1.The Sherlock Holmes Guide to Social Media Gordon Dymowski Chicago COUNTSSeptember 12, 2010

2.

Better understand how to use social media as a collaborative/engagement channel;

Have some beginning strategies for engaging key audiences in social media;

Develop some rudimentary knowledge of each channel with some tools in place

Have some good first steps towards using social media more strategically

Hopefully, after this presentation you should. 3.

Recognizable figure

Draw numerous conclusions from a few key facts

Focus on observation and deduction

Reminds us that nothing new under the sun

Why Sherlock Holmes? 4. About Gordon

Over ten years experience in non-profit community organizing and engagement offline and online

• Salvation Army

• National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse St Louis MO

• Grace Hill Settlement House

Currently works for Zocalo Group, a word-of-mouth marketing agency

Co-organizer for Chicago Net Tuesday, Volunteer for American Red Cross

5. You see, but you do not observe.

Current social media perception:marketing/PR emphasis,grow the brand go where consumers are talking

Non-Profits:opportunity to use as both broadcast and engagement/collaborative channel

• Way to disseminate information

• Peers, funders, other agencies, are beginning to have presence within social media

6. Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot! Preliminary Thoughts Re: Online Engagement

Any online communication should somehow relate to your mission

Talktopeople online, notatthem be conversational

Investment of time and effort - bring value

Develop & advocate for a formal social media strategy & policy at agency

Dont be a guru/rockstar/ninja be aparticipant

7. All information is useful to the detective

Whos talking?

• Clients

• Potential partner agencies

• Funders

• Potential advocates

Where are they talking?

How are they talking?

What are the gaps & opportunities?

8. A Web With A Thousand Radiations Online Listening & Monitoring Platforms

Several commercial packages for monitoring & listening

Viralheat (lowest cost)

Tattler (open source/Drupal)

Radian 6

Alterian SE

Microsoft Looking Glass

Scout Labs

However, for a much cheaper (but more work intensive) platform

9. What one man can invent another can discover Using RSS Feeds to Monitor

RSS = Really Simple Syndication

Allows blogs & social media sites to spread content

Able to capture content in one place

RSS/Feed Reader Set up in about 1 hour

Google Reader

Netvibes-http://www.netvibes.com

10. Gmail monitoring widget Social Media Monitoring/Engagement Widgets Podcast RSS Feed (with built in player) RSS Feed 11. You know my methods. Apply them. Social Media By Channel 12.

Apply community organizing principles

• Are they talking directly to your mission?

• Are they talking about issues related to mission, or do they even have a stake?

How frequently do they talk about your cause/mission online? Where?

What is this partners preferred channel to communicate?

I had no idea that such individuals exist outside of stories Finding Your Watson Online 13. I am lost without my blogger Engaging Bloggers

Dont simply e-mail press release (but do include)

Read the blog first before engaging

Figure out where best to contact (e-mail? Twitter?

Encourage transparency

Above quote from BBCs Sherlock: A Study in Pink (2010) 14. Nothing clears up a case so much as stating it to another person Blogging Effectively

Planning/Strategy

• Create an editorial calendar for at least 3 months in advance

• Determinecontributors, frequency of posts (including scheduled posts)

• Check posts for grammar, spelling

• Dont be afraid to share other assets (photos, video, etc)

Determine appropriate measurements

• Analytics whos visiting (Google Analytics/Woopra)?

• Spreading the word (Technorati, other social media channels)

• Bookmarking/Distribution (Add/Share This Chiclets, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, et al)

• Finding bloggers (Icerocket,Google Blog Search)

15. "These are much deeper waters than I had thought."Using Twitter Effectively

Follow Twitter users driving conversations around mission

• Twellow

• Ifollow

Consider using engagement platform

• Hootsuite

• Tweetdeck

• PeopleBrowsr

16.

Share documents/articles of interest

Spend time listening to Twitter conversation

Analytics look more at ratio of retweets and @s over followers/following

More Info - http://www.slideshare.net/GordonDym/twitter-chicago-nettuesday

17. Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs A Few Brief Notes About Facebook

Cause App good, FB page better

• Allows current/potential advocates to interact with agency

• Favorite other, like-minded pages

Pages will require regular maintenance

• Regular updating (1X/Day)

• Knowledge of FMBL/HTML (Coding)

• Create unique welcome tab

18. These are much deeper waters than I had thought More About Facebook

Share media via updates

• Video

• Links

• Photos

Encourage members to like and share updates

Note: specific rules about contents

Note: Privacy Concerns

19. The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observesOther Online Channels

Image and video sharing

• Images: Flickr, Photobucket

• Videos You Tube and others (seehttp://is.gd/eY1Lj )

Document Sharing - Scribd

Virtual Worlds/Second Life

20. Social Media Measurement It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts 21. I am glad of all detailswhether they seem to you to be relevant or not Measurement Knowing Your Outcomes

What Are You Looking To See Happen?

• When developing campaigns, events, etc that involve online engagement, determine what you will be tracking online

• Measurement is more than just your followers/audience, its also about your performance

Results Will Fluctuate Over Time

• Developing an agency voice (or brand takes time, effort, and work ; no shortcuts or rules

• Ultimately, measuring how well you are able to express agency voice/mission/cause online

22. Data! Data! Data!...I can't make bricks without clay Starting Points For Measurement

Quantitative Data

Followers/Following/Fans

Volume of overall content

People sharing content (engagement)

People liking status (engagement)

Demographic information

Blog/comment and/or forum/reply ratio

23. It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment More Starting Points for Measurement

Qualitative Data

How are people talking about agency/mission?

Tone of conversation

Conversation dynamics

Are other non-profits citing your work?

How are unrelated bloggers writing about you?

24. It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital Finding & Tracking Social Media Data

Listening Platforms export data

Social Media Platforms & Dashboards Provide Stats

• Facebook Fan Pages Insights

• Facebook Public Walls Lexicon

• Hootsuite Stats on Forwarded Links

Tracking & Recording Data

• Google Spreadsheets

• Open Office

25. Any truth is better than indefinite doubt. For some great Social Media Blogs.

Beth Kanter http://www.bethkanter.org

Liz Strauss -http://www.successful-blog.com

Jason Falls -http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com

Terry Starbucker -http://www.terrystarbucker.com

Amber Naslund -http://www.brasstackthinking.com/

David Armano http://darmano.typepad.com

26. Online Resources About Sherlock Holmes

I Hear of SherlockPodcast http://www.ihearofsherlock.com

Free Audiobooks Available viaLibrivox-http://www.librivox.org

Discovering Sherlock(PDFs) http://sherlockholmes.stanford.edu/index.html

Book:Sherlock Holmes for Dummies

Browse shelves ofOpen Books , 213 W Institute Place ( http://www.open-books.org )

27.

Remember, why do we work towards advocating and engaging others in our missions.

The work is its own reward

28. Questions& Comments 29. Contact Information

Gordon Dymowski

http://www.gordondymowski.com

http://www.blogthispal.com

Phone: (773) 809-4473

[email_address]

Twitter: @gordondym

Thanks for attending!