Harnessing Social Media November 18, 2011

Agenda 2 Why Social Media? Using Social Media Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Using Social Media for Advocacy

Why social media? 3

What Can Social Media Do For You? 4 Build influence. Social media channels provide vehicles for sharing thoughts, opinions and unique points of view while establishing authority over particular topics or issues. Facilitate connection. Create direct access and engagement with your constituents, partners and legislative targets. If they know you, feel a connection with you, and view you as a trusted resource, they will be inclined to work with or vote for you. Shape opinion. Be the one to drive conversation on important issues. Social media conversations inform, educate and serve as tools from which people form their perspective on particular topics, so ensure your position is represented. Broaden presence. Social media is often a first resource people turn to for information. Be where your constituents are looking. Social media allows you to be tied to industry keywords and found as a result of organic search.

Congress is doing it % Of Congressional staffers are active online 65% Access social networking sites 60% Of staffers prefer to use online resources when preparing a member to vote 3% Of s to Congressional staffers are opened 64% Consider Facebook to be a somewhat or very important tool for understanding constituents’ views and opinions 74% Feel Facebook is somewhat or very important in disseminating their members’ views to constituents 72% Of congressional staffers believe social media is directly responsible for helping their bosses reach constituents they had never communicated with before

Your Constituents Are Doing It And, they’re getting their news there, too 6

Using Social Media 7

It’s where the conversations are happening in real time. Join the discussion. 8

Twitter Engagement Should Be Compelling 9 Bring something new. Share a unique perspective or start a conversation. Use the news. Provide commentary, thoughts and insight. Include links to articles. Share yourself. Inject humanity and personality into your tweets. Take a position. Ask questions. Invite people to tell you what they think. Start a good-natured argument. Challenge popular opinion or individual tweeters.

Some Twitter Tips And Tricks 10 Tune into Twitter for news as it breaks Add punctuation if beginning the tweet with a handle Going to an event or conference? Check for a hashtag before you go Keep tweets shorter than the 140 characters to promote retweets Tweet at reporters to build source relationships Tweet links to articles; include your thoughts and commentary

Get Involved in the Conversations 11 Find other influencers involved in the conversation to follow or engage with Use the hashtag in your own tweets to be a part of the discussion A hashtag allows all tweets around the particular topic to be grouped together Follow a hashtag to see what’s being said by anyone talking about the issue. Create a hashtag for important conversations.

10 Things to Know About the Hashtag 12

Generating Followers 13 Take advantage of conversation chains. Use hashtags to join topic threads. Retweet. Add your own insight or reaction to Tweets from those you admire, agree with or oppose. Reply. Go public in a way that develops a dialogue and attracts other people’s attention. Cite. Be sure to use shortlinks and include a reporter or blogger’s Twitter handle. Provide reciprocity. Follow people.

Systematically Building Your Twitter Following 14 Phase IPhase IIPhase IIIPhase IV We recommend gradually building the list of individuals that you follow in order to avoid over-promotion and uncontrolled growth Personal Connections and Established Relationships Tier II & III Industry Advocates Reputable Sources of Industry Information Industry Influencers

Finding People To Follow 15 Third party applications like Follower Wonk and WeFollow exceed Twitter’s current capabilities and enable you to search through the bios of individuals for suitable people to follow.

Lists 16 An aggregation of what members of the list are saying The newest members of the list. Peers or other influencers to follow and with whom to engage Other lists curated by this list’s curator. Likely also relevant to follow Following a list allows you to automatically follow all members of the list

Getting Listed 17 Find a list: Search for someone with similar characteristics See where he/she is listed Get on the list: Follow the list for reciprocity Who curates the list? the curator Mention the list in the tweet to promote goodwill, as it will raise exposure for the list with your followers

Managing Tweets With Twitter Clients 18

Try This: Tweetdeck 19 A desktop application for Mac and Windows that makes sorting Twitter content easy. Dashboard direct messages, searches for keywords or hashtags, and users View multiple accounts Schedule tweets Post content directly to Twitter and Facebook Access built-in URL shortener Upload photos

Measuring Your Effectiveness on Twitter 20 Shorten links and measure click-throughs Measure reach, influence and engagement of your tweets: Measure influence by topic:

It’s where people are gathering. Meet them there. 21

What To Do With A Facebook Page 22 Demonstrate influence by highlighting a top photo op Promote partnerships and memberships Point eyes to media placements Post updates that will appear in followers’ news feeds

Engage In Spirited Conversation Listen to constituents, generate important discussions 23 Ask a question with the “Questions” button to create instant polls Post a question on your wall to allow constituents to provide feedback

Promote Events Drive attendance at campaign happenings, town halls, fundraisers, etc. 24

It’s where people are networking. Mingle with them to promote yourself and your opinions. 25

LinkedIn: Some Key Facts 26 More than 120 million members A new member joins approximately every second Members cover key demographics Fortune 500 executives Local activists Legislative staffers Professional networkers who rank high in social network influence Impact search results LinkedIn profiles are often the first or among the first search engine result returned for people

Dissecting A LinkedIn Page 27

Dissecting A LinkedIn Page The bottom half 28 Connections Similar people

Using Your LinkedIn Page 29 Post updates similar to Twitter posts. Include links to articles and websites with commentary. If linked with Twitter, choose to share there. Keep up with what your network is doing Find other people you may know

LinkedIn Groups 30 Close to 90,000 topical discussion groups Members post questions, topics for group reaction All members can post and engage with other members Membership often moderated by group leaders “Private” discussions within the group Find a group: Select “Groups” and start typing topic; dropdown will pull up some quick options Click here for more options

A LinkedIn Group 31 Posts can reach members

What LinkedIn Can Do For You 32 Get found in searches Listen to what people are saying about issues that are important to them Follow what key staffers are up to Research targets, including the connections you have to them

Using Social Media for Advocacy 33

Communicating to Decision Makers Surround and engage directly to become a source of their information 34 Legislators, Regulators, and other Washington Elite 1.Identify and understand targets’ social media footprints and engage them where they are. 2.Create interesting dialogue, espouse positions, attract and engage legislative and regulatory staffers and other thought leaders in organic discussion on targets’ own turf. Your Advocate Toolkit

Identify Targets 35 Tools like TweetCongress can help identify federal legislative targets online

Engage Decision-Makers Directly 36

Raise Awareness For An Issue Generate support, combat misperceptions and opposition 37 Tweet links to supportive statements made by third parties Respond to opposition statements Use Facebook polls to demonstrate support for your positions Comment on articles to engage directly with reporters and address claims made in the article

Questions? 38 Kristin Brown Racepoint Group (202) wwww.racepointgroup.com

Harnessing Social Media November 18, 2011