online resources for neighborhood councils - website, emails, facebook and twitter

making the most of

Online ResourcesOnline Resources

Doug FitzsimmonsCongress of NCs • 24 September 2011

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yesyour stakeholders are online

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Although maybe not in the ways you expect.

A smartphone seems expensive, but for a lot of people, itʼs a cheap way to get online.Mobile is the future.

this is about two things:

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maximizing your reach

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Reality is that we have limited time and resources.Knocking on doors is still the gold standard...but unsustainable.Flyers/print newsletters: expensive, time-insensitive, and go right in the trashEvents: great introduction, but not long term engagement

and building your brand

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Your brand is:the perceived value and expectations your constituents have for youbased on reputation, public interactions, projected image, general awareness, etc.

Speak with one voiceProject a unified imageand listen, listen, listen.

first, we build the platform

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As weʼll talk about, each serves a different purposebut they overlap

websiteemailfacebooktwitter

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There are others--I wish it were easier for NCs to set up a text message campaign--but this is your core. Maybe in two years weʼll be talking about Google+, or something entirely different. Itʼs important that you remain flexible and opportunistic.

who posts?

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editor-in-chief vs. authorized writers

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Your worst-case scenario: a free-for-all. You can delete and edit after, but nothing really ever goes away on the internet.

Either of these scenarios is workable. assuming you have:

clear editorial policyrole of editor(un)acceptable postswhere to post whatgeneral tonewhat works

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Can the editor kill a post? How extensively can he/she edit?Acceptable might include meeting updates, info posts, etc.Unacceptable might mean only NC area stuff, no unapproved issue advocacySome channels work better than others as we’ll seeDon’t forget that for some channels like email, you may not want to send too frequently.

a word about the

brown act

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Yes, itʼs woefully behind the times, butserial meeting rules still apply onlineand itʼs trickier because they are absolutely counter to the way we all use the internet

As youʼll see, this will shape our decisions.

the basic repository

website

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How many of you have websites for your NC?How many of you actively update your website?

Itʼs tough. And hopefully yours is built in such a way so that you CAN update it without calling in the nerds.But we can use other tools to keep it lively, as youʼll see.

best for:overview of your NCin-depth infoNC resources & archives

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We should think of the site as the fullest expression of what your NC is and does. The fullest expression of your brand, in other words.

You should always design your site around your user. If someone who knew nothing about NCs (let alone your NC) were to come to the site, how many clicks would it take for them to learn? What about other valuable content, like community information, or even meeting agendas?

not so good for:building communityurgent updates

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Any idea why itʼs not great for updates? Right, because you have to ask people to go there--and keep reminding them.

Donʼt worry. weʼll use other sites for community.

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I’m going to use the SORO stuff because I’m lazy.

Too much to go into here, but remember:design from your user’s perspectivemake it easy to update (and do it often)understand that it has to change.make use of the tools out there: Google apps, third-party widgets, etc.

the delicate dance

email

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So misunderstood. So abused. Email is your most visible channel, so treat it with respect.

Once you flagged in spam filters, itʼs REALLY hard to recover.

best for:regular high-value contentimportant alertstargeted communications

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Email is in your face. Itʼs an obligation.

So send, but not too frequently! Maybe once a week for the whole list.

Opt-in, targeted emails are different

not so good for:frequent messagingless-essential content

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Both will kill your email list instantly.

CAN-SPAM rules are best practices and the law. Meeting them is essential (unsubscribe link, double opt-in, etc.)

You are always better off exceeding them.

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You MUST use a reputable bulk email service. (Constant Contact, MailChimp, TinyLetter)

MailChimp is free for lists under 2,000 subscribers if you send less than 12,000 emails a month.

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It’s easy to use and has templates you can modify. You can even brand the site if you’re crazy.

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Send to segments of your lists. the site has great control, including handling unsubscribes, bounces, and an embeddable sign-up form.

You can also set up automatic emails to segments of your lists if you’re fancy.

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Track performance--which is critical. The biggest factor in increasing open rates is your email subject line. You can actually split your list to test open rates for two different subject lines.

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Another cool thing: integrates with SurveyMonkey

the 900lb. gorilla

facebook

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Look, if you do one thing, do Facebook.

This is where the action is. 800 million people. 50% log in at least once a day. Avg user has 130 friends they share with, and are linked to 80 community pages, groups and events.

And things are changing rapidly. Who here is ticked about the latest changes?

pages vs. groups

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Groups are going away, but still have purposes. Just be careful of Brown act issues if you do use them.

best for:frequent updatescommunity buildingpolling & eventspulling the pieces together

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Again, though updates have to be valuable. People only share things they find interesting.

Facebook has the ability to aggregate the content from other sources, as weʼll see.

not so good for:posts that need a shelf-lifein-depth information

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Hopefully the latest changes in FB will help with the disappearing post issue: right now things scroll away.

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Consider using FB apps to extend your page.

For example, Facebook pages can automatically send to twitter, but not the other way round---unless you use an app like RSS Graffiti or SelectiveTweets

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Definitely take advantage of FB’s own social plugins (widgets) on your website, like activity feed, live stream, and the like button. You want to cross-pollinate as much as possible.

Last word on Facebook: be active.

the upstart

twitter

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Funny calling Twitter the upstart. Theyʼve been around for a while. And theyʼre popular: somewhere over 225 million accounts and 140 million tweets a day.

best for:very frequent updatesinstant responsesshort thoughts

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Many people use Twitter as a scrolling news feed, picking out things of interest and sharing with their followers.

Tweets are limited to 140 characters, so use them as a way to point to other info.

You can also use on-the-fly categories called hashtags to segment content. Weʼll see that in a second.

Most importantly, Twitter is extremely popular on cellphones. And thatʼs someplace you want to be.

not so good for:important information

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Like Facebook, posts disappear quickly.

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We use Twitter as a great way to get the word out about city and non-profit events, things we support but aren’t directly involved in.

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And here’s a cool thing: we use those hashtags -- like #sorosafety, #sorogreen, #soroevents to send dynamic content directly into the relevant pages.

last thought:

be active,be interesting

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Itʼs easy to get caught up in NC-speak that BH was talking about. Write for a general audience, using inviting language.My rule of thumb: would my mom click on this?

dougfitzsimmons@soronc.org

soronc.orgfacebook.com/soronctwitter.com/soronc

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Thanks, and we can talk more in the panel discussion or after the session.