learn to run online efforts like an all star kansas city business journal

This was printed from Kansas City Business Journal

SOCIAL MEDIA MATTERS

Learn to run online efforts like anall-star

Premium content from Kansas City Business Journal by Kate McKinney andKiran Ross, Contributing Writers

Date: Friday, July 13, 2012, 5:00am CDT

Related:

Technology, Social Networking

You may have heard about the Kansas City Social Media Command Center organizedfor Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. We watched their work with a keeneye. And we couldn’t help but think of the important business lessons their effortsprovide.

The Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association , the mayor’s office, H&R BlockInc., Barkley and the Social Media Club of Kansas City worked to create thecommand center team. About 50 volunteers worked in shifts, monitoring socialmedia platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, welcoming visitors and answeringquestions and comments from visitors and locals alike. They also helped officialskeep tabs on traffic, transit, parking and other issues.

So, what lessons can you apply to your business from the KC Social Media CommandCenter?

1. Don’t monitor only the social media platforms you use. Monitor the entireInternet: Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, blogs, Instagram, message boards, reviewsites. The command center primarily used Twitter and Facebook but kept an eye onFoursquare and Instagram to welcome visitors and share great KC images.

2. Be thoughtful in the keywords you monitor. Just as the command centermonitored the #KC hashtag on Twitter, you obviously will want to monitor theInternet and social media platforms for your company or brand name. But you alsoneed to think about the words that people use in natural conversation about yourbusiness, products and industry.

Joe Cox is director of social media at Barkley, past president of the Social Media Clubof Kansas City and one of the command center organizers. He said “this was actuallythe biggest challenge and took the most time. ... We’ve used software like Spiral16to build out groups of keywords that link the All-Star Game with Kansas City,

Learn to run online efforts like an all-star - Kansas City Business Journal http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/print-edition/2012/07/13/learn-to-...

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attempting to gather the most relevant information possible.”

3. Use tools for efficient monitoring of the Internet. The command center team usedpaid applications such as Radian6 and Spiral16 to monitor and manage work flow. Italso used free applications such as TrendsMap and Visible Tweets. Additional freetools you might consider for your business include Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Facebooknotifications and Google Alerts.

4. Be ready for marketing and customer service. When using social media, don’twear marketing blinders. Be prepared to use social media as a customer service toolas well.

The command center had two teams working during the event. The Visitor Servicegroup responded to requests and questions (customer service). The KC Brand teamcurated Kansas City- and All-Star Game-related content, proactively pushing out theteam’s message and even surprising people with giveaways of All-Star Game gear,shopping gift cards and Schlitterbahn passes (marketing).

5. Have a plan before you start. What are the most frequently asked questionsabout your business offline? Prepare to answer them online as well.

Command center organizers “prepared playbooks for all volunteers so that they hadvery quick access to a number of resources about transportation, parking, places toeat, emergency information, etc.,” explained Cox.

In addition to volunteer on-staff experts, the command center reached out for helparound the city. “We [had] ‘lifelines’ throughout the city with many partners,” Coxsaid. Be sure to leverage all of the experts in your business, too — don’t rely solelyon your marketing staff to provide information and responses via social media.

6. Avoid typical “marketing speak.” It’s more than OK to have real conversations onsocial media platforms. The command center team did not prepare or use “stockanswers” despite repeat questions. Team members were given direction on how toanswer but allowed to use their voice in their responses. Each volunteer “signed”tweets with initials to give responses a personal feel, highlighting the differentpersonalities and experts in the group.

7. Respond to negative comments but don’t “feed the trolls.” Trolls are Internettroublemakers who complain just for the sake of stirring the pot and riling up others.Not all of the #KC comments were positive (though most appeared to be). And notall of the comments on social media platforms about your business will be positive,either. Resist the temptation to ignore or delete these comments.

If a comment was negative out of frustration, the command center team reachedout and attempted to help however possible, trying to turn negative experiences intopositive ones. If the comment was negative just for the sake of being negative, theteam just moved on rather than engage in a debate about someone’s opinion. Coxsaid “our goal is to help improve people’s experiences here in KC so we ‘never feedthe trolls.’”

As your company moves to use social media to support business goals, keep your


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eyes on how others use the space to their advantage. You don’t need to replicateanother organization’s efforts but learn from their successes and mistakes. TheKansas City Social Media Command Center was limited in time and scope but canserve as a simple and very useful example for your business.

Kate McKinney and Kiran Ross own K2Media and write a column for theKansas City Business Journal. Email them at info@k2mediakc. Followthem on Twitter or friend them on Facebook.


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learn to run online efforts like an all star kansas city business journal

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