Using Social Media to Enhance Your Online Presence

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORTSNakia Matthews

Media Production & Technology Coordinator

National Disability Institute

Social Media is not just for the big guys

• National Disability Institute• Small non-profit• 5 years old• Under 20 employees

• How we use social media – go where the people are• Share resources with our audiences• Promote NDI’s work• Learn from other orgs in our field

Our Social Media Spaces• Twitter (@realeconimpact)

• Most interactive

• Facebook (twitter.com/realeconimpact)• Most followers

• LinkedIn• Business connections

• YouTube • Videos we create

• Flickr• Photo sharing

• Tumblr• Our blog

• Most of our SM efforts go to Twitter and Facebook• They have the most reach of the current social media outlets

• Biggest ROI from Twitter• Not our biggest network, but the most interactive

Our Best Practices

1. Know your audience. Share things they want to hear.

2. Cross-post!

3. Be responsive (a bit of personality can go a long way!).

4. Measure your efforts.

5. Leverage your following.

1. Know your audience• NDI’s audience

1. Disability professionals

2. Self-advocates, family/friends, other influencers

3. Persons with disabilities

• Social media channels shouldn’t be an “update dump” of every single thing your organization does. Try to share things that you know your audience will be interested in.

Website of the Week – Each week we choose a website that offers useful information to one or more of our audiences.

2. Cross-post!• Sharing the same information over multiple channels.• Why?

• There is no social media outlet that reaches 100% of your audience

• Some people prefer certain network over others• There’s so much info being sent to us that we can miss things

BLOG

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

3. Be responsive• No one likes a person who talks but doesn’t listen. The

same goes for social media.• We use our social media spaces to not only share, but

learn from others as well• Repost interesting info• Thank people for reading and sharing your information

• Spend the time to engage with your followers• They are more likely to be there for you when you want to share

information outside of you own network (more in “Leverage Your Followers”)

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4. Measure your efforts• Keep track of your stats

• Are your followers increasing?• Are people reposting your information?• Are people clicking the links in your posts?

• Many ways to measure• A simple spreadsheet of stats (number of followers, fans, likes)• Webtools

• Use the metrics provided by the social network (Facebook, Twitter)• Bit.ly, Owl.ly or other URL shortners to track how many people click

links you publish

• Listen to the stats – post more of the things people respond to the most

5. Leverage your following

• Don’t be afraid to ask for help spreading the word about a campaign, product, or event

• Ensure that your message reaches people outside of your own immediate circle of influence

American Dream Video Contest• In order to spread the word about our video contest, we

asked our friends, colleagues and contacts to share info about the contest.

• We also asked our Twitter and Facebook followers to spread the word.

• We used social media to not only promote the contest, but to collect votes for the winner of the contest• Collected votes on Facebook and YouTube

Example of a tweet to all followers

Direct message to select followers/accounts

Remember:• The social media landscape is constantly changing.

• New networks• New technology• New jargon/language (Twitter is especially notorious for this!)

• Before you take the leap, make sure you have the time to dedicate to keeping up with your social media spaces