6 social media mistakes you can avoid
TRANSCRIPT
Genevieve Howard, M EdStrategic Communications Associate II
College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
University of Missouri
Time for reflectionWhere are you now?
How would you like to improve your social media presence?
Source: “Mirror baby” Creative Commons license via Wikimedia Commons
Not knowing your audience
What is your audience like?
• Practice social listening. What are your clients saying? What do they read? What are they tweeting and retweeting?
• Check your own stats. What gets the most response?
Is your audience valuable?
Image source: Dale Speaking
Is your audience on the phone?
• Almost half of all farmers in the U.S. now use a smartphone, a huge increase from 2010, where farmer smartphone usage was at 10%.
• Customize mobile content for your users.
Stat Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140419164303-98038761-rural-goes-mobile
Image source: United Soybean Board
Know your audience
• What are they like?
• What do they believe in?
• When do they use social media?
• What kind of device do they use for access?
Posting without purpose
What is your purpose?
• What is different about your brand?
• What benefit do people get from associating with you?
How does social media fit?
• How does social media work with your bigger communication strategy?
• Renting (social media) vs. owning (website).
Image source: United Soybean Board
Post with purpose
• Entertain
• Educate
• Inspire
• Promote
Spreading yourself too thin
So many!
Image Source: By Chuckupd [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons
Choose your channel
Choose how you’ll
interact
Start small
Image Source: By donwhite84 [Public domain] Creative Commons license
(You can always add more later.)
Not using an editorial calendar
A calendar will focus your efforts.
Source: donut_p, Creative Commons license
Broad
• Rough idea week to week
Specific
• Actual wording and images for each post, who will post, time to schedule, who will monitor
Timely content to consider
• Prepare for your big times of the year.
• Do you have annual events?
• Do you have milestones to celebrate?
Annual Event examples
• Early promo: social media header
• Boats being built
Sneak peeks(Behind the scenes)
• Boats to look for
During the event: live-tweeting
• I visited with boat makers ahead of time for boat names and Twitter handles.
During the event: live-tweeting
• More than 100 tweets in three hours in 2014.
Post-event
• Social media header
Milestone examples
Missing opportunities
to get seen
Make your bio count
Include:
• Details on your type of business.
• A tone that matches your audience.
• Keywords for your industry.
• Appealing photos.
No header photo
With a header photo
With a header photo
Similar header on Facebook
Make your social media easy to find
Include in your:
• Website
• Email signature
• Blog
• Conference banners and displays
• Business cards
Website examples
Business card
Source: BorceMarkoski, Creative Commons license
Use interesting photos in your posts!
• Photos accounted for 75% of content posted by Facebook pages worldwide.
• Photos get more retweets on Twitter.
• Some social media properties are photo-only: Pinterest and Instagram.
Source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/photos-generate-engagement-research/
Entertaining
Educational
Inspiring
Promotional
Stay visible
• Use all available space!
• Offer engaging images.
Not keeping up with changes
Intense rate of change
Invest time to know trends
• Follow comparable accounts
• Know the influencers
• Read social media news
My personal toolbox
genevievehoward.com/tools/
(Please note that these are simply provided as a resource; none are endorsed by CAFNR or the University).
In conclusion
1. Know your audience
2. Post with purpose
3. Focus on the few properties you can feed
4. Develop a useful editorial calendar
5. Use visuals everywhere you can: bio & posts
6. Keep up with changes
Thank you!Genevieve Howard, M Ed