Going socialAn introduction to social

media

Amy Rushbyamy.rushby@rsc.org.uk

@amy_rushby

Introduce yourself (name and organisation)

Do you use social media (for pleasure or work)?

What would you like to get out of today?

Welcome

SESSION 1 – Introduction to different platforms and how to decide the best platforms for you

SESSION 2 – Using social media in your wider communications, building and managing a community and tips for Facebook and Twitter best practice

LUNCH!

What we will cover today

SESSION 3 – Evaluating your social media; and crisis management

SESSION 4 – Social media surgery and thinking about your next steps, creating a social media plan / social media campaign for your organisation

What we will cover today…

All things discussed and shared about our organisations throughout the day are to remain confidential

Feel free to write down specific questions for the Social Media Surgery session this afternoon

A request

Session 1: Social Media Platforms

(10.30-11.30am)

Why do you (or your organisation) want to use social media?

What benefits do you think it will bring to your organisation?

Is your organisation using social media already? Is it working for you?

Remember to write down your questions

Discussion – in groups and report back

5 mins!

The social media landscape

Facebook Twitter

Plus a little bit of: YouTube Pinterest Storify Google+

Today we are going to focus on

Be responsive

Be active

Offer a glimpse into life of the company

Be innovative

Be fun

Not “sell, sell, sell”

Be prepared for the unexpected!

The RSC approach to social media

Founded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.

As of December 2013 Facebook had more than one billion monthly active users

A little bit about Facebook (from their website)

Status updates Photo albums Video Polls / questions Check in to places Send messages Chat Organise events Promote special offers Makes suggestions An advertising platform

What does Facebook do?

Facebook Profile – an individual’s page on Facebook, shared with friends and family

Facebook Pages – a business or charity’s page on Facebook. Facebook users can choose to “like” brands, products or organisations and receive regular information from them in their News Feed – let’s take a look at the RSC

Profiles and Pages

Birmingham Royal Ballet

Promo cover image

Key info & Pinterest

“Highlighted” photo album

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG)

Promoting future concert

Feature video and Enews sign up

Connecting with similar Facebook pages

The National Trust

Promoting a competition

Customer service info & custom built app

Lots of posts from NT Facebook community

140 characters! (it’s the perfect copywriting skill!)

Conversational A customer service channel Opportunity to be creative! (and if it doesn’t

work, no one will notice!) People will say what they really think Get to know your customers and audiences

Twitter

Uploaded photo

Mentioned Stan’s Cafe

Used concert hashtag

Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

Birmingham Royal Ballet

Speaking directly to the audience

Conversational tone of voice with added sense of humour

The National Trust

Paid for “promoted tweet”, part of a wider campaign

Uses hashtags and invites tweeters to take part – starts a conversation

Think about how you represent your organisation on social media

Txt spk Emoticons <3 ;-) Shortening URLs – bit.ly (useful for

measuring clicks) Will you use hashtags? #RSCTitus Will you respond over the weekend?

Set clear guidelines

YouTube – video sharing and hosting

Pinterest – sharing images and video from across the web

Storify – creating a “story” through aggregating online content

Google+ - Google’s social platform, incorporating Google Hangouts

Also for your consideration

Drag and drop content from other channels, e.g Twitter. Can embed in websites

Google +

There is a lot of social media platforms to choose from

Easy to set up, but easy to maintain?

Facebook and Twitter are great for reaching the masses, but more niche platforms may also be worth investigating

What will be your priorities?

Conclusions

Think about what you want to achieve? Set SMART objectives

Who is your potential online audience?- What do they use regularly?- Are they creators or passive observers?- What do your audiences / visitors expect?

What do you (realistically) have time and resource to achieve?

Do you have any budget to invest?

Who in your organisation will be involved and how can you convince the people in your organisation that social media is relevant?

Where to start?

What do you feel confident using?

What are your competitors doing?

What platforms suit the media you have access to?

Do you need to present a business case for social media?

Better to do one thing brilliantly, than have your fingers in a lot of pies! SOCIAL MEDIA BURNOUT!

Where do you think you will start?

And other things to consider

Break

Using social media in your wider communications

Building and managing a community

Tips for Facebook and Twitter best practice

Session 2 (12 – 1pm)

Social media is not FREE (although it can be cost effective)

Social media is not a broadcast medium – THINK CONVERSATION

Social media is no longer just for “young people” Good social media practice takes time and experience Not everyone is as interested in social media (so don’t

neglect other comms channels) Integrate social media in to wider campaign planning An organisation cannot be active on all available

platforms

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Things to remember

You don’t need to do it all!

Do one thing well, rather than many things badly!

THINK! And use the right channels for your organisation and audiences

Not everything is going to work

Expect the unexpected

The best social media, is well-thought out, creative and integrated into wider campaign plans

And before we delve further…

Building your community

Build your community

Your quandary

Social media campaign

Launch your channels populated with content

Promote your channels on your website and other marketing materials, e.g. email

How to build your community?

Example: Accessorize emarketing

Invest in Facebook advertising and promoted posts– more later

Post regular, share-able content to generate viral effect

Test, test, test – the more “sharing” the more people are seeing your brand

Building your community

Try to engage your community, figure out what floats their boat

Mix up your media – use photos, video, questions/polls and status updates

Top tip – people find photos and video more engaging than text!

Keep it relevant – is the weather really that engaging?

Don’t be desperate! Pls RT Monitor! Evaluate!

What works (and what doesn’t)?

Understanding Edgerank

http://www.whatisedgerank.com/

Organic vs paid for

http://www.creatingaladdin.com/2013/03/the-top-shots-from-facebook/

Birmingham Royal Ballet

•Post photos in ‘batches’ to gather more interest

•Encourage people to Like their favourite

•Most “liked” featured again in blog post

•“From the wings” photos have proved popular

Sponsored Stories / Promoted Posts

BCMG – January 2012. Targeting “friends of friends” to build following. Targeted countries in Europe

Key interest “contemporary classical music” During campaign (one month), doubled the

number of Likes Cost - £100 RESULT – reach a wider music audience with

BCMG brand – and they are engaged More people on Facebook than enews list

Facebook Ads

A small budget to spend on Facebook can always be helpful – boosts your posts and extends your reach

However, a mini-strategy to boost your posts organically can work almost as well

Use a range of different media

Monitor what works for you

Conclusions

Motionhouse Dance Theatre – The Voyage

What works on Twitter?Motionhouse Dance Theatre – The Voyage

Over 65 pages Twitter comments (from dress rehearsal day –final performance)

Increase in audience engagement through sharing images, films, comments, likes, shares and general interaction across all channels

A number of the findings from the social media campaign for The Voyage were useful for developing a strategy for online communication

The results for Motionhouse

Build a relationship with your audience Customer service Learn to listen and respond An opportunity to be creative Think about how you can make your tweets

go further – example coming up!

On Twitter

Social Media Campaigns

- Good examples- Bad examples- Arts and non-arts

Discussion in groups, and report back – 10 minutes!

VIDEO: PHOTO: COMPETITIONS:QUIZES:FUNNY:SERIOUS

What campaigns have you seen lately on social media?

• The Holy Grail – go viral! Fiat campaign

• Remember that social is part of your wider campaign plan, how can it support or AMPLIFY your message

• Example: Innocent Drinks – BEAT JANUARY

• Online games - quirky, funny and “share-able” BUT relevant, tuned into their audiences – like the Innocent brand

• Backed up by a social media campaign to drive traffic

• Does this campaign drive sales, or is it brand focused?

Digital Campaigns, incorporating social

Cool ideas – think creatively!

The Book of Mormon London Underground poster

Facebook – Tag it to Bag It

Belgrade Theatre

B&Q – 62.5K followers!

Social media Q&As

You are marketing a performing arts festivalHow could you creatively use Facebook and Twitter across the duration of the festival?Your aims are:Encourage local people to visit the festivalCreate a buzz around the festival – before and duringGive the festival an international profile

Before (or during) lunch…activity

Lunch

Evaluating your social media

Crisis management

Session 3 (2 – 3pm)

Evaluating your social media

Love social media because it is measurable – Facebook Insights, Klout, Sprout Social, Google Analytics and more!

Monitor what works and what doesn’t

Who engages with you? Who are you reaching?

Try to instigate regular reporting, in a way that works for you

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Analysis and metrics

Facebook Insights (via your Facebook page)

http://www.a-m-a.co.uk/page.aspx?id=268

AMA ScreenCast – Facebook Insights

Sprout Social

For free trial go to: sproutsocial.com

Your Klout Score

To get your score go to: klout.com

Is this a worthwhile measure?

So, what is it?

How many people are visiting your site from social sites?

How many of these are new visitors? How long do they typically spend on the site? What other pages do they visit? Why not create “tracking links” for individual

campaigns – Google URL Builder (Google it!)

Want to know more? Watch Mary Butlin’s AMA ScreenCast

Google Analytics (or web stats)

Because sometimes bad stuff happens

Crisis Management

What would you do if….

Imagine you manage social media for an organisation and the following situations arise

Discuss in your groups and develop a plan of action – 15 minutes

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Crisis Management: Case Studies

Whilst on tour in USA, a national paper publishes a story about how your production includes the skinning of a dead rabbit. Within 2 hours, animal protestors hijack your Facebook Page, posting comments about the story. Within 4 hours, more than 100 comments have been posted.It’s the weekend, the Comms Director (with no access to Facebook page) is in New York and you are enjoying a weekend away when your line manager calls in a panic.

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Protest groups hijack Facebook Page

At 10am, when tickets go on sale for an eagerly anticipated exhibition, your website immediately crashes. Unable to get through on phones, ticket buyers jump on Facebook and Twitter to loudly complain about the lack of service & ask a range of questions about booking. With the website down for an hour, how would you handle this?

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Website crash!

A new photography exhibition opens at your small town gallery, with some images deemed to be sexually explicit. Locals have jumped on social media to complain about the exhibition. The curator wants you to remove some of the overly negative comments (some being very disparaging towards the artist).How would you respond to this?How would you deal with the negative comments?

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Controversy!

As a high end supermarket your Marketing Director wishes to launch a Twitter campaign asking people to tweet about why they love shopping with you using a hashtag.Upon launching the campaign, Twitter users hijack the hashtag, posting sarcastic tweets about your high end image and the people who shop there. Within 1 hour your hashtag is trending but for the wrong reasons!How would you handle this?

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Hashtag disaster

Social media vigilance Tolerance Clarity about what is and what is not acceptable Familiarity with terms and conditions and

community guidelines Internal communications and have an action plan Expect the unexpected – there’s not one rule for

every Twitter Storm

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What organisations have learnt

Break

Social Media Surgery

Creating your Social Media Action Plan

Session 4 – 3.30 – 5pm

Social Media Surgery

It’s time for your questions:

-Is there anything particular we’ve covered you would like more detail about?

-Is there something we haven’t covered you would like to ask?

-Is there something specific to your organisation you would like to discuss

What is your social media action plan

What are your key objectives? Who will be involved? What channels will you focus on?

Think about what you want to achieve:-Next week-Next month-Next 3 months

Plan out a social media campaign for a forthcoming event, show, concert or exhibition? What are your ideas to take back to the office?

How will you report and measure success?

What potential threats could you encounter when implementing your social media plan?

Social Media Plans

Covered basics of Facebook and Twitter Integrating social media into wider campaign

planning Social media as a communication tool Building your community Crisis management Evaluation and monitoring Social media plans

Summary

AMA webcasts and CultureHive – a-m-a.co.uk and culturehive.co.uk

Chris Unitt’s blog – chrisunitt.co.uk HubSpot – blog.hubspot.com A Younger Theatre – ayoungertheatre.com E-Consultancy – econsultancy.com/uk Lets Get Real –

weareculture24.org.uk/projects/action-research/

Resources