Presentation given for community health practitioners at the Southeastern MA CHNA conference.

1. Let's Get Social:
Social Media 101 for
Public Health Professionals
May 11, 2012
Plymouth, MA
Presented by David Crowley
www.davidbcrowley.com

2. Your hopes for this workshop?
A few take aways from a.m. session?

3. Goals
 Reinforce why social
media can work for you
 Provide relevant
examples
 Basics of Facebook
pages & Twitter
 Practical how-to’s
(especially on Facebook)

4. What brings me here…
 Connecting people to community info key to
Social Capital Inc. (SCI) mission.
 Using technology to engage people has been key
to our work.
 Early evidence that social media can strengthen
relationships.
 We’ve had some success…

5. SCI & David on Social Media
 @socialcap 3869 followers (400 new past 4 months);
@cookingchat 1053 @davidbcrowley 508
 713 LinkedIn Connections
 327“likes” on Facebook (socialcapital)
 715 have circled davidbcrowley on Google+ since July launch,
1072 following SCI on G+ since pages launched in Nov.
 Over 12,000 unique visitors to our websites every month
 Klout score=56
 Have recruited volunteers & applicants for positions, gotten a
job for an alum, reached new donors, increased web traffic…

6. Why social media
for your work?

7. Reason #1: Power of
Social Networks

8. Reason #2 to Pay Attention
to Social Media
 The numbers—it’s an increasingly
important way to reach people.

9. Facebook now has over 900 million
users…

10. Top demographics on Facebook:
1) 21- 24 yr olds
2) 18- 20 yr olds
3) 35- 44 yr olds
source http://adage.com/article/adagestat/demographics-facebook-linkedin-myspace-twitter/227569/

11. Most teens are online
 73% of teens are on a social network
 The average teen has 201 Facebook friends
 37% send messages to friends every day
Source for above points (2010 data)
http://facebook-parental-controls-review.toptenreviews.com/30-statistics-about-teens-and-social-networking.html
 Teens averaging 60 texts/day
 16% of American teens use Twitter (doubled
over past 2 years)

12. It’s where people are spending
time…

13. More than ½ of those Facebook
users are visiting at least daily.

14. More time spent on social media
than email now….

15. 22.7 % of online time on social media
vs. 8.3% for email
43% growth rate
August 2010 Nielsen Study

16. #4) Opportunity to engage with wide
range of constituents…quick way to
get input & crowdsource

17. Time for 6 SCI Social Media
Principles & Pointers

18. 1) Start w goal setting & planning
 Who is your audience for outreach you are
doing?
 What results do you hope to achieve
communicating with your audience?
 What kinds of branding messages & info do you
want to share?
 Your social media channels & messaging should
flow from your answers—how can social media
help you reach this audience?

19. 2) Be social!
 Social media is a 2 way street
 Take a Social Capitalist approach!
 Focus on relationship building
 Better to give than receive
 Share your personality; though not every detail!
 Engage people in conversation—ask questions,
comment in such a way that it elicits response
 Respond promptly when someone comments, or @
replies to you on Twitter, etc.

20. 3) Keep building your web traffic &
email list.
 Our general web traffic Web traffic while tweeting
increased by 60% during 10 1200
mos of active tweeting. 1000
800
 Still are more adults who use 600 Series1
email daily than social media 400
200
 Typically put more detailed 0
content on your site, link to it 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
via SM
 Some do strictly use social
media

21. 4) Position yourself as expert in field
 Share articles relevant to your field
 Promote events or programs that relate to field
but don’t directly benefit you.
 Twitter is a particularly good way to keep up
with articles and other news related to your field.

22. 5) Engage Consistently
 Regular participation in social media generates
best results
 Integrate it into what you do—read something
good, share it; working on an interesting project,
talk about it or ask question.
 Engaging at different hours helps reach more
people.

23. 6) Help your constituents use social
media constructively
 Youth may need help thinking through safety
precautions and protecting their reputation for
the long term.
 Pre-Facebook generation folks may need
support to utilize these tools and the benefits
they provide.

24. Facebook Benefits
 900 million users & counting!
 Very easy to use at a basic level
 Based primarily on social ties
 Getting your friends to share with their friends
is powerful
 Especially good way to connect & engage with
young people.
 What would you add?

25. Facebook basics
 Create a “page” to promote an organization.
 You must have an individual account to create an
organizational page.
 The “groups” feature can be a way to foster
sharing among a group of program participants
(can be private).
 Don’t set up your organization as an individual
profile! (against terms of service)
 Setting up a page…following slides/demo

26. Let’s move to some live
demonstration & practice…

34. Leveraging Facebook
 #1 Post photos and videos! Most shared
content.
 Create photo albums for your big events
 Post to albums in a few batches over time
 Tag those photos
 You can’t tag friends if you don’t have any
 Have several page admins that can leverage their
own friend relationshps
 Your page should like other pages

35. Getting Seen on Facebook
 How people see your content
 people who like your page
 people interact w your page
 “Edgerank” is algorithm that determines who sees
your page in the new newsfeed. Prioritizes (in order)
1) Shares
2) Comments
3) Likes
 Insights provides easy to follow stats on your
page

36. More Facebook tips
 1 or 2 Facebook page posts per day is
considered good practice…vary the times.
 Limit the number of business related posts to
your personal wall
 @ followed by user name or group is a quick
way to get their attention or give them props
 Facebook status can be updated from
Tweetdeck, smartphones & other apps

38. Twitter Benefits
 Short format, quick to share & scan for info
 More open than FB or LinkedIn
 Chance to engage w people who share interests,
many who you wouldn’t otherwise reach
 Monitor subjects of interest
 Dynamic—lost bird story

39. Let’s take a closer look at some
Twitter basics…

40. What is Twitter?
 a social networking and microblogging service,
enabling its users to send and read messages
called tweets.
 Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters
displayed on the user's profile page. Tweets are
publicly visible by default.
 Users may subscribe to other users' tweets – this is
known as following and subscribers are known
as followers or tweeps
Source: Wikipedia 4/25/11

41. Getting started w Twitter
 Associate the account with an email address.
 Choose a short username or “handle” [you will have an
existing account for your SCI Tweets]
 A handle that is easy to remember makes it more likely
people will “retweet” you.
 Your handle uses up some of the 140 characters when
retweeted
 The profile helps people can quickly see where you are,
what you are Tweeting about. (help them decide to
follow or not). We will be providing templates soon. (see
next slide)

42. Twitter Basics
 Your Tweets:
 Type into the “What’s New” box upper left
 140 characters or less—125 is better to leave room for
“retweeting”
 Can be viewed by anyone on the Internet (unless you protect
your Tweets-not recommended for biz)
 Most likely to be seen by your followers
 Also may be found by people searching for relevant terms “HACC”
 5-10 Tweets a day is common for active users
 Timing Tweets with Tweetdeck or Hootsuite is a good idea

44. Twitter Basics
 Timeline
 Stream of Tweets from Tweeps you follow
 Fast moving stream if you follow a lot of people
 Expectations to respond or have read a Tweet only
comes in if they @ mention you

47. Twitter basics
Mentions
 When someone references you in their tweet, with your handle,
this is called a mention. It will show in your “mention” stream
on Twitter.com.
 You generally should chime in promptly when someone mentions you.
 A mention starting w your handle, e.g. “@socialcap you have
great AmeriCorps members”, is considered an “@ reply” or
message.
 This is a way of directing a tweet toward someone in particular, but
anyone on the web could see it (though it will only show in the
Twitter.com stream of people who are following both you & the person
you are interacting with.
 So if you want reference someone in a way that maximizes people who
see it, you should start with something other than their handle. E.g.
“Looking for the latest Dorchester news? Follow @mydorchester”

49. Twitter basics
 Retweets “RTs”
 Shows you are sharing someone else’s content
 Sharing good content from others (and providing
content people want to share) lies at the heart of
Twitter.
 RTing with comments even better-you’re adding
more value.

50. Retweeting with comments
Sharing in your own words, with “via”

51. #hashtags
 Part of workshop in which David extols the
virtues of hashtags, explains and shows how
they work, and discusses examples of why they
are important.
 Today’s hashtag is #seCHNA (not cap sensitive)

52. More Twitter Tips
 Engage, don’t just push out marketing info
 Be responsive to those who RT & mention you
 To “talk” directly to someone
 Publicly: start your Tweet w their handle
 e.g. @HACC Great meeting tonight!
 Privately: use the Direct Message “DM” function
 Strive for at least 80% non-selling messages.
 Lists become helpful when you’re following
hundreds or more.
 Use a tool like TweetDeck or HootSuite

54. My Top Twitter Tips
 Determine the topics you are going to focus on.
 TWEET! Engage, tweet. Tweet some more.
 Tweet throughout your day—find a good article, tweet it. At a
meeting, tweet it.
 Follow generously, use lists & search feeds to keep closer eye on
key people/topics.
 Clean up your following accounts. I recommend manageflitter.com
 Use hashtags (but don’t overdue it, 1 or 2 per tweet is good).
 Include a link in most tweets.
 Reciprocate.
 Schedule your tweets, spread timing out (but know when you get
most action)…post your most important ones 5-10 times
throughout the week.

56. Resources (public health/social
media)
 Article on Boston Public Health campaign on
sexual health http://
abcnews.go.com/Health/Parenting/story?id
=8251025&page=1#.T5arJ7PWZog
 CDC social media http://
www.cdc.gov/socialmedia/

57. Resources (gen social media)
 Bookmarks for Facebook articles/resources:
http://bit.ly/Jyyl2S
 Bookmarks for Twitter articles/resources:
http://bit.ly/nnlA5w
 Longer list of bookmarks for all social media:
http://bit.ly/ogEGRa
 The Nonprofit Facebook Guy http://
www.johnhaydon.com/
 Beth Kanter, co-author of The Networked Nonprofit
http://www.bethkanter.org/