Jason Brazier

Technology Administrator

Minnesota Literacy Council

http://www.mnliteracy.org

JBrazier@mnliteracy.org

What is social media ?

Per Wikipedia : Social media employ web- and mobile-based technologies to support

interactive dialogue and “introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication

between organizations, communities, and individuals.” Social media are social software which

mediate human communication. When the technologies are in place, social media is

ubiquitously accessible, and enabled by scalable techniques.

YIKES! – How about; Social media are technologies used to communicate and interact with each

other.

Types of social media include:

Collaborative projects (Wikipedia), Blogs and microblogs (wordpress, Twitter), Content communities (YouTube), Social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace), Virtual game worlds (Call of Duty, Farmville) Virtual social worlds (Second Life)

Technologies include: Blogs Picture-sharing (Facebook,Photobucket, Flicker, Instagram) vidoes (YouTube) wall-postings, (Facebook, discussion boards) email, (constant contact) instant messaging, (Twitter) music-sharing, crowdsourcing

and voice over IP, to name a few. Many of these social media services can be integrated via social network aggregation platforms. Social media network websites include sites like Facebook, Twitter, Bebo and MySpace.

Which celebrities excel at social media? (Forbes Magazine)

Name Twitter Facebook

Rihanna

Twitter followers: 23.8 million Facebook fans: 59.6 million (mostly re-posts of what she tweets)

Lady Gaga

Twitter followers: 28 million (most popular on twitter)

Facebook fans: 53 million

Eminem

Twitter followers: 11.9 million Facebook fans: 60.3 million (most Facebook fans – uses twitter for promotional use)

Justin Bieber

Twitter followers: 26 million (uses Twitter for personal conversations and updates)

Facebook fans: 45.8 million (uses Facebook for promotions)

Katy Perry

Twitter followers: 24.5 million Facebook fans: 45.7 million (uses Facebook for promotional side)

Taylor Swift

Twitter followers: 17 million Facebook fans: 33.6 million (uses Facebook for promotional items)

Notice: Facebook numbers are bigger for everyone, but Facebook has been around longer and there is no

effort to being a “fan”. Twitter requires a more active role from the person tweeting. To be followed on

Twitter in a “meaningful way” you have to post 5-10 times a day and the majority of those are re-

tweeting what other say so it is not just about shameless promotion. The stars have both but focus on

using one or the other. Also notice that no one has the highest number of both. Finally, notice that the

top users are young and work in the music industry. Demographics are important.

Which is the best ?

I didn’t find any of the above on LinkedIn though Forbes has LinkedIn as one of fast growing sites for

the last 3 years in row.

Who is king of LinkedIn? Google searches seem to indicate Ron Bates , Managing Principle for the

Executive Advantage Group list that he has 43,000+ direct contacts. Hard to verify because LinkedIn

shows only 500+ said to have a 30,000 contact limit.

Trend: People go to Facebook for the pictures. Younger people are bypassing Facebook, tweeting and

using Instagram instead. – Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital

So, what works in Social Media?

Pictures of kittens.

If; your goal is communicate with people who like kittens.

What are your goals? Using social media is not a goal in itself unless your goal is to learn social media.

Goal #1.

Goal #2.

Goal #3.

THE BORING IMPORTANT Questions You Need to Answer

Who is your target audience? HINT: “Everyone” is the wrong answer.

Audience for Goal #1.

Audience for Goal #2.

Audience for Goal #3.

Most of the new Minnesota Literacy Council’s new students come from word of mouth not Facebook,

and most of our donors and board members do use Twitter.

So, why is social media the right way to achieve this goal?

1.

2.

3.

Which social media platform do you think will be best to reach your goal?

HINT_ ASK YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE WHICH PLATFORM THEY USE

1.

2.

3.

Who is going to be in charge of the project?

1.

2.

3.

How much staff time and money are you going to give each project? HINT_ Think about the time it

takes to create and post a YouTube video, Tweet 10 times a day, or write a daily / weekly blog post.

1.

2.

3.

How will you measure your ROI/ What are you expected outcomes?

1.

2.

3.

The great misconception about social media ?

Everyone thinks about Facebook followers and tweets.

The TRUE goal for your organizations social media is to

communicate, interact, and build relationships so that

when you call people to action, they will act. In large part

social media is to get people to go to your organization

which, in 2012, the face of your organization is really your

website.

Start with a great website and then do your social

media as way to drive people there. Consistently

posting useful, well written, fun, thoughtful,

authentic, content is still king of all media.

What to communicate about?

Start with the easy ones and plan for days that naturally connect to your cause.

ABE Summer Institute http://www.literacyactionnetwork.org/summer-institute

Did anyone attend ? Did anyone on your staff present ? Do you know of one person who did who might

be willing to answer a few question that you could post in blob ? Do you know have staff people who

you could bribe with food to write 1 blog post a month. 2 paragraphs long ? 1 blog post X 8 staff = twice

a week! If you posted 100 times a year, you would definitely be among the most active blogger in ABE in

the state. Who wouldn’t want to follow your program ?

Besides self-expression ,

Lady Gaga ( your agency)

tweets (if your demographic

uses Twitter) so people get

to know who she is so that

when she says, Hey I have a

concert (event, cause or

need) at the Excel center,

people will think..

“Hey! I know Lady Gaga,

(your awesome self) I like

what she has to say, I saw

her video and read her

tweets, let’s go to that

concert.”

(your event, cause or need)

World Teacher’s Day October 5th each year http://www.5oct.org/2012/index.php/en/

November is National Family Literacy Month

http://www.famlit.org/national-family-literacy-day-2012/

Has your agency/ organization signed up for GIVE TO THE MAX

DAY ? http://givemn.razoo.com/giving_events/GTMD12/home

If you had a Twitter account, tomorrow you could…

#myclassrocks : Today 5 students attained a level gain! WHOO HOO!

#myclassrocks: Our volunteer at the MLC just received her master’s degree in Literature!

#myclassrocks: Join the Minnesota Literacy Council celebrating 40 years on December 7th!

Mnliteracy.org for event info!

#Literacylove : Staff member Susan had 25 people in her Twitter for Teachers training. Handouts on

mnliteracy.org/handouts

Push them to volunteer, engage, donate, learn, retweet.

#NewUSA : November 14th, 6 of our students become new American Citizens!

DO Tips for Facebook http://www.socialpeel.com/

Statistics have shown that posts made between 8pm and 7am receives a higher percentage of user interaction (are

you sure? 8pm to 7am). Most of the country’s population is on East Coast Time.

Keep posts short and straight to the point. It’s recommended that posts with 80 characters or less are more apt to

being read.

Asking questions in your post will often prompt responses from other users. Questions with a multiple choice

usually attract higher response rates, e.g.“Which place serves the better burgers, In-n-Out or Burger King?”

If you’re promoting another website, always add a link for the convenience of the users. Unfortunately laziness can

be a factor and if you provide a link for people to easily click versus the URL, you’re sure to get more visitors.

Include a relevant and eye-catching image along with your Facebook post. Sometimes words aren’t enough and

people need a visual to further convince them to take action.

Did you notice

how each event

had value added

and a call to

action ?

Why people are not re-tweeting/following you.

I Don't Even Know You I prefer to send out quality information to my followers so it's rare for me to re-tweet a message from someone I don't even know. I have to know and/or trust the source of a message before I will pass that message along to my twitter followers. This why consistency of posting is important.

Your Website/ Blog Has Terrible Content

Your blog may have a nice design and it may be easy to navigate, but if it is full of useless information, or articles that sound like they have been written by someone who doesn't have a firm grasp of the English language, I would like to see content that actually helps people.

You're still using the Default Avatar

If you are still using the default avatar on your account, it tells me that the only reason you have a twitter account is to try to get people to re-tweet your messages to make your message go viral. Take a few minutes to upload a picture of some kind, let me know you take your twitter account seriously.

You're Boring and You Don't Offer Any Variety

If your bio is boring, your content is boring, and your tweets are boring, why would I want to share your messages with my twitter followers? If you post the exact same stuff every day, I have no interest in passing along your message. (MORE AND MORE – Having a good profile on each of your social media accounts is important)

Only Hear from You When You Want Something from Me

If the only time I ever get a message from you is when you want me to re-tweet something for you, guess what, it's not going to happen.

Infographic created by Go-Gulf.com © 2012

Recommended Reading.

Fast Company Magazine.

Content Marketing by Rebecca Lieb,

Social Networking Business by Entrepreneur Magazine,

Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

Engage! The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build,Cultivate and Measure Success in the

New Web. Revised and Updated by Brian Solis

Measure What Matters by Katie D. Paine.

Social Media Platforms that help you Network: by

Jamie Turner

http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2010/04/09/top-

52-social-media-platforms/

Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook out of

his dorm room for his fellow students at Harvard.

Today, toddlers to grandmothers can be found on

Facebook. Strengths: Widely-adopted by large

segments of the population. Weaknesses: Will the

younger generation stay on Facebook once Grandma

has “friended” them?

Google+: This is the new kid on the block, but poses

a serious threat to Facebook and other platforms.

Why? Because it’s just so darn easy to use — the

clean, simple interface makes connecting with

friends, family and business associates a piece of

cake. Google+ was the fastest-growing social

network in history and looks as though it’s here for the long-run. Strengths: Ease-of-use and uncluttered

environment. Weaknesses: Competition from other

well-established social media platforms.

hi5: This is a social networking platform that skews a

little younger than LinkedIn. Members can play

games, watch videos, flirt, give gifts or just hang out.

Strengths: It’s a great alternative to MySpace and/or

Facebook for the younger crowd. Weaknesses: It may

not be the best social networking platform for

business.

LinkedIn: This is the Grand Pooh Bah of them all.

They’ve been around since 2003, which, in social

media terms is also known as “since the beginning of

time.” Strengths: Everybody’s on LinkedIn.

Weaknesses: Most people have trouble knowing what

to do with LinkedIn after they upload their business

information.

MyLife: A clean, simple site that helps people

connect with family, friends and other relationships.

Over 750 million profiles. Strengths: The easy-to-use

interface is one of the site’s great strengths. Perfect if

you’re looking for an engaging, simple way to

connect with old friends. Weaknesses: Not as widely

adopted as some other sites.

Ning: This site connects groups of people who are

passionate about particular interests, topics or hobbies. Co-Founded by Marc Andreessen, who

helped launch Netscape. Strengths: Great for

connecting with others who are interested in your

area of expertise. Weaknesses: The user interface is

so simple and uncluttered that getting started can be

confusing. But once you’ve figured it out, it can be a

good tool.

Plaxo: Currently hosts address books for more than

40 million people. Helps people stay in touch with

“Pulse,” which is a dashboard that lets you see what

the people you know are sharing all over the web.

Strengths: Graphical user interface makes it easy-to-

use. Weaknesses: It’s not as widely-adopted as some

other platforms such as LinkedIn.

Twitter: A surprisingly-successful tool that is

widely-adopted and used for everything from

business to fun and games. Strengths: Used by large segments of the population. Weaknesses: Can be a

distraction, especially if you have Attention Deficit

Disor … wow, look at that bird outside my window!

XING: XING has more than 8 million subscribers worldwide. It has over 34,000 specialized groups and

over 150,000 live networking events each year.

Strengths: XING adds new developments to their

platform on a regular basis. Weaknesses: Not as

widely-adopted as some other platforms such as

LinkedIn.

Social Media Platforms that help you Promote:

Bing: Bing, Google and Yahoo aren’t technically

social media platforms, but they are tools that can be

used to promote your product or service, so we’re

including all three in this overview. The technique for

using any search engine to promote your product or

service is the same so you’ll want to optimize your

website so that the search engines see it. Strengths:

Bing uses “intelligent search” to make searches even

more relevant for the user. Weaknesses: It’s fighting

against Google, which is a tough battle.

Blogging Platforms: These are tools that are used to

create blogs. Some of them, like Blogger, Tumblr,

Vox or Xanga are straightforward platforms that are

great for people who want to do a simple blog about

their vacation, their company or their family reunion.

If you’re ready to create a more robust blog that adds a lot of SEO value for your website, you’ll want to

use Joomla, Drupal, Typepad or WordPress. These

are the blogging platforms used by serious bloggers.

Discussion Boards and Forums: Are you interested in creating an online forum where members of your

community can engage with each other and offer

each other advice? Then a discussion board or forum

is for you. The best-known platforms for forums

include Lefora, Zoho, Drupal, PhpBB, Simple

Machines, Vanila, JavaBB and vBulletin. Strengths:

Forums are a great way to build a relationship with

customers and prospects. Weaknesses: They require

regular, ongoing time and energy to keep them

running properly.

Email Marketing Platforms: Email can often get

overlooked in the world of social media, but if you

define social media as tools that help you have a

dialogue with your customers and prospects, then

email falls into the social media category. Popular

email marketing tools include AWeber (affiliate

link), Constant Contact, iContact, ExactTarget and

others. Strengths: Email is a highly measurable way

to connect with customers and prospects. Weaknesses: Email marketing requires a concerted,

ongoing effort if you’re going to do it right.

Flickr: This is a photo-sharing site that can be used

to build awareness and drive traffic to your product pages.. Strengths: Flickr is easy-to-use and has a

clean user-interface. Weaknesses: Photo-sharing sites

are important, but they’re not the very first thing

you’ll want to work on in your social media

campaign.

Howcast: Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a website

where you could watch “How To” videos on the topic

of your choice? Well, there is and it’s called

Howcast. It’s an extremely worthy-competitor to

YouTube. Strengths: A great place to upload high-

quality content. Weaknesses: The default is still

YouTube. Most people are conditioned to

automatically type “YouTube” into their browser.

iLike: If you’re a musician, you’ll want to upload

your work to iLike. It’s the dominant music

application on Facebook, Orkut and hi5. Strengths:

Over 50 million music lovers use iLike via Facebook,

Orkut, iGoogle and other platforms. Weaknesses:

iLike is a crowded venue, which makes it difficult for

musicians to break through.

iTunes: This is not the only podcasting site, but it’s

the best-known and most popular. If you’re doing

interviews with industry experts or if you’re creating mini-radio shows, iTunes is the place to be.

Strengths: It’s a well-known, well-respected

platform. Weaknesses: If you don’t create

scintillating content, people won’t come back for

more.

MySpace: Ahhhhh, MySpace. They arguably started

this whole social media thing to begin with. Today,

MySpace is primarily used as a congregation point

for younger people interested in pop culture. They’re

evolving and seem to be finding a niche. Strengths: A

well-known social media platform that most

everybody has visited at one time or another.

Weaknesses: They’re not the ubiquitous social media

platform they once were.

More and more people are accessing their social

media platforms via smartphone.

Picasa: This is a photo organizing, editing and

sharing site that’s owned by Google. You can tag

photos to enable quick searches by users. Strengths:

As with most Google services, Picasa is easy-to-use

and loads very quickly. Weaknesses: Photo sharing is

important, but it’s not the very first thing you’d want

to work on in your social media campaign.

Vimeo: Think of Vimeo as a high-end YouTube. It’s

perfect for people interested in sharing their videos

with a community of positive, encouraging creative

professionals. Strengths: You gotta love a site that

oozes upbeat, optimistic, life-affirming energy that

Vimeo does. Weaknesses: It’s not a default site the

way YouTube is, but that may change in the near

future.

YouTube: Of course, YouTube is one of the better-

known platforms used to promote businesses. The

key to YouTube is to keep the videos short and

sweet. Make sure they solve the “what’s in it for me” equation. YouTube is perfect for “How To” videos,

but it’s not a good place to upload the CEOs annual

speech to shareholders. Strengths: YouTube is

ubiquitous. Weaknesses: It’s a cluttered environment

that can sometimes have some pretty racy videos on

it. (Or so we’ve heard.)

Social Media Platforms that help you Share:

Buffer: This social media management tool allows

you to schedule Tweets and Facebook updates

quickly and easily from your web browser. It’s

perfect for people not interested in using TweetDeck

or HootSuite. Just sign up, install on your browser

and the next time you’re at a web page you want to

share, hit the Buffer button and schedule it for

sometime in the future. Strengths: An easy way to

schedule updates on Twitter and Facebook.

Weaknesses: Other platforms offer the same

functionality.

Delicious: This is a social bookmarking service

owned by Yahoo. When someone tags your article,

video or blog post with a Delicious bookmark, it’s

the equivalent of a “vote.” The more votes you get,

the more visibility your content has on the Delicious website. Strengths: It’s everywhere. Weaknesses:

You have to have a lot of traffic and a lot of votes to

show up on the radar screen.

Digg: Similar to Delicious in that people vote for articles, videos and blog posts they like. If your

content receives enough Diggs, it’s promoted to the

front page for millions of visitors to see. Strengths:

Like Delicious, Digg is everywhere. Weaknesses:

You have to have a lot of traffic and a lot of votes to

show up on the radar screen.

Feedback: This is a social media platform that

allows people to provide feedback to companies as

diverse as Starbucks and Chipotle. Members of the

Feedback community can read reviews and make

additional comments. Strengths: An innovative use of

“crowd-sourcing” for information. Weaknesses:

Since the site crowdsources reviews, it’s not

necessarily an effective tool for marketers..

HootSuite: This is a tool that allows you to manage

multiple social media channels through one

dashboard. If you have a company with more than

one contributor to your social media program,

HootSuite is a good solution. Strengths: A very easy-

to-use interface. Simple set-up, yet still powerful.

Weaknesses: If your social media program is no more

extensive than updating a Twitter account, then

HootSuite would be over-kill.

Instagram: A surprisingly fun photography app

that’s sweeping the globe. Install Instagram on your

smartphone and, next time you take a photo, use it to enhance, stylize and share the photo with others in

your network. Strengths: A fun, easy-to-use app.

Weaknesses: Other apps provide a similar

experience.

Path: A location-based social sharing app that allows

you to share photos, memories, music, thoughts and

other moments with friends in your social media

circle. Strengths: A fun way to share your life

journey with friends. Weaknesses: Heavy

competition from intrenched competitors like

Facebook, Google+ and others.

Pinterest: We live in a visual world and Pinterest

leverages that. Tired of reading long blog posts (like

this one) but still enjoy skimming through images

that are worth 1,000 words? If so, then Pinterest is for

you. Just visit the site, sign up and start sharing

images by re-pinning them to your profile. Strengths:

A visually-appealing way to share information with

followers. Weaknesses: Competition from a wide

variety of other social media platforms.

Quora: This is the perfect place to go if you’re

interested in asking a question that requires an expert

answer. Just type in a question you have about any topic and Quora will provide answers from other

users. Quora is frequented by smart, well-educated

users, so the answers tend to be very helpful and

well-thought-out. Strengths: A simple, easy-to-use

platform. Weaknesses: A simple Google search can

sometimes offer the same quality of answers.

Reddit: Similar to Digg and Delicious. Reddit is a

source for what’s new and popular on the web. Users

can vote articles up or down on the site, so readers

can check out the hot, trending topics from blogs,

newspapers and other sources around the globe.

Strengths: Like Digg and Delicious, Reddit is

everywhere. Weaknesses: You have to have a lot of

traffic and a lot of votes to show up on the radar

screen.

Scribd: This is the largest social publishing and

reading site in the world. You simply upload your

speech, ebook or PowerPoint presentation to the site

so that others can be awed by your wisdom and

expertise. Strengths: A great way to potentially get

your content in front of thousands of readers.

Weaknesses: There are a lot of other people

competing for the same eyeballs.

StumbleUpon: Very similar to Digg, Delicious and

Reddit. When you rate a website that you like using

StumbleUpon, it’s automatically shared with like-minded people. And it helps you find great sites your

friends recommend. Strengths: StumbleUpon helps

spread your content to people not regularly exposed

to your products and/or services. Weaknesses:

Competes with several other well-established tools,

like Digg, Delicious and Reddit.

TweetDeck: Like HootSuite, TweetDeck provides a

way to track many of your social media channels on

one dashboard. It can be a time-saver and a

productivity-enhancer, assuming you’re not easily

distracted. Strengths: It’s very easy to set-up and get

started. Weaknesses: Like all dashboard tools, it can

lead to distractions for employees who are easily …

Whoa! Is that a fly on the ceiling or just a speck of

dust?

Wikipedia: It still amazes us that this user-generated

encyclopedia is run by just a few dozen employees

(along with hundreds of thousands of contributors

around the globe). It’s a great tool for legitimate entries. Don’t try to game the system by adding

overly-promotional posts. But if your entry will be

helpful to the Wikipedia community at large, have at

it. Strengths: It’s a great tool for uploading

legitimate, helpful content about your product,

service or company. Weaknesses: If your target

market is over the age of 40, they might struggle with

Wikipedia’s miniscule type.

Yelp: This platform offers user-generated reviews on

cool places to eat, shop, drink, relax and play. Yelp

has an augmented reality Smart Phone application

that makes using it on the run a blast. Strengths:

User-generated reviews are a great way for customers

and prospects to find out about your business.

Weaknesses: Some people try to game the system with faux reviews, but Yelp does a pretty good job of

keeping those faux reviews at bay.