts (vary day, time of day)
97. Which metric is the most important?
Revisit your goals
• Creating advocates?
– Shares and retweets are your most valuable
metrics
• Engaging in dialogue with a community
– Comments and @replies are most valuable
metrics
• Reach?
– Page likes and followers are most important
metrics
98.
99. By the end of this webinar you will be able to:
Set Goals
Articulate goals
for social media
efforts
Select Platforms
Select a social
channel that
matches your
audience and
goals
Create Content
Begin planning
for social
content
development
Evaluate
Success
Assess the
performance of
your social
media efforts
100. Recommended Resources
1. #musesocial hashtag on Twitter
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23musesocial
2. Engaging Museums blog
engagingmuseums.com
3. Know Your Own Bone blog
colleendilen.com
4. Edgital blog
edgital.org
5. Digital Engagement Framework
digitalengagementframework.com
Photo creditsMount Vernon Instagram (early morning cleaning): http://instagram.com/p/dR3Kr5kU8a/National Archives Instagram
Engagement Engagement is about strengthening existing relationships and entering into a value exchange with your audience.Interest: What can you offer to keep them interested?Involve: How will you invite them to participate?Activate: How can you activate them to become an advocate for your organization?
Engagement Engagement is about strengthening existing relationships and entering into a value exchange with your audience.Interest: What can you offer to keep them interested?Involve: How will you invite them to participate?Activate: How can you activate them to become an advocate for your organization?
We used the Museum’s blog to announce the upcoming public vote. The blog typically gets 25,000 visits a month.
Facebook posts helped pique interest in the automobiles prior to the public vote
The story was picked up by the Washington Post with a half-page of photos and background about the campaign--an earned media slot that would have cost the Museum over $50,000 if purchased through paid media.
On "moving day," several news crews covered the event and the Museum used its YouTube channel to bring visitors behind the scenes from storage facility to final display.“These two vehicles are powerful cars from our past that blew everyone away with their looks and performance,” said curator Roger White. “They are not mainstream vehicles, but they represent the diversity of the museum’s automotive collection, which spans many technological and aesthetic highlights.”
The winning cars, a 1929 Miller Race Car and a 1948 Tucker Sedan, went on display for a limited time to drive traffic to the physical Museum during a traditionally low-visitation period. 6.5% increase equals 19,586 more visitors