Identifying Best Practices for Social Media Work Kamaria Campbell, Usability Auditor, ForeSee State of Michigan World Usability Day November 10, 2011

Agenda Background 3 Common Types of Social Media Work on Websites What To Ask Before Diving in to Social Media Methods for Identifying Best Practices Q and A 2

Who am I? 3

About Me Native Floridian (Tampa, FL) Graduated from Duke University (2008) and U of M’s School of Information (2010) Started with ForeSee in May 2010 as a Usability Auditor Conduct heuristic evaluation on live sites and prototypes from both public and private sector clients 4

About Me Lead social media research and best practice development for usability team – Competitive research on Federal Department social media work – First solely social media focused usability evaluation 5

Why analyze Social Media? Everyone uses it Social media “matter” and will continue to matter Client demand for assistance Expertise in online best practices research Leadership and willingness to seize the opportunity 6 Source: Jeff Mackie-Mason, “Do Social Media Matter?”, School of Information, October 28, 2011

Presentation Goals Provide guidance that extends beyond today’s platforms Encourage usability professionals to lead in social media 7

Why Now? 8

Statistics for Context – More than 800 million active users – More than 50% log in every day – Average user has 130 friends – People interact with more than 900 million objects (pages, groups, events, community pages) – Average user is connected to 80 objects – 500 million people/month use Facebook apps or experience platform on other sites Source: Facebook.com, Nov

Statistics for Context – More than 100 million active users – 50% log in daily – 40% of active accounts have not tweeted in the last month (Sept 2011) – Estimates between 5-30 million users – Profile pages for both individuals and businesses Sources: Twitter stats via HuffingtonPost.com, Sept

Why Us? 11

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3 Common Types of Social Media 13

3 Common Types of Social Media Social Media Links Social Media Widgets Other API Integrations 14

Social Media Links 15

Social Media Widgets 16

Social Media Widgets 17

Other API Integrations 18

Other API Integrations 19

Other API Integrations 20

Things to Consider Before Diving In To Social Media 21

Things to Consider Are your visitors social? Which platforms do they prefer? What are your goals in providing social media links and functionalities? Do you have the resources to support your social media work? How will you measure the success of these initiatives? 22

Identifying Best Practices 23

Identifying Best Practices Resources Trial and Error UX Toolkit 24

Resources Streams, Walls, Feeds (Nielsen Norman Group Report, October 2009) Designing Social Interfaces by Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets by Paul McFedries Social Media Marketing by Liana Evans 25

Trial and Error Read all documentation and policies Know what options exist for the platform(s) that interest(s) you Use the tools and platforms so you know how to minimize constraints and maximize strengths 26

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UX Toolkit: Competitive Research How are others in your space positioning social media on their sites? What do your direct competitors or others in your space share in their standard share messaging? What do other companies you admire share in their standard messaging? 29

UX Toolkit: Competitive Research 30

UX Toolkit: Competitive Research 31

Product Name: YES Source: YES Shortened URL: YES Call to Action: NO Chars. Remaining: 43 32

Product Name: NO Source: YES Shortened URL: NO Call to Action: YES Chars. Remaining: 15 33

Other UX Tools and Methods Heuristic Evaluation Web Analytics Surveys User Testing 34

Heuristics: User Understanding and Control 35

Heuristics: User Understanding and Control 36

Heuristics: User Understanding and Control 37

Analytics + Survey Questions Use Data from Functionality Analytics Leverage Referral Sources in Web Analytics Ask Consumers about Social Media Use – Which platforms do you use? – How often do you use them? – Have you shared our products on any of these platforms? 38

User Testing Watch users share on your site Analyze any issues that you observe or they report 39

Questions? 40