Social Media Best Practices

Social Media Best Practices

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  Social Media BEST PRACTICES yourstarter guide to posting engaging content
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  CONTENTS Orientation Social Media inCanada Social Media Globally Takeaways Social Media Insights Engagement Secrets Go Mobile Content is King Rule of Thirds Examples The Most Important Tip References 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 2
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  ORIENTATION Welcome to theworld of Social Media – one of the fastest growing and increasingly more effective ways of communicating with a general audience. This quick guide is intended to familiarize you with best practices of using social media as an organizational communication tool. Before we get into the details, let’s set the scene for Social Media. In order to understand how important your messaging is on Social Media, we should first understand the reach and impact of social media. 3
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  IN CANADA Canadians visitTwitter about 5 times a week 31% of those residing in the Prairies use this social network 18% of college graduates prefer Twitter Top Social Media network, with over 50% of Canadians using the site Canadians visit the site about 9 times a week 68% of college graduates prefer Facebook 4
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  GLOBAL SNAPSHOT 2.078 Billion 1.65Billion 72% 93% Active Social Media Accounts Active Mobile Social Media Accounts of Canadian population uses Internet of web traffic is mobile 1 in 3 people globally has an account on Social Media 5
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  WHAT DOES THISMEAN FOR US? GO WHERE YOUR AUDIENCE IS Based on these statistics, we can draw some indicative conclusions about the way we should structure and publish our social media posts. For a lot of organizations, their audience is on Facebook. For others, Twitter is more effective to communicate with customer. In either case, remember that Facebook content ≠ Twitter content when you prepare your posts. This is because Facebook posts have a different structure, purpose and content than Twitter (otherwise we wouldn’t have two networks). 6
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  Useful, interesting andretweetable content (statistics, facts, graphics for stats and quotes) Clear concise language – avoid abbreviations and always use proper punctuation (colons, semicolons). Asking followers to ‘retweet’ works 23X better than asking to ‘RT’ (which is still 10X better than nothing) Curate your content using appropriate and engaging retweets and shares. Make your Twitter an engaging and interesting place to be Tweeting consistently and often throughout the day helps you break through the clutter Weekend tweets have less competition, but almost the same audience size Include links, but do not over-hashtag. Search a hashtag before including it to make sure you are reaching the proper audience Visual posts (photos, infographics, graphics, posters, etc) Questions – to be able to generate discussion on posts, bumping it higher in the newsfeeds NOT hashtags – even though Facebook supports hashtags, they are rarely used on the platform Unless a video is short and engaging, it may not receive the attention it deserves Photo Galleries engage audiences in your process and build relationships Surveys can increase the virality of your posts by 139% What Works on TwitterWhat Works on Facebook 7 SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS
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  UNDERSTAND WHAT ENGAGESPEOPLE A few things have been known to promote virality of posts on Facebook. In descending order of effect, the following properties ensure your Facebook posts are well-received: Posts should be easily and quickly read and understood. Think about the core of your message, and highlight it, building the post around the key takeaway. Stay practical and succinct. Avoid abstract phrases or words that may confuse the reader and make them uncomfortable. Emotionally charged (but not inflated – stick to the facts) posts are able to evoke sentiment and an emotional connection in the reader, making them more likely to like, share and comment. simple CONCISE emotional 8
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  THINK MOBILE Mobile socialmedia is a huge audience, and that means we have to think about the way our posts show up on phones. Share links to mobile-friendly pages Avoid links that lead to document downloads directly Make sure your Facebook posts display properly on Facebook mobile (you can check by testing your post on your own Facebook page, setting the visibility to “Only Me”) Shareable content means it’s bite-sized, it’s visual, and it’s fun to share (social content that other people might find interesting). 9
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  SOCIAL MEDIA ROYALTY SPICEIT UP CONTENT IS KING If you read any blog dedicated to social media, this sentiment will come up over and over again – content is the most important part of social media. After all, if you have nothing to say, no one will listen. In curating and choosing content to put on social media, a metaphor can be useful – think of social media as a live conversation, taking place over a different medium (online). You would not enjoy talking to someone who only talked about him or herself. Nor would you be engaged by constant advertising. The conversations we most enjoy having are those we can understand, those we can relate to and those we can easily contribute to. 10
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  RULE OF THIRDS Insocial media, it is helpful to follow a rule of thirds. Dividing your content in this way is an easy way to add variety to your posts. When you think about your posts, ask yourself if you would be interested in reading more about the post. Would you share it? If not, consider revising. Keep social media content synchronized with your key messages and public perception. Your audience should have a strong grasp of your brand across networks. Much like you would not expect a consumer brand chiming in on a medical issue, make sure your content is aligned with your mission and the way your audience perceives you. Posts about the authoring organizations (links to website, PR and other updates) Posts about current events relevant to the organization’s field (developments in the field, debates, issue updates) Shared content from similar sources 11 30% 30% 30%
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  TRY THIS Here areexamples of four types of messages that frequently show up on Social Media: Chronic diseases represent 90% of the disease burden yet Alberta invests only 3% of the health care budget on prevention. Check out how our neighbours to the South are approaching sugar-sweetened beverages taxes: http://bit.ly/RJNOUx Spring is here! Have you tuned up your bike? Active transportation is good for your health and the environment. Retweet: do you want to be part of creating Alberta’s new culture of wellness? Show your support and sign up today: http://bit.ly/QDtz9S Key Messages Recent News/Evidence Invitation to Engage Call to Action 13
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  BE GENUINE Social Mediais a conversation with a friend. We value friends who are honest, interesting, relevant and most importantly, genuine. Social Media is an opportunity to curate an experience between your organization and your audience. While creativity is important, being genuinely committed to carrying a conversation is even more important. There are 27,000,000 pieces of content on Social Media every day . The key to stand out is to be committed, consistent, genuine and relevant. And to have fun. 14
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  REFERENCES 2015 Canadian SocialMedia Usage Statistics, Forum Research James Scherer, 5 Ways to Optimize Your Social Media Content to Combat Content Shock, Content Marketing Institute, http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/02/optimize-social-media- content-combat-content-shock/ Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2015, http://www.nptechforgood.com/2015/02/08/10-twitter-best-practices- for-nonprofits/ Social Media Examiner, 2013, http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/new-facebook-marketing- research/ We Are Social’s new Digital, Social and Mobile in 2015 report, Which content works on Facebook, We Are Social, 2012, http://wearesocial.net/blog/2012/10/content-works-facebook/ 15
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  Social Media BEST PRACTICES www.promohack.com
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  Facebook is visited 9 times a week twitter is visited 5