DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY Rebecca Kallsen

REBECCA KALLSEN Communications & Public Relations Coordinator – 2014 OCHS Public Relations Post-Grad Mohawk College BA Child & Youth Studies – Brock University Student Liaison – Canadian Public Relations Society Public Relations Subcommittee – Hamilton HIVE #HamOnt born and raised

Which social media platforms do you use?

CRASH COURSE: SOCIAL MEDIA 101

TWITTER Micro blogging Limits posts to 140 characters Posts are called “Tweets” Hashtags (e.g. #SayYes) Mention 288 million active users

FACEBOOK Social sharing site Create pages or profiles “Friend” or “Like” people/pages Photos, videos, articles, status, games, etc. Users share 1 million links every 20 minutes +1 billion active users world-wide

INSTAGRAM Social sharing site Pictures & 15 second videos Also uses #hashtags Companies using Instagram more often Fastest growing social media platform 200 million active users

LINKEDIN Business-focused networking site Corporate brands, NFP, and individuals Blog, search for jobs, build relationships Powers almost half of the world's hires 300 million users

BLOGGER Discussion or informational site Blogging is your secret weapon Can relay an entire message – not constricted by length or type of content Blogs can be shared on other social media sites Over 409 million people view more than 18 billion pages each month blogger.com, blogspot.com, flickr.com, wordpress.com, weebly.com, blog.com

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?  Build a following  Promote your brand  Generate leads – i.e. participants, media, funding  SM is becoming a major factor in the ranking algorithm for search engines like Google  The more people you interact with on SM, the more searchable you’ll become on Google

KNOW YOUR GOALS  What are the goals of your research study and the Offord Centre?  Every post should have a well-defined goal that supports your study or organization’s goals  E.g. A Facebook post that pulls visitors to a participant page on your website: “Have you been contacted by Stats Can for the 2014 OCHS and want to learn more? Go to ontariochildhealthstudy.ca/participants”

S.M.A.R.T. OBJECTIVES  Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound  Look at the situational analysis  State objective in terms of outcomes of plans  Bad objective: “To create awareness for the Offord Centre for Child Studies” – awareness is an outcome, not an objective  Better objective: “To create participant awareness for the launch of the 2014 Ontario Child Health Study by securing 100 social media impressions by September 1, 2014.” – based on outcome of plan

MEASURING SMART OBJECTIVES  newsletter subscribers  RSS subscriptions  Retweets / likes  Followers / Friends  Stakeholder feedback  Blog comments / social media discussion  Traffic / analytics  Ad clicks  Sales and leads (participants gained)

AUDIENCE  Audience personality profile:  Demographic, goals, interests, challenges (and how can you solve those problems for them?) ideas, what keeps them up at night, what social media platforms do they use?  Use SM analytics to determine which social media platforms are best to reach your target audience

ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE  Two-way conversations  SM is not about getting your message out to your audiences, it’s about building relationships with your audiences  Don’t preach  Engage and involve your audiences  Reply to comments / questions promptly

ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE  Talk with people on SM about your expertise  Speak their language  Ask yourself, “Will my audience care about this content?”  Focus on the benefits of the Offord Centre and the study

People don’t buy a toaster based on how hot the heating elements can get, they buy it because it gets their toast done pretty fast in the morning so they aren’t late for work. Heating element = feature Fast toast = benefit Focus on the benefit in a practical and clear way that your audience can understand

KNOW YOUR COMPETITION  Who are your biggest competitors?  Make a list of the top 3-5 competitors  What are they doing on SM?  How do they engage with their audience?  How do their followers respond?  How can the Offord Centre or your research study stand out?

CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORMS WISELY  Managing 4-5 SM platforms is time-consuming  Choose the SM platforms where your audiences spend their time  If the majority of their time is spent on Twitter and Facebook, then those become your primary and secondary platforms  Tweet 3-4 times/day, post on Facebook 1-2 times/day

ESTABLISH ROLES  Who will be managing the social media?  Managing SM platforms is an integral part of your communications and public relations strategy for your studies  Decide who is responsible and ensure that that person has the relevant skills and expertise  Should not be given to a person if their only qualification is that they’ve used Facebook before  This person needs to understand your goals and how to use SM to properly attain those goals

CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA CALENDAR  weekly planning session works well  Use a spreadsheet or website ( ) to capture, manage, and assign post creation tasks  Benefit of using Hootsuite is that you can schedule SM posts as far in advance as you wish

CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA CALENDAR  Still check SM sites daily to keep track and engage  Include trending topics throughout the week  E.g. breaking news, new research findings  You become more likely to be discovered through “trending” topics

CLEAR & CONSISTENT MESSAGE  Clear message that attracts prospective audiences and encourages them to take action  Make your message very specific  What do you want to be known for?  Message needs to articulate how your research solves a problem  Specific benefit it delivers and how you differentiate yourself  E.g. The largest study on children’s mental health in Ontario

ANALYTICS  Monitor and measure what’s working  Evaluate your tactics against your objectives  5 suggestions:  1. Google Analytics  2. Hootsuite  3. Buffer  4. Sprout Social  5. Topsy

QUESTIONS?